The assigned task of attaining Champions League qualification was always likely to be a difficult one for Tottenham Hotspur this season, but their quest has undoubtedly been made harder by the lingering shadows that remain from the wreckage of their last campaign.
Certainly, if you had little recollection of recent Premier League history, the several feet of column inches adhering to the generally perceived narrative that Andre Villas-Boas’ side are all but guaranteed to finish fifth, it would probably appear baffling.
With a game in hand awaiting over third-placed Arsenal and only two-points separating the two north London clubs with six games still to play, if we strip last season’s fortunes away from the table, the concept that Spurs should already be bracing themselves for another tilt at the Europa League next season feels ridiculous.
Although following the Lilywhites’ spectacular capitulation in the league last season, Tottenham were always going to have to do more than those around them to secure a top-four finish and that didn’t mean simply spending more money, playing better football and shipping less goals. It meant facing up to last season’s demons and exorcising them astutely.
And as Spurs run a real risk of turning their recent wobble into something far more destabilizing during the league’s run-in, it’s perhaps time that both club and supporters stopped ignoring the elephant in the room and tackled it head on. Because the underlying tension that seems to be draped around White Hart Lane at the moment might be having far more of a detrimental impact then some have been willing to admit.
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Quite how much you wish to read into Spurs forward Clint Dempsey’s recent admissions that the highly-strung mood around the club might be starting to get to the players is contestable.
When asked about the tension following the recent 2-2 draw with Everton, Dempsey said: “That’s the way it’s kind of been the last few games at home. It’s been tense. I’ve felt like that’s how the atmosphere has been.
“Is it affecting performances? I don’t know.
“It’s been noticeable, in the last three home games [against Everton and Fulham in the League and Basle in the Europa League]. There are a few teams right there in the fight for the Champions League and it makes it more interesting for people to watch.
For some, the American’s uninspiring contribution to the team’s efforts over the last few games – a perception that will surely change following his two-goal salvo against Basel last week – rendered his comments somewhat unauthentic. For others, the perception has been that it’s down to the team to inspire the supporters and most certainly not the other way around.
But for however you wish to frame it, it feels increasingly difficult to disagree with the former-Fulham man’s recent sentiments.
Tottenham’s superior performances away from White Hart Lane owes a lot more to the fact the side are simply better equipped to play against teams on the break and under the cosh. But there have been times this season where it’s felt very much as if Villas-Boas’ side have looked a team relieved to be playing away from the exasperating pressure of the home crowd.
Offering critique against the home support does of course represent the ultimate cardinal sin for both players and managers alike, although for all the rip-roaring zeniths that White Hart Lane dished up for the wins against Arsenal and West Ham United at home, those have proved the exception to the rule, rather than the benchmark.
Because while it’s true that Villas-Boas’ men haven’t always given the home crowd too much to cheer about this season, there’s been a disconcerting longetivity to the tension that’s underlined their performances in N17.
Following a rocky start to their league campaign at home with two uninspiring draws against both Norwich and West Bromwich Albion back in August and September, many supporters were split as to whether the pockets of boos that adorned both games were acceptable.
But while the booing quickly subsided, the home crowd has often struggled to display the vivacity that we’re so accustomed to in the white side of north London. And as we’ve headed into the home straight of the league campaign, if the tension has only been underpinning their displays at White Hart Lane, it now feels palpable.
Yet how much of that palpability has been catalysed by an almost nihilistic expectation amongst fans of something resembling another self-destruction for the second consecutive-season?
For a club that is endeavouring so fiercely to stop history repeating itself, there seems to be a strange denial about the events that happened last season. Supporters can’t physically intervene to change their side’s flailing on-pitch fortunes, but they can certainly do everything they can to try and catalyse them and part of that involves trying to lift the tension for the final few games of the season.
Support is a two-way street and in recent games, Tottenham haven’t exactly given White Hart Lane their money’s worth as supporters have been treated to an exhibition of defensive fragility and attacking impotence.
But if the question is whether their side will crack for a second-season running, then the answer surely isn’t to simply wait for the inevitable to happen and during times within the Everton game, that’s exactly what it felt like. It’s time for one final push till the end of the season and that applies to everyone – players, managers and supporters alike.
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