It is clear that Tottenham Hotspur are experiencing their toughest period since Mauricio Pochettino took charge in North London five and a half years ago.
The team looks a shadow of what they were a couple of seasons ago and seemed to have abandoned the intensity and aggression that brought them success on the pitch.
Multiple reasons have been put forward by supporters for Spurs’ poor start including some players not wanting to be at the club and even assertions that perhaps Pochettino might have given up.
Former Liverpool striker Robbie Fowler dismissed suggestions that the Spurs manager or players weren’t trying. He claimed that the problem was instead due to the egos in the Tottenham dressing room.
In his column for the Mirror, Fowler wrote: “It is clearer than ever Tottenham are in a real mess. They’re just not the same team, there isn’t the same togetherness as last season.
“The body language is different – from the manager right through to some of their most senior and important players – and that can’t be right.
“Inevitably, we’ve heard so many rumours about problems and bust-ups, about players not wanting to play, even about the manager giving up.
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“I don’t believe that because I think to get to the level Pochettino has achieved you need a drive and an ego that means you never chuck it in, whether you want to leave or not.
“For me, though, it IS about ego. It’s a fundamental problem that’s long been coming. I’ve seen it so many times in football, and it’s always based around ego.”
The former England international suggested that perhaps some players in the Spurs squad had started to believe their own hype. He also asserted that the Pochettino’s men are struggling to play together as a team.
Fowler went on to add: “You get players –you get teams – who when they start winning, start to believe all the BS that pours out – and some of the people involved start to get a bit greedy.
“I’m not talking about money specifically here, though that can always be a problem, I’m talking more about that view people get about themselves when things are going well.
“It’s a sense of self-importance. I’ve seen it myself in my own career, though never on the scale Spurs are experiencing. There were players at Liverpool who thought they were better than they really were – and got carried along by that.
“It’s such a strange sport. It’s a team game based on the talents of the individual.
“Sides like City and Liverpool – and I’d put the Spurs of last season in this category – no matter how good their “stars” are, they are still a collective greater than the sum of their parts.
“Yet you are rewarded individually, and the biggest rewards go to the biggest stars. I see at Spurs players getting greedy, not just for what they can earn, but for acclaim too.”
Spurs Web Opinion
Fowler is right in his assertion that the players are playing as individuals at the moment especially in defense as there seems to be no one taking responsibility. It is also clear that things have got a little stale at the club now that we have had the same nucleus of players for the last five years.
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