This is going to be a difficult few weeks for Arsenal fans. I’ve got to be prepared for a long, long summer.
It’s clear now that we won’t win the Premiership. I shouldn’t be surprised and I should be used to this sinking feeling by now. But as every pundit has repeated ad nauseam, we’ll never have a better opportunity to win the league. So I should just calm down, keep things in perspective and look forward to those lazy summer evenings enjoying a beer after a busy day at work. We’ve lost the league before in similar circumstances (crippling injury crisis, lack of leaders on the pitch, Wenger stubbornly not adding to the squad when we’re lacking in key areas), so I’m not heading into new territory.
But there’s a huge difference this year. Tottenham’s the difference. The elephant in the room. The stuff of nightmares. I can’t get my head around the real possibility the of seeing the premiership trophy being paraded around White Hart Lane. It’s just a horrible feeling imagining witnessing such a sight. I can handle them winning the odd cup. That’s fine. Wigan and Birmingham win cups. Winning a cup does not gain an invite to mix it with the big boys in Europe. But winning your domestic league puts you on another level. Tottenham have always been crap in the league and they have never seriously challenged the top of the table.
Seeing a whole host of managers fail over there has been a joy. The likes of Scholar, Sugar and Levy have repeatedly failed in appointing managers who were really serious about building a title challenging squad. I loved witnessing the likes of Pleat, Ardiles, Francis, Gross, Hoddle, Santini, Jol and Sherwood fail repeatedly in the league. And who can forget Ramos….he really was the gift that kept on giving. Redknapp showed brief signs of building a decent squad, but his achievement in reaching the CL, which was celebrated wildly by Spurs fans, served to highlight how poor their league form had been for many years.
But Levy has finally got lucky. Pochettino really is the real deal. He’s growing a very special squad, which is young, hungry and full of character. By all accounts he’s ultra ambitious, so I hope the likes of Real, Utd or PSG can tempt him to walk out on Tottenham. He’s caused me a few sleepless nights. I fear Leicester will stumble in the coming weeks. It’s all set up for Spurs to pip them on the final day.
I can handle witnessing Chelsea or Utd winning the league. I didn’t like them being so successful but it didn’t ruin the summer for me. But if Spurs do prevail and overtake Leicester, then it’s going to be a brutal few months for me.