Page 29 - Soccer360 Issue 107

DID YOU KNOW?
Postecoglou grew up in Melbourne, initially making his name
at South Melbourne FC and winning national championships including as captain and coach.
“‘ANGEBALL’ IS A WOVEN TAPESTRY
OF COLLECTIVE ARTISTRY THAT ENRAPTURES THE SENSES AND STIRS THE SOUL WITH ITS VISCERAL SPLENDOUR.”
enraptures the senses and stirs the soul with its visceral splendour. Audere est Facere is the club’s Latin motto. ‘To Dare is to Do.’ Alas, while there was plenty of daring, there wasn’t very much doing unless of course you include Cristian Romero who would ‘do’ anyone who came within six feet of him! And let it not be forgotten that the beautiful Tottenham Hotspur stadium screams it from the stadium banner, ‘The Game is About Glory.’ Yes, indeed it is. But for Spurs, glory is a but a starless sky and a continuing haunting melody of unfulfilled promise, a void that longs to be filled. Glory currently resides at Manchester City who have been drowning in it season after season. Liverpool still feels its warm embrace. Chelsea and Manchester United have taken long sips from Glory’s cup and Arsenal almost reacquainted themselves with its delicious flavour. For Tottenham Hotspur however, glory remains the missing child who not only refuses to come home but adamantly refuses to divulge his whereabouts. Through the empty years, team after team, and manager after manager has sought the
child out. Millions upon millions have been shelled out on the search. Missing persons were called. The police have been forever
on the lookout. Managerial bounty hunters were brought in to track him down. Nothing worked. Even a brand-new stadium was built to welcome him home and now Ange stands with arms outstretched, a father hopeful to finally reunite with the missing child.
WILL GLORY COME HOME?
Tottenham will play second tier European football this season and Postecoglou, like every predecessor, has been given more millions by Daniel Levy to recruit better players in order to finally find glory. Among the new signings the standout name is striker Dominic Solanke who has been stolen away from Bournemouth to start his new goalscoring career. Alas the club’s very first game of the season away to Leicester City reminded everyone that despite a slew of new signings Spurs haven’t forgotten how to snatch one point away from a certain three. And so, the crucible of suffering where the souls of everyone connected to this great club are forged in the haunting melody of failure upon failure, they still long for the object of their devotion to rise, phoenix-like, from the ashes of anguish. If you happen to see Glory, can you please ask him to phone Ange!
Contenders for the Premier League. Surely a cup and a Champions League shoe-in. Even Roy Keane was convinced, and Gary Neville regularly conducted a public love-in with the club on almost every occasion he was co- commentator on any of their fixtures.
The fans lapped up the carnival of front foot-football, the tantalizing glimpses
above the knee of the raised skirt of what might have been if only the club hadn’t
ben suddenly struck by so many injuries to crucial players at crucial times, and if only Romero could have remained a consummate defender instead of an unexploded bomb! Things fell apart. They always do. Goals and points dried up quicker than a free bar at a wedding.
ANOTHER EMPTY SEASON
Alas, as is so often the case in this particular corner of North London, the season
ended in yet more fractured remnants of aspirations, scattered like stardust across
the desolate expanse of disillusionment. Spurs have, arguably, the finest football stadium in world football, the finest training facilities in the Premier League. They used to employ Harry Kane who can barely take a leak without scoring a goal. They had Son. Not too long ago they had Luka Modric,
the finest midfield player of his generation. They had Cristian Erikson. They had Michael Carrick. They once had Kyle Walker who now hasn’t enough space in his home for all his accumulated silverware. They had Jose Mourinho. They had Antonio Conte. Serial winners who couldn’t administer enough medicine to cure the Tottenham virus of non-achievement.
ANGEBALL TO THE RESCUE!
And then suddenly the fans had ‘Angeball.’ And boy wasn’t ‘Angeball’ great to watch. And let’s be honest. Isn’t football played
at its best supposed to be beautiful? A woven tapestry of collective artistry that
ABOVE:
Ange Postecoglou giving encouragement to his team
RIGHT:
Dominic Solanke of Tottenham Hotspur during the Premier League football match between Leicester City and Tottenham Hotspur
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