New faces, same Spurs: Tottenham can’t keep from tripping over themselves

Richard Jolly

Under other circumstances, it could have been a sight for Spurs to savour. The former Tottenham midfielder Gylfi Sigurdsson turned the tormentor of Arsenal, scoring a wonderful free kick as Swansea came from behind to beat Spurs’ arch-rivals.

Not now. Now it is yet another indictment of Tottenham. Sigurdsson has created precisely half of Swansea’s 14 goals this season. He has scored another two himself. He was transferred to Wales as a makeweight in the deal that brought left-back Ben Davies to White Hart Lane. And Davies has played exactly 18 minutes of Premier League football this season.

It is microcosm of Tottenham’s problems: their mistakes in the transfer market, the propensity for players to flourish for other clubs but vanish or underachieve in North London, the sense that an opportunity has been missed.

A couple of hours before Sigurdsson struck, Tottenham struggled. Stoke condemned them to their fourth home defeat of the season. The afternoon ended with the latest illustration that right-back Kyle Naughton isn’t good enough, as he was sent off for chopping down the speedier Victor Moses. It began with choruses in favour of Harry Kane.

That the club’s top scorer had to wait until November for his first league start of the season is, like the absence from the starting line-up of their finest outfield player, Jan Vertonghen, an indication of the warped thinking at White Hart Lane.

The chants about Kane – “He’s one of our own” – are a sign of Tottenham’s identity crisis. Supporters identify with Kane, the local lad, product of the club’s academy, a fast-improving footballer and the only striker to perform creditably for Spurs this season. They don’t identify with the clear majority of the various substandard signings.

But Sigurdsson’s example suggests the problem lies with the club, not the players. The Icelander is one of nine central midfielders of differing types Spurs bought in the past two-and-a-half years. Only the playmaker Christian Eriksen has justified his reputation and cemented a spot for any length of time and even he has been replaced at half time in their past two league games.

Meanwhile, the long-forgotten Ryan Mason, one of the few who didn’t cost a fee, seems somehow catapulted to the front of the queue for places. Once again, it is hard to detect any semblance of a masterplan. Once again, manager Mauricio Pochettino’s decision-making seems flawed.

While his former club, Southampton, prosper without him, the Argentine has made a stumbling start at White Hart Lane but he merits sympathy. Tottenham do not have a squad equipped to play his high-energy pressing game. But neither was it one that seemed to match the ethos of Tim Sherwood, his predecessor. Or even, though he signed many of the players, Andre Villas-Boas, Spurs’ third manager of the past 12 months.

Look around the Premier League. Coaches as different as Roberto Martinez and Sam Allardyce, Arsene Wenger and Jose Mourinho, can be found. Would any of them deem Spurs’ squad particularly suited to his brand of football? Almost certainly not.

Nacer Chadli has developed an eye for goal, but much of the £85 million (Dh496.5m) windfall Tottenham received for Gareth Bale 15 months ago has been squandered. The Welshman’s direct replacement, Erik Lamela, has showed he can score an extraordinary “rabona” goal in the Europa League, but has not delivered a goal of any variety in the Premier League.

It suggests style without substance, echoing allegations long levelled at Tottenham.

Now they have a more modern problem. They are stuck in a cycle of qualifying for the Europa League then seeing it hamper their attempts in the Premier League.

They stockpile players to cope with the added workload and discover they have quantity, rather than quality. Like Arsenal and Aston Villa, Spurs seem stuck in Groundhog Day seasons of identical frustration. Each of their seasons feel transitional, even at a club with a culture of institutionalised short-termism. Transition has a different face every year.

Tottenham secured 72 points in Villas-Boas’ only full campaign in charge. They won 59 per cent of their league games under Sherwood. At a club that forever wants what it has not got, neither felt quite enough. And so somewhere along the line, a fatalism has become ingrained.

Their best players leave. Signings fail. Spurs lose. They end up in, or near, sixth place amid instability and unhappiness.

But if this season is shaping up to be worse than most, at least they may glimpse light at the end of the tunnel. Because, at this rate, Tottenham might not even qualify for the Europa League.

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