There was a time when we all laughed at Tottenham, they were nicknamed Totteringham for the way they bottled it, and their squad down the years had one or two quality players weighed down with deadwood. But it is not them anymore that can be called bottlers with a squad of mediocrity, that is now us.
Alarmingly we are now fast becoming a subject of derision in the same way Tottenham were for years, we were seen as the visionaries, the team that played entertaining football, the team that brought in youngsters and turned them into world class players, the team with the future looking manager, the team with the best stadium in London and so on – but who do they say that about now?
Out of the top six who do you think is expected to spend the least amount of money in the transfer window? Well, I suppose you could say Chelsea, but that is only because of the transfer ban….
Which of the top six has the weakest squad, and before you try and say Chelsea or Man Utd just check out our subs bench last night compared to United’s.
I have no idea what teams will be giving what odds for next season’s competitions but I doubt any bookies will have us above Tottenham in the title betting.
Then there are the managers; United and Chelsea have weak managers as well for sure, but Sarri is doing a better job with Chelsea right now than Emery is with us. They are now above us in the league, they are in the semi-finals of the Europa League, same as us, they went further in the League Cup and FA Cup and for some reason, Sarri gets far more from his number 10 than we do.
We have had multiple opportunities to cement third and fourth and at each step we bottled it. That is a hard cold fact and it is now Tottenham that is almost certain to claim the third position, while we are left hoping Man Utd do a number on Chelsea and we somehow get a result away at Leicester City.
And even if we do make next seasons Champions League, do we honestly believe we will progress beyond the quarterfinals at best? We will just be making up the numbers I assure you.
We may not like it but unless we face the truth we will never address what needs addressing and the reality is that we are now in the shadow of a team we once derided, that is how far we have fallen.
Martin