Spurs need decisive action if they're to break their current run
The margins are fine, but whether it's the width of a post or eleven one-goal defeats, Spurs continue to find themselves on the wrong side of them.
There comes a point at which you start to wonder whether the existence of the word “Spursy” benefits those who actually run the club. The very fact that the sort of nonsense they’ve been turning in over the last few weeks can happen so reliably—what we’re witnessing now is essentially a concentrated version of what they’ve been doing on and off for the entire time that I’ve supported them, so something in the region of 45 years—hints at a board who simply throw their arms in the air in the belief that there must just be ‘something in the water’ when it happens yet again.
I watched the Arsenal match with the grimace of somebody who knew how unavoidable the giant rock rolling towards him was. It wasn’t a matter of when it was going to happen, but how. I long ago reached the point at which I barely even cheer opening goals in big games. I’ve ridden that particular rodeo too many times before. When Son Heung Min gave them the lead at The Emirates, I could manage nothing greater than an atavistic squawk of semi-disbelief.
But when the ball hit the net, it was another peculiar moment in what felt like an extremely peculiar half of football. Arsenal dominated possession to the extent that Spurs could barely get out of their own penalty area at times, but this left a huge hole in midfield into which Spurs could pour on the counter-attack. Son’s goal came after two or three chances which indicated exactly how one could happen.
As ineffective in attack as in recent matches as ever - stop trying to make Raheem Sterling happen, Arsenal; Raheem Sterling is not going to happen - an own goal from a corner that shouldn’t have been given brought the home side level and, because Spurs sure do love to be neighbourly, a goalkeeping mistake put them ahead, all within the space of four minutes.
But they had their moments Spurs hit the post in stoppage-time. The conversation being held among Spurs supporters could have been very different, this morning. But it isn't, and the main issue to be arising from the farrago that 2025 has been for Spurs so far is how badly-prepared they seem to be for everything.
There are players playing out of position everywhere, a back-up right-back at left-back and a midfielder at centre-back. They’re now on their fourth goalkeeper of the season, and we’re only just halfway through it all. This isn’t ‘Spursiness’ by any other definition than being badly-prepared, run ragged and turning up half-expecting to win even though there are very few grounds for believing that this will happen.
The players look exhausted. Why so tired? Because the injuries are preventing proper squad rotation. Why the injuries, then? Is it because the players are being run into the ground because of poor planning? If there are injuries and no squad rotation, there'll be growing tiredness on the part of those who have to fill those gaps and it all starts to look like it could easily become a downward spiral which won’t stop until some form of decisive action is taken.
They’ve brought in a goalkeeper this month because the alternative was some rather surprising news for Pat Jennings, but so far otherwise, although there’s been lofty talk of them being “one of the most active clubs in Europe this transfer window”, there’s been nothing concrete yet beyond missing out on Randal Kolo Muani, who opted for Juventus instead.
Daniel Levy is reported to have “stated clearly that he will back Postecoglou but that does not mean he will do anything stupid and spend way over the odds to land targets”, but the January transfer window is just about the worst time of year to be trying to be parsimonious or careful with the purse-strings. It might not matter just yet that there’s been nothing concrete, but with games coming thick and fast—they have Everton away on Sunday, and David Moyes will fancy that—perhaps it would be better to bring new players in sooner rather than later?
The January transfer window can be treacherous. The league table gives everything away. Your team’s performances directly demonstrate what you need. Selling clubs can see the whites of your eyes. But there can also be successful January transfers. There can even occasionally be what turn out to be bargains. But that’s as much to do with the inherent chance of the transfer market as anything else.
Perhaps the broader point here is that injuries notwithstanding, why wasn’t there cover in every position? Why is this having to happen now rather than having happened during the summer, when there was a little more time and space to make more considered multi-million pound decisions? It just reeks of something like carelessness, or sloppiness, and that seems to be institutional rather than attributable to any one person or small group of people. If being financially canny is so damned important to Spurs, why don’t they ever seem to plan more strategically?
This season has been, even at this profoundly strange football club, the strangest that I can remember, and this is borne out in the numbers alone. There is a case for saying that they’re close. Only Liverpool have scored more goals, and the running away leaders are also the only team to have beaten them by more than a single goal. Spurs have lost eleven games by a single goal in all competitions this season. They’ve won two and lost six of their last ten, but scored more than they conceded in those. In some important respects, they’ve simply stopped making any sense.
The second half of the season is the point at which push comes to shove. Excuses matter less and less. Complaining about the number of injuries you have means little when you've got your enormo-o-dome, and all the less when you were all in favour of expanding the European schedule in the first place.
It’s all very well to talk about “writing off” the season in the League, but that creates its own issues. It makes the only route into European football winning a piece of silverware, which is essentially a high-stakes gamble at all bar about three clubs, and a vertiginously high one at this one, where the number of trophies won over the last three decades can be comfortably counted on the fingers of one hand.
And Spurs are not yet quite comfortable enough to be “writing” anything “off” in the League yet. They’re in 13th place in the table and could easily be 15th by the end of the weekend. They’re eight points above the relegation places, and to suggest that they could yet get sucked into a relegation battle for which they do not seem to be remotely prepared sounds like hyperbole until you remember that they’ve only won once in the League since the start of December, a run taking in nine matches; more or less a quarter of the entire season. I don’t think they’re going to get relegated this season, but I can't with much certainty say that they won't.
The margins are narrow, whichever way you look at it. The width of a post, one goalkeeping error, or eleven one-goal defeats. But the sum total of all this is the impression of an experiment which is close to exploding to life, but still failing under its own contradictions.
In a game of fine margins, tiny tweaks can make a difference. How much of this is attitudinal? Because it can feel at times as though this can all become somewhat self-perpetuating at times. If the crowd is tetchy, the players get tetchy. These things can be contagious and the skittishness around The Tottenham Hotspur Stadium has been evident at points this season.
And there are even causes for optimism. There were wins against Manchester City, Manchester United and Liverpool. A number of young players have shown enormous promise. There's been good form in the cups, their last couple of matches in the Europa League and the 90-minute debacle at Tamworth in the FA Cup notwithstanding. Kuluisevski has been excellent. Solanke is settling in well. It’s not all doom and gloom.
But the problem there is that if fatalism is embedded into your frame of mind, even for those who don’t enjoy feeling grumpy about their football team, it usually requires something concrete to break that mindset. Hypotheticals can go hang when you’ve spent upwards of a thousand pounds to watch your team fall just short every week.
The January transfer window is the club’s best opportunity to provide something concrete, something to hang some hope on. But that’s all the more difficult to hang onto when it starts to feel your team is descending into a spiral. At present Spurs are facing a perfect storm, and it’s at least partly of their own making. And while there should three worse teams than them this season, to even have to say that is to damn all involved with extremely faint praise.
Accompanying image by VariousPhotography from Pixabay.