FROM GTECH COMMUNITY STADIUM – Tottenham Hotspur supporters have been on one hell of an emotional rollercoaster this week.
Spurs hammered Shakhtar Donetsk 5-1 last Sunday, with Harry Kane scoring four. It looked like they had withstood the advances of Bayern Munich and he would be staying for at least one more season.
They then went to Barcelona with a reserve side and outperformed La Blaugrana for 80 minutes of an eventual 4-2 loss, a heroic friendly defeat to close pre-season.
And then Kane was sold. The club’s greatest ever player was sold. £86.4m in the bank. Not that it proved much consolation to fans who had just managed to put on a happy face heading into the new season.
Ange Postecoglou, drafted in this summer as the permanent successor to Antonio Conte following a disastrous 2022/23 season, was tasked with further firefighting in his press conference ahead of Sunday’s trip to Brentford, his hard-earned Premier League debut overshadowed.
“I’m not going to tell them [the fans] how to feel. They need to go through that process themselves and I guess for me and the players what’s really important now is that when they see their team play that fills them with hope and potential that we can build something they’re going to be proud of,” the Greek-Australian said.
“So I’m just really reticent to tell people how they should feel. If they’re not feeling great about things then that’s their right. There’s probably a reason for that and a good reason for that. What I want to do is hopefully give them something tangible on the field that excites them and if we do that then they’ll find their own way to get to the point where we’re all united and feeling good about the prospects of the football club.”
The longer Postecoglou has talked this summer, the more the Tottenham faithful have warmed to him. But they were yet to see their new-look team in competitive action and up first was a tricky trip to Brentford.
The Bees do love a Premier League match on August 13. In 2021, on their return to the top-flight after a 74-year absence, they beat Arsenal 2-0. In 2022, they ripped Erik ten Hag’s Manchester United to shreds in a 4-0 thrashing.
Brentford have quickly become a consolidated Premier League team and visits to the Gtech usually prove fruitless – Thomas Frank’s side lost just two home games last season, with only Arsenal and Newcastle United leaving west London with all three points.
Tottenham weren’t given much of a chance ahead of Sunday’s encounter, but they went some way to restoring some honour which has been lost from the last few months.
Ahead of kick-off, the starting XI jogged over to the north-east corner of the stadium housing the away supporters, a notable initiative put in motion from within the squad. A sanitary issue in the ground delayed kick-off by five minutes and kept The White Stripes’ Seven Nation Army playing on a loop over the intercom. Spurs fans tuned it to Postecoglou’s name to show their appreciation of his job so far, a sign that they would be willing to stand by him on the long road ahead.
The football belatedly began and, as Postecoglou hoped, his players put in a performance filled with pride in a 2-2 draw.
It would have been easy for Tottenham to go gung-ho, to afford Brentford all the space in the world to attack in transition as happened to Man Utd 365 days ago. The excuses and the coping mechanisms were set, the arguments were ready.
But as the game grew on, as Spurs clawed their way back into a game in which they twice conceded from self-inflicted blows, they quickly demonstrated some needed street-smarts.
Brentford were stifled in the second half and the visitors’ pressing was excellent. Three of the starting back five – including Micky van de Ven, who has only trained with his new teammates three times – were making their competitive debuts. It shouldn’t have been possible for Spurs to look so sturdy when trying to effectively reinvent the wheel they’d lived and died by for the last four years.
There were times where Postecoglou grew frustrated with his Tottenham players for not moving through the gears quicker, allowing Brentford to set and reset themselves. The second half showed Spurs miss dynamism in attack, a need for more ruthlessness and cutting edge.
This was a steady first step into the club’s new era, nonetheless. Tottenham’s week ends with a glimmer of sunlight peering over the stormy horizon.
READ THE LATEST TOTTENHAM NEWS, TRANSFER RUMOURS & GOSSIP
