Ultimate Guide to Tottenham Hotspur's 2016-17 Season
The 2016-17 season is under way already in England with the Football League kicking off on August 5 and the EFL Cup subsequently. For many, though, the commencement of the new Premier League campaign this week is when things really get going.
Tottenham Hotspur's 2015-16 was, in many respects, their best year in a long time. The likely desire of Mauricio Pochettino's side to improve on it and start making up for its disappointing conclusion should fuel a similarly exciting follow-up from this talented, still predominantly young group.
As detailed in the following guide to Tottenham's upcoming season, the north Londoners have plenty more besides the central focus of the Premier League going on too.
Bleacher Report has already covered the key selection decisions facing Pochettino. Those choices will be made amid new demands and challenges both on and off the pitch.
One way or another, year three of Pochettino's reign will be a momentous one.
We begin our look ahead with an assessment of Spurs' summer transfer activity up until now.
New Signings
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The distrust some Tottenham fans have in chairman Daniel Levy's overseeing of the club's transfer activity will not have been eased by the news head of recruitment Paul Mitchell is set to leave. Although "mutually agreed," the questions the situation has raised about the hierarchy are unwelcome on the eve of the season.
It is a shame a shadow has been cast over the club's transfer business as the two players they have bought this summer are encouraging additions.
Manager Pochettino has reunited with his former Southampton midfielder Victor Wanyama. The 25-year-old proved a reliable Premier League performer in his two years with the south-coast club and should provide steady competition for defensive midfielder Eric Dier in particular.
Spurs' biggest area in need of addressing was in attack, chiefly alleviating the scoring burden on Harry Kane. With that in mind, they have drafted in Vincent Janssen from AZ Alkmaar, a Netherlands international striker who netted 27 times last season for his ex-club.
Though having a more mixed time of it than Wanyama in Spurs' International Champions Cup fixtures against Juventus and Atletico Madrid, Pochettino will be happy if Janssen continues to play with the diligence and forcefulness seen in the 6-1 thrashing of Inter Milan. He scored, created for others and showed an encouraging awareness of how a specific partnership with Kane may work too.
Outcast Futures
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There's only been one significant departure from the Tottenham ranks so far this summer (at the time of writing, anyway), with long-touted academy star Alex Pritchard joining Norwich City in the Championship.
Pritchard looked set to get his shot with the first-team last season after a successful loan spell at Brentford in 2014-15. Unfortunately, save for a late substitute appearance against Everton in August, injury denied him that opportunity.
With so many others excelling in attacking midfield in his absence, Pritchard’s chances were set to be limited (an unsuccessful loan with West Bromwich Albion after Christmas had not forced him back into Pochettino’s thinking either). He will now attempt to regain lost momentum back in the second-tier.
The writing was on the wall for the 23-year-old when he was not included in the ICC squad. The futures of Nabil Bentaleb and Clinton Njie, also left behind for the trip to Australia, look similarly downcast.
Njie is seemingly a pawn in Spurs' reported pursuit of Marseille winger Georges-Kevin N'Koudou, a protracted affair that may yet end without an agreement, according to the Guardian's Ed Aarons. Even if it does not, Njie may find himself a peripheral figure at best.
Bentaleb's prospects in north London look even bleaker after a miserable 2015-16 diminished his stock. The signing of Wanyama and Pochettino's pre-season preference for others like Tom Carroll, Ryan Mason and Harry Winks makes a departure for the Algerian just about inevitable.
Also possibly on their way out are Nacer Chadli and DeAndre Yedlin. Neither was involved against Inter Milan out in Oslo and are being linked with moves to Swansea City and Sunderland, respectively, per Belgian publication DH (h/t the South Wales Evening Post's Mat Davies) and the Daily Star's Paul Hetherington.
The Kids Are Still Alright?
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Pochettino's willingness to let some more senior players go is also testament to his faith, or at least hope, in the young players coming out of Tottenham’s academy.
Midfielder Josh Onomah made 19 appearances last season, and the 19-year-old has looked eager in pre-season to earn even more this time around. Harry Winks, 20, is less tested at senior level but has been around the squad long enough for Pochettino to trust him with a more substantial role.
Besides these two, this summer has seen Luke Amos, Dominic Ball, Cameron Carter-Vickers, Marcus Edwards, Shayon Harrison, Luke McGee, Will Miller, Kyle Walker-Peters and Anton Walkes all involved too.
Not all of this youthful contingent are ready for the first-team, but there are certainly a few who will be worth keeping an eye on in the months ahead.
Centre-back Carter-Vickers has received plenty of minutes in pre-season and may find himself called upon if older team-mates are unavailable at any point. The intelligent and confident Harrison, his confidence boosted by a goal against Inter, could be required if Kane or Janssen go down for any length of time.
Edwards possibly has the biggest upside of the lot. A skilful attacker with good vision in his dribbling and passing, the precocious teenager's greater proximity to the first-team will at least allow him to hone those qualities against tougher players on a daily basis in training.
Pochettino Attempts to (Continue To) Hold His Own Against the Big Names
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Slaven Bilic, Antonio Conte, Pep Guardiola, Jurgen Klopp, Ronald Koeman, Jose Mourinho, Claudio Ranieri, Arsene Wenger—the Premier League is chock full of big-name managers among the clubs who have been and are deemed likely to stay competitive in the upper echelon.
Pochettino has been largely under the radar this summer, with talk of his team's prospects and dealings at a bare minimum compared to discussions around, for example, Guardiola and Mourinho in Manchester.
That expectations around Tottenham (outside of the club anyway) are not so high is not a bad thing. Having even a little bit of pressure off their shoulders as they attempt to mount another title challenge could be helpful.
While he will not care so much about being recognised individually as one of the best of the aforementioned group, Pochettino will want his team to show they are more than a match for those coached by his peers. If they can do so again in a division only likely to be more competitive, his already burgeoning reputation will become even bigger.
Euro 2016 After-Effects
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Possibly influencing Tottenham’s hopes of a strong start will be how well their players involved in Euro 2016 react to their exertions out in France.
Most eyes will naturally be on the England contingent of Dele Alli, Dier, Kane, Danny Rose and Kyle Walker, who suffered last-16 defeat to Iceland after an uninspiring group stage. They will be keen to again ignite the kind of form that earned their places in Roy Hodgson’s squad in the first place.
Part of a so-called "Golden Generation," Spurs' Belgian boys had a largely disappointing summer too.
Toby Alderweireld and Jan Vertonghen will be looking forward to teaming up again at centre-back after the latter was required to do his normal full-back duty (once he has recovered from injury suffered in the tournament anyway). Mousa Dembele should relish being one of his club team's main men after taking up a less significant role in international boss Marc Wilmots' plans.
Add Kevin Wimmer and Hugo Lloris to the list of disappointed players.
The former's Austria side were dumped out early, though the young defender's own time should come again. The latter went to the final with the host nation where they lost to Portugal, leaving him likely more motivated than ever to achieve success at club level.
Despite suffering semi-final defeat to the Portuguese, Ben Davies' strong campaign with surprise package Wales could boost his confidence as he attempts to gain more playing time with Spurs.
Can Kane Keep on Firing?
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Kane headed into the summer having won the Premier League Golden Boot after scoring 25 times in 2015-16.
The first English winner since Kevin Phillips in 1999-2000, Kane impressively improved upon his second-place finish a year earlier. His feat was again all the more notable for the fact he only really started scoring the best part of three months into the season.
The striker will hope to start firing a lot sooner this time but will face stiff competition for the award.
Manchester City's Sergio Aguero and Leicester City's Jamie Vardy were joint-runners up last season with the likes of Romelu Lukaku (Everton) and Olivier Giroud (Arsenal) following not far behind. All should continue to be important players for their respective teams.
Add to that new faces like Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Manchester United) and someone like Liverpool's Daniel Sturridge, who is attempting to make up for lost time, and Kane will do very well to repeat as top scorer.
Treading the Disciplinary Line
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Tottenham begin the season without Dembele as he serves the remainder of a six-match ban following an incident of "violent conduct" in the fiery London derby draw with Chelsea in May.
Pochettino's team well and truly lost the plot that night, with the provocations of the Blues too much to resist as they fought to keep their title battle with Leicester alive.
While some fans enjoyed seeing the players kick a few lumps out of their Chelsea counterparts, the misplaced aggression was counter-productive.
For so much of the season Spurs had played tough football in the right way. They got stuck into opponents with the aim of making them uncomfortable and dispossessing them, ideally catching them out in areas they could be swiftly punished.
Petty fouling achieved the opposite.
Pochettino will want his team to play aggressively again. But with teams having seen how they responded in the decisive moments of last season, how they tread the disciplinary tightrope will be fascinating to see.
November in particular could be a powder-keg month. Spurs face major London rivals Arsenal (on Bonfire Night no less), Chelsea and West Ham United.
8 Years and Counting Without a Domestic Cup
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Tottenham were dumped out of the Capital One Cup in the third round last season and in the fifth in the FA Cup.
Those defeats to Arsenal and Crystal Palace were made up for by a decent Europa League run and, of course, their heady exploits in the league.
But without a major trophy in eight years now, Spurs are close to matching the nine-year silverware drought that preceded that 2008 Carling Cup success.
Winning competitions is not easy by any means. That Pochettino almost managed to do it in his first season when they lost the League Cup final to Chelsea was a decent achievement.
This talented young team is in need of some validation, though.
Spurs will not want to take away from greater ambitions elsewhere, but they surely most not overlook what may be their best opportunities at winning something.
Return to the Champions League
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A title challenge and a crack at the cups will, at least up until Christmas, be accompanied by a return to Champions League football in only their second appearance in the competition since the 1960s.
Tottenham's last run back in 2010-11 was a memorable one indeed, with the likes of Gareth Bale, Luka Modric and Rafael van der Vaart lighting up notable victories over Twente, Inter and AC Milan.
After taking half a decade to get back there, the north Londoners will be keen to create similar memories and at least make their way out of the group stage. The challenge being to do this while not detracting from domestic affairs, something they certainly struggled with latterly last time out.
Spurs will find out their opponents in the next few weeks and will play their first match on the week of 13-14 September.
Que Sera Sera...Spurs at Wembley
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For at least three of those Champions League nights this season, Tottenham will be playing at Wembley Stadium.
"This will be necessary in order to meet UEFA requirements, which will be impacted by the works in and around the current stadium affecting access, capacity and rights delivery," the club confirmed on their official website in May. It will also serve as a taster of what is to come.
"As we shall be required to vacate White Hart Lane to complete the latter stages of our new stadium and surrounding environs, the agreement additionally provides an option to play all our Premier League and cup home games at Wembley Stadium for the 2017/18 season."
Spurs have had mixed success at the new Wembley.
They won the 2008 League Cup there but have lost two finals in that competition since as well as suffering defeat in two FA Cup semi-finals.
Spurs fans will be sure to pack it out, though, and at least for now the special nature of the occasions may prove more inspiring than restricting. Perhaps creating a few nights to rival those experienced on the ground in decades past—Bill Nicholson's cup-double team, Ricky Villa, Paul Gascoigne and all that.
Farewell White Hart Lane (Sort Of)
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With the stadium redevelopment well under way, this will be Tottenham's final season at White Hart Lane as they know it.
Construction has already meant the corner where the Paxton Road End and the East Stand meets has already been taken out—as can be seen via the club's most recent update of works.
Reduced numbers will have some impact on atmosphere. If nothing else, the matchday experience will certainly be a different one for players and fans alike (means for non-season ticket holders to purchase seats are now subject to a ballot system).
On the flip-side, the last games in this version of White Hart Lane—together since previous redevelopments were completed in the late 1990s—will hopefully provide some positive lasting memories before the club moves into a new era.
Pochettino and this Tottenham team are certainly capable of providing them.
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