LONDON – Wembley is Tottenham’s personal Hotel California: they can check out any time they like but never leave.
Most clubs spend a lifetime yearning to reach the home of English football. Mauricio Pochettino’s side can’t wait to escape it. Saturday’s 3-1 win over Fulham should have heralded the final hurrah of a year-long tenancy at the national stadium. Instead, Harry Kane’s first-ever goal in August ensured an unwelcome extension became a far happier occurrence.
Delays to the completion of their new abode mean Spurs will be calling this part of London home for a little while longer. Set against a backdrop of high-rise cranes, Wembley is not too dissimilar to the current scenes at their former White Hart Lane home. An indefinite stay still has the potential to become an albatross around their necks as the season progresses. Two forthcoming home matches have already been switched while building costs, according to Pochettino, are now nearer £1 billion ($1.7 billion) than an original ballpark figure of £400 million.
The Lilywhites’ nomadic existence may extend beyond its current address, too, with question marks over an Oct. 28 clash against Manchester City due to the Philadelphia Eagles taking on Jacksonville Jaguars in the NFL on the same day. After rugby chiefs discounted the prospect of welcoming the reigning English Premier League champions to their flagship venue at Twickenham, located just shy of 16 kilometres south of Wembley and double that distance away their future stadium, both Spurs’ options and time are running out.
Becoming the only top-flight side to not make a summer signing since the transfer window’s 2003 introduction is also unlikely to help Tottenham’s pursuit of progress. Healthy representation at the World Cup, with as many as 12 players involved, risks coming home to roost for Pochettino. They had nine players heavily involved until the semifinal stage in Russia while no other club covered more ground, played more minutes or scored more goals than the north Londoners’ players. The Argentine, like most of his contemporaries, had to redeploy his charges earlier than perhaps liked. A complete absence of reinforcements, however, has made the balancing act a precarious one.
Lucas Moura, who opened the scoring Saturday, was one of only two players in Spurs’ starting lineup not to feature at the World Cup and it was evident from the exertions of several of his teammates. Kane’s annual August lull in front of goal appeared set to continue after sweeping the Golden Boot while Christian Eriksen lacked the sharp-shooting many have come to expect from him. Fortunately the England captain’s first-month drought had to end at some point. A combined 15 games and 1,065 minutes felt like a perfect juncture.
“You increase your confidence, your trust in yourself but the most important [thing] is to keep humble and keep working. In the end, England didn’t win; still with Tottenham we didn’t win. That is the truth. Only Hugo [Lloris] won,” insisted Pochettino.
“In football we are here to try to win; not to be fourth, third or second – we try to be first. The most important is to understand that it was a fantastic World Cup for everyone, but Hugo only won the World Cup.
“We need to show that we are a winner [by] winning trophies. We are happy but we won only two games. Performance good, yes of course, but we need to perfrom as well now in the next game [a week on] Monday in Old Trafford.
“That will be another challenge. That will show if we are able to ready to compete for big things, or not. It’s going to show us.”
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Fulham’s last appearance here in May sealed a return to the English top-flight with their only win at the iconic venue in a 139-year history on only their second visit. For a club idyllically set on the banks of the River Thames and previously stunned the continent in reaching the Europa League final in 2010, scalping Juventus, Wolfsburg and Hamburg en route, their road back to the promised land has far from plain sailing.
Owner Shahid Khan spent in excess of £100 million to provide Slavisa Jokanovic with at least a fighting chance of reaffirming their club’s previous bond with the league which had lasted 13 years. The capture of Jean-Michael Seri was undoubtedly their greatest coup after the Ivorian midfielder attracted strong interest from Barcelona during the summer, having previously received a seal of approval by the Nou Camp’s former pass-master Xavi.
Other recruits augur well for the Cottagers’ survival quest with substitute Andre Schurrle returning to west London, where he helped Chelsea win the title during a two-season spell, while Arsenal’s Calum Chambers has moved across the English capital on loan. Aleksandar Mitrovic’s goals propelled Fulham into the play-off reckoning last term, and drew them level Saturday, will be vital again now his stay from Newcastle has been made permanent. Warding off suitors for Ryan Sessegnon, similarly, serves them in good stead as the attacker caused problems to Spurs’ defence down their right-hand side in the first half.
Jokanovic’s motivation in keeping Fulham up is twofold. Prior to steering them away from the doldrums of The Championship and eventually back to the EPL, he guided Watford to automatic promotion but failed to agree to an extension of his contract. Disarray reigned at Vicarage Road before the Serbian became the club’s fourth manager in a year and little has changed in the intervening years. Given those parameters, and in spite of suffering back-to-back defeats against local opposition, he will still fancy his chances.
“We know where we are. We cannot be surprised that another side we played today in one of the complicated away games against the top English or Champions League teams,” Jokanovic said post-match.
“They showed the quality but for another side, they showed they played three years altogether and he synchronisation between them is different. Right now, we have played two-and-a-half weeks altogether.
“If you asked to compare the teams, in the end, we are one Premier League teams in a building process. We’re going to need the time [but] we showed a few positive things.
“Without any doubt, we need to fix our problems and to fix problems, only way I know to do it, is working hard, try to be better next time and have the opportunity to fight for the points.”
Patience and relative inaction in the market was once seen as a sign of Tottenham’s growing strength. Without careful management it could represent a potential stagnation. Both they and their manager are still wilfully embracing the gauntlet, come what may.
Richard Buxton is a UK-based writer and special correspondent for Sportsnet. He filed this report from London’s’s Wembley Stadium.
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