In May 2017, Tottenham played their final game at
White Hart Lane. After beating Manchester United as the farewell ceremony unfolded,
the cameras caught Mauricio Pochettino surveying the scene around him and beaming with pride.
And why not? A vast new stadium was on the horizon, Spurs had just completed an
unbeaten home season, and Pochettino had a gifted team upon which to build a new era.
It never happened. And this is the story of why not.
After arriving in 2014, Pochettino kept Tottenham on a steady upward curve.
5th place at the end of his first season became third in his second,
and at the end of his third year at the club – which culminated with that win
over Manchester United – Spurs finished second, their highest placing in the Premier League era.
So, they were leaving White Hart Lane on a high. A year-long tenancy at Wembley beckoned before their
new 62,000 stadium would open, but Pochettino had the players to overcome that challenge.
Harry Kane was still 23, Christian Eriksen had recently turned 25, Son Hueng-min was 24,
and Dele was still just 21. The combination of Toby Alderweireld and Jan Vertonghen anchored the
defence, Pochettino also had two high-quality players in both full-back positions and,
in midfield, Victor Wanyama and Eric Dier alongside Moussa Dembele.
But Spurs decline might have been determined in the years before,
in their failure to add credible depth. Neither the signings of Clinton N’Jie and
Kevin Wimmer for almost £20m in 2015, for instance, nor the near £30m spent
on Vincent Janssen and Georges-Kevin Nkoudou in 2016 had a real impact on the first-team.
A factor in that inconsistent recruitment was likely changeover in the club’s technical staff.
Franco Baldini was employed as sporting director between 2013 and 2015 and Paul
Mitchell became head of recruitment from late 2014, but offered his resignation 18 months
later. International scout Ian Broomfield also left the club at around the same time.
In addition, while Pochettino’s first sides leant on academy players like Kane,
Ryan Mason, Nabil Bentaleb and, later, Harry Winks, that pipeline dried up.
The cumulative result was a two-tier squad:
Week-to-week starters and players with a lower ceiling.
The consequence was felt. Firstly, the inability to capitalise on progress frustrated players.
Danny Rose was highly critical of the club in a summer 2017 interview with The Sun. Kyle Walker
also informed Pochettino earlier that year that he wished to leave and join Manchester City.
The other impact was wear-and-tear. Rose was recovering from a serious knee injury at the
time of the interview, Harry Kane suffered the first of many ankle injuries the season before,
and Victor Wanyama was plagued by severe cartilage and knee problems from the
2017-18 season onwards. And Erik Lamela and Moussa Dembele both developed chronic issues.
Pochettino’s style of football was physical and his pool of dependable
players was shallow – it wasn’t a recipe for success and the burden on individual
players was enormous. From 2014 until 2019, Christian Eriksen would never play fewer
than 47 club games in a season. Between 2016 and 2019, Son Heung-min made 47,
53 and 48 club appearances, in addition to a grueling international schedule.
Pochettino wasn’t blameless. Supporters sometimes bemoaned his hesitancy when making substitutions
and his habit of rotating goalkeepers in cup competitions also proved extremely costly.
But the club’s inability to strengthen the first team was more so.
Tottenham’s transfer policy had little influence on the side
that defeated Manchester United on that final day at White Hart Lane in May 2017.
Davinson Sanchez and Fernando Llorente were useful additions in the summer of 2017. Lucas Moura was
also an exciting signing in the winter of 2018, but would never become a week-to-week starter.
Famously, Spurs would then become the first club to not make a single signing
in two consecutive transfer windows between the summer of 2018 and the winter of 2019. An
accentuating factor was also the failure to sell players at the top of their valuation,
moves which might have allow strong reinvestment.
The steady decline in performance was reflected by league placings. 2nd place with 86 points in
2017 became 3rd place with 77 points in 2018, and then 4th position with 71 points in 2019.
Miraculously, despite being without Kane for most of the knockout stages and seeing
Dembele decline physically to the point of being sold,
they somehow reached a Champions League final that year. Tellingly though, of the players to
start that game against Liverpool in Madrid, all had been playing for the club two years before.
It characterized the lack of renewal and the side’s many issues. Wanyama’s
injuries and the lack of a Dembele replacement forced Sissoko into a new
midfield role. Kane started despite being hopelessly unfit. Dele, too.
Pochettino had been alluding to the need for evolution for some time. In early May 2019,
he stressed the need for “a painful rebuild”. Referencing the delayed and over-budget,
but newly-opened stadium, he told the media that “When you talk about Tottenham,
everyone says you have an amazing house but you need to put in the furniture.”
It was fair. Between 2014 and 2019, the five years of his reign,
the club had spent well over a £1bn on their new stadium and on a new training
ground. Their net transfer spend during that period was just £30m.
Before and after the Champions League final defeat, rumours persisted about
Pochettino’s relationship with his players. There were even
leaked complaints about the lack of variety within his training methods.
A summer of relatively heavy spending teased renewal. Giovani Lo Celso, Tanguy Ndombele and
Ryan Sessegnon all joined, but with little effect. More damagingly, Kieran Trippier was sold without
proper replacement and Christian Eriksen was determinedly running down his contract.
The season started poorly and Spurs failed to correct a sequence which
had seen them fail to win away from home in the league since January 2019. A 7-2
home loss to Bayern Munich further showed that whatever chemistry held Tottenham had
been lost and that Pochettino’s days at the club were fast running out.
And in November he was dismissed. The club published a statement late on the
night of the 20th, and early the next morning announced the appointment of Jose Mourinho
and, with it, the beginning of a wholly different period.