Tottenham Hotspur have not won a trophy for more than 16 years now, and club legend Glenn Hoddle has discussed why that may be and how the club’s footballing philosophy plays into things.
There’s a generational divide at Spurs
The League Cup-winning side of 2008 are still the last Spurs team to lift a trophy, and the fanbase are hungry to see the club fix that as soon as possible.
As other teams in the Big Six continue to challenge for major honours, Tottenham have been the nearly-man far too often, and have developed a reputation as perennial losers.
According to Spurs legend Glenn Hoddle in a recent appearance on The Overlap, the issue comes down to two different types of Tottenham supporters wanting different things from the team.
He said: “I think there is a tradition in that club, winning the double in the ’60s, and the way they played even before that with the push and run team that was put together, and I think there’s a split in the generations at the moment.
“There’s the older generation, living in those memories and they want a certain style of play. And it’s always been that, if you didn’t play attractive attacking football… with players you want to go and watch, who at least if they don’t win, you’ve been to see top players… There’s a generation that lived through that and are happy with that.
“And there’s a younger generation that haven’t seen us win things for a long long time. They want to go to school and say we’ve won trophies, when Arsenal and Chelsea in London have won them. We’ve had to sit there and watch that. There’s a demand from the crowds, but they’re split.”
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Tottenham’s motto is wrong
For Hoddle, Tottenham’s whole philosophy doesn’t quite fit the demand for trophies. In fact, Hoddle believes the ‘To Dare is to Do’ motto is wrong.
He added: “To do is to dare is the club motto. Perhaps that’s not really what it should be? It doesn’t tell me that we’ve got to control games and win trophies. That we’ve got to be the very best. I think the club have lost their way a little bit on the football side. The stadium and training ground don’t win you trophies.”
Glenn Hoddle has a point
I do think there is a way for clubs to play exciting football AND win trophies, but what I think Hoddle is getting at is that perhaps we need to be more pragmatic sometimes.