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Tottenham’s FA Cup marketing campaign got here to an finish on Friday night time with a late 1-0 defeat to Manchester Metropolis in spherical 4.
Nathan Ake’s aim was Metropolis’s first at Spurs’ billion-pound stadium in 538 minutes of motion, bringing a grinding halt to the guests’ supposed curse and the hosts’ quest for a home cup.
Although the scoreline was degree for 88 minutes, the hole in high quality was quite evident. Tottenham tried their finest to play their very own method, however the skilled and ruthless Metropolis weren’t having any of it, proscribing Spurs to only a single shot all night time lengthy.
For these within the stands, it was the resignation that their group is – barring a barnstorming Premier League run-in – going to complete one other season with out silverware. For these on the pitch, it was the tip of a dream for a squad that may die for each other.
Positive, Tottenham did not actually should advance and even take the tie to a replay, however the despair lingered within the air greater than a standard defeat. Hell, followers stood and applauded after November’s bitter 4-1 loss to rivals Chelsea, with Mauricio Pochettino’s return stinging Spurs with a considerably smaller dose of venom.
Ange Postecoglou maybe surmised it finest in his post-match press convention.
“They are a high group, they’re the benchmark,” he mentioned about Metropolis. “We’re not there but and we’re beneath no phantasm about that.
“It is honest to say they have eight or 9 years on us. I hope that folks have somewhat little bit of perspective in regards to the group we’re making an attempt to be. It would not occur in six months. I do not suppose even Metropolis did it in six months.
“That does not imply you draw back from the problem of it or do not get dissatisfied by it or do not feel like you possibly can have tackled it another way. It isn’t an excuse however the actuality of it’s that they are effectively down the road in being the group they’re and we’re nonetheless very a lot within the early levels. That you must use that as your benchmark shifting ahead.”
From the second Postecoglou touched down in north London, he has been unwavering in his perception that all the things his Tottenham group will try to do will assist them construct for a sustainable future. Right here, they tried to go toe-to-toe with the perfect membership group in world soccer and it resulted of their worst attacking efficiency of the season by a substantial distance, however he finally has grand ambitions and visions which is able to serve Spurs effectively sooner or later – the squad is in a significantly better state than when he arrived they usually had been with out their finest participant in Son Heung-min for this loss.
Postecoglou has brushed apart the rhetoric round Tottenham’s determined want to finish their trophy drought, which is now more likely to enter a seventeenth yr bar a miraculous run to this season’s Premier League title. Not like his win-now and short-termist predecessors in Jose Mourinho and Antonio Conte who seen even one cup as a holy grail, Postecoglou needs to assemble a group and refurbish a membership constructed to constantly win trophies.
Sadly for Spurs followers, it means they could must reset that clock of their head to zero years. Yearly turns into yr one in making an attempt to win a trophy. Frustration and an comprehensible drop in persistence has permeated proper by means of the membership, but when Postecoglou is actually ushering in a brand new period, the various seasons with out silverware have to be forgotten. Solely the current and future are vital.
There are a number of the reason why Tottenham’s run and not using a trophy has gone on so lengthy, however if you happen to had been to redo the final decade-and-a-half, they might virtually definitely have scooped up a minimum of one cup. That is simply the universe the place they had been unfortunate to not get even that, and it is now the universe the place the beat group within the land and all of the world have knocked them out of one other competitors through an especially late winner.
Spurs got here into the 2023/24 season with little expectation and it is to Postecoglou’s credit score {that a} slim defeat to Metropolis appears like the tip of the world a number of months into this new course of. However as anticipated for yr one in all this venture, Tottenham will simply must agency that feeling oh-so-close feeling of disappointment for a short while longer.
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