Raised during the Gerry Francis era, these lads are now too old for any more 'character building'. Spurs blog with emphasis on the stars of tomorrow, today #COYS
Following the sacking of Portuguese manager Jose Mourinho nearly two months ago, Tottenham Hotspur have been without an official manager. Ryan Mason was presented with chance to take over on an interim basis until the end of the season, becoming the youngest manager to manage a Premier League side in its near 30 year history, but this was always meant to be a temporary arrangement.
Spurs have failed on numerous occasions to replace Mourinho, with a variety of reasons undermining the appoinment of his successor. Attempts were believed to have been made for the likes of Julien Naglesmann, Erik Ten Hag, Antonio Conte and, of course, Mauricio Pochettino. It is also thought that Julen Lopetegui also passed at the change to manage the club – in this article, I will talk about how he could have been the perfect replacement for Mourinho.
Lopetegui, manager of Spanish side Sevilla, has had a successful spell at the La Liga side since being appointed in 2019. The Spaniard lifted the Europa League trophy in 2019/2020 – his first season at the club – and he spearheaded Sevilla’s push for La Liga title this season. Though that challenge faded over the closing matches, finishing 4th and qualifying for the Champions League with the highest points total in the club’s history was still a significant achievement. The overwhelming financial might of domestic rivals Barcelona, Atletico Madrid and Real Madrid will always make it difficult to overhaul Spain’s ‘Big Three’.
Julen Lopetegui took over at Sevilla after a disappointing season, with the club finishing 6th in La Liga. However, the Spaniard took full advantage of Europa League qualification, leading ‘Los Nervionenses‘ to a record 6th Europa League title in 2019/20. Sevilla also finished 4th in La Liga – with just goal difference separating them from Atletico Madrid in 3rd – guaranteeing them a place in the following season’s Champions League. Lopetegui achieved another 4th place finish and guided the team out of the Champions League group stages this season, underlining the progress he has made.
Spurs, on the other hand, massively underachieved under Jose Mourinho. Under Mauricio Pochettino, the London club consistently gained Champions League football via a high finish in the Premier League, but are set for another season away from Europe’s elite competition after his sacking.
After years of underinvestment in the squad, Daniel Levy backed Mourinho in last summer’s transfer window, but only Pierre-Emile Højbjerg could be described as an unqualified success. Lopetegui has shown that he can work on a modest budget while getting the best out his players. Jules Koundé, for example, has developed into one of Europe’s most promising young defenders under Lopetegui’s guidance. In short, Lopetegui was backed by Sevilla’s board to bring in the right players to fit his tactics and complement the existing squad and it proved to be successful. He could have had similar success at Tottenham with the help of Fabio Paratici.
Lopetegui’s style of football would also bring welcome relief after a year and a half of Mourinho. A tactically astute, possession based, high energy approach is much more in keeping with Spurs’ set-up under Pochettino, and his use of wing-backs and a false nine would suit players like Sergio Reguilón (who played under Lopetegui at Sevilla) and Harry Kane.
However, the move to bring him to Spurs was ended in another failure. Several sources have reported that the Spaniard rejected Tottenham due to family reasons. Other sources report that he made it clear he wanted to stay at Sevilla as he is settled and would prefer not to relocate. Who would blame him? The project he has built at Sevilla is incredible and what is happening right now at Tottenham is something that most top level managers have shown little desire to become part of.
Paulo Fonseca looks like he will be appointed as the next Spurs manager, and I hope he brings the success we crave, but I can’t help but think that Tottenham will regret not prising Lopetegui away from sunny Spain.
On a day that will likely go down in the history books for numerous reasons, Tottenham parted ways with head coach Jose Mourinho.
Mourinho, along with all of his backroom staff bar Ledley King, was relieved of his duties earlier this week. Alasdair Gold confirmed that, contrary to rumour, Mourinho’s departure was not at all connected to the announcement of a European Super League.
Fabrizio Romano first broke the news that Ryan Mason would take over first-team management.
It has now been officially confirmed that ex-player and current Head of Development Ryan Mason will be in place as Interim Manager until the end of the season. Fans will be hoping Mason will be able to reinvigorate a dejected Spurs squad who have looked lacking in confidence and form for some time.
The 29-year-old, who was forced into early retirement for medical reasons in February 2018, faces a Southampton side in need of a win on Wednesday night. However, the fixture that is on everyone’s lips is the Carabao Cup final against Manchester City on Sunday afternoon. Will the new manager effect be enough to claim Spurs’ first piece of silverware in 13 years?
Many managers have already been tipped to take over in N17. The following options are some that Daniel Levy and co. should be considering as the heir to Mourinho’s pragmatic throne.
Julian Nagelsmann
Nagelsmann guided RB Leipzig to their first ever Champions League semi-final in 2020
One highly sought after option lies in Nagelsmann. Just 33-years-old, the retired centre-back would represent a young, exciting breath of fresh air for Spurs. The RB Leipzig boss applies a vertical attacking system, whereby the priority for each player in possession is to advance the ball. This would signal the death of the boring, ambitionless sideways passing which Spurs fans have become accustomed to.
Whilst Nagelsmann does not prioritise high possession, his team are always pressing the opposition high up the pitch and attempting to force mistakes. He has adopted both a back three and back four in his time in the Bundesliga and has shown ability to adapt to differing styles of play.
The Lilywhites face stiff competition for the German’s signature, with giants Bayern Munich reportedly keen to bring Nagelsmann to the Allianz Arena after the departure of Hansi Flick. Although, after Leipzig’s 0-1 victory over Spurs in the 2020 Champions League, Nagelsmann was seemingly impressed with the Tottenham Hotspur stadium and fans. “The first ten minutes were very noisy, very loud. In the end, it was a pleasure to be a part of this game” (BT Sport Interview). Many Spurs fans will be hoping that Nagelsmann will be able to experience that atmosphere week in, week out next season.
Brendan Rodgers
With experience of a Premier League title challenge at Liverpool, as well as having excelled recently at Leicester City, Rodgers provides a safe, yet ambitious option for Spurs.
Rodger’s Leicester side recently advanced past Southampton to reach their first FA Cup Final since 1969.
Having unearthed a number of impressive signings for his clubs, including Phillipe Coutinho and Roberto Firmino for Liverpool as well as Youri Tielemans and Wesley Fofana for Leicester City; Rodgers’ recruitment history would bode well for the club’s future.
With no need to adapt to the demands of the English game, Rodgers could slot straight into the managerial hot-seat at Tottenham. Having won promotion to the Premier League in 2011 with Swansea City, Rodgers has implemented his philosophy at multiple clubs. He looks to combine possession-based football with a strict demand for tireless work from players. Levy could well see the Northern Irishman as the to coach Spurs back to success.
Christophe Galtier
Galtier is renowned for his calm presence on the touchline.
A less prominent option who will have certainly raised eyebrows in the Tottenham boardroom is LOSC Lille manager Galtier. The 54-year-old has gained many plaudits for guiding his impressive Lille side to top spot in Ligue 1, so far managing to hold off Mauricio Pochettino’s scintillating PSG.
This feat is even more impressive when you take into account the quality of player that Lille have repeatedly sold in recent years. For example, Nicolas Pepe, Victor Osimhen, Gabriel Magalhaes and Yves Bissouma just to name a few. Galtier’s ability to build a competitive side whilst adhering to financial stability within the club could likely entice Levy into a move for his signature.
With a playing style focused on maximising attacks, Spurs fans would likely be thrilled with the prospect of a return to free-flowing, risk-taking football.
Massimiliano Allegri
After appointing Mourinho, one of the most successful managers of all time, it was clear that Levy wanted to taste immediate glory with Spurs. If this is still the primary concern for the chairman then Max Allegri will surely be seen as a viable option.
A manager lauded for his versatility and tactical intelligence, Allegri guided Serie A giants Juventus to five consecutive titles before beginning a sabbatical period in 2019. His teams do not prioritise a high press, instead focusing on absorbing pressure and developing more pragmatic attacking patterns. This raises the concern, would this style of play be too close to that of Mourinho? Furthermore, would the players and fans respond positively to the appointment?
Allegri is said to have been learning English in preparation for a Premier League job.
The 53-year-old has not been secretive about his desire to manage in England in the future. However, the question begs, whether the increase in the pace of the English game would allow Allegri to implement his preferred tactics in North London.
Many more names have been flouted in respect to the vacant Spurs hot-seat including Eddie Howe, Nuno Espirito Santo, Ralph Hassenhuttl, Scott Parker and Steven Gerrard.
The key to any effective transfer policy for any club is to identify problem areas and have creative and pragmatic solutions to said problems. When it comes to Tottenham, this philosophy is not only imperative, but rather mandatory.
So instead of this article being the usual ‘click bait’ about how ‘Spurs can sign Messi’, it will instead focus on transfers that would not only improve the team, but could solve the issues around non-Home Grown player limits.
Before we begin talking about potential incoming players, a mini review of the season so far. Despite an explosive start, Spurs have been on the end of some disastrous results as of late, with the partnership of Son Heung-min and Harry Kane losing its early venom as Jose Mourinho edges further and further into a style mired in defensive pragmatism.
In saying that, all of the blame cannot be shouldered solely by Mourinho, with individual errors plaguing the Spurs back line this season. This has led to the Lilywhites dropping ten points from winning positions already, double that of any other club in the Premier League. This is an issue that coaching alone cannot resolve.
It is a problem that Mourinho and the club’s hierarchy is well aware of and they looked to ameliorate this last summer with various attempts to pry Milan Škriniar away from Inter, but the asking price was simply too high.
However, with Davinson Sanchez still unable to find any consistency after three years in North London and with Japhet Tanganga and Joe Rodon still in the infancy of Tottenham careers, the club may well look to revive a deal for Škriniar in the summer as Mourinho looks to find another missing piece to his Tottenham puzzle. But Škriniar’s the asking price unlikely to have come down, Daniel Levy may have to look for a cheaper option.
My pick would be Marseille ‘s Croatian central defender Duje Ćaleta-Car. At just twenty-four years old he is still yet to hit his peak, but is still experienced enough to start week in, week out. Standing at 6ft 3 inch he certainly fits the mould of a physically imposing defender which Mourinho tends to favour. But he is not just a big brute who will smash it into Row Z at a moment’s opportunity – he is a very accomplished passer of the ball. This season the Croatian has also managed to win a staggering 70% of his aerial duels, a talent that could certainly come in handy for set pieces.
When it comes to the financial outlay, French football has deep financial issues and, even though Marseille is not as detrimentally affected as other teams, Spurs will not need to make silly offer to prise him away. Unfortunately, Tottenham will have to probably shift a non-Home Grown player to get this deal over the line, a task that is a lot easier said than done. The possible outgoings to facilitate this transfer would be a combination of Villarreal taking up the option to sign Juan Foyth and the sale of Davinson Sanchez, neither of which are certainties.
The next problem area is in attacking midfield. Tanguy Ndombele’s emergence as one of the best midfielders in the league is one of a few positive for Spurs fans. The Frenchman has been key member of the Tottenham attacking unit, looking rejuvenated this season and producing moments of pure brilliance, most notably against Sheffield United when he scored an audacious chip with his back to goal to secure three points. And let us not forget the game against Southampton when he pirouetted beautifully to beat the press of two oncoming midfielders and found a defence splitting pass to Son Heung-min who promptly slotted away.
However, despite Ndombele’s electric displays, he and Harry Kane have had to shoulder far too much of the creative burden. Giovani Lo Celso’s stop-start season and the mysterious treatment of Dele Alli hasn’t helped, but this it is still a key problem Spurs need to address in the summer window.
Marcus Edwards could be the answer. Edwards was a highly touted talent during the Mauricio Pochettino era, with the former Spurs coach even once likened him to Lionel Messi. Since leaving for Portuguese side Vitoria S.C in 2019, the twenty-two-year-old has gained a reputation as a dynamic ball carrier with the ability to play on either wing or behind the striker.
He has bags of technical ability and is not too bad with a defence splitting through ball either. Last season, Edwards managed seven league goals and five assists with an additional two goals in the Europa League. Tottenham would have to pay a relatively small fee to resign a player with great potential, as well as much needed creative invention in addition to help solving the growing foreign player issue. The outgoings to facilitate this transfer would likely be either Erik Lamela or Lucas Moura, both of whom are struggling for regular playing time.
The last transfer suggestion has been rumoured for some time. The position is central midfielder, and the player is Marcel Sabitzer. The twenty-six-year-old is a versatile and important cog in Julian Nagelsmann’s RB Leipzig machine, playing numerous roles including right wing, false nine and defensive midfield. Sabitzer’s technical ability, defensive awareness, passing range and athleticism make him the perfect partner for Tottenham’s midfield general Pierre-Emile Højbjerg, with both capable of line breaking passing. Additionally, he already plays under a coach dubbed “Mini Mourinho”, so it may be a quick transition period for Sabitzer if he makes the move to North London. His adaptability in playing in multiple positions and in a variety of systems is surely something that would interest Mourinho.
I believe Tottenham have a fantastic squad, but we lack balance. We must remember we are in a transitional period under Mourinho, but, with a few of the right signings, there is no telling what the club could achieve.
The existential strands of the away trip all came together.
The well documented family history in their fall from established members of German society to subjects of persecution leaving them with nothing. The elements of the refugee experience as now and in relation to my work. The circular and generational baggage in applying for German Citizenship. The anchor of the trip being to watch my team, known as the ‘Yid Army’ – the collective term used as a badge of honour in response to anti-Semitic abuse aimed at the origins of many of the North London club’s supporters.
A carefully orchestrated trip was also marked by magical unplanned moments; from happening upon people with their own connections to our family heritage, to sharing drinks with Czech namesakes, to waving off the Tottenham players after stumbling across the team’s hotel.
This was to be a journey steeped in spatial history that brought new discoveries of unforetold knowledge and further chronicles of hardship in Germany, to a background of an unfolding global crisis now arriving in Europe.
“I was 8 years old at the time when Hitler came to power in 1933. We were not religious, but we were conscious of being Jewish, because that is what we are, and because we were being discriminated against. We were integrated Germans. However, there had always been Anti-Semitism in Germany. When my father was a boy, a teacher once said to him in his Pirna school ‘Der Jude Hess, steh auf’ (‘Jew Hess, stand up’).”
— Ursula Wellemin (Grandma)
I had been meaning to go to Saxony to explore my roots for a fair while but the far-right surge there had put me off. It would be too depressing, surely? Then Spurs got drawn to RB Leipzig for a Champions League showdown in the state and all that was put to one side.
As the source of some of the best times of all, I have always found convenient excuses to go watch Spurs in Europe, and this trip was an easy case to make – annual leave was, therefore, duly booked. The difference this time was that instead of ‘the lads’, and in contrast to her lack of enthusiasm for the German passport, my Mum was well up for the away trip.
Once the fixture was announced, the Sun and Daily Mail reported on the ‘nightmare’ journey Spurs fans would have to make to get to the game. With a £17 flight to where Grandma grew up in Dresden, 50 mins by train away from Leipzig, the fuss was not mine. As any Spurs fan would tell you, the nightmare is usually in the football, not the logistics. Where the fun usually comes before the match however, our plan didn’t necessarily pass for a holiday.
A full-on itinerary of six stops (Dresden – Pirna – Gotha, Weimar – Leipzig – Nuremberg) in four nights was drawn up for my mother – now of free oyster travel age – and I to fully immerse ourselves in our somewhat traumatic heritage in the region…such that being present at another Spurs defeat wouldn’t feel so bad. Or something like that.
Dresden: 7 – 9 March 2020
Mum embarked gamely for the Saturday 7am flight from Stansted. Thinking we were outbound too early for any footy pleasantries or otherwise on the flight, the bloke sat next to me piped up, right on cue. ‘I’m also going on Tuesday, but to Berlin first to spend all my money’ – another one intent on making the most of the trip before the football came. Mum interrogated him about Jose Mourinho, and the man, slightly manic given the hour, was ‘only thinking about the positives’.
We were grateful to Ryanair for ostensibly seating all three airborne Spurs fans together. A good start, although, as can tend to happen to season ticket holders sat beside each other for decades, we forgot to exchange names.
We explored Dresden on the first day, wandering the Altstadt and stopping in the restaurant at Brühlscher Garten, at the precipice of the old city’s fortifications. From our table, Mum could see a menorah through a window of a nearby building. This turned out to be the Dresden Synagogue, which had previously been burned down on Kristallnacht. The gold Star of David now hanging over the entrance to the locked off new building was the only thing to survive.
The throngs at the Winter Market had congregated around the much-needed fires, celebrating the final day of the extended excuse for a Christmas knees up before it was all packed up for good. We joined in with our glasses of Glühwein, to the sounds of techno and German lads falling over each other on the ice rink. It was then back conveniently to the room to stream Burnley vs Spurs – an injury to Steven Bergwijn further ruining any lingering hopes for Tuesday – before frequenting our first of many Bierkellers for some cheese pickled in beer and a portion of Spätzle.
Pirna: 8 March 2020
“On the morning of the ‘Kristallnacht’, the 9th November 1938, I was arrested in our Pirna home by Nazi police as a Jew, in front of my daughters Luise, 8 years old and Ursula, 13 years old and first put into Pirna’s police prison, later into the big prison in Dresden-A. Luise remembers that when her father was arrested, he asked the SS men if he could take his toothbrush.
“Next morning we were marched to the Gestapo yard and told we would be shot. Instead we were transported to Buchenwald Concentration camp by rail under much abuse and menaces by the Nazi guards.”
— Manfred Hess (Great Grandfather)
Awoken by deafening Sunday church chimes, it quickly became clear that it was match day in Dresden. The Dynamo masses were out in full force for their game against Saxony rivals FC Erzgebirge Aue.
A quick Wikipedia revealed Dynamo Dresden to be EastGerman giants with notorious support who have fallen by the wayside since reunification, currently sat rock bottom of the second tier. Before I was tempted to get involved, I had to remind myself that this wasn’t our match day, and since none of our relatives would have been season ticket holders (the club was formed as the Police Team in 1953), the Rudolf-Harbig-Stadion didn’t make the cut for the day’s upcoming activities. Instead, we found our first hipster spot in Ladencafé Aha (a vegan bratwurst Saxon soup for me), which was adorned with pro-refugee decoration and frequented by cycling couples.
Surrounded by the scrunched-up beer cans of the Dresden Ultras, the train to Pirna via Heidenau was unusually tense. The drop in the ocean of time clouding my family’s epoch here and the circumstances of their hasty removal dominated. We sat in the square of the Rathaus and followed the journey to the police station where Manfred was arrested. I followed the steps from there up to what felt like a mini hike to the top of the town. Mum stayed behind. I could later see why.
At the peak was the former fortress of Sonnenstein Castle, turned psychiatric hospital (1811), turned Nazi T4 euthanasia/extermination centre, where between 14 and 15,000 individuals with physical and intellectual disabilities, as well as inmates from concentration camps, were killed by malnourishment, poison or by gas chamber between 1940 and 1941. This was one of six such killing centres throughout Nazi Germany. What I could see was a closed pub, a derelict playground and a panoramic view over Grandma’s hometown. In keeping with the rest of the trip, I stood outside to take it in, rather than entering.
I returned to Mum, rather stony faced. A 300ml pilsner didn’t have the desired effect. It was hard not to think of my sister, Sarah, who has Down’s Syndrome. Mum offered a pithy, ‘she wouldn’t have stood a chance’. For someone well versed in the rejection of people with intellectual disabilities throughout history, both textually and empirically, the horror of the centre still completely got to me.
As we returned to our room in Dresden, news flashed across the screens of the reception TVs, which broke the German Health Minister’s statement from Berlin that gatherings of 1000+ should at once be banned. Would it be such a disaster now if the Spurs game was called off? Probably not.
Gotha: 9 March 2020
Saying goodbye to Dresden was more difficult than expected. By the end of the trip it turned out to be the place I’d soonest return to. The best places have a certain dynamic energy to them as Dresden did, and there was plenty more to discover. You’d hope so after a mere two days, to be fair. We didn’t take in the Dresden Hygiene Museum for one, much to Grandma’s presumed disappointment.
As much as there could be, there was plenty of fortune involved in the immediate family’s escape. That much from the trip was clear. Resources, contacts and tip offs were a huge link between the different family members able to escape. It almost goes without saying that some were never able to leave Germany, as was the respective case for family on the Czech side who also perished. The ones I have come to meet had the paradoxical benefit of being able to be ready to escape when persecuted in the window before the Final Solution.
We only had three stops on the Gotha crib sheet. The ‘Porcelain Palace’ at Friedrichstrasse 19, the old ‘Ruppel House’ we could take a snap for cousin Dick in Orange, CA and Café Lösche, a fave haunt of the family, which Grandma remembers fondly. There was nothing left of the porcelain factory.
We needn’t have been looking down at our phones to navigate to the house at number 19 as it was a straight arrow walk from the train station and towered over us as the first grand building on the walk into town. We can’t have been there more than a minute when an elderly chap, by the name of Mauer, came wandering over with a stick and animatedly started involving us in his world.
The man was Gotha born and bred, and his grandmother had worked in the porcelain factory. He was so proud of the heritage. Mum felt slightly uneasy with the fact that his Grandmother worked for Mum’s. He didn’t see it that way. There was magic in the serendipitous nature of the coming together. So much so, it was difficult to know whether it was more meaningful for us or him. There was a great power in this, the feeling that our family had not been wiped from history and it was not just us who were keeping them alive.
A coffee and cake later at Café Lösche and we were back on the train, where news reached us that the game the next day was definitely going ahead as normal, even as others weren’t.
Weimar: 9 – 10 March
From a visitor’s perspective, I have found Germany to be one of the countries most committed in attempting to publicly atone for an ugly past.
Most nations don’t do it at all, commemorating only themselves as victims of atrocities gone by. Straight out the station in Weimar was an outdoor photographic portrait on survivors and where they ended up, that carried on throughout the town. A smiling fellow in concentration camp garb was particularly striking. There were also the gold floor tiles amongst cobblestones that Mum had talked about, but I’d not yet seen, which marked the properties of individuals who were persecuted by the Nazis.
With Buchenwald but 5 km away, Mum was visibly taken aback at the sheer normality in seeing the word on the front of a bus headed in that direction.
Weimar had a noticeably ‘posher’ feel than our otherdestinations. Mum said it was ‘sophisticated’ about a million times. Many students filled the town too – the Bauhaus library faced our hotel. Filling a gap in our itinerary between the must-do Gotha and the Leipzig gig, a friend from Chemnitz had recommended Weimar. It was pretty stunning, a celebration of Goethe and Schiller was everywhere.
By the time we left the Bierkeller on the night before the game, most of the restaurants in the town were shut. It was time to turn in, and in spotting Holsten bottles in the supermarket on the way back to the hotel, a very different type of dread to the one that came over me in visiting sights of family trauma took hold; from tomorrow morning the trip was now to be spoken for by Spurs. It could not be put off any longer.
Leipzig: 10 – 11 March 2020
I don’t often have breakfast, nor do I ever use the phrase ‘breakfast of champions’, but the Amalienhof Hotel had just about the greatest of all inclusive breakfasts. Maybe I was still reeling from my double ice cream lunch in Gotha but there was so much to choose from and, unlike in Madrid where I couldn’t stomach anything on the morning of the Champions League final, I gorged away. We checked out with the sad woman at reception – whose son lives in London somewhere but does not keep in touch with her – and headed back to the station for the MATCH DAY train to Leipzig.
Debussy though the PA, not football chants, greeted us at the Hauptbanhof, where we were stopped by a representative from the German Make A Wish Foundation – ‘but here it is for adults’. The woman was Ukranian originally and moaned at the lack of friendliness in Germany. We agreed. She had enlisted in the army and presumably was doing something about the friendliness from there. Mum gave an overly apologetic and long spiel (during which the outdoor marquee nearly blew away) about how much she already gave to charity, which was lost on the woman, as she said foreigners wouldn’t be allowed to donate anyway. We taught her how to say ‘Come On You Spurs’ and sauntered towards our hotel apartment, which we could already see.
The rooms were pretty plush and over the town we could see Spurs fans slowly congregating and embracing like long lost friends, having no doubt taken different ‘nightmare’ journeys in. The swimming pool in the hotel basement was completely empty and a shade more luxurious than the N17 pre-match equivalent in Bruce Castle Park.
The breakfast had eventually worn off so no better excuse for the always resonant first stroll round a new town, with nothing particularly immediate to do or tick off other than to get some food and see some sights. It was certainly a much friendlier town than elsewhere, and a defiant East German sense of business as usual continued, perhaps a remnant of a closed-off attitude to the impending global crisis.
In the centre of town was one of the weirdest sculptures I’d ever seen. The Giacometti style figure was depicted doing a sieg heil with its right arm, and a clenched fist of Communist solidarity, with its left. I couldn’t get my head round it. Were these things supposed to be on par? A bit ‘problematic’ as they say. Nazi insignia is broadly banned in Germany, but artworks can be exempt. The brutalist Gewandhaus concert hall was around the corner, flanked by the Paulinerkirche, a brazen new Cathedral rebuilt after it was ‘blown up’ in 1968 by the Communist regime.
Mephisto’s figure from Goethe’s Faust loomed large over the city, as if another reminder was needed of Levy’s deal to sack Pochettino and appoint Mourinho. It was time for a game of spot the fans in Auerbachs Keller, Goethe’s favourite 14th Century wine bar, for more Saxon soup, beer and hand washing. My hands were starting to crack. The Guardian sports journalist Jonathan Lieu sat on the next table, later to pen a brilliant piece on the epoch ending match to come.
We happened to walk past the parked-up Spurs coach outside their hotel and got wind that they’d start their gladiatorial departure to the stadium at 7pm. This was a nice little bonus to mark the occasion. I was excited for Mum, who could give the lads a send-off in what was her first away game ever, having supported Spurs since the ‘70s. Likewise, she probably thought it was worth waiting around for my own fanboy purposes. As there was plenty of time to spare, we inveigled a perfect spot at Kaffeehaus Riquet Café, overlooking the emerging hubbub so that we could pop down when need be.
From there, we started chatting to two Jiřís, who had travelled from Prague for the game, mainly to see RB Leipzig’s Patrik Schick. I greeted them with a ‘Dobrý den!’. My middle name is also Jiří!’, to which they responded, ‘we have two other friends called Jiří and we go to the pub as four Jiřís’. The Žižkov locals were enjoying the city, especially so given people were already being turned away at the Czech border as they passed the opposite way into Germany, and their return home wasn’t guaranteed.
With their Irish coffees they didn’t seem too bothered that a return home might not be on the cards for a while. Jiří No. I – who spoke English – said he didn’t like the Czech and Slovak club in West Hampstead because it was full of ‘know-alls’. They wanted us to travel to the game with them, exaggerating how far the stadium was from town, when in actuality it was a 30 min walk at most. Forgetting what bye was in Czech, I signed off with ‘it’ll be 2 or 3-0 to Leipzig’.
With such optimism we took up our planned spots to see off the lads. A Deliveroo cyclist slowed down to a stop beside the waiting crowds. ‘That’ll be for Tanguy’ someone joked to the amusement of those around. Jan Vertonghen’s face appeared from behind a curtain of a second-floor window and the players duly arrived. Lucas and Eric Dier were the ones to acknowledge the fans, whilst the others looked into themselves for some steel and resolve, which based on their faces, didn’t appear to be there.
In Champions League tradition, a bit of Chas and Dave in the hotel room was needed before it was time to be off to the game. I wanted to walk but as we crossed a road – to Mum’s usual dismay – a stadium bound supporter’s shuttle pulled up alongside us. I warned Mum, an away day novice, off this tempting option. It’d be full of boozy lads without room to swing a cat, go the long way around and probably end in a kettle. ‘Let’s get on,’ Mum said. Her funeral. Within seconds Mum bumped into an old colleague from social services and they got on like a house on fire. We gratefully received ‘Fat Blokes on Tour’ badges from Graham, the supporters group he runs. A swig of my Holsten was requested from one of the fat blokes, which had mostly disappeared upon its return.
In a blink, we were outside the stadium. Once there it felt like we were subject to a classic UEFA move. They’d sorted out the fans getting to the ground easily enough, only for unnecessary mayhem to ensue. About 3 turnstiles for over 2000 travelling fans. One fan started chanting that he had a tight chest in the faint hope that in Moses-like fashion, he could part the massive jumble of supporters with virus spreading fears. It didn’t work.
We took up our seats in the first row. With the fans in usual good voice, it felt like it would have been a travesty to round off this special trip merely in the locality of closed doors to our beloved yet flawed Spurs. For the first time all day I started to believe we could do something. At the top of her lungs, Mum joined in with screams of ‘Yid Army’ with a zeal in her eyes I had never seen before. There was a bit more to it this time.
Once this transcendent moment of figurative ethno-based reclaiming of territory amongst one’s newly ascribed tribe had passed, superstition-heavy thoughts returned to the machinations of the game. Even if it started badly, I had faith in the power away goals. And what would be the point of having Mourinho if we just exit the cups as limply as before? He must have something ‘special’ up his sleeves, I thought, while trying to forget that I’d just seen us lose on penalties to bottom placed Norwich. Following what was likely to be the last blare of the Champions League theme for a good while, a bright start encouraged matters, before the expected happened.
Whilst the football was going wrong, Mum started to warn me about the dangers of the drop in front. At 30 years of age I could organise a whole trip, but still have Mum thinking I’d get run over on the way to the game and failing that, I’d end up toppling over the barrier onto tarmac next to the pitch whilst the game was going on. I was more worried about the fan next to us thinking his £10 Spurs Megastore scarf tied round his face would provide any more of a defence to coronavirus than our back line would to Leipzig’s attackers.
The second goal killed the game and at half time, amidst the half-hearted 3-0 down on aggregate to Ajax analogies, I felt compelled to treat Mum to a pretzel to keep spirits up. There was no need, as when I returned to meet Mum, she was deep in conversation with another mate she had bumped into from North London past, this time from jury service. Mum was still full of it, asking the well-travelled Spurs steward if he enjoyed working on all the games. ‘Depends really’, was the fitting but mediocre response.
Once the game restarted there wasn’t much of a reaction and Mourinho didn’t seek to change it, conceding the whole affair at an early stage and making a statement to the board about the car crash of a squad available in the process. Is it even worse when lack of hope is fulfilled or when high hopes are dashed? I don’t know. There were significant anti-Daniel Levy sentiments being expressed in a big way, which has not been the norm. A bloke squeezed past Mum to apologise in advance for his ‘language’, merely because she was a woman, as he called the remaining players who clapped off the supporters, as ‘c***s’.
Given the manner of the performance, and what with how the trip had gone, it somehow felt like the game meant less than usual. And that was without the prospect by then that the Champions League might not finish properly this season anyway. I would return to work wanting to share everything about the trip when usually it’d be a case of hiding from non-Spurs fans and Spurs fans alike to bury my head from any football chat. I was still in a huff for the rest of the evening, mind. Poor Mum.
Nuremberg and the return home: 11 March 2020
The next morning was dedicated to reflection, curry wurst comfort eating and satiating Mum’s new found obsession of Ampelmännchen at the DDR shop, before we headed to Nuremberg.
Nuremberg was chosen first and foremost because of the £9.99 return flights. Not to rest on our laurels however, and in light of Mum’s never-ending energy levels/willingness to jump from plan to plan, with a few hours to spare ahead of our flight we thought we’d go to one last meaningful landmark.
The Justizpalast was the venue of the Nuremberg Trials from 1945 to 1946, when the sovereign state of Germany was put in the dock for conspiracy to commit international crimes, crimes against peace, war crimes and the commission of crimes against humanity, in a symbolic advent of international law. Nazi defendants were prosecuted and executed in the city where citizenship and further hitherto inalienable rights were taken away by decree from Jews. A fitting closure of sorts to the trip.
Oh, and why not one last Bierkeller in another stunning Altstadt? The excellent Restaurant Nassauer Keller zu Nürnberg ticked all the boxes for the finale. The Greek waiter thought we were Greek and in unfortunate punts as first guesses, we mistook each other for fans of our respective rivals; Arsenal and Olympiacos.
Every flight from the airport but ours – which might as well have been a Spurs fan charter – was cancelled. As we got on the plane, amid the usual post-defeat chat, a unique complaint could be heard about ‘f***ing Lady Gaga’, which somehow made sense as a dig at the club’s direction and Levy’s lack of reinvestment.
We returned to what felt like 60s sci-fi dystopia of Stansted staff shaking hands with their elbows and dire warnings of what life was going to be like for a while. There was schadenfreude in the audible domino-effect rejoice of flight goers checking their phones to see Liverpool had also gone out. Fans can have as short or long a memory as they like. A good thing, as there has been no football to go to en masse since.
This is an extract from alonger piece documenting Dan’s trip to Germany. Please contact.lilywhiterose@gmail.com if you would like to read the full version.
A lunchtime kick-off at 12:30 on the 23rd February 2019 at Turf Moor was a massive turning point during Mauricio Pochettino’s reign as Tottenham boss, where Spurs lost 2-1 to Burnley, dealing a huge blow to a potential title challenge.
A win would’ve seen Tottenham two points off Manchester City in 1st and, unhappy with decisions in the game, Pochettino confronted referee Mike Dean after the final whistle, an action which later resulted in a touchline ban for the Argentine.
Including the loss to the Clarets, Spurs went five games without a win in the league, ending any hopes of the title heading back to [New] White Hart Lane.
The season wasn’t all over, however, with the Lilywhites beating Borussia Dortmund, Manchester City and Ajax on the way to a Champions League final for the first time in their history; albeit with the help of VAR in Manchester and Lucas Moura in Amsterdam.
However, a Mo Salah penalty within the first two minutes of the final starting in Madrid set the precedence for the game where Spurs’ luck had finally run out, losing 2-0 to Liverpool in the final.
Surely after making it to the Champions League final Pochettino’s job was safe for the following season? Apparently not. A 1-1 draw to Sheffield United at home was Pochettino’s final game as Tottenham manager after a run of five games without a win in the league, leaving the club in 14th place.
So where exactly did it go wrong for Mauricio Pochettino at Tottenham?
Defensive decline
Spurs had the best defensive record for both the 15/16 and 16/17 seasons in the Premier League, conceding an average of 0.84 a game over both seasons.
However, the loss of both Danny Rose and Victor Wanyama through long-term injuries made it difficult for Spurs to cope defensively at the start of the 17/18 season. Both players then struggled to regain form which contributed to Spurs conceding more than a goal a game in 2018/19. In 2019/20, Spurs’ strong defence had all but crumbled.
The loss of Kyle Walker to Manchester City for £50m before the start of the 17/18 season was significant. Kieran Trippier was a dependable player, and was exceptional for England in their 2018 World Cup campaign, but he didn’t offer the same outlet as Walker and this left Pochettino short of pace at full back. Added to this was the ageing of the Belgian trio of Moussa Dembele, Jan Vertonghen and Toby Alderweireld.
You could argue that none of these players were ever properly replaced in the transfer market, with squad players such as Ben Davies, Eric Dier and Trippier being selected by Pochettino but unable to steam the ever increasing amount of goals Spurs were conceding year on year.
But despite these defensive shortcomings, you could argue the Argentine was never properly backed in the transfer market by Chairman Daniel Levy.
Even when Pochettino made signings he was somewhat restricted due to money problems, leading to some questionable signings such as Moussa Sissoko for £30m, Vincent Janssen for £20m, both of whom failed to make any sort of impact on the team initially. Sissoko, it must be said, has gone on to become a crucial squad player with his consistency and tireless performances.
Many other signings flopped after Pochettino was unable to get his main targets because of the lack of investment from Levy. When Pochettino got his actual targets such as Dele Alli, Toby Alderweireld and Heung-Min Son, it turned out to be worth the money.
After the Champions League run Pochettino finally had money to spend in the transfer window and bought his main targets of Tanguy Ndombele, Giovani Lo Celso and Ryan Sessegnon, all of whom were unavailable to the Argentine for large parts of his tenure due to injuries.
Which leaves the question would Pochettino still be Spurs’ manager had Ndombele, Lo Celso and Sessegnon been fit and firing?
Trophies
It’s hard to ignore the fact that no silverware was won during Pochettino’s tenure with Spurs always falling at the final hurdle, finishing second in the league twice and reaching two finals, both of which they lost 2-0, one to Chelsea in the League Cup in 2014 and the other to Liverpool in the Champions League in 2019.
Had Pochettino have won against Chelsea in his first season his time as manager may have been completely different with Spurs kicking on and winning more trophies, but the constant falling at the final hurdle may have unsettled players as well as frustrating the team and fans and most importantly Levy.
Change of stadium
Moving from White Hart Lane to Wembley definitely affected the team with a lack of atmosphere at Wembley as many fans couldn’t justify the journey. During their final season at the Lane, Spurs went unbeaten winning 17 out of their 19 games.
The following season, Spurs played at Wembley and dropped 14 points out of a possible 57 which is far from title winning form. Demolishing White Hart Lane was awful timing and Spurs may have mounted a serious title challenge had they managed to turn White Hart Lane into a fortress.
Mauricio Pochettino, will go down as one of Spurs’ greatest managers in history thanks to how he turned the club around and if he was backed in the transfer market, you’d think his trophy drought would have been a different story.
This week, I had the absolute pleasure of talking to former Tottenham Hotspur player and current Ireland U18 and Nottingham Forest U23 coach, Andy Reid, on Last Word On Spurs.
We talked about his time at the club; playing in the North London Derby; Troy Parrott and Jamie Bowden; and his thoughts on Daniel Levy, Martin Jol, Frank Arnesen, Mauricio Pochettino and Jose Mourinho.
Lilywhite Rose 