Siege mentality and smelling salts

I'm looking forward to writing the season review for 2012. Regardless of the final five games and what they might bring, regardless of whether we secure top four or don't, it won't change the fact that we have some tweaking, rebuilding to do. Redknapp or no Redknapp.

Nothing major in terms of ripping out the foundations and starting afresh. Just key areas of the team need to be looked at (defence, strikers) and decisiveness on potential transfers out. Redknapp has always been short term in application. Something long term is required when the next managerial change occurs. Long term in both the vision for the new coach and player acquisitions. The transition is not going to be one that shakes us and leaves us crying in the corner rocking backwards and forwards. No foaming at mouth. No matter your opinion on Harry Redknapp, he's achieved stability. Compared to the past 10 or so years we've gone from one poor managerial appointment and clean up job to another. Stability equates to competing if the right level of quality is possessed. We've done just that this season. Although we've been let down when it matters most. The foundations are strong. The cracks can be easily repaired. Just hire a new builder. Might take a summer to have everything fixed up in time for the next stormy winter.

Redknapp has got us winning games across seasons consistently, away from home. And aside from a handful of losses, always looking strong at the Lane. Our recent end of season form matches to last season and the issues at hand concern Redknapp's inability to rotate with impact. We've burnt out and the lack of guidance and consistency with formation has compounded matters for the worse. But all this is for the summer. I’ll probably break up the review into about 10/15 different articles. It's been a meaty season, plenty to chew on, plenty to bite at. Some of it, no doubt, will be hard to swallow.

I was told recently that our current form is our actual form, that this is us performing to our expected level. What does that even mean? I asked the same thing to the idiot that goaded me and apparently 'you're only as good as your last game'. In other words the team he supports who have been relatively slack all season and have come into form towards the end of it are showing their real form whereas they were under performing before then. I guess, as opposed to them simply taking advantage of our slackness. Funny how we're not considered to be under performing now, rather over-achieving at the start and playing standard Tottenham football at present. The semantics of football confuse.

What does it matter? It doesn't. But the reality is, we've failed to retain that measured composure across the entirety of the season. Quite ironic that we have suffered for not suffering a blip of form in the early part, but instead have held it back until the very end and half-imploded.

Drama the Spurs way.

I just want to gently remind everyone of our form from that first part of the season. The energetic, confident swagger and swashbuckle Tottenham side that had no fear and fought as a unit. Take that same desire and mix it with the team ethic from 2010 which was battered, written off and bare bones that played out of their skin and arguably punched above their weight (what with the squad depletion) to claim 4th spot. We've seen plenty of 2010 tenacity from this team, but its AWOL currently.

I just want to gently remind everyone that we are still one of the very top sides in the country and regardless of the players we need to sign/replace/sell we're a club that has been on the up for the past four or so seasons. Yes, we are under achieving based on squad comparisons and based on prior form when taking into account everything and everyone. Yes, this learning curve might prove to be costly. Yes, we need to be far more shrewd and tactically astute. Yes, our manager failed to draw a line under the England job. Yes, we are on a downward spiral trying desperately to find a way to claw some momentum back with very few games left to do so.

I just want to gently remind everyone to love the shirt. Supporters and players alike. Especially the players who need to be gently reminded that talking about it is no longer of consequence. Actions speak louder than words. You can't get more clichéd than that. Aside from the usual clichéd Spurs free fall.

5 games. 15 points.

These are the only words of consequence.

Stop being apologetic. Stop bemoaning. Stop worrying. Start believing. One last time, one last chance. This season, when done and dusted will be gone forever. Manager, players…you wont have another chance to relive these moments so how about you get a grip of yourselves and attempt to reclaim some of that lost pride you have so easily surrendered recently? You are not your wage packet. You are not a transfer request. You are not your agent. You are me. You should be me. Living and breathing Lilywhite. You are the thousands at the Lane. The thousands all around the world. You are the history and you are the traditions. If you can't get yourselves up for this then leave, there's no point in you wearing that Lilywhite shirt. My shirt. Our shirt.

Wake up before the slumber turns into a coma. Turn that faint whisper back into a noisy song.

What have you got to lose? Everything. Because everything is glory.

Pinch yourself

Spurs 2 Everton 0

This is getting ridiculous now. Another win. Another clean sheet. Third in the table, level on points with second. Might even go ‘level top’ momentarily over the weekend if we beat Wolves. It’s all very giddy and nosebleedy. Should I pinch myself? Should we pinch ourselves? Have you pinched yourself? No? Neither have I. Because I know I’m not dreaming. We deserve this. We have to keep believing there’s more. What I might have to do at some point (soon) is take a step back and try to take it all in. Really appreciate what we have and what we are aspiring to do. Because in a sort of funny kinda ironic way, most of us are remaining quite grounded over our form. No delusions. No set in stone ambitions either. Let’s face it, start of season we’d have taken fourth spot. Most pundits/media folk would have had us pinned down as outsiders, 5^th at best. After the opening two games there were plenty writing off our chances. Concerned that the loss of form from the back end of the previous season was going to continue into this one.

It didn’t. We signed the players we needed to shape ourselves up in order to compete. Since the Manc nightmares we’ve lost only once. We’ve accumulated a points tally that would easily have us challenging for the title in previous years and one that has us in there at the moment, sticking around, just to see what happens. You know, just in case one of the more fancied sides balls it up. When we’ve had players out injured, we’ve dug deep and found a way to adapt. Proving that although key injuries would unsettle us and perhaps cause us long term difficulties – we have still found a way through the fixtures. We did exactly what we had to do through Christmas and the New Year and it’s looking good to finish Jan in similar high spirits as we enter Feb and the ‘doom and gloom’ of the away games we’ll be contesting. A period which is where most expect us to fall away. Mostly based on the fact we shouldn’t be sitting in 3^rd spot. We’re far more robust for these fixtures than some give us credit for.

The guile and grit is ever present. Tactically, we’re sound. Players are impressing. Jake Livermore (sure, it was only Everton but he still has to go out there and perform) played with maturity and composure and looked the part in centre-midfield, tidying up and not scared to get involved and carry the ball forward. Had a pass completion rate of just under 99%. 

Rafa van de Vaart continues to excel, work rate and sublime cross-field passing – he can do both. Michael Dawson returned, action-packed, willing to hurt his body to win the ball, the big huggable lump. Our full backs are pulsating. The unbridled joy of Benny’s goal and celebration testament to team unity. What a peach of a goal. Not forgetting Lennon, back in the side giving us complete width and thus comfort in playing the way we know best. Even though we didn’t defeat the visitors with flair on the night. More so tenacity and focus. We controlled it. This fabled game in hand that we’ve been embracing for so long as the one that can edge us further ahead from the chasing pack and ever closer to the top. We didn’t trip over. We skipped, with smiles.

Yet we could still strengthen further, preferably with young hungry players rather than looking to bring back a memory. But then we’re not in need for such a thing to anchor onto the past in the attempt to get some ilk of stranglehold on the present. Mainly because we don’t have anyone to call back (can’t seem to track down Andy Booth). And more so because we don’t have to look back, just forward. Nothing can be done about what’s happened, what’s gone before. It’s not relevant.

Spurs are still evolving. Which probably explains why I’m not gloating/dancing naked in the street at our lofty position. I’m simply enjoying our football and the players we have. We’re always told we won’t do this and we won’t do that, and whilst they waste their energy on attempting to box us back up...we’ve just kept on going. Football cycles always come to an end, so the death of the immaculate untouchable Sky Sports Top Four has given hope where there was no hope before. Where as you could argue we were punching above our weight in 2006 (because others faltered a little), you can’t say so with the class of 2012.

I’m not even thinking about the title. I refuse to look into her sultry eyes and be seduced. Not until she flashes her panties at me and invites me into her hotel bedroom. I just want us to keep on winning, to keep on believing. The buzz I get from this seasons form is more than enough to very gently alter the way I support Spurs. I’m far less stressed now. I don’t fear defeat, I hate the very mention of it. I don’t expect us to lose games. I don’t expect us to choke or bottle it. I know we can muddle our way through a sticky situation or ride our luck and even brush aside opposing sides and win comfortably. We grind it, we style it. Old school Tottenham, the one we’ve grown up with...the one that can be majestic and beautiful one day and absolutely abject the next. It doesn’t exist anymore. We’re just haunted by a memory, the memory of a fading knee—jerk. An expectancy of failure from the days when our form guide was populated with ‘D’ and ‘L’, punctured by the odd ‘W’. When we do come unstuck, it’s because...it happens. It happens to the best of teams. I know we’ll react positively to it. Because the club’s mentality has been fine tuned to start resembling one that can be synonymous with those of winners.

Momentum, a consequence of wanting more than a win in isolation but the necessity to make every win part of something far bigger.

It’s not happened overnight either. Started with Jol. We learnt lessons with how Ramos came to be and came to leave. Redknapp got us back to a respectable position that the squad of players should have been achieving based on their abilities. Then we took it up a notch. We finished 4^th. We had our adventure. It wasn’t enough, it’s not enough to be remembered for a cameo. We came unstuck last season, we added to our squad this term...and whilst we continue to push on, others stagnate.

I don’t pinch myself because we’ve taken a step at a time to get where we are. It’s been a process, a progression. But it still remains just a platform, a foundation. We’ve got such a good solid chance to make it so much more than that. But if I did take a step back and try to take it all in, I probably would turn melter and go loopy over the fact that we’re contending. I have to go back to ’87 for the last time we looked ‘the part’.

Maybe I’ve got it all wrong, being reserved and holding back. I always cite ‘wear your heart on your sleeve’ because that’s what we do. In the past, when perpetually mid-table we still supported our club like it was the best club on the planet. Why? Because it is the best. Even during some of the most depressive periods with some God awful players lining up for us, we still sang our hearts out. Should not be any different now. Especially with what we’ve got wearing our Lilywhite colours.

There should be no pressure on us. We shouldn’t spend our time in the stands biting our nails. Which should dare to achieve because there’s no glory in simply aiming for something that isn’t first place. Because anything that isn’t first place can’t be the most glorious of things to aim for.

Go on then, pinch yourself.

So believe. Believe until it’s mathematically impossible. Otherwise, you’re only living your life at half-pelt.

COYS.

Smash 'em up

Battle for fourth? Unlike say in the season when we actually captured that position, this year its pretty much a certainty that anyone who dares to show some consistency and hunger for it will romp home. Utd, City and Chelsea will finish in the top three placements. Us, Arsenal and Liverpool will be fighting it out for fourth. Hardly rocket science but what remains a mystery is just how much of a fight it will turn out to be.

Take our neighbours up the Seven Sisters road. Still with the pretty football but with plenty of Keystone  defending making them a red and white version of a variety of Spurs sides from recent seasons that flattered to deceive and always made sure they heaped misery on their fans. State of flux, wobble, crisis - whatever you wish to tag that particular mess with, they are very much vulnerable and weak in key areas although still pack a punch but one that is unlikely to knock you out.

Liverpool are in the midst of rejuvenation and are thus being re-built. Okay so its all a little excitable and exaggerated because it's Liverpool and its Dalglish and the media seem to be sacrificing credibility to beckon the Phoenix from the flames. There's no doubt, as much of the ordinary and average soundbites you wish to chuck their way, they are better for it since the summer. Hardly perfect but they retain a busy work ethic and have players that can produce effectively. They also have a player up front that many still believe could have worked a treat in Lilywhite but somebody apparently didn't fancy taking the chance.

The question is not so much 'how good are Liverpool?' or 'how good can Liverpool be?'. It's more the case of 'how good to you need to be to claim that fourth spot?'. Looking around, with so many unanswered questions you'd probably agree that you don't need to be all that special. So its a dangerous game to discount this Liverpool side just because they are hardly fitting of older variants in comparison. Same with with Arsenal.

Apart from the near spectacular starts to the season the two Manc sides have displayed you could argue that not even Chelsea have impressed (but let's not get carried away here, they should still comfortably find enough of what's required to compete for 2nd spot with City).

So what of THFC? How much fight do we have in us? We'll find out when we face up to the scousers. It's still very early in the season but its pretty vital we start to rock and roll over opponents because the form of our competitors is completely out of our control other than when we play them. Defeating Liverpool then Arsenal (Wigan in-between) would create momentum and with that comes confidence and renewed belief and all the other hype that manager and players seem to feed off. Adds focus to their deficiencies also. Defeat, and the emphasis is back on us.

If anything should be taken from last season is that every regrettable dropped point will come back to haunt you.

At the moment, we don't seem to have any urgency and appear comfortably numb in posture. We showed some authority away at Wolves and plenty of industry thanks to our new signings. Need a little more from other quarters.

This season. It's simply too much of a good opportunity to pass by. Champions League qualification is a tangible target. We need to crow. We need to fight. We need to use our spur and leave the competition bloody on the floor.

It's going to be a tough game if Liverpool play as good as they can. If they don't then that's their problem and our prerogative to take advantage. Failing to turn up tomorrow will just leave that culture of underachievement festering in the psyche of the players meaning we then move onto the next game seeking redemption. Beating Wolves was a start. Beating Liverpool needs to be a necessity.

Release the Kraken Tottenham.

I've checked and Perseus doesn't play for Liverpool and the next best thing to the Medusa is Karren Brady and she will most definitely not be present.

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