Ask any Spurs fan what is the high watermark in the last ten years for the boys from Tottenham and the chances are the response will be broadly unanimous. Etched in the memory, automatic.
That magical night in Amsterdam
A long, looping, hopeful ball plucked out of the Amsterdam sky by Llorente’s knee, falling kindly into the path of Dele, the flick around the corner, then the snapshot, skidding off the turf and Onana diving despairingly and in vain to his left. Lucas wheeling away. De Ligt, Mazraoui collapsed on the ground, Ten Hag stunned.*
*(hopefully a good omen for next Sunday at Old Trafford).
Champions League final etc. etc. Spurs in Europe.
The narrative around that impossible run has long since been written, with an anticlimactic final, ruined within a minute by the officials, seen as the beginning of the end for the Poch era and a group of players and staff, who had taken us close but never quite over the line. And would never take us there again.
It was a team incidentally that had emerged, evolved and grown together in some part thanks to Europa League campaigns in the years before.
The Europa League
The Europa League. Meh. Barring a knockout stage that casual fans will watch if they have a spare couple of hours, it’s all a bit…forgettable.
Sure, everyone will remember Erik Lamela’s rabona, but I bet you’d have to Google who it was against? (wait…it was Asteras Tripolis). I’ll go one further: which of our players once scored a hat-trick against a Monaco team who on the day had fielded Mbappe, Bernardo Silva and Moutinho? It was also Lamela. Kane didn’t get off the bench.
Despite the nascent quality of both squads in that 4-1 mauling of Monaco, or Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool; eventual finalists in the same 2015/16 iteration, and about to go onto three Champions League finals and Premier League title, we’re all guilty as football fans of grossly undervaluing the competition.
Barring a wonder goal, or Kane in goals; fixtures, memories and names don’t seem nearly as easy to recall. The ‘second’ European trophy fails to capture the imagination in the same way as its ‘big brother’ and that poxy anthem.
It’s not hard to understand why. I doubt Slavia Prague vs Ludogorets this Wednesday is high on the to do list of even the most relentless ‘Tactico’. It’s discussed in almost contemptuous terms by fans and pundits as something of an inconvenience; more games, pressure on the squad and God forbid! The Thursday/Sunday turnaround derails Premier League form.
But can we as Spurs fans afford such ambivalence? Not this time.
Lest we forget, it was our club who won the first ever, rebranded 64 team UEFA Cup in 1972.
Tottenham vs Qarabag
We’re mere days away from our next foray into the competition, on the back of Ange’s bullish doubling down that this is the year he always delivers.
Will we be the best of 36 participants? Does the Europa League represent our best chance of breaking our maligned hoodoo? Let’s take a look.
The Europa League is set to adopt a new format for the 2024/25 season, bringing significant changes to how the competition is structured.
Swiss-Style League Phase
• Instead of the traditional group stage, a single league phase will be introduced, involving 36 teams.
• Each team will play 8 matches against 8 different opponents (4 home, 4 away).
• Teams will no longer be placed in groups; instead, they will face a variety of opponents, similar to the new format for the Champions League.
As far as Spurs goes, it’s a mixed (Qara)bag. Our first game at home this coming Thursday, is a fairly kind opener vs the Azerbaijani champions.
Spurs’ other home games will be the ‘Troy Parrott derby’ vs AZ Alkmaar, strong starters in Holland. A famous name but a team in turmoil in Roma and last season’s runners up (on goal difference) in the Swedish Allsvenskan, IF Elfsborg.
Spurs will travel to Budapest to play Ferencvaros, before a visit to the cauldron-like home of Galatasaray, fresh off a 3-1 derby win at “The Crying One” Jose Mourinho’s Fenerbahce, and finally Hoffenheim. Arguably the team who saw the best out of Ryan Sessegnon during his disappointing Spurs career.
All told, far from straightforward. But given the quality within the squad, and by hopefully prioritising the competition more than we have in…forever, Spurs will be quietly confident of progression to the knockout stages.
There, the top 8 teams with the most points at the end of the league phase will automatically advance to the Round of 16.
And in recent history, this has been where the dream has ended for Spurs. We have failed to advance further, except a woeful Quarter Final shootout loss to Mohamed Salah’s Basel in 2012. (I said there were half decent players knocking about in there!)
Coincidentally, our last attempt began with a home win against Qarabag in 2015/16 before a humbling exit with two reverses at the hands of Dortmund.
Spurs are way beyond hoping that we do better this year. Whilst the development of Bergvall, Gray and Mikey Moore as they get their expected opportunities will be an admittedly glorious subtext, and parallels may be drawn with players in our team and against who ascended to world class pedigree via this competition, (Kane, anyone?) Spurs, surely, have to go all in to win it.
It’s a must. Ange has all but staked his reputation and the goodwill of the fans on it.
The tired trophy talk has to end sometime. So…could we?