For ENIC Its Always Someone Else's At Fault As History Repeats Itself

 

Just over a year ago Chelsea brought Ange Postecoglu's unbeaten start as Spurs manager to a crashing end with a 4-1 victory at The Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. The circumstances were slightly unusual in as much as we traditionally just lose to Chelsea without the players seeming that bothered about it but this time there were two players dismissed and long term injuries sustained during the game to key personnel. In fact, if my memory serves me correctly we finished the game with a 2-3-3 formation.

This time around, one of those long termers from the previous game made a surprise return from yet another injury and one of those issued with a red in that match also returned from injury, both giving a boost to a depleted defence. Unfortunately, Romero lasted just 14 minutes before comically injuring himself. Conversely, Van der Ven who'd been rushed back due to the complete lack of foresight shown in last summers transfer window, managed to make it through to the 79th minute before breaking down.

Incredibly though by the time Romero limped off, Spurs were already two goals to the good. Cucurella, perhaps eager to show that he really should be playing for us and not Chelsea, twice slipped farcically allowing Johnson to set up Solanke for the opener and then for the ball to work its way to Kulusevski who finished well from the edge of the area.

The biggest problem for the home side now though was that there was still 80 minutes plus stoppages to go until the end of the game. Everyone in the ground knew when Sancho scored six minutes after our second goal to make it 2-1 that Chelsea would go on to win the game. Home fans, away fans, people at home watching on TV and most importantly the players of both sides on the pitch.

Spurs made it through to half-time still in the lead. Chelsea made a change, Gusto on for Lavia, pushing Caicedo into midfield and they began to dominate. Forster was doing very well (again) and it actually took a moment of supreme stupidity from Bissouma, bringing down Caicedo for the penalty converted by Cole Palmer to get Chelsea level. Its nice to see that with Rodri out for the season, the Premier league have bestowed his immunity from any kind of refereeing prosecution onto Caicedo.

Twelve minutes later a deflected cross after more good work from Palmer fell to an unmarked Fernandez  who slotted in from the edge of the area. If only Bentancur had had the foresight to sing an extremely racist song loudly and surrounded by team mates, instead of making an awful comment in an interview, he may have been available to play and perhaps could have been on the pitch to block that effort.

Ten minutes after this another pointless challenge in the area from Sarr gave Palmer the chance to convert his second penalty and a game that was already over and had been so for a while was finally put to bed. Probably half of the ground was empty by the time Son knocked in the consolation third goal after some nifty footwork by substitute Maddison. The ref then put the remaining home fans out of their misery by blowing for full time.

Of course the post match inquest took its usual form. Ange, to his credit, does attempt to shoulder much of the blame. In all fairness that's what managers get the big money for, not that that always applied to some of his predecessors who regarded themselves as completely faultless when things went wrong but were happy to accept praise when all was going well. Some of the players took to social media to apologise although you get the feeling we're at the stage where they're just using the 'copy and paste' function to save time.

There is of course one area of the club where there is absolutely no sign of contrition whatsoever. The silence from the collection of individuals that run the club is deafening. Unless of course there's some record breaking financial figures or another high profile American Football match or superstar concert to promote. I wonder if the howls of protest from the terraces will ever to loud enough to be heard over the chink of champagne flutes in the boardroom?

The summer window was lauded by some fans and many of the clubs client journalists as a fantastic one. Its funny to see many of those same people somewhat backtracking now. I had my concerns from the start, and noted this in my blog just before the end of the window, citing the lack of cover especially given the prospect of such a demanding schedule with the Europa League qualification.

With the exception of the arrival of Solanke (a position in the squad filled a year after it should have been) the club gave us a long-term window with all the other arrivals being regarded a 'for the future'. Is it fair to expect immediate results with this transfer strategy? 

Usually in this situation (the one where there's the slightest amount of pressure being put on ENIC) the immediate solution for Levy and his band of merry men and women is to sack the manager and start again. There are many problems with this mid season under usual circumstances but who's out there? Moyes? Poor old Ryan Mason, who's trying to build his career in coaching being thrown into the hotseat (again)? 

The quote at the top of this blog from one of the most high profile players at the club is also a little different. Its the first time since the infamous Venables v Sugar row that I can remember a player directly criticising the clubs owners, whilst still actually being employed by the club. Now he personally doesn't have much to lose as I expect he's off to Madrid this summer anyway but I think the significance is that it shows the players are still behind the manager. Previously its been quite obvious that the boss has lost the dressing room.

Spurs are by different metrics somewhere between the 6th and 10th richest football club on the planet. They need to make a decision because the January window is fast approaching. If they believe in Ange then back him properly in this coming window. We need at least four players, no more 18/19 year olds, no promising players from the Championship, but experienced 23-28 year old Internationals who will fit into the managers methods and that can help turn the season around. 

If they don't believe in Ange then frankly they should have sacked him already. But that would involve taking some responsibility wouldn't it?