Tottenham are proof that money won’t always buy happiness
I was like many EPL followers this summer – whether it be pundit, armchair manager or fan, when I saw the players that Tottenham had brought in during their massive spending spree, I thought for sure that not only would they crack the top four, but that they could make a proper push for the league title. On the surface, the talent that Spurs had recruited was quite impressive but as an ardent football man, I should have remembered that “on paper” really does not mean much at the end of the day. Football is about team work, the blending of contrasting styles to make them cohesive inside one tactical plan and, when it comes to player recruitment, it is about bringing in the right players.
Fast forward to today in the aftermath of the 175th North London Derby and you see a very different story than what many of us had predicted before the first ball was kicked in anger back in August. Tottenham do sit in a respectable fifth, but when you further analyze the strength of their position you have to ask yourself is that a sustainable position.
First off, they have somehow managed to have a negative goal difference. In addition, they have played 30 matches, which is more than their rivals around them and any strong run of form from Everton or Manchester United will see Spurs slip down out of the coveted Europa League spot, which would make this season a complete and total wash should that occur. They have struggled monumentally to score goals at their own ground and they have a goal difference of -21 when they have played top four clubs this season – certainly not what you would expect from 100million pounds.
So, why was the spending spree a failure? I found the inspiration to write this piece after watching a clip of Paul Merson on Sky Sports (http://www1.skysports.com/watch/video/9217902/spurs-have-wasted-100million) in the aftermath of their loss to Arsenal yesterday. The former Arsenal man brought up a few key points that certainly need some understanding, so let us delve a little bit into each of them.
Blaming the manager
First it was Andres Villas-Boas and now it is Tim Sherwood – everyone wants to seem to blame the Spurs managers for the players woeful displays throughout the course of the campaign but, truly, should you? It has long been suggested that Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy was responsible for the players that were brought in to White Hart Lane this season and not AVB. It was also suggested that the Portuguese manager had been quite unhappy with the recruitment – did anyone ask why? Perhaps he felt that many, if not all of these players were not the sort Spurs truly needed, which may be why he did not give many of them consistent runs in the first team.
In the same light, you cannot shed blame on current boss Tim Sherwood either for putting his faith in players like Nabil Bentaleb, Andros Townsend and Emmanuel Adebayor over players that he may deem are not good enough. Big money does not always guarantee that you are the right sort for a club.
The players just are not good enough
While I do not agree with the assessment that every player brought in have been “fours and fives”, I do agree that on the whole the players have been far beyond the standard that everyone at Tottenham was hoping. Erik Lamela (26.4million) has hardly played for the first team at all this season, regardless of him coming high-touted from AS Roma, he has not seemed up to the standard. Vlad Chiriches (8.3million) has also not quite been up to the grad required to be successful in the EPL and has fallen way down the pecking order. Etienne Capoue and Nacer Chadli (9.6 and 7.1million) have featured a little more frequently but still have been well short of the mark, especially Chadli who had plenty of expectations and is highly regarded in Belgium for the national team. Roberto Soldado (26.4million) was very well known in Spain for his ability to score goals and be a match changer but since coming to Spurs he has rarely scored from the run of play, relying on finding the net from the spot for the vast majority of goals and he has now fallen behind Adebayor in selection. Paulinho (17.3million) blipped on Tottenham’s radar after a very impressive Confederations Cup and while I feel he has not been that bad for Spurs, many feel he has been underwhelming. And finally Christian Eriksen (11.8) has been the best one of the bunch. Though he has been inconsistent, the Danish play maker has certainly done enough to justify his purchasing.
The key theme here, is that all these players sans Eriksen and arguably Paulinho have just not been anywhere near good enough. On paper these are high-profile names and with that naturally will come expectations. But were these players ready to make the jump to the EPL?
For all his success in Serie A, Lamela really did not garner that much attention from bigger clubs in Italy or abroad and there must have been a reason for that. Chiriches did well for his former club Steaua Bucharest in Champions League against bigger clubs, but how many times have we seen younger players do well in one or two showcase matches but on the whole not make the grade? Chadli was fantastic in the Eredivisie, but the Dutch league is miles behind the quality that it once was and many of it players do well for their clubs there, but that really is no longer a benchmark and recruiting players from Holland has become very high-risk because of it. Soldado must be seen as a massive flop, as Spurs supporters would have thought they received a striker who would flirt with 20 goals and be a fox in the box for them but he has failed to impress all season. Paulinho may have been a little over-priced, but he is a good player and will just need to adjust fully. Eriksen, the only bright-spot of the lot, has been a quality player his entire career. Highly touted by the Ajax staff, he had proved each season, domestically, in continental competitions and for Denmark that he was quality – he was slow to get going but by next season Tottenham can certainly rest easy about him.
The upside to all of this? With the exception of Soldado, all of these players are still quite young. It remains to be seen who will still be at the club next season and who will be shown the door, but if all remain at the club and can adjust fully, they may well come good. The EPL is a very hard league to adjust to (just look at the case of Mesut Ozil), even more so when you’re a young player so all may not be lost in the end.
Lesson learned
When you have a ton of cash to spend, perhaps it is better to bring in two or three massive signings, rather than six, seven or eight signings. To his credit, Arsene Wenger correctly predicted that Tottenham would not reap the benefits of their spending spree that many thought was sure to come. Tottenham was saddled with replacement Gareth Bale but they certainly did not go about it in the right way. Their side last season was miles ahead of the current team. They pushed till the very end of the season and very nearly ended up in the top three but the panic of the Bale departure saw improper management of transfer funds. Two or three key players in I feel would have done a far better job for Tottenham rather than a massive player recruitment. When you sign that many players in one summer, you run the risk of upsetting the balance of the team and that is certainly what happened for the north London club.
How Tottenham handle themselves this summer will be key to them moving forward. It is highly unlikely that Sherwood will be at the helm and they must be smart when it comes to who they chase after for the managerial position. Once that is completed, a long hard look at the squad is needed and should more spending happen, for the sake of their supporters, hopefully they do it the right way.