Tottenham are a cup side again: Neil Humphreys
They're still flattering to deceive without threatening to win a big trophy
Tottenham Hotspur are beginning to look a lot like their old selves. They look like a cup side again.
For a club of Spurs' aspirations, that's damning them with faint praise.
Being labelled a "cup side" is a patronising, unwelcome call back to a time when the north Londoners were overhyped, underperforming dandiest.
There was Glenn Hoddle, Chris Waddle, Paul Gascoigne, David Ginola, Luka Modric and Gareth Bale and other precocious talents who were always good for a memorable TV montage, but they never actually won anything of note.
Since their 1984 Uefa Cup triumph, Spurs have won just three major trophies and yet, somehow, they occupy a seat around the top table of English football without anyone really checking their credentials.
Do they truly belong in the same space as Manchester City, Liverpool and Chelsea? Or are they still the same cup side they always were, flattering to deceive without threatening to win a trophy of substance?
Clearly, it's the latter. And Jose Mourinho might be onto to a winner by recognising that he's not managing a team of winners.
Spurs are a cup side. No more, no less. But they shouldn't run from their reality. Acknowledge it. Embrace it. And lift something silver for a change.
Tottenham were lucky to defeat Southampton 3-2 in their FA Cup replay yesterday morning (Singapore time) and certainly do not deserve a comfortable home tie against Norwich in the fifth round next month.
Fortune favoured the brittle.
And yet, ridiculously, Spurs spy a route to the FA Cup quarter-finals and an outside chance of winning a trophy that hasn't been in their cabinet since 1991.
Juergen Klopp might be able to pull off a disappearing act with the devalued competition, but Mourinho can't. He knows the silverware buys time and goodwill.
Notice how much fuss he made of his League Cup and Europa League wins at Manchester United, two trophies that had rarely captured his attention in the past.
Mourinho has always been a quick study. He gauges the limits of a squad's potential immediately, almost intuitively.
At the time, he was mocked for claiming that those trophies - along with a second-placed finish in the table - were his finest achievements in management. He sounded like a clown then. He looks like Confucius now.
Perhaps Mauricio Pochettino's greatest mistake wasn't failing to win the title, but naively believing that he could with the limited resources at his disposal.
SPENDING POWER
With Daniel Levy as chairman and a new stadium to pay for, Tottenham struggled to compete with the spending power of Liverpool, Chelsea and the two Manchester clubs before.
Their transfer drought, which lasted over 500 days, ended last summer with the record signing of Tanguy Ndombele, who is slowly reaching the consistency required to justify his £54 million (S$97m) price tag.
Two previous transfer windows had passed without Spurs troubling the market.
Even Ndombele's arrival proved to be a false dawn.
While the Spurs faithful hoped it might be the beginning of a new era of spending, it proved to be the beginning of the end for Pochettino.
He was never going to win a title on a tight budget and one wonders now - with the benefit of hindsight - why he fielded weakened sides in lesser tournaments.
Mourinho is under no such illusions about Spurs' current financial standing. Levy may fancy a Ferrari, but he's paying for only a mid-range family saloon.
If nothing else, Mourinho intends to deliver the family saloon. In the FA Cup replay, he kicked off with an ultra- conservative approach at home against Southampton.
Only the introductions of Dele Alli and new signing Gedson Fernandes changed the contest in Spurs' favour.
But Mourinho's conservatism at least betrayed his thinking. He didn't want to lose. He needs the FA Cup almost as much as Tottenham.
Mourinho hasn't won the EPL since 2015 and the Champions League since 2010.
There's a nagging suspicion that he left his mojo at Old Trafford. An FA Cup medal keeps the jury out for a little longer.
But he's also a pragmatist.
Whatever his January shopping list was, he returned with only Steven Bergwijn from PSV Eindhoven for £27m and Fernandes on loan, besides making Giovani Lo Celso a permanent signing.
Mourinho spent almost £370m at United and was rewarded with the sack.
He'll be lucky to get half that much at Tottenham, so he's adjusting his expectations accordingly and forging a path to Wembley.
It's a smart move. He's not delusional and his club can't be either.
Spurs may not want to be dismissed as a "cup side". But if they want to be taken seriously again, they need to be a cup-winning side first.
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