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Premier League: It's taken Tottenham Hotspur 15 years to become overnight successes

Adam Powley looks at the hard work that has gone in to making Spurs serious title challengers and not just occasional cup winners

Premier League: It's taken Tottenham Hotspur 15 years to become overnight successes

This is taking some getting used to. Tottenham Hotspur, the perennial under-achievers, are in danger of winning the Premier League. Yes, that Tottenham Hotspur - southern fancy dans, the ‘cup team’ that has won two devalued trophies in 25 years. Always travelling, never quite arriving.

In the Premier League era, we’ve been accustomed to seeing signs of a revival for the original North London club, only for the promise to peter out. The teams of Martin Jol and Andre Villas Boas briefly threatened, and Harry Redknapp’s side flickered thrillingly for a while, but none could sustain the effort. And so the modern Spurs reverted to type. Plenty of promise, not enough actual progress.

Except this time, things look different. All of a sudden, Spurs look like a serious club again. While the focus has been on Leicester City’s ‘fairytale’ (a patronising label attached to a well-run, well-resourced club), Spurs have slipped into contention relatively unnoticed. Until now.

Now, Spurs are being described as ‘out of this world’, a side with ‘no weak links, and ‘the best team in the country’ - just a few of the plaudits bestowed after the demolition of Stoke City last Monday. By gathering consent, Tottenham have emerged as the coming force, the emerging team to take on the familiar Premier League elite.

So how did it happen? How did a club that was a byword for failed potential suddenly become so potent, effective, and - well, good?

The answer is that Spurs have at last got their planning right. It has been a project a long time in the making, and with a number of wrong turns along the way. But now there is a clear direction of travel.

When the Premier League was first formed, Spurs were at the forefront of the commercial revolution. But while the club and then-owner Alan Sugar did well financially, the team floundered, losing its elite status, while others - Manchester United, Arsenal and most conspicuously Chelsea - reaped the dividend on the pitch. By the time Sugar sold to investment vehicle Enic owned by Daniel Levy and billionaire Joe Lewis, Spurs were a former big club trading on past glories.

It has taken Enic 15 years of playing catch up to get to the point when, finally, there are convincing signs of a genuine revival. Having worked their way through 10 managers and four Directors of Football, spending big on players of inconsistent quality, the club at last seems equipped to properly challenge.

The new training ground four miles up the A10 from Tottenham in leafy Enfield, is a visible sign. It is the envy of club football, internationally as well as domestically. The centre has been wowing visitors and providing a base for meticulous preparation. Fifteen full-size pitches, including one that mirrors exactly the White Hart Lane turf, hydrotherapy complexes, and an altitude room provide state-of-the-art facilities. More importantly, the right people are in place to make the most of what the centre on Hotspur Way provides.

There are a number of key figures working behind the scenes, from coaches to medical staff, fitness trainers to statisticians and analysts. One of the most important is Head of Coaching & Player Development John McDermott. McDermott was recently promoted by Spurs to oversee all age groups below first-team level, fending off interest from Manchester United and rewarding him for his long-term work at the club.

His reputation is high. One parent of a youth-team player told Yahoo Sport that his son, who had done the circuit of trials with top-flight clubs, had ‘learned more in one session with McDermott than he had with all the other clubs put together.’

McDermott works closely with Head of Recruitment Paul Mitchell, who arrived in the November 2014. Mitchell is more of an analyst than a Mr Fixit making deals, but he fulfils in part the Director of Football role that Enic have placed so much faith in. The owners appear to have appointed the right people at the right time. And the most important piece in the jigsaw, the man with whom McDermott and Mitchell dovetail, is the central figure in this story - Mauricio Pochettino.

Leicester City top the Premier League by eight points
Leicester City top the Premier League by eight points

His official title is Head Coach, an ironic label given that Pochettino is arguably the most influential manager Enic have employed. The mood music coming out of White Hart Lane about him is effusive to the point of adoration. He is supremely well-regarded by employers and colleagues. The players, according to one insider ‘just love him. The have bought into what he wants completely.’

What Pochettino wants, and which is shared by the likes of McDermott and Mitchell, is a group of players who fit a clear template. The trio place great store by tactical and technical expertise, outstanding physical fitness and mental toughness. Players must also be well-rounded pros who buy into the manager’s plan.

The clearest evidence for this is with the cull of those who did not suit the system - relics from previous reigns such as Emmanuel Adebayor and Younes Kaboul, and Paulinho, Robert Soldado and Etienne Capoue, some of the expensive misfits bought with the money realised from the sale of Gareth Bale. There were no really ugly and public recriminations amid these departures, more a simple if rather ruthless policy of natural selection: if you don’t fit, you’re out.

What is left is the kind of team older Spurs fans have been dreaming of since Bill Nicholson’s famous Double winning side. For all the undoubted advance in sports science, tactics, medicine and analysis, there are striking similarities between the Spurs team of that era and now. Forget the misquoted talk of playing well being more important than winning, misrepresenting Danny Blanchflower’s famous epithet that ‘the game is about glory’. His team of the early 1960s was all about winning, as well as playing well, and it is a similar philosophy that inspires the current Lilywhites.

The modern team is young, hungry, eager to learn and progress, It brims with confidence in the belief that Pochettino’s high-pressing style (‘closing down’ as Nicholson might have put it) which relies on speed of thought and movement, will succeed. The work rate is phenomenal, a benefit of Pochettino’s now infamous double training sessions. Observers feared burn out, but if anything Tottenham are looking physically stronger than they have all season.

The system does not require vast outlays on superstar players but total commitment from footballers of quality adhered to the team ethic. Even seeming square pegs, notably record-signing Erik Lamela, have been moulded to suit the system. Lamela looked like a lost soul in his first two, injury-interrupted seasons, but has flourished under Pochettino as a tenacious attacking midfielder, with hard graft added to his ability.

Indeed, every player appears to have improved under Pochettino. Christian Eriksen was undoubtedly talented, but appeared slight and could drift out of games. Now he fizzes around the field, gaining possession and springing into attack with driving short sprints and crisp passes. Mousa Dembele is transformed. His ability was always there but now it is flourishing.

The quartet that made the PFA team of the year - Harry Kane, Dele Alli, Danny Rose and bargain-signing Toby Alderweireld - illustrate Tottenham’s quality, but a convincing case could be made for more to have made the cut, including Hugo Lloris, Kyle Walker and Eric Dier.

Dier also conveys the adaptability of the team under Pochettino’s leadership. The player arrived at Spurs as a stand-in centre half, before he was swiftly converted to an unconvincing full back. It was never a concrete plan to make Dier one of the best holding midfielders in the league. Spurs were actively pursuing other players, including Morgan Schneiderlin and then Victor Wanyama, but Dier has made those transfer misses look like a stroke of fortune.

Indeed there is an element of accident about this Spurs team. Two years ago, no one imagined that Kane would become the country’s most prolific striker, nor that Alli would make the transition from League One youngster to one of the hottest global talents in a matter of months. But there is much more in the way of design, planning and strategy. It means that for the first time in a generation, Spurs look a club ahead of the curve rather than behind it.

Enic’s project has been to grow Tottenham using largely home-reared young talent, blended with signings that retain or increase their transfer value. Economic self-sufficiency, applied with rigorously strict accountancy by Levy, has been criticised as reflecting a lack of ambition and a failure to exploit the club’s wealth without breaking the bank. It is a policy that has proved hugely frustrating for many fans who have kept resolutely loyal through the lean years while paying sky-high ticket prices, but they might now be getting their reward.

Eric Dier landed at Tottenham almost by accident but has been a revelation
Eric Dier landed at Tottenham almost by accident but has been a revelation

Lewis does not bankroll the club. Astonishingly, over the last five years, there has been no net transfer spend - there is actually a surplus of over £53m. Spurs are more than making do with what the club itself makes, a vital factor with a new stadium taking shape in the shadow of the soon-to-be demolished White Hart Lane, likely funded through long-term commercial partnerships, TV money and manageable loans. This is a moderately different way of doing football business.

But while Spurs were one of the principal engineers of the Premier League now they look like being a leader where it matters: on the pitch. There was a telling moment in the Stoke game last Monday. As Kane launched his curling drive for the opening goal, three Tottenham teammates darted in from a blur of different directions to feed off any potential rebound.

The voracious hunger to score was plain to see. Contrast this with one of the initial games in Pochettino’s reign, a humbling 2-1 home defeat to the same opposition. There was a passage of play when the ball bounced around in midfield. There were three successive 50-50s, all of them won by Stoke.

That kind of thing doesn’t happen now. Last Monday Stoke tried to do what Manchester United had done in Tottenham’s previous fixture and meet pressing fire with fire. For this match it was Gianelli Imbula; against Man Utd it was Schneiderlin. But like United, Stoke ultimately failed - it isn’t possible to just turn the tactic on and hope to beat a side that have been using it as a relentlessly lethal tool all season. Spurs simply met the challenge head on, neutralised it and then passed and powered their way into the distance, leaving their opponents floundering.

This is not the Spurs the Premier League has become used to. It is a team that is the definition of being more than the sum of its parts, and is on the verge of achieving something that would be remarkable.

Therein lies the caution. Nothing has been won yet. Spurs teams have flattered before, only to deceive and decline. For all the admiration of the current Tottenham team, the squad is not as deep and as good as some, like Tim Sherwood, have claimed. There is a heavy dependency on Kane, as the only experienced front-line striker.

If Tottenham do fall short this season there are solid reasons why. Pochettino’s project is way ahead of schedule, and in a sense, Spurs are over-achieving. The team was - still is - a work in progress, and at the start of the season understandably lacked consistency as new players settled into the team and others adapted to the Head Coach’s methods.    

Leicester, by contrast, have maintained their brilliant momentum from last season and carried it into this. If they win the league, as they now should, it will be fully deserved, even if there is the odd fact that Spurs top every other ‘league’ measure, for goals scored, conceded, chances created and the like. Where it really counts, with results, Spurs will probably have drawn too many games.

There is a school of thought that for both sides, it is now or never. The ‘big five’ who have under-performed this season will in all likelihood rally. But talk of Spurs having to win the title this season or never, is premature. From management to playing staff, to the off-field expansion that will come with the new stadium, there is plenty to look forward to.

Skipper Lloris summed it up. Speaking to Sky Sports he said: “I remember my first two seasons in Tottenham when I used to speak with people at the club or the fans.

“They used to live in the past. . . Now, they are talking about the whole team, about the present and the future.” It is a future with much promise.