For present-day followers of the English Premier League (EPL), Tottenham Hotspur are part of the so-called Big Six, even though neither they nor Manchester United are remotely in touch in this season’s title race. Spurs, though, have always been the odd team out.
Since the EPL was formed over 30 years ago, we have seen Manchester City and Chelsea emerge from relative obscurity to conquer even Europe. Arsenal enjoyed a golden age in the first decade of Arsene Wenger’s stewardship, while Sir Alex Ferguson rewrote the record books at United. Even Liverpool, though they had to wait for Jurgen Klopp to come and lift the league-title curse, enjoyed plenty of glory in the interim. Spurs have won two League Cups since 1990-91, the last of them way back in 2007-08.
As the team stumbles under the stewardship of Ange Postecoglou, the Australian whose front-foot coaching style took them to a creditable fifth place last season, there is huge discontent on the terraces. That has only intensified after a 4-0 thrashing at Anfield on Thursday night, which saw a 1-0 first-leg advantage become a comprehensive 4-1 aggregate defeat in the Carabao Cup semi-final against Liverpool. For the first time under Postecoglou, Spurs couldn’t even register a shot on target.
A lengthy injury list didn’t help, and they were playing Europe’s form side on their own patch, but much of the fan anger wasn’t directed at the coach or the players. The lightning rod for criticism these days is Daniel Levy, who has now been the club chairman for 24 years. Spurs were a basket case of a club when Levy took over at the turn of the millennium, and he played a huge role in reestablishing them among the elite. But the feeling now is that the final step won’t be taken under his leadership.
Spurs’ fan base was largely built on the 1960-61 league-and-cup double won by Bill Nicholson and his team. In the years that followed, they became known as a formidable Cup team. They won a European Cup Winners’ Cup in 1962-63, long before United, Liverpool or Arsenal tasted continental success, and have also claimed the UEFA Cup, precursor to the Europa League, twice.
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They also became associated with an adventurous buccaneering style of play. White Hart Lane became a hothouse for maverick talents like Jimmy Greaves, Glenn Hoddle, Paul Gascoigne and the Argentine duo of Ossie Ardiles and Ricky Villa. Fans took pride in that cavalier method, even if it didn’t always win trophies. Much of the unease when Jose Mourinho or Antonio Conte were in charge stemmed from the fact that their prosaic methods didn’t suit the “Tottenham way”.
But the very fact that fans were even talking of trophies was a credit to Levy. By the time he took over, the glory years were long gone. After the FA Cup success of 1990-91, Spurs spent a decade and a half without finishing in the top six. After that, it became routine. Between 2009 and 2020, they were fixtures in the top bracket, with the highlight being third, second and third-place finishes in consecutive seasons under Mauricio Pochettino. That was followed by a run to the Champions League final where they lost to Liverpool.
By then, Spurs had moved to a new stadium, a state-of-the-art venue that was Levy’s passion project. Recognised as one of the best in the world, it can host all kinds of events and has added considerably to the club’s coffers. It’s no coincidence that Spurs were ninth in the Deloitte Money League, with a revenue of €615m last year, ahead of the likes of Chelsea and AC Milan and Juventus.
Levy runs a tight ship. There is no danger of 115 charges of creative accounting or a leaky roof. But the lack of trophies is beginning to grate. After years of no success, fans are pondering the most fundamental question: does a football club exist to be run like a profitable business, or should it go all out to try and win trophies?
Of course, Real Madrid and others have shown that you can be both, but that balance seems to have eluded Levy and Spurs. And after this shocker of a season, so far, something has to give.