The problem at this club is that every time we qualified for the CL and won nothing it created either debate or this made up ideal that we didn't want to win things or we prioritised the CL over cups (despite going deeper, more often in a shorter period of history than any time before). When it is likely we didn't win things whilst being good enough to qualify for it. How that manifested into what it did I don't know, but it is what it is.
In evaluating Spurs you have to understand the context that we are unique in the last 30 odd years
- United, Liverpool & Arsenal got a 2 decade advantage on every other club in Europe by being in the right position at the start of PL & CL money, and all 3 have fudged up that advantage for periods of time in last 10+ years (context to keep in mind when judging Spurs, even with a 20 year advantage, it doesn't always work out).
- Chelsea and City simply threw billions at the problem, breaking rules and with no intention of even vaguely being a viable business (Chelsea lost more than a million pounds a week for the entirety of RA's ownership)
In that context you had Spurs, coming out of a dreadful 90's, brick squad, brick training ground, undersized stadium, lacking the revenue resources of the others above, having to fight the losing your best players as soon as they hit a certain level, and (big part) trying to build that success organically and as a viable business model. To put in context, the ask was
- Rebuild academy and training ground
- Get into Europe (think BMK was first/second time in 20 years?), and the pressure that comes on squad with that (see how Saudi Sportswashing Machine/Villa/other have struggled)
- Establish ourselves as part of top group (top 6 instead of Sky 4)
- Get in a position where you don't have to sell your best players
- Make up a revenue gap to top 4 where you can financially compete for the long term (something Saudi Sportswashing Machine, Villa, West Ham, Leicester have all failed to do)
- Build a new Stadium (something United, Chelsea, Liverpool have all failed to address and is still outstanding)
- Build a squad capable of competing with the best in the world without the glamour/funds to attract the best players
- Get the manager and associated things around the squad right
- And in all of that, you have to add in the unique Spurs things, get our best squad & manager just at the point where we have the least revenue with stadium spend and have to play almost two seasons "away" from home, get the stadium ready to deliver revenue and get 2 years of Covid.
It's all perspective, lots of people say Spurs has failed, sometimes I look back and say it's a fudging miracle we got as close as we did, while having not sacrificed our future, we may have to find a new manager, we may have to spend on the squad but a lot of the infrastructure, revenue and establishing ourselves (we are a regular European contender, we do challenge for top 4) has been done. Villa will fade back in a couple of years, as will others because it isn't about the moment (and yes, the clear criticism of the club was the lack of risk, the pivot to long term over any short term), it's about who will compete in 5-10 years.
