It seems like a long, long time since the dark days of the Timperial Occupation and its army of Gunners, but the scars are still there. For six months or so, the stars blinked out of the sky. The birds noticed the absence of Chirpy's song and they, too, stopped singing. Jokes circulated; "Hey, hey, where do good players go to die? Sherwood Forest!" Fortunately, today we can turn the page.
Last night, Tim Sherwood was on television. Early in the program, the presenter asked him who he thought would win the league, to which he responded without a shadow of doubt, "Tot'num!" The presenter laughed, clearly thinking that Sherwood was having one of his generally disturbing giggles. Sherwood persisted, though. Later in the evening, the presenter asked him about what he though Pochettino's goal would be. Again, Sherwood responded, "to win the league." I think we'd all love to believe Tim. However, we have little to no reason to do so. Imagine someone with a notoriously bad taste in music complimenting your band. But all of, throughout life, have desperately followed and sought out the fulfillment of the 1%. The vast unlikelihood that we long for. It's this that makes us take risks; it's this that makes us feel alive. So let me be optimistic: Sherwood may be closer to the truth than you think.
Last season was, all round, a total dumpster fire. We had a world-class centerback playing as a leftback for half of the season, we had our record signing and others fall down with the Black Death or something, and Levy reached the end of his tether with our aristocratic motorcycle-enthusiast, AVB. And then there was Sherwood. Oh, sweet baby Coco, there was Sherwood. It was a spectacular catastrophe. Our only lights in the storm were Hugo Lloris and Christian Eriksen. To evaluate our players on the sole basis of last season would be an extremely difficult task. Let me tell you, in no way do I envy the people who have to decide the FIFA 15 ratings for our team--but they'd better get it damn right this time, even after that total disaster.
But weirdly enough, that total disaster could be our greatest asset leading into this season. We're an entirely unknown quantity. We have an excellent squad and I have no doubt that if Soldado and Lamela recover their shooting boots and Levy can find a suitable partner for Vertonghen in our back four, we'll have one of the most formidable squads in England. The capital issue is getting the team to work, and I'm certain that Pochettino is taking care of this in a highly successful way. If we completely replicated the circumstances of last season and turned seven Soldado/Townsend misses into seven Soldado/Lamela goals, that could be up to twenty-one more points and before you know it we're contending for the title. You could argue we've already played far more effective, purposeful and beautiful football in this preseason than we did in the entirety of last season. Why shouldn't we? Brendan Rogers, a manager coming to Liverpool in much the same way as Pochettino came to us, succeeded in turning Liverpool into a side missing out on the Euro League into a side contending for the title. Admittedly, this was largely down to Suarez, but if you look at our team there are three or four names who are in prime position of being our stars.
There's a chance it's not going to work at all and we'll finish eighth and have to deal with another year of jeering Arsenal fans. It's more probable we'll just keep our current position. Or maybe, just maybe, we'll give everyone a bit of a shock. Imagine if we won the FA Cup, the Euro League, and finished in the top four. As I said, this is optimistic. It's a stretch. But none of this is even nearing the edge of the realms of possibility. It's all totally imaginable.The press was never going to agree. There's a prejudice against London clubs, Spurs especially. If we'd hired Louis van Gaal and Manchester United had snagged Pochettino, we would still be projected to finish beneath them, despite having a much stronger squad overall. The winds are changing.
I'm posting this article as a vision. An analysis of how well we could do. I may look back at this article in February and scoff at myself for being such a typical, dreaming Spurs supporter. But I genuinely believe that with our team and our manager, we can achieve a lot more than we've expected. So this afternoon when we walk out of the tunnel, don't be surprised if you hear a strange sound echoing across London. That sound comes from White Hart Lane. That sound is Chirpy, cockle-doo-doo-dooing a new dawn for Tottenham, the beating heart that sends lilywhite blood circulating throughout the world and brings us together. And if this season doesn't bring great things, then we can only do what Alexandre Dumas told us to do in The Count of Monte Cristo: "wait and hope."