The Arsenal defeat at home marks the halfway mark. A fitting moment to acknowledge their current superiority and admit that the league title is theirs to lose. Top Four for us is a fast disappearing dream and even Top Six is only slightly more than a forlorn hope.
We are halfway to somewhere even if we are not quite sure where, though the fears are mounting. With a team that doesn’t fit the manager’s template and a CEO reluctant to fully back the manager’s demands so his contract gathers dust in the office drawer.
Decision time is fast approaching: Back the man, not quite to the hilt obviously, this is Tottenham after all or make it dependent on signing up for at least another year. Or sack the man and begin the rebuild now or let his current contract till the end of the season run down and begin the rebuild then.
We are only just over the halfway mark on the current Transfer Window so anything might happen, but probably won’t. We are like a slowly deflating balloon since Pochettino and the Champions League final. Last season’s finish was a temporary stay of execution, an unexpected inrush of life-saving air courtesy of Betancur, Romero and Kulusevski in particular.
Blame the players, or Conte, square pegs in round holes galore but Levy is likely the main stumbling block and he’s going nowhere in a hurry. Plenty of candidates for blame but few contenders for the rebuild or indeed short-term hope.
We have won 2 of our last 6 games. The teams just above us or just below are all gaining momentum. Newcastle are unbeaten in 6 and Utd have won their last 5. Fulham, Brentford and Brighton have all won 4 of their last 6. All are within striking distance if our decline continues.
Photo by Chloe Knott – Danehouse/Getty Images,)
The gap between 4th. And 5th. has widened to 5 points and with two games against City in the next fortnight, though they might appear temptingly beatable, might widen further. We have been hanging on to fifth for some time, but the signs are increasingly ominous.
The game against Arsenal went according to our current plan. Two goals down at half-time, but Arsenal had the quality and composure to resist our usual comeback. Lloris gifted the first goal and Ramsdale though a mighty prick made several fine saves to deny us even a consolation goal.
The Lloris malfunction seems to be an Arsenal thing. But it may be time to upgrade our keeper. He is unsuited to the modern keeper role, his distribution is poor, he does little as Captain and errors abound. He might have gifted them a goal earlier in the game. Thank you and farewell time soon.
We have Hamlet’s dilemma:
To be, or not to be: that is the question:
Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
and by opposing end them.
I think it’s time top take arms against our current tsunami of troubles. Sack or back the Manager; let youth have its head Sarr, Gil, and Spence for starters. Skippy perhaps. Drop the under-performers, Son, Hojbjerg- Sign some round pegs. Pray for the return and good health of Betancur, Kulusevski, and Richarlison and tell Conte to sign up or vaffanculo!
Spurs fans deserve better. The football is dire, no pun intended. To be Spurs is the challenge. Let’s go down fighting rather than slip quietly below the sea of troubles and be seen waving, not drowning. The moment has arrived, let’s grasp the jellyfish before it’s too late.
Here endeth the halfway rant to places unknown. I will return with 10 games to go unless something game-changing happens. We might still be jostling for the top six, still in the FA Cup and still heading for the upper reaches of the Champions League but to assume so is a complacency we cannot risk. There are precious few signs currently.
Most fans crave some exciting front-foot football, whether that produces trophies is neither here nor there to me. At the moment we are playing some mediocre stuff and getting nowhere, fast. But I suspect we will continue to drift and hope.
