Good afternoon everyone. Reputations in sport can be a tough thing to shake. Once the quintessential ‘cup’ side – Ardiles, Villa, Gascoigne, Samways, Chas & Dave, Des Walker’s own goal – the 2000s witnessed Spurs morph into football’s equivalent of Jean van de Velde, a characterisation Mauricio Pochettino has been unable to fully ditch. And on the weekend of what would have been the 100th birthday of the club’s greatest-ever manager, Pochettino’s Tottenham, at least from the outside, continue to be defined more by what they haven’t done, than what they have.
Never mind transforming the club from Sir Alex Ferguson’s punchlines into a consistent top four and Champions League force who are even, when people get bored, thrown into Premier League title conversations. And all this against the backdrop of relatively minimal investment in his squad. No, with so little credible criticism apparent, the only thing left to throw at Pochettino and his players is a lack of silverware and how it apparently conforms to the concept of their nickname suffixed with a y.
Of course, Thursday’s Carabao Cup semi-final defeat at Chelsea didn’t help matters – the club’s seventh exit in the last four of a domestic cup this century – and, in truth, the reality lies somewhere in between; Tottenham are a really good team, but one you’re never truly, fully, honestly, gun-to-the-head, “quickly Kevin, will he score?” confident can get over the line. With the Champions League a nice surprise rather than a genuine expectation and although Manchester City and Liverpool aren’t quite off into the sunset in the Premier League, the FA Cup still represents Tottenham’s most realistic chance of silverware this season. Which matters more than reputations and memes, it matters because winning stuff is fun.
Palace fans will be quick to remind their north London counterparts they have actually come closer to winning a trophy this decade having played their part in Louis van Gaal’s Manchester United swansong at the 2016 final; a game also notable for Alan Pardew gift to great British comedy. Current Eagles boss Roy Hodgson, who once turned down Strictly Come Dancing (and you know Pardew would be all over that), has been “leaping” to Pochettino’s defence this week (something, in the literal sense, which seems a touch farfetched) but also playing down the significance of this tie in the overall context of Palace’s season. Ho hum. Andros Townsend will be up for it, anyway – it’s three years to the day since Spurs flogged him to Newcastle.
Kick-off is at 4pm. Come join me.
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