Tottenham finally ready to shed ‘Spursy’ tag as boss Antonio Conte brings in quality and experience early
IT might be time to forget all you thought you knew about Tottenham.And believe me, as someone who has covered that club for the past two decades, that is no easy task.
Tottenham fans are looking ahead to the season under Antonio ConteCredit: Getty
There have been certain truths universally acknowledged about Tottenham, even during the relatively good times.
Spurs will lack ambition. Spurs will panic buy on deadline day. Spurs will not buy experienced players with no resale value. Spurs will lack sufficient squad depth. Spurs will have great players but not a great team. The Spurs manager will be frustrated with the Spurs chairman. Spurs will flatter to deceive. Spurs will be soft.
Spurs will be Spursy — an adjective with no precise definition but one recognised by all who follow football.
And we all know the famous three-word Sir Alex Ferguson team talk, revealed by Roy Keane, when the great man entered the Manchester United dressing room and simply said: “Lads, it’s Tottenham.”
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We thought we understood all of this.
But suddenly, in this long, hot summer of love, it looks as if we’re going to have to unlearn the lot.
Because Spurs are buying early. They are buying experience. They are buying quality.
They are building a squad equipped to compete in the Champions League and Premier League. They are showing ambition.
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Manager Antonio Conte is not frustrated with chairman Daniel Levy, because money-man Joe Lewis has opened the coffers and poured in £150million.
Conte felt he wasn’t backed by Roman Abramovich after his initial, title-winning season at Chelsea.
So surely skinflint Spurs could never satisfy the turbulent Italian? Wrong again.
The word is that Tottenham is a remarkably happy ship – and that’s never a sentence I’ve committed to print before.
There is ambition and investment and happiness and harmony and apple trees and honey bees and snow-white turtle doves.
I am weirded out by this phenomenon and I’m sure most Spurs fans are too.
But after last summer’s catastrophe — when they spent 72 days trying to find a replacement for Jose Mourinho, only to end up with Nuno Dispirito Santo, and when Harry Kane attempted his jailbreak — Spurs are winning this transfer window.
Richarlison, Yves Bissouma, Clement Lenglet and Ivan Perisic are all high-class, oven-ready recruits.
They have been signed well before the start of the season and there should be more to come, including the exciting wing-back Djed Spence.
Daniel Levy is backing the Italian all the wayCredit: Getty
Chairman Levy has torn up his rulebook, chucked away his reputation for last-gasp, tight-fisted ball-busting and is giving Conte what he wants.
Even seasoned Levy-watchers, including those who’ve done business with the man for 20 years, are staggered.
Heaven knows what Mauricio Pochettino — easily the best Spurs boss of the last four decades — must make of it all.
Even when the Argentine was leading Spurs to the 2019 Champions League final, he was complaining — quite rightly — that the strength of his squad was being diluted.
How he’d have loved a summer window like the one Conte is enjoying.
The Italian spent most of last season agitating and threatening the club’s hierarchy, all while leading Spurs back into the European elite after a two-year absence.
It felt highly unlikely Conte would still be around for this coming season.
It felt even less likely that he would be happy with life.
When he was appointed, Conte challenged Levy and Lewis to match the club’s world-class stadium with a world-class football set-up.
It seemed a pipe dream but now it feels plausible.
During Nuno’s reign it also seemed impossible Kane could be truly happy at Spurs again. Yet the England skipper is said to be relishing a new season.
Of course, Spurs could lose at home to Southampton on the first day, Conte could chuck a wobbler and we could all be relieved by the comforting familiarity of it all.
Third place in the league and a domestic cup to end a 15-year trophy drought would be a very successful season. It may not satisfy Conte, a serial title-winner with Juventus, Chelsea and Inter Milan.
So it might not last long. It might be another false dawn. It might all go pear-shaped and Spursy.
But for now, Tottenham look serious. Tottenham look like they’re for real.
Try to get your head around that if you can.
Let’s not slam him
ON Centre Court, after losing to Novak Djokovic, Nick Kyrgios was asked by Sue Barker whether reaching his first Grand Slam final had made him hungry for more. He replied ‘absolutely not!’
Later, in his press conference, Kyrgios claimed if he had won Wimbledon, he would probably have struggled for motivation.
The temptation is to condemn him as a waster of extraordinary talent.
But to possess supreme levels of ability, without supreme levels of commitment, is not a crime.
Some people, like Aussie Kyrgios, just aren’t built to be 21-time Grand Slam champions.
Kyrgios is an immensely complex character, who can be loveable and hateable several times in the same interview.
But he is a true entertainer and that is what sport is supposed to be all about.
Norman wisdom
GOOD ON the R&A, organisers of The Open Championship, for barring ex-winner Greg Norman from events to celebrate its 150th anniversary.
The Great White Shark’s status as the great white stooge for the Saudi-backed rebel LIV tour makes Norman a pariah.
After the All England Club banned Russian tennis players from Wimbledon, we’re seeing remarkable change from some of Britain’s sporting administrators.
Often seen as clueless fuddy-duddies, they are taking positive action in standing up to tyrants and rogues.
They deserve immense respect.
Full Price rip-off
CONTRARY to popular belief, many Fulham supporters are not posh or minted.
Many struggle to make ends meet, some of us even have to carve out a living in sports journalism . . .
There has been a tide of protest and criticism at the pricing of tickets for Fulham’s season-opener against Liverpool on August 6.
They are a minimum of £65 for adults — with even OAP and student tickets in Craven Cottage’s new Riverside Stand costing £100.
These prices are scandalous — especially during a cost-of-living crisis — and there will be similar outrages at other Premier League clubs, especially in the capital.
Away tickets in the top flight are capped at £30.
There should also be a percentage of home tickets capped at a similar price.
Too Wild, Del
I WAS at the O2 Arena to see Derek Chisora defeat fellow veteran heavyweight Kubrat Pulev in an enjoyable slug-fest on Saturday.
Chisora has always belonged in the level below world class. But the fact that he’s fought world champions Tyson Fury, Oleksandr Usyk, Vitali Klitschko, David Haye and Joseph Parker is testament to the size of his cojones.
Yet in this most dangerous of sports, there should always be limits. When the 38-year-old Brit called out Deontay Wilder, you had to hope Chisora will not get his wish.
Pipe down
AUSSIE Steve Smith voiced doubts England will carry their ultra-positive approach to Test cricket into next year’s Ashes — and Australia were promptly stuffed by an innings in Sri Lanka.
As his most-notable innovation involved the illegal use of sandpaper, he might wish to pipe down a bit.
Harry still leader
NO complaints with Erik ten Hag’s decision to keep Harry Maguire as Manchester United’s captain.
Maguire has always seemed a genuine leader.
The issue is whether he is a genuine top-class centre-half. More
