Tottenham Hotspur have continued with one of their most frustrating habits from last season, and there may be a rather unusual reason behind the club’s decision.
It is a new-look Tottenham Hotspur side heading into a new season that kicks off in less than two weeks, with a new manager at the helm, a new captain expected and plenty of fresh faces in the squad.
Spurs have already spent £237m on Sandro Tonali, Mateus Fernandes and Jan Paul van Hecke, while Andy Robertson, Marcos Senesi and Martin Dubravka have all arrived on free transfers.
At least two or three more additions are still expected this month, with Roberto De Zerbi admitting that the club’s attention has now turned towards attacking reinforcements after completing much of their defensive and midfield business.
There has already been plenty to like in pre-season, too, with Tottenham winning 4 of their 5 friendlies and most recently drawing with Getafe, as attention now turns to hosting Hoffenheim at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Saturday.
Why Tottenham release their lineups in number order
Among the many changes at Tottenham last season was one particularly annoying decision from the club, as starting XIs began being released in squad number order rather than by position.
It was one of the habits supporters hoped would be left behind with last season’s misery, but Spurs have continued with it during pre-season, as shown by their team news graphics.
That has frustrated Football.London’s Alasdair Gold as much as it has us. Speaking on his YouTube channel, he explained: “Apparently, the logic behind that is, a lot of other clubs do it.
“And also, it just doesn’t make it clear exactly what the tactics are for the game. Just any little 0.1% advantage that might give them against the other team.”
That explanation is unlikely to convince many, because it is difficult to see how releasing the lineups in number order could provide even that 0.1% advantage when it takes barely a minute to work out the formation anyway.
The more likely reason, however, could be engagement, with the unusual order encouraging supporters to spend longer looking through the graphic and helping the post’s performance on social media.
Alasdair Gold left baffled by another strange Tottenham decision
Another strange change we have seen from Tottenham is that they no longer reveal contract lengths when announcing new signings or extensions, something that has been noticeable throughout the summer and was seen again with Micky van de Ven’s new deal.
Even Gold admitted he could not quite work out the thinking behind that decision, although he initially considered whether Spurs might be trying to hide how much time players have remaining on their contracts.
As Gold put it: “I was trying to wonder like not giving contract lengths is that giving like a little bit of secrecy that so that clubs coming in might not take advantage of thinking a player hasn’t got a lot of time left on the contract.
“But then I was thinking about it. It’s like they will first go through the agent and the agent will go, ‘Yeah, they got 12 months left.’ That’s it. It’s like there is no secrecy. There is no I don’t understand the logic behind going into this new let’s not announce how long contracts are. I don’t get it. I don’t understand.”