European Glory to Trump Domestic Failure

Article by Michael Frankal

With the added incentive of the winner being rewarded with a Champions League slot, this year’s Europa League desperately trying to lose its ‘poor man’s’ image and, for Tottenham, is worth taking seriously.

To fans of the club, Tottenham and the romantic notion of European Glory Nights are synonymous; however, to others we are probably seen as a the club who is desperate to dine out, mid-week, with the elite but are never on the guest list and get stuck with cheap Thursday nights out, leaving us bloated and too hung-over to perform in the weekend’s Premier League fixture. The EL, in it’s current guise, doesn’t carry the prestige of the Champions League and never will but it’s another competition we have frequently found ourselves involved with in recent times and one we have, generally, given not much more than a half-hearted stab at.

Martin Jol gave the competition respect though and we enjoyed European outings once more under his tenure. However, his progress in the competition led, partially, to his own downfall as, following Sevilla knocking us out, he was eventually replaced by their manager, Juande Ramos. Redknapp on the other hand didn’t seem bothered, arguably. He blooded in a lot of youngsters in the tournament, which gave them valuable game time and was applauded for that but the competition was never a priority – perhaps owing our single outing on European football’s top-table under his reign or because of the gruelling schedule, of what feels like a couple of dozen games before the latter knock-out stages. Either way, the sheer number of games to be played doesn’t aid a long Premier League campaign, especially when there’s no Winter Break as enjoyed by other domestic leagues. We played some very dull football during AVB’s tenure, in Europe included. It was hard to tell whether he saw the tournament as worthwhile. For all the talk of winning trophies managers Head Coaches are required to make, team selection and eventual progress in the tournament are probably the truest arbiters of priority.

So what of this Europa League campaign thus far? Pochettino seems to be rotating in all competitions and, post-Everton victory, may now be hopeful his double training sessions and tactics are manifesting themselves in a positive way on match day, we’re probably a few good performances away from a settled First XI. However, he is picking stronger teams than his immediate predecessors may have done in the Europa League, based on those at his disposal. We had a stuttering start, drawing goaless in Belgrade and not faring much better against Besiktas – Demba Ba being a continued thorn in our side. The highlight of the campaign so far though has to be the 5-1 victory against Asteras, as memorable for the emergence of ‘hat-trick hero goalkeeping zero’ Harry Kane as Lamela’s wonder goal and Poch’s post-match bed references.

I’d like to pause and head out on a tangent here. I was at that game, which wasn’t a complete performance, far from it, but it was open and thoroughly entertaining. We’ve been missing entertainment recently. We are Tottenham Hotspur: we are the sort of club where a striker scores a hat-trick, goes in goal for the final few minutes and drops an absolute clanger, but this Tottenham hasn’t been around much lately. This game was more like the Tottenham I love. Not focussed upon inverted wingers and blame cast upon small pitches. Not infighting amongst fans and Arsenal-style self-loathing. Pure Tottenham entertainment and dramatics. If we can only get a fix of this in the group stages of the Europa League then, as frustrating an impact it may have on our league form, at least it’s a spectacle and something to enjoy.

Back on track now, a win over the home fixture against Partizan Belgrade last week was enough to see us into the next round of the competition and we got over the line without really getting out of second gear, with three guerrilla marketeers running more rings round our team than Partizan managed to – although, Hugo Lloris seems to be required to make a least a couple of decent saves, even in games that should be comfortable. What could turn into a very tricky last game at Besiktas remains, we probably want to top the group but it’s a difficult game and now we’re through, maybe the trip away to Swansea on the Sunday may take priority for Poch following last night’s defeat to Chelsea. We need a few more domestic wins to build confidence and create a buffer.

I do not fear facing the teams that will drop out the Champions League. The chances are they will be fighting for domestic league success (which we cannot realistically achieve) and are likely to qualify again for CL football by virtue of their domestic league position – the Europa League may truly come to them as an unwelcome set of mid-week fixtures. If we are scared of these teams we shouldn’t be in the Champions League anyway, surely we want to be competing against the better teams in Europe? If we are to get to the Final we’ll have to knock out a few biggish names on the way.

As much as it pains me to say, especially at this point in the season, we are not going to finish in the Top 4 and the Cups are our only chance of securing some overdue glory. Last night’s defeat to Chelsea, whilst not as disastrous as other recent encounters, shows we are too far behind to mount a sustainable league challenge at present. It would require some serious luck for the usual contenders to lose their way and would also require us to really step up our own form by a few notches. Although the Everton game was a very positive sign, we can only view it in isolation until repeated a couple of times. The only way we can qualify for the Champions League next season is by winning the Europa League. As such, we should go for broke and treat every knock-out game like it matters. I don’t care too much if we struggle with our Sunday fixtures as a result, we won’t finish in the Top 4 anyway but have a squad decent enough to force through a reasonable league finish.

We need more excitement and occasion at The Lane this season and we ought to take all Cup Competitions seriously: we can win a Cup, we won’t win the league. I’d take a mediocre league finish this year for a few more European Glory Nights, wouldn’t you? There is no romance in finishing 5th or 6th but getting to Cup Final, especially one in Europe, is an entirely different matter. If a CL spot is the carrot we need to motivate us then so be it, I’ll hope to be booking flights out to Warsaw for May 2015…

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