Page 28 - Soccer360 Issue 107

TOTTENHAM SPOTLIGHT
ABOVE:
Tottenham Hotspur versus Everton; Cristian Romero of Tottenham Hotspur celebrates
with his manager Ange Postecoglou after he scored for 3-0 in the 71st minute
RIGHT:
Tottenham Hotspur forward Son Heung Min is celebrated from head coach Ange Postecoglou
HERE WE
GO AGAIN
BY DEREK ROSS
Well, are Tottenham Hotspur fans ready and buckled in for Ange Postecoglou’s ’s second season? Will his second season mark a second coming and bring glory to the lane? The electrified foretaste of anticipation abounds among the hinterlands of the mind. Last season the faithful
bore witness to a collection of promising signs. The defensive high line, the clever interplay, the speed of movement, and the fact that losing Harry Kane had less effect on the team than a Neil Ruddock diet. The team couldn’t stop scoring. Indeed, half-way through last season only the goalkeeper had failed to get on the scoresheet. Everyone loved them. They loved Ange. They loved Son and even smiled benignly on Romero. Everyone raved over the footballing buckle being swashed. And the pundits loved the style. A football team conducting a celestial choreography as luminous orbs pirouette
amidst the ebony expanse. Those grey dull days of Antonio Conte, and Jose Mourinho were but a painful, forgettable chapter of yore. Ange Postecoglou was the new man occupying the aching hearts of Tottenham fans across the globe. Fans for whom winning something, anything had become
a scar of desperation of the soul. For more years than any of them care to be reminded, they had been locked in a tempest of anguish and yearning that had ensnared their very spirit in its unforgiving grasp.
And yet, for the first nine games of the last campaign Spurs were the most beautiful girl in the room. Son scored for fun. Bissouma looked like that commanding midfield presence that had been stolen away from Brighton. Romero took chances but not prisoners, Maddison surely the buy of the season, and then Mickey Van Der Vin, a greyhound in football boots, but who could play a bit and usually stopped anything
that crossed his or anybody else’s path.
26 SOCCER360