TOTTENHAM AS A TOP THREE

Tottenham finish in the Top 3 again.  That is actually very good news for a Tottenham supporter because it means they have over-performed in the league in comparison to their wage structure, which should consistently place them out of a Champions League spot.  In the Champions League, they might have thrown away a 2nd-half 2nd leg lead against Juventus but it saved them from getting beaten in the final by Liverpool.  In the FA Cup, they may have failed for the 8th successive time to reach a final but it saved them from getting beaten in the final by Chelsea.  The reality is that today's 5-4 score against Leicester, while a wild roller coaster rider, is indicative of Mauricio Pochettino's longer-term training regiment.  It is so punishing and hard, that every team Pochettino has managed beyond Spurs, have all registered poor results at the end of the season as the work-rate has worn players down.  Indeed Harry Kane's return from injury was probably the chief error of judgement that could have lost Tottenham their Top 4 place.  It is only today that Kane showed some flashes of his normal fit self - but even then it was clear with Spurs needing the win, Kane's selfishness which helps him register leading goal scorer credentials nearly cost the team today.  It was a good thing that Erik Lamela chose today to show the goal prowess he was originally coveted for when he was the official replacement for Gareth Bale.

Leicester like Newcastle last week were the better team at Wembley but somehow Spurs managed to escape with a win and only poor finishing saved the day - in a way it did not when bottom placed team West Brom shocked them with 1-0 beating at the Hawthorns two weeks ago.   Those three teams however did offer meager offerings in the return fixtures earlier in this season, when Tottenham only picked up 4pts from these three teams - so gaining 6pts from those three matches is pause for reflection, though so is the reality that it could have just been 2pts.   Yet Chelsea were so bad at the end of their season that even a poor ending for Tottenham would probably meant that they would still finish ahead of Chelsea.  To finish ahead of Chelsea and Arsenal for the first time in decades makes Tottenham the highest place London team this year.  That is not a measure that Pochettino likes to use, because his measure is always against the No.1 team which this year is the 100 point achievers Manchester City.

Unless Tottenham begin paying competitive wages to their players, the idealism that next year they can overtake Manchester City is laughable. City finishes a full 23 points ahead of Tottenham, and taking goal difference into account, that means that in a 38 game season, they were 8 wins ahead of Spurs.   City are only going to get better next year so how Tottenham expects to make up that difference is beyond comprehension.  Unless City have a melt down where ego's begin to clash in the dressing room, the writing on the wall is that this City team has the makings of a dynasty.  Then there is the tale of legendary and now ex-Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger.  Wenger knows the cost of building a 60,000 seater stadium that is now known as the Emirates meant money was siphoned away from building a championship winning squad.  Wenger is right to claim that the job he did in the last eight years surpasses his legendary achievements of managing "The Invincibles".  He took Arsenal to the Champions League for over 20 straight years, but the turmoil of a fan backlash has contributed to Arsenal losing focus in the last couple of years.  This season just as Tottenham fans were about to claim superiority after decades of being in Arsenal's shadow, Arsenal promptly beat Tottenham in their first meeting at the Emirates this year.   The standard for Tottenham does involve beating Top Six teams and the best in Europe and at least there has been some sign of progress - but it does not hide Tottenham's flaws and soft-under belly in big matches.  For every victory against a top team this year, there has been the repeat of failure to be consistent.

That Tottenham are moving into a really state of the art new stadium at the New White Hart Lane is a great thing, but the question that still remains is whether Tottenham will move up another level, one that actually leaves them at least capable of giving a team like Manchester City a run for their money.  City were head and shoulders above the Tottenham team, and while Spurs could claim to have moments in those ties that were "good", they were insufficient to cloud the reality that this match up  still looked like men against boys.  The ruthlessness is still not there or at least it is not a form and function of the team mentality.  For sure the quality of players is there, but even today there were players who tried hard but ended up making dumb passes or not choosing the most effective or ruthless option - in a way that Pep has drilled into his Manchester City team whose ruthless efficiency is having this discipline honed down to near perfection.  Tottenham can only do this if Pochettino himself does not mirror a manager whose emotions play the game hard rather than smart.  Getting angry on the touchline and showing that emotionality is a weakness in comparison to machine like discipline of a Manchester City team of Terminators.

The World Cup will accompany some loss of talent for Tottenham.  The two very talented Belgians on the Tottenham team are probably going to leave and more so because Pochettino has effectively frozen them out due to his hard stance on "loyalty" to the project.  Yet he will try to convince Alderweireld that he should stay but may be resigned to see the ever dependable work horse Moussa Dembele to leave the club into the arms of Champions League competitors like Juventus. Indeed if Real Madrid loses the Champions League Final to Liverpool in two weeks time, it may trigger Real Madrid sacking Zidane and wooing Pochettino over. If that happens more Spurs players will surely accompany him to Real Madrid with Kane and Dele Alli and even Christian Erikson on that list.  Those three players could pay off the cost overun on their new billion dollar stadium, but it also will leave Tottenham fans in the same sense of disatisfaction that Arsenal fans now exhibit.  Yet Arsenal have consistently won things, whereas this present Tottenham team has won nothing - and a dour tin pot of a League Cup is the only trophy to show in a decade of playing football in North London for Spurs.

It is not the end because Soccer will command our attention over the Summer with the forthcoming World Cup in Russia.  The England team may end up having nearly half of its regular team chosen from the present Tottenham squad, never mind including former Tottenham players like Kyle Walker.   So the quality of players that Pochettino has nurtured is not the issue at Tottenham, it is what Pochettino says it is - which is BELIEF.  Belief accompanied by a ruthless mindset rather than a bullying mindset - recognizing the difference between world class professionals and quality soccer players who try to cheat and play dirty.  The World Class player may not play by the rules but they create their own rules as they play and they know they are the bosses of their own mentality.  This young Spurs squad does not have the steel of being a Champion yet, because they have failed to reach those dizzy heights.  Until this Tottenham team actually begins to learn the great habit of being winners and win Silverware - the next leg of the journey may turn into another false dawn - but at least this current false dawn does carry with it, the reality of Tottenham consistently playing in the Champions League.