Dead on our Feet
Even by Tottenham Hotspur’s standards, Saturday’s defeat at QPR completes one hell of a capitulation. I say ‘completes’ with a month of the season still to go because for us, the season is over. It’s as over as Barcelona’s, but without the guarantee of a runners-up spot and unflinching worldwide adoration. They might as well start handing out the end-of-season awards while we can still remember the good bits. I wonder if Gareth Bale will get one for jumping into the Loftus Road crowd. In a few weeks, Luka might be enjoying a view from the Bridge rather than a view from the stand.
The only view I’ve got right now is through tired and tearful eyes. It’s got to the stage that losing at QPR wasn’t a surprise. They had the will and the need to get a result, a nice, tight pitch and a healthy sprinkling of former Spurs players. What more do you need to beat us? Right now, just 90 minutes of football and enough players to cobble together a team will do it.
We’ve got enough players to cobble together more than two decent teams, which makes our current plight all the more perplexing and all the more damn frustrating. It’s doubly frustrating when you can’t understand the deployment of those players. After the Geordies picked up another victory earlier in the day, we needed to win and nothing else. That’ll be two defensive midfielders then. Lennon on the bench. Defoe up front on his own. Harry says the players are tired. Is that why we sacrificed the Europa League and Carling Cup? Is that why we’ve made virtually no attempt to involve the likes of Dos Santos and Kranjcar so they’d be fit and fresh enough to make a contribution during the body and mind-sapping last couple of months of the season? The only balls I’ve kicked have been imaginary ones, but I’m tired too. With Beni and Kaboul out for the season, we’re now losing those players as quickly as we’re losing points.
Hope is the killer. The hope that we’ll suddenly, miraculously just snap out of it, the hope that others will lose games, the hope that it’s all one big, bad, horrible dream. That’s why I wish the season would just end. Maybe it’ll hurt less when there’s nothing left to hope for. We’ve had half a season of title form and half a season of relegation form. I didn’t think anyone was capable for that. Talk about four seasons in one day.
Wait a minute – I’m looking at this the wrong way. A hugely talented group of players, a soft centre (particularly away from home) and a rediscovered tendency to fall to pieces when things are going wrong. Sounds like we’ve got our Tottenham back.