Tottenham are not renowned for making life easy for themselves and this season is proving no different as they battle it out for a successive top four finish this season. They will have to do it the hard way if they want to achieve this goal, although most fans at White Hart Lane wouldn’t know it any other way.
Rafael van der Vaart was spot on with his outburst last week about the stupidity of throwing points away against the lesser teams. Wigan and West Ham have both taken four points off them this year; Blackpool enjoyed a comfortable win and had Tottenham converted at least two of those into wins then the table would look a little different and a top four finish would be simply in their hands. They have shot themselves in the foot in the past few weeks and perhaps it’s the months of adulation from the media following their run in Europe that has led to some players forgetting about the bread and butter of football. Some of them have let Harry down badly on the pitch of late and potentially put a dent in the club’s hopes of establishing themselves among the elite.
While Tottenham have been largely a breath of fresh air in Europe and rightly deserve the plaudits; the players need to take responsibility in maintaining their standards throughout the season.
The players shouldn’t pick and choose the games they want to play in and Harry must be pulling his hair out at them in the past few weeks at the lack of consistency and while I accept the club have injuries; surely they have enough within the squad to dispose of the likes of Wigan?
Qualifying for the Champions League is even more important than this current campaign, given the financial benefits the club has already seen this season from it; therefore you do sense that Spurs’ only chance of getting back in it will be to go on and win the whole competition.
It’s certainly not impossible, as Liverpool highlighted in 2005, but they could have achieved qualification for next year’s campaign at a canter, had the players shown the same level of commitment and desire they have produced in Europe this season.
Billy Nick famously once said to Cliff Jones to remember that a ‘pat on the back was only a few feet away from a kick up the arse’ and while this current team has deserved credit at times this season, for some excellent performances, they have failed to show the level of consistency in order to ensure that these great nights in the Champions League will return next season.
The players should enjoy the adulation while it lasts, because they won’t be getting any in the Europa League – the likely consequence if they fail to pull their finger out for the remaining eight Premier League games of the season.
Razor Ruddock regularly writes for Football FanCast.com
