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A Look At The Serious Issues Tottenham Face Ahead Of The New Season

A Look At The Serious Issues Tottenham Face Ahead Of The New Season

A look at the issues Tottenham face as they adjust to a new stadium.

Anonymous

Anonymous

As the final whistle fell on the eve of 23rd February, Wembley Stadium was left silenced as Belgian minnows Gent - who would finish the season in just fourth place in their domestic league - secured an unlikely 2-2 draw that saw a shell-shocked Tottenham Hotspur crash out of the Europa League, finally putting an end to their abject showing on the European stage.

Whilst the defeat in itself was an embarrassing experience for a side of Tottenham's stature, the result seemed perfectly to encapsulate the club's persistently bad form at the venue they must call home for the 2017/18 campaign.

Fast forward to the run-up to the start of the upcoming season and Tottenham must overcome their torrid run of results at Wembley as they prepare to launch another attempt to secure a first Premier League title, having ran the eventual winners close in the previous two seasons.

Despite the feeling that Tottenham could mount a serious title challenge off the back of an impressive second place finish last term, the ominous fact that they have won just one of their last nine matches in all competitions at the stadium suggests that a rough period may be in line for the lilywhites.

Pochettino
Pochettino

Whilst no one anticipates that said trend will continue in quite the same debilitating vein as the club prepares for a full season at the home of English football, even the most ardent of Tottenham supporters would be forgiven for approaching the upcoming campaign with at least an acute sense of apprehension.

Whilst Spurs have been stalwarts in the race for a top four spot in recent seasons, their Wembley outings have quickly come to be associated with their usually dependable star performers wilting under the intense scrutiny of 90,000 expecting supporters.

The nature of the club's apparent 'Wembley complex' was laid bare for all to see in their abysmal performances during last year's Champions League group stages - the usually steadfast Tottenham defence often at sea against their European counterparts as a youthful AS Monaco and Roger Schmidt's underperforming Leverkusen side both secured comprehensive victories over their hosts.

By the time of their humiliating ejection from the Europa League, Spurs had conceded more goals in four European games at Wembley, six, than they had in their 12 league games at White Hart Lane, five.

Spurs
Spurs

Image: PA

Come the end of the season, Tottenham had conceded ten goals in five appearances at Wembley, again one more than in the entirety of their league matches at White Hart Lane - a damning statistic.

The underlying fears that the Tottenham players will continue to show the mental fragility that has plagued their recent Wembley performances have also been compounded by the club's noticeable inactivity in the transfer window thus far.

Whilst reports suggest that Southampton goalkeeper Paulo Gazzaniga looks set to add a degree of competition for the number one jersey in the next window, any other prospective deals have been slow to emerge.

In the meantime, Kyle Walker's astronomic £50 million move away from the club to Manchester City exemplifies the divergent transfer policies between the league title hopefuls and that of their competitors.

The loss of a key player to a rival, overshadowed by the not insignificant cost of the development of their new stadium, has quite naturally led to comparisons being drawn to the similar circumstances surrounding their bitter rivals Arsenal's move to the Emirates Stadium in 2006.

With the move to a new home impacting upon the club's available transfer capital, Arsene Wenger was forced to dismantle his aging squad of Invincibles and put his faith in a crop of raw talents in order to optimise the long-term potential of his playing staff.

Whilst Wenger's ability to successfully transition the club from Highbury to the new stadium is arguably one of him most undervalued achievements at the club, the inability of his young guns to mount a serious title challenge or claim any silverware between 2005 and 2014 saw many of his star players cherry-picked by both international and domestic competitors - a fate that could well befall Tottenham in the coming years.

Indeed, club chairman Daniel Levy has lambasted the activities of many of their opponents in the transfer market claiming: "I'm not sure if that's the view of the other Premier League clubs, but certainly the prices that are being paid for other Premier League players, I can't see it being sustainable in the long term."

Levy
Levy

Image: PA

Whilst Levy has stated that financing the stadium has not impacted upon their ability to complete transfer dealings, claiming: "we are not yet in a place where we have found a player that we want to buy who we cannot afford to buy", the silence of their inactivity has been almost deafening at times.

This refusal to pay at the current going-rate could leave Pochettino anxious that he faces the start of the new campaign with a squad of players that is thin on the ground in key positions.

With Kieran Tripper - the clubs only senior right back - potentially facing a spell on the side lines with an ankle injury picked up in pre-season, the Argentine may be forced to turn to academy prospect Kyle Walker-Peters or the misfiring Moussa Sissoko as short-term alternatives to try and plug the gap.

The Argentinian hasn't been retiring in making public his concerns in recent press conferences, stating: "When you play in the Premier League and Champions League, you need quality and numbers,

"To create a winning team and try to win trophies, you need to feel the pressure.

"If I'm Harry Kane, Dele Alli or [Christian] Eriksen, if there's no competition behind, it's normal to drop your motivation, it's normal to drop everything that you do."

Dele Alli
Dele Alli

Image: PA

One grain of positivity for the Tottenham faithful comes from the shrewd nature with which the club have tied their top talents down to new contracts in recent months, meaning the pressure to sell their elite players at a discounted rate will be dramatically reduced should the super-clubs come knocking.

Whilst Arsenal were forced to succumb to the positions of power held by the likes of Cesc Fabregas, Samir Nasri and Robin van Persie as their contracts ran into their final years, Tottenham's hand is a strong one for the foreseeable future.

With the side coming off the back of a reasonably successful pre-season campaign that has included victories over Paris St-Germain and Juventus, Tottenham will be hopeful that they can overcome their Wembley hoodoo when they face-up against London rivals Chelsea on 20th August.

Pochettino's men will undoubtedly be hungry to exact revenge over the side that overcame them in their last outing at the stadium in a memorable 4-2 FA Cup semi-final clash.

The progression that Tottenham have seen under Pochettino's guidance from a team of 'also-rans' to one of England's leading clubs has been stark.

The former Espanyol and PSG centre-back has successfully married a dynamic, high intensity forward line with a defensive solidity built in the image of his own playing style, with the supreme talents of the Belgian duo Jan Vertonghen and Toby Alderweireld creating a seemingly impenetrable wall ahead of Hugo Lloris's goal.

Alderweireld
Alderweireld

Image: PA

Though many challenges loom ahead of the club as they enter a new chapter of their illustrious history, their recent on-the-field success means that one would be hasty to bet against Pochettino delivering a third consecutive Champions League campaign for the North Londoners.

Whilst the manager has spoken openly of his ambition to win titles at the club, securing a spot at Europe's elite table ahead of their maiden season at the new White Hart Lane would still rank as a significant achievement.

Words by Joe Thomas - @JoeThom4

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Topics: Spurs, Pochettino