Listen, at the end of the day, we all have to collectively take an L on Spurs last season. They had more in the locker than Arsenal when it came down to it and we have to work out a way to be better next season.

What I can’t have is all this bollocks about what a genius Antonio Conte is, it’s totally nauseating. There are two schools of thought when it comes to creating success at a football club.

You do it the hard way like Liverpool. Set a vision, hire the right people, recruit talent, grow the talent, create sustainable success over years.

You do it the fast way like Inter Milan. Your vision is ‘win at all costs’, you hire in a short term world class manager, you let him sign NOW players, you pray to all the gods he delivers, you worry about what’s next after he wins something big.

Today, I’m going to talk to you about Spurs season in general and how I see this Inter Milan approach working out for them.

Spurs had a few things that went for them this season that are very unlikely to go for them for this upcoming term.

The most impressive thing they did this season was go unbeaten in 4 games against Liverpool and City. You could call this ruthless consistency, you could call it peak-Conte, or you could just say they had a pretty lucky run.

Against City, they scored 4 goals across two games from 8 shots on target. City had almost double the attempts at their goal over the two games, that sort of luck against them doesn’t usually hold.

Similar story against Liverpool in which they drew two games. 40 shots to 20. Spurs also had Liverpool after they played a draining game in the Champions League semi-finals, how many times did Arsenal play big teams after European exploits this season? Let’s talk about that December game against Liverpool, Harry Kane goes in for a leg breaker, doesn’t get a red card from the same ref that sent off Holding for a shoulder barge, then Robertson gets a sending off later in the match. Spurs avoid a 3 game ban for Harry Kane who scores in 2 of the next 3 games.

Let’s talk about sendings off last season. Which team was bottom of the league for sendings off?

Spurs with 1. Which team was top of the league for having the most players sent off against them? Spurs. They didn’t lose a single game in which a red card was awarded to the other team… but the two games when they picked up the only red card, they lost… to Mura and Crystal Palace. They beat Vitesse when going down to 10 men because the Dutch side went down to 9. Do you think that trend holds next season?

Spurs 3rd top goalscorer last season was OWN GOAL. Only Saka and Smith Rowe scored more than OWN GOAL did for Spurs. That is a remarkable statistic that you are really going to struggle to convince me is a feature we’ll see next season.

The season’s luckiest come back, statistically calculated by Oracle, was… Spurs vs Leicester when they scored two goals in injury time. It had a 0.02% chance of happening. How many games go to 95 minutes? How many go to 97 minutes? It was madness. They are litearlly winning awards for their improbable luck.

Then let’s move onto something that Spurs do get credit for. Son and Kane. Two of the best strikers to never have won a trophy. Those two were the cheat code. They are 28 and 29, both managed to start 35 and 37 games respectively. Incredible work from their fitness team, but I’m gonna do a madness here and gamble that with Champions League next season, that pristine fitness is unlikely to happen ever again. Do you think the genius of Conte is going to manage that sort of loss well?

My bet here is that Spurs are going to be on the struggle bus next season. They will have to manage 3 games a week from September, their squad is old, and Conte is pretty notorious for being poor at managing more than a game a week… even at Spurs. I mean, he’s so bad at it, Spurs had to get themeslves disqualified from the Europa Conference League so he could do his job this season.

‘BUT THEY BORROWED MONEY’

Everyone is talking about the £150m loan like it’s purely for transfers, but I’m not so sure. Spurs have two loan players they’ve committed big money towards and Daniel Levey is the shrewdest operator in the game, he fights over every penny, I’m not sure he’s one for announcing to the world exactly how much cash his club has available with a stock issue. Spurs are £706m in debt, tehy had a pretax loss of £80m last November, they’ve just raised £100m, and there’s £50m due on Romero/Bentancur this summer. They have an option of £45m on Kululevski. That’s £90m gone already if this cash is for transfers. Where is the rest of the rebuild money coming from and do you REALLY think Antonio Conte and Paratici are the types to speculate to accumulate with young up and comers? Their first signing of the summer is Ivan Perisic, a 33-year-old Arsenal fans were arguing was too old when we were linked 4 years ago. Their second looks like it’ll be Fraser Forster, a 34 year old.

‘Those are shrewd signings’ feels like the sort of chatter we had when we signed Stephan Lichtsteiner, Sokratis, and Mikhi. It is REALLY hard to make the transition from one of the slower leagues in Europe to the most powerful at 33 years old. But, I don’t give a shit, he might be a good player, but Spurs loading up with geriatrics is exactly the sort of short-term thinking I’m all about for them. My hope is Daniel Levy lets Conte have a summer like he did after he won the league with Chelsea. He dropped a team that landed 93 points to 5th on 70 points.

Spurs have a poverty version of what happened at Chelsea. Conte has come in, taken a decent team to a better position, now the power will reside with him. When he got the power with the West London club, he signed Alvaro Morata, Bakayoko, Danny Drinkwater, and Zappacosta. If he can repeat this in 2022, I will be VERY happy.

It is super odd to watch Daniel Levy roll dice like a drunk in a casino with people that have a history of leaving an expensive mess.

… but again, I’m here for it.

Liverpool vs Real Madrid in the Champions League final. I have to say, I’d much prefer Liverpool to win, but the story of Benzema feels like a powerful narrative. Should be a delicious afternoon of football. I hope you are cracking a few beers and spending it with friends. Have a great day and sign up to our Patreon if you like our content.

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