On a par with “It’s….. Rebekah Vardy’s account”, most Tottenham fans will remember where they were when Danny Rose was unveiled as the unnamed player “from a big six side” teased in The Sun ahead of a tell-all interview slamming the club’s recruitment.
It was approaching mid-August of 2017 and Spurs were the only side at that stage who had not signed a single player in the summer window.
At first, Rose’s words felt like heresy, a naked attack on Daniel Levy’s regime and a line crossed. “I am not saying buy 10 players, I’d love to see two or three — and not players you have to Google and say, ‘Who’s that?’ I mean well-known players.”
But Rose had simply said the quiet part out loud, as famously did Antonio Conte, when he flipped the Monopoly board having asked for a hotel on Mayfair and instead been handed the football equivalent of the Old Kent Road.
It cost Conte his job and he didn’t seem to care. His prophecy that “they can change the manager, a lot of managers, but the situation cannot change, believe me” still rings true around the boardroom of the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Now Ange Postecoglou is the latest coach having to come out swinging with one hand tied behind his back.
That is certainly the consensus among the squad. This week Cristian Romero hit Levy with a few more home truths after watching a two-goal lead against Chelsea collapse with depressing inevitability.
In comments to Telemundo Deportes, widely translated into English, Romero reflected: “The truth is, I would say no comment, but… Manchester City competes every year, you see how Liverpool strengthens its squad, Chelsea strengthens their squad, doesn’t do well, strengthens again, and now they’re seeing results. Those are the things to imitate.
“You have to realise that something is going wrong, hopefully, they realise it. The last few years, it’s always the same: first, the players, then the coaching staff changes, and it’s always the same people responsible.
“Hopefully, they realise who the true responsible ones are, and we move forward because it’s a beautiful club that, with the structure it has, could easily be competing for the title every year.”
It will be music to the ears of an increasingly beleaguered Postecoglou that he still has the dressing room. The problem is who’s in it. That does not mean that his tactical dogma is beyond reproach – it is his job to work with the players he has. But if he does not survive the season, there will always be a nagging feeling that Spurs were on the cusp of something special and frittered it away by signing the wrong players.
Long-standing interest in Conor Gallagher was not followed up. Manuel Locatelli would have strengthened the midfield options considerably. It has not been easy keeping Radu Dragusin happy when Romero and Micky van de Ven are fit but he is now the only available option at centre-back, with Ben Davies hobbling off in the 1-0 loss to Bournemouth.
Beyond his first XI, much of the fringe are not suited to Postecoglou’s system. That was glaringly obvious in the second half of last season, particularly after injuries to James Maddison and Rodrigo Bentancur rocked an early season title challenge and sent Spurs hurtling back into reality. This calendar year, which mercifully is about to end, they have lost 14 of their 33 league games.
It is not entirely a matter of not spending – with a dishonourable mention to the summer of 2018, which ended without any new additions. Incredible, really, that Aston Villa were insulted by a generous offer of £25m for Jack Grealish.
On other occasions Spurs have spent, but not well or enough. Tanguy Ndombele. Richarlison. Davinson Sanchez.
When Postecoglou first came in, he was given the keys to the mansion – Maddison, Brennan Johnson, permanent deals for Dejan Kulusevski and Pedro Porro, Guglielmo Vicario, and Van de Ven. Yet he was never allowed to finish the job and little wonder, 18 months on, Spurs look half-baked – capable of destroying Manchester City on one day and on another, losing to winless Crystal Palace and Ipswich Town.
It is not only the approach to signing players that is muddled, but who is tasked with making the decisions. Postecoglou is but one strand in a convoluted web that includes Levy, technical director Johan Lange and chief football officer Scott Munn.
Over the course of Levy’s tenure the club has flitted between giving the manager more direct authority – as was the case under Harry Redknapp – and employing various directors of football: David Pleat, Damien Comolli, Fabio Paratici, before the latter was banned from the game worldwide over accusations of false accounting at Juventus.
Which brings us back to the obvious question: what would be the point of ditching the Postecoglou project? Sacking the Australian would effectively be an admission that he is never going to be given the players he needs to make it work.
Mauricio Pochettino was the last incumbent who genuinely looked on the brink of achieving the unthinkable, contesting two title races, a League Cup final, two FA Cup semi-finals and a Champions League final.
Then came 18 dormant months and the players Pochettino wanted – Sadio Mane among them, given their previous relationship at Southampton – went elsewhere. In a wholly unforeseeable turn of events, neither Clinton N’Jie nor Vincent Janssen fired Tottenham to the Premier League trophy.
This time Romero has pointed to the number of injuries suffered – which have included himself, Van de Ven and Davies – as the reason Tottenham have become so threadbare. “Players are the first ones to be criticised, then if we lose 10 games, the staff can be changed, but nobody talks about what is actually happening,” he added.
That does not excuse the in-game management that contributed to the extraordinary capitulations against both Brighton and Chelsea. It does, however, leave Spurs fans feeling as if they have seen this film before and it never ends well for the manager. Under Levy, they have changed head coach on average every year and a half. In 23 years of Enic ownership, the trophy count remains at one.
Levy would never have lasted so long were he concerned with opinions. He has seen the “Levy Out” balloons float down from the South Stand onto the pitch, the “purple and gold until we’re sold” colourings and the “to dare is too dear” banners. He remains unmoved, as Tottenham veer in the wrong direction.