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 purpose 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 stage for 88 minutes, the hole in high quality was reasonably evident. Tottenham tried their finest to play their very own approach, however the skilled and ruthless Metropolis weren’t having any of it, limiting Spurs to only a single shot all night time lengthy.
For these within the stands, it was the resignation that their staff 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 top of a dream for a squad that might die for each other.
Certain, Tottenham did not actually should advance and even take the tie to a replay, however the despair lingered within the air greater than a traditional 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 prime staff, they’re the benchmark,” he mentioned about Metropolis. “We’re not there but and we’re beneath no phantasm about that.
“It is truthful to say they have eight or 9 years on us. I hope that individuals have a little bit little bit of perspective concerning the staff we’re attempting to be. It does not occur in six months. I do not assume even Metropolis did it in six months.
“That does not imply you draw back from the problem of it or do not get upset by it or do not feel like you may have tackled it differently. It isn’t an excuse however the actuality of it’s that they are properly down the road in being the staff they’re and we’re nonetheless very a lot within the early levels. You must use that as your benchmark transferring ahead.”
From the second Postecoglou touched down in north London, he has been unwavering in his perception that every part his Tottenham staff will attempt to do will assist them construct for a sustainable future. Right here, they tried to go toe-to-toe with the perfect membership staff in world soccer and it resulted of their worst attacking efficiency of the season by a substantial distance, however he in the end has grand ambitions and visions which is able to serve Spurs properly sooner or later – the squad is in a significantly better state than when he arrived and so they have 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 prone to enter a seventeenth yr bar a miraculous run to this season’s Premier League title. In contrast to his win-now and short-termist predecessors in Jose Mourinho and Antonio Conte who considered even one cup as a holy grail, Postecoglou needs to assemble a staff and refurbish a membership constructed to constantly win trophies.
Sadly for Spurs followers, it means they could should reset that clock of their head to zero years. Yearly turns into yr one in attempting to win a trophy. Frustration and an comprehensible drop in persistence has permeated proper via the membership, but when Postecoglou is actually ushering in a brand new period, the numerous seasons with out silverware should be forgotten. Solely the current and future are vital.
There are a number of explanation why Tottenham’s run with no trophy has gone on so lengthy, however when you have been to redo the final decade-and-a-half, they’d virtually actually have scooped up not less than one cup. That is simply the universe the place they have been unfortunate to not get even that, and it is now the universe the place the beat staff within the land and all of the world have knocked them out of one other competitors by way of a particularly 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 seems like the top of the world a number of months into this new course of. However as anticipated for yr one in all this mission, Tottenham will simply should agency that feeling oh-so-close feeling of disappointment for a short while longer.
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