We wake this morning to headlines revealing “the secrets behind Pochettino’s success” and how Spurs are a “Premier League Superpower”. I spat my coffee out.
What success is this exactly?
This is Mauricio Pochettino’s 5th season with Tottenham. He has yet to win a trophy.
In the 4 completed seasons, he has finished above The Arsenal twice, and only finished top 4 75% of the time.
Let’s roll our minds back to the Arsenal trophy drought 2006-2012. An 8 season period of failure when Arsene Wenger failed to lead the club to a single trophy.
During that 8 year period, Wenger led Arsenal into the Champions League 100% of the time. The side finished above Spurs 8 out of 8 times and he led the team to a Champions League final and 2 League Cup finals. He was labelled a failure for doing so.
What Wenger “achieved” during that 8 year period, when Arsenal were paying off heavy stadium debt, was superior to what Pochettino has achieved in his 4 completed seasons at Spurs.
This year will make it 5 seasons in a row without a trophy. It could also see Tottenham finish outside the top 4 for the 2nd time in his short reign (Wenger was at the helm for 22 years and finished outside the top 4 just twice).
Tottenham may well end up finishing behind Arsenal for the 3rd time in Pochettino’s 5 seasons.
Reading a book explaining Pochettino’s success would be akin to reading a self-help book from Theresa May on how to unite your colleagues behind you. It would not contain anything useful.
The reality is the media are writing about Pochettino’s success even though he is achieving less than Wenger’s failure.
I have said for a while, Arsenal at their worst this century achieved more than Tottenham at their best.
As for the “superclub” comment, well that is just laughable.
The new stadium in Tottenham is an architectural masterpiece. The most technological advanced stadium in Europe. But that should be a given.
It is the most expensive stadium ever built in England, and the newest stadium. You would be a bit disappointed if it was not the best, most advanced stadium in history. Especially for £1bn.
The media have tried to compare it to Arsenal’s Emirates stadium. Spurs fans have “boasted” about how the new Tottenham stadium is superior. Of course it is superior. It is new.
Arsenal’s stadium is 13 years old. The technology that is around now was not around in 2006.
In 2006 the iPhone did not exist. The best-selling phone was the Nokia 1660. It still had snake and cost £30.
“The Nokia 1600 mobile has a speaking clock, which was a novel feature when the phone was launched in 2005. A user could use the speaking clock by pressing the asterisk (“*”) button during the display of the home screen.
The phone also includes a ringtone composer which allows creating custom ringtones. Pre-composed ringtones can be transferred through a data cable.
The phone has a basic calculator which can perform only addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.
There are 14 pre-defined themes with 14 wallpapers and menu backgrounds.
The menu features animated icons.”
In 2018 the best selling phone is the Samsung Galaxy Note 9, at a cost of £799.
Look at your car.
In 2006, things like SatNav and air con did not come as standard. Bluetooth A CD player and FM/AM radio was your entertainment system. In 2019, every car comes with SatNav, climate control, digital radio, bluetooth enabled and more. Technology has moved on.
In summary, you would feel short-changed if you spent big on a new mobile phone or car and it was not vastly superior to a car or phone from 2006.
It is a fantastic stadium, but that counts for nothing if you fail to win trophies.
Tottenham are no more a superclub than Newcastle under Kevin Keegan.
Keegan led Newcastle to a 2nd place twice, and three top 4 finishes in four years. Compare that to 3 top 4 finishes for Pochettino, finishing 2nd just the once.
Newcastle also reached two FA Cup finals, losing both.
In the end Keegan left having failed to win Newcastle a trophy, despite playing in-front of over 50,000 every week.
Were Newcastle a “Superclub” in the 90s? Or did they just have a couple of years where they finished high up the league, won nothing, played in-front of huge crowds and failed to break their league title drought which was well over half-century.
Tottenham have finished high up the league, won nothing, played in-front of huge crowds and failed to break their league title drought which is well over half-century.
Leeds under David O’Leary were cut from the same cloth.
They finished top 4 three times in a row, made a Champions League semi-final. But like Newcastle, it was temporary and they soon found themselves relegated.
Tottenham can not be talked about in the same bracket as Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal or Chelsea. These clubs have all won trophies in the last 5 years. Tottenham have not.
They might have a shiny new stadium with all the mod-cons that the newest, most expensive stadium built in England should have, but that means nothing if they do not win trophies.
Tottenham are merely Newcastle of the South. They think they are a big club but do not have the recent silverware to back it up.
Keenos
She Wore A Yellow Ribbon 