When Dele Alli wheeled away in celebration after scoring the opening goal in Saturday lunchtime's stroll in the sun against Watford, he did so against the unmistakable backdrop of construction. As a visual reminder it's a potent one. Something is building at Tottenham Hotspur.With each passing week, White Hart Lane looks closer to being swallowed whole by the club's new 61,000-capacity stadium. Currently it rests between the mechanical jaws of progress, a limp fish being toyed with by a steel shark.It is apt the new stadium is being built on the existing site, around what's already there. Mauricio Pochettino has taken a similar approach with how he has built his team. Having his players witness firsthand how the club is growing (literally)brick by brick, week by weekcould prove important over the summer. The prospect of playing there must be as enticing as the bright lights of Old Trafford, the Santiago Bernabeu or perhaps even the Camp Nou.Pochettino's doctrine of steady evolution when Premier League culture tends to want tomorrow yesterday is a welcome one. It will be tested in the close season. Tottenham are just too good, with too many good players, not to have serious questions asked of them when the transfer window opens.What's remarkable is arguably any of their first choice starting XI could attract the interest of a European heavyweight without eliciting too much surprise. It's difficult to make the same claim for any other English club, with perhaps the exception of Chelsea. Lest not forget Marouane Fellaini and Theo Walcott have captained Manchester United and Arsenal, respectively, this season.In part, it is their ages that make Spurs' players so appealing. Of the 11 that have made the most Premier League starts this season, only Hugo Lloris is over 30. Six of them are 26 or under. No other Premier League team has a lower average age.The world's biggest clubs will want not just Tottenham's players. As the architect of it all, Pochettino is likely spoken of in Barcelona's boardroom with reverence previously afforded to the likes of Pep Guardiola and Antoni Gaudi. To a man, unapologetic modernists with an unmistakable signature style of their own.Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy is facing the most important summer of his regime. At a crossroads, it may well prove the most important summer in the club's history.Depending on who you believe, the cost of the new stadium could come in at anywhere between the 450-million and 750-million mark. Charged with juggling the move with the expectations generated by probably the best Tottenham side since Bill Nicholson's title-winners of 1961, Levy has a clear choice to make.Does he want Tottenham to stay Tottenham, or does he want them to be something better'It is disputed whether it was Nicholson or his erstwhile captain Danny Blanchflower that in the club's heyday came out with an almost Wildean expression of what it is to be Tottenham: It is better to aim high than to succeed low. All we of Spurs have set our sights very high, so high in fact that even failure will have in it an echo of glory.The sound of cashing a cheque has no echo of glory.Pochettino, with his arm casually draped over the latest of his players to commit their long-term future to Tottenham, has become as much a part of football's visual vernacular as Arsene Wenger struggling with his zip. Over the next few seasons, it needs to be proved such long-term planning was motivated by a desire to build a side around these players, rather than simply ensuring the highest market value be met in any sale.It always seems to be a case of the tail wagging the dog when a Premier League big-hitter sells its best players to facilitatehaving the best stadium or the best training ground.The elephant in the room around the move is the fact Tottenham will play home matches at Wembley next season as work continues on their new permanent home. White Hart Lane has the second-smallest pitch in the Premier League. It measures just 100 x 67 metres. It allows Spurs' press to hem the opposition in. Wembley is 6 per cent bigger.It seems bigger isn't always best. Tottenham have won just one of their last eight matches at the national stadium. Pochettino said at the start of last season it should suit his side's game, as opponents won't be able to sit so deep. It hasn't transpired that way.In the European matches played there this season, the away side tended to turn up with the excitement of patrons eating at a top restaurant, chinos and smart shoes, while Spurs' players looked tired of the pomp and circumstance. They more resembled an after-hours chef eating fillet steak when what is really craved is beans on toast, the home comforts of White Hart Lane. Levy's judiciousness with the club's finances is legendary. As a negotiator he's second to none. He'd get 10 million selling a KitKat to Ed Woodward. Levy might be the Premier League chairman most likely to duck out of his round, but that's probably no bad thing when essentially your job is to run a huge business. No one wants a bank manager that likes a flutter.Over the past five seasons Tottenham have operated at a net spend around the 7 million mark, according to figures published in the Observer in January. To put that number into context the two Manchester clubs over the same period have a combined net spend of over 800 million, while Sunderland's 93.5 million outlay is looking just a little punchy in terms of value for money. For those non-Arsenal supporters falling asleep at the back, it's worth noting Wenger has overseen a net spend of 200.7 million. The Frenchman is perennially accused of spending the club's money as if it's his own. If that's true, no wonder he desperately wants to stay on. He probably needs the coin.Of course, the then world record 86 million fee Real Madrid paid for Gareth Bale in September 2013 has swelled Tottenham's coffers. Given how well both the Welshman and Luka Modric have fared since swapping Spurs for Spain, Real's hierarchy will likely be assured Harry Kane and Alli come from similarly good stock. Either would likely command a fee not dissimilar to Bale's.Not to put too blunt a point on it, in the words of Danny DeVito's character in Twins, "Money talks, and bulls**t walks." If Levy wants to keep his best players, regardless of how convincingly he sells the club's vision, he'll need to pay the going rate. It's only recently he's been wiling to break the 100,000-a-week barrier. Jesse Lingard getting a four-year deal at the same rate is presumably Manchester United's attempt to send every other less well off Premier League club into bankruptcy. Alli's agent will still be toasting Woodward when he's being lowered into the ground.I wrote a piece eulogising about Alli at the back end of last month. It's already out of date. He's better than any of us thought. Against Swansea City in midweek with the clock running down and Spurs behind he discovered he possessed the surfeit of self-belief that separates the very good from the great. There was a touch of the Paul Gascoigne about how he demanded the ball and effectively won the game single-handedly.He was as imperious against Watford. The way he glides across the pitch is an almost perfect opposite to the way he menacingly finishes and tackles. A hooligan ballerina, he recalls the words of another famous Ali: Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee.His curling finish from the edge of the box reminded a little of the type Terry McDermott used to score for Liverpool in the seventies. They'd sweep the ball from back to front too, just as Spurs went from Lloris to Alli in seven passes that spanned just 22 seconds. It was a 16th Premier League goal of the season. That's the same as Sergio Aguero.Obsessing over how young a player is can be as nauseating as an old person telling you how old they are on a loop, but the stat below unearthed by Bein Sports is, in fairness, fairly illuminating.It's not just Alli who has been among the goals. Son Heung-min's well-taken brace took him to 18 for the season, while Christian Eriksen has 11, and as many assists.In a Premier League season that at its onset was billed as being a straight shootout between the managerial Galacticos, it's telling how in April talk has already turned to who needs to spend what over the summer. There was once a time when managers used to be sculptors, willing to chip away at raw materials until it resembled what they were aiming for. Give one a chisel now and they'd probably make an SOS sign.Jose Mourinho and Guardiola have at least partially been excused for what have been middling campaigns in Manchester on the grounds a couple of transfer windows doesn't represent enough time to bring in sufficient Mourinho type and Guardiola-type players. Both terms are essentially euphemisms for ludicrously good and expensive. In fairness, the likes of Tony Pulis must have such an advantage given Pulis-type players are so much more readily available.Jurgen Klopp and Wenger, meanwhile, have also been chided for not spending enough. It's interesting how in comparison little has been said of whom Antonio Conte might look to bring into Chelsea next season, while the main transfer murmur over the weekend involving Spurs had them selling Vincent Janssen to fund a bid for Burnley's Andre Gray. Antoine Griezmann is presumably off the radar. Maybe it's no coincidence the two best-drilled sides in England are the two best sides period.Tottenham keeping their squad in tact will almost certainly take precedence over new signings. Pochettino would never admit it, but if he started next season with exactly the same players currently at his disposal he would probably be content enough.Few doubt himwhen he says his players are in it together, as he did at the weekend, per the Evening Standard: "All the players feel important during the season. It's not about who plays - it's about playing for Tottenham."The badge is the most important thing and we must always show that we are a team."It would be a travesty if this organically grown Spurs side were to be broken up prematurely. If nothing else, they genuinely seem to be enjoying themselves. It's probably a sad indictment of the pressure of playing at the highest level that so many Premier League players trudge off the field as though they've just finished a shift down the pit. Holding their hands over their mouths it's as though they fear they might break the Official Secrets Act if they are caught on camera blaming their centre-half for losing his man at a set piece.They might not have grown up together like Manchester United's Class of '92, but there does seem a band of brothers feel to the way Spurs' players interact. Ali and Son's choreographed handshake couldn't be any more infantile if they finished the routine by changing one another's nappies, but at the same time it's kind of sweet. They're like kids playing the game in its purest form, with mates. If they've never grown up, maybe that's not such a bad thing.Saturday's 4-0 victory over Watford was a sixth win on the spin, with 18 points and as many goals procured. A fair return given Kane failed to start four of them due to injury. It is now 11 consecutive league victories at White Hart Lane, with Spurs unbeaten at home in 16 matches (14 wins and two draws).It's often said how Spurs need to improve their record against fellow top six sides. What's less remarked upon is how bloody merciless they are against everybody else. Against teams lower in the table than Arsenal in sixth they are colder than a contract killer. Unbeaten in these matches, they have dropped just ten points against sides seventh and below.Seven points better off than at the same stage last season, they have the stingiest defence and third most potent attack. Spurs' goal difference of 42 means had Manchester United not conceded a goal all season they would still only be four goals better off than Pochettino's men.Chelsea's borderline pathological relentlessness will deny Tottenham a first Premier League title in well over half a century, but they are getting closer. It seems increasingly unlikely they will blow up in the manner they did last season when chasing Leicester City. In that sense the pressure is off. Leicester were seen as eminently catchable, Chelsea anything but.At least not this season. Next term could be a different story entirely.
Click here to read full news..
