You only need to look at some of the quotes coming out of the Arsenal camp ahead of their recent meeting with Tottenham Hotspur in the Premier League, to realise the major problem still facing Mauricio Pochettino and his players.
Former Gunners goalkeeper David Seaman said in the lead up to the match, “The form has shifted but not the power. The power comes through winning trophies and Tottenham haven’t done that.”
Current Arsenal goalkeeper Petr Cech also chimed in and commented, “They’ve (Tottenham) been there in the last few years so now I think they have to make sure they win something to show the progression.”
Tottenham have not won a trophy of any description since 2008 when they lifted the League Cup thanks to an extra-time win over Chelsea in the final.
Even Tottenham’s own players have talked about the need to win a trophy and Harry Kane spoke earlier this season, saying “The only way we can improve is to win something, or win the league — that is always our aim.”
“We have to keep doing what we are doing, hopefully it will happen.”
So, it’s not only current and former players of bitter rivals Arsenal who believe Tottenham need to start winning trophies if they are to cement their place at the top of the English game. Their own players have also started to think the same way.
Recently Tottenham have enjoyed some tremendous nights in the Champions League, firstly beating Real Madrid at Wembley and then defeating Borussia Dortmund away from home to secure their place at the top of their group.
You cannot deny Tottenham have delivered some tremendous performances in the Champions League this season and the win over Real Madrid was a better result than any other Premier League team has achieved in the Champions League for some time.
However, what are the chances of Tottenham going on to win this competition?
With Real Madrid, Paris Saint-Germain, Barcelona, Juventus, Manchester City, Chelsea, Bayern Munich and Manchester United all set to make it into the knockout stages, it is going to be a mammoth task.
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The main concern for Tottenham fans, is other than the FA Cup, the Champions League already looks like their best bet for a trophy this season.
Pochettino’s men are 11 points behind Manchester City after 12 games played and even at this early stage of the domestic campaign, it is going to be tough catching Pep Guardiola’s team at the top of the table. As things stand prior to week 13 of the Premier League season, Tottenham are just 1 point better off than Burnley and while credit must be given to Burnley for their own league position, that is not where Tottenham want to be.
This season Tottenham will equal their longest run without a trophy in the history of the club, with the club’s previous longest major trophy drought spanning a decade between their two titles of 1951 and 1961.
For a team which is considered the best the club have produced in the Premier League era, that’s a record they do not want to be breaking.
Even if the club win the FA Cup, will that be considered a success this season?
It is a major domestic trophy but the significance of winning the FA Cup has dropped in recent years, no one can deny that, and it is surely third on the list of their remaining targets this season.
There is no doubt Tottenham have a squad full of top talent and their results have proven they have what it takes to defeat the best in Europe. However, one-off wins do not win big trophies and Tottenham could be set for another season of disappointment when they look at their trophy cabinet at the end of the campaign.
Referring to Harry Kane’s comments at the start of the season, “The only way we can improve is to win something, or win the league — that is always our aim.”
The big question come the end of the season, if Tottenham do not win something, is where will Harry Kane be playing his football next season?
Being contenders for the two BIG PRIZES in a few years on a zero net spend is a massive achievement and it is easy to take for granted that you are contenders until you aren’t.
It’s unrealistic to point the moment they become contenders that they should not just be contenders, but winners.
Ok if Spurs had spent big money like City, then you say well they are supposed to win but we haven’t. It’s about gradual progression to the point where we are one of the elite and this thing about trophies is just a psychological ruse to derail that by trying to turn perception of success into failure. It works like this: Those that want to halt our tracks wish to redefine our goals and so that when we fail at their standards, they can question Poch’s suitability for the job. They want us to overshoot a just win now, go too quickly and get ahead of ourselves so that it falls apart and that the players can be sold.
There is a lot of talk about winning trophies and you can speculate how long the current crop of players will stay at Spurs without winning a trophy. Winning a trophy like the PL and CL would be a dream come true but just going to games and watching this team grow over the last three years has been so satisfying. It is real and is the one thing that makes me spend my money to go see Spurs. I’m not worried about what might happen and whether we win trophies I’m just enjoying what we have now. Compared to what I have witnessed in the last 30 years it makes it all worthwhile.
No one will wait till u mature.walker left so will others so it’s back to the beginin again
The Champions League wins were fantastic, but we also have to accept that the Madrid & Dortmund sides we have faced are a shadow of the teams they were even 2 years ago. Dortmund may finish bottom of the group and Madrid are miles behind in La Liga. The zero net spend that is often mentioned should also be questioned. The books are balanced, great – but that doesn’t detract from the fact we have spent more than Arsenal in the last ten years, wasting millions on mediocre players. It’s like we’re always looking for excuses as to why we’re not winning. Yes, we won a trophy in 2008 – but it was the League Cup. It’s over 26 years since we won an FA Cup ffs! We HAVE to try and win that this season. Winning the FA Cup is HUGE – it is watched globally – the single most watched game apart from the Champions League Final, the most prestigious domestic club trophy in the world, and it means we open next season in the Charity Shield. This is what BIG clubs do, they are prominent. We have zero excuses with the squad we have and what we have spent after Leicester won the title with a fraction of our resources. And I believe Pochettino’s dismissive attitude to winning anything other than a title is perfect hiding place for the fact he hasn’t won a single trophy as a manager, so to say he only wants to win the big trophies protects him because then others can defend him by saying the bigger clubs have more money etc in winning the big trophies. West Ham knocking us out of the League Cup was a bigger insult than losing to Arsenal last week. To be winners you have to win! Mourinho wins. Chelsea win. And for all the berating of Wenger he has something like 15 trophies in his time in England when during the same period we have only 2.