Tottenham Are Big Enough to Sustain the Ambitions of Pochettino and His Players

Bandwagon manufacturers up and down the land are on call after Tottenham Hotspur's 2-0 win over Manchester City before the international break.

After Spurs went largely overlooked amid pre-season hype focusing on big-name managerial appointments at City, Chelsea and Manchester United, the Premier League's second-placed side defeating its first will have had many preparing to change their minds. Continue that form and cap off a strong October with a win over champions Leicester City and perhaps the Foxes will loan them their leftover bandwagons from last season.

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Tottenham's unbeaten run is a good start to a season they hope they will truly prove their credentials in over the coming months. Yet even as people are re-evaluating them, there is a feeling they are being damned with faint praise in some quarters—that in one aspect or another, their good work is regarded as illusory or ephemeral.

Failed Valencia manager and England coach Gary Neville is one such thinly veiled critic.

"The job he has done at two clubs in the Premier League has been wonderful and he deserves, not being disrespectful to Tottenham, the biggest jobs in the world," Neville said of Spurs boss Mauricio Pochettino, per Sky Sports. "He's giving the best dress rehearsals you could possibly wish for."

The suggestion Tottenham will not be enough to placate their manager, and by consequence their players' ambitions, is understandable to an extent.

Last season's near-miss in the title-race might have been considered a more gallant one but for the way they collapsed in a vital game against Chelsea and blew a chance at finishing runners-up. Fair or not, it lent itself to the notion Spurs are a club not capable of establishing themselves again among the country's elite.

Even as they transformed from a firmly mid-table entity to one contending for Champions League places, it was the eventual failures to qualify that were most commonly highlighted.

With several of their best players moving on after such disappointments, the notion of Spurs as a stopgap—or "dress rehearsal," as Neville put it—was firmly established.

The recent clutch of new contracts being signed by current players (see below) brought to mind similar moves to keep such predecessors around.

Each one of the club's best players at the time, Robbie Keane and Gareth Bale, both signed new contracts in May 2007 and June 2012, respectively. Both left just over a year later, despite their extensions coming with the kind of worded commitments also expressed by the current crop of renewals.

"It is an exciting time to be at the club, and I am looking forward to even better seasons ahead," Keane said, via BBC Sport. 

"The club is progressing and I want to be a part of that, so it was great to get the deal done," Bale offered five years later.

In the former instance, chairman Daniel Levy remarked upon the strategy Keane's new deal was part of, one that is being replicated now with Dele Alli, Eric Dier, Kyle Walker and others.

"The key to retaining top players is to agree long-term contracts," Levy said. "We have now done so with several of our existing squad, extending the contracts of Aaron Lennon, Michael Dawson and Tom Huddlestone, as well as having contracted newer players on long contracts, such as Dimitar Berbatov and Didier Zokora."

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It worked to an extent. Lennon, Dawson and Huddlestone stayed for several years, the former two lasting right up until Pochettino's reign.

Ultimately, there was little they could do to stop those who wanted to leave from doing so. The healthy transfer fees Tottenham were able to get for Bale, Berbatov and Keane will have been anticipated as a by-product of their contract lengths, but as their team missed these important players, it provided little consolation.

While it is reasonable to be skeptical about player statements professing commitment to what to them is just a job, there does appear to be a belief among Spurs' employees in this project. Something that is being backed by the encouraging results and performances from last season and early on in this campaign—none of the aforementioned ex-players came as close to taking the Lilywhites to a title challenge.

A difference with this generation, too, is they have seen what those before were able to do. In a Premier League environment as competitive as it has ever been, Spurs are close to as good a destination as any to try to achieve success.

"When I first came here, in my head, the plan was to stay for the long run, it wasn't a stepping stone to get me somewhere else or to go from one (club) to another, I signed here to stay here," Walker told the club's official website after his own contract renewal. "Now we as players have to drive this club to where we should be and where we know we can be."

Pochettino is obviously a significant factor in such aspirations. His vision has brought these players together and turned them into a side that look capable of competing for major honours.

The Argentinian and his coaching staff signed new five-year contracts of their own in May. It ended speculation linking him with the likes of Paris Saint-Germain (per the Guardian) and rumors linking him to Manchester United (per the Sun), and his talk of his team's "massive potential" and the hope "to win trophies" suggested he has more invested in Spurs than it being a showcase for his coaching ability, per the club's website.

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Since mentioned (per La Nacion, h/t BBC Sport) for the Argentina national team job and asked about one day coaching England, Pochettino has reiterated his commitment to Tottenham. Although open to it one day, he said "now is impossible."

"We sign a new contract, five-year contract here. I think it's not my moment, not only in England, but in Argentina too," he added. 

If his players are also buying into his philosophy, he is benefiting from having such options at his disposal, too. Experienced international players such as Toby Alderweireld and Hugo Lloris, as well as young talents like Harry Kane and Heung-Min Son are of the calibre not easily recruited and amassed everywhere—the Spurs academy that has produced players like Kane is certainly of rare quality in English football right now.

Moving forward, the general strains of competition could be challenged further by the redevelopment of Tottenham's White Hart Lane stadium. But even then it is not looking as restricting an undertaking as Arsenal's move from Highbury to the Emirates Stadium was—as excellently explored by this piece on The Spurs Report blog—with the increased Premier League television money also levelling things in a way that was not the case a decade ago.

The new stadium being finished without a hitch, along with the club's impressive Hotspur Way training ground, will offer attractions to players few clubs can match. Pochettino has spent over two years getting this squad how he wants it. Things are in place for him to continuing honing and developing it, whether in sustaining success or continuing to strive for it.

But having said all this, the prospect of the 44-year-old one day being lured by a different job is certainly there.

If he wins trophies with Tottenham a fresh challenge may appeal. If he does not or the team suffers at any point, perhaps the club's hierarchy will take the decision out of his hands. Heck, the worrying increase in xenophobia in England under its post-EU referendum, Conservative government may be so intolerable he and some of his players decide to leave regardless—that is if they are not forced to leave.

Players like Alli and Kane will almost certainly draw interest from top European clubs. Especially if they perform well in the Champions League this season.

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But for now, if Pochettino and his players really believe in themselves and each other, their inclination should and likely will be to prove their qualities at Tottenham.

"In football, it's a lot about belief and we have some strong basics that we are building up now from the beginning of the Mauricio Pochettino era," captain Lloris pointedly told Tottenham's website after the Manchester City game. "I think we're improving every week, every month. Our team is still young but there is a big appetite here, we are all hungry to get great performances."

Bringing success to a club without a league title in over 50 years would be an extraordinary achievement. They need only look at how much winning the Premier League meant to Leicester fans. All of those involved will always be regarded as legends in the east Midlands, and beyond.

On the eve of the 2016-17 season, Pochettino was asked if he thought Tottenham could win the title and he pointed to the Foxes. "If you ask Leicester last season in the same period, why not, no?"

Similar could be argued regarding all these assets with the north London club. If you are good enough to be successful with a Manchester United or Real Madrid, why not Tottenham?

Quotes obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted.

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