After the giddy optimism and excitement of pre-season comes the second and much more fun staging post of a football season.
The widespread mass jerking of the knee. In some cases, this involves doubling down on the optimism. That’s fine, but also quite boring really. Happy people are enormously dull, and happy football fans the absolute worst of them. Their only use is as an investment, because while they may be annoying now you know that for 90% of them the bum’s rush is coming and you’ll get to watch the show.
But in the first instance the far more enjoyable jerks are those that lurch the other way. Where hope is instantly replaced by despair. Where optimism gives way instantly to the familiar dark clouds.
And lads, it’s Tottenham.
There was so very much to enjoy about their season opener for a committed knee-jerker. What was particularly exciting was the way they managed to package up the entire narrative arc of Angeball season one into a single bitesize, 90-minute chunk.
A hugely exciting and encouraging start that suggests something really quite special might be about to happen, eye-catching early success for the unorthodox attacking methods at the heart of the strategy, then one defensive setback causes the entire house of cards to dramatically collapse in a flurry of panic and bad decisions, meaning in the end nothing of any great tangible value can be achieved and questions must be asked about the entire strategy.
At the very, very least, Spurs have this season saved us all a lot of time.
But while that more macro knee-jerk is fine – and hard to argue with the ‘don’t qualify for Europe’ shout that made it into our official list of matchday one jerkings – we found ourselves with a more specific one.
Even we’re not going to judge Dominic Solanke too harshly for missing a few chances on debut, even though it only served to heighten the nagging doubts gnawing at us, nor Brennan Johnson for his continued refusal to quite be the finished product when it comes to decision-making in promising areas.
With both those lads, there is at least reason to believe or at least hope their career trajectory remains upwards.
It was the other starter in Tottenham’s front three who alarmed us most; Son Heung-min’s career is not on an upward trajectory.
He has been a sensational player for Tottenham, quite obviously, but it’s starting to feel like that past tense might be necessary.
The club captain can no longer be considered undroppable.
Son started 34 of Spurs’ Premier League games last season. He missed three games on Asia Cup duty, and then came off the bench in his first game back on club duty.
Apart from that, he was the first name on the team sheet. Of those 34 starts, the only time he played less than an hour was when withdrawn on 58 minutes at Newcastle with the game already demonstrably up.
No other attacking player came particularly close to his level of involvement. Son played 2948 minutes of Premier League football last season, with Dejan Kulusevski 200 minutes behind and a distant third on that list James Maddison despite missing a large chunk of it through injury.
That’s what needs to change. Son remains a perfectly viable option for Spurs’ multi-faceted attack, but that’s how he should now be seen. Another option among many. He no longer merits a starting spot in all conditions against all opposition, no questions asked.
And in truth while this is in part a lashing-out response to one night of disappointment for Spurs, it’s not entirely that. We’ve already this summer included Son on a hot-take list of players each club should be selling.
That’s maybe a touch far – but only a touch. Son did score 17 Premier League goals last season, but nearly half of those came in that giddy and illusory 10-game opening run when all things seemed possible. He scored only five goals in 15 games after the Asian Cup, and Monday night’s blank makes it two goals and two assists in his last 10 Premier League games.
It already feels like a significant early test of Angeball Mk II. Does the boss have the big Aussie balls to make a statement and leave his captain out of the starting XI over the next couple of weeks?
There’s a compelling argument for doing so based purely on Son’s own form, but another exists in the identity of their next opponents.
Spurs face Everton in their first home game of the season, an Everton side reeling from a 3-0 spanking from Brighton in their own opening game and who, thanks to an injury crisis and Ashley Young’s wonky decision-making, find themselves without a single recognised first-team right-back for their trip to London.
It could therefore be just the game for Son to rediscover his form. But more tantalisingly, could it not be a game for unleashing your shiny new quick, tricky, dribbly winger to give whichever poor sod is asked to fill in some twisted blood?
Football moves fast and ‘Spurs should leave out Son Heung-min and pick Wilson Odobert instead’ is a sentence that even a week ago would make you sound like a mad man. But one jerk of the knee later and you can’t deny it makes perfect sense. Go on. Admit it.