Someone on the commentary team said it best - in response to the other bloke saying Villa had rested seven, he snapped back saying we'd been playing with 15+ players out for the entire season.
It's the little things like that, which start popping up around the place, that indicate that the clouds are clearing. Because at last, someone's defending a club that has been put through the wringer for a year without anyone to defend them or put their interests first.
In most cases, a club's first defenders are the owners and executives - they set the public standard, and then everyone else follows. But our owners and executives are abysmal, so that route is out of the question. At this club, for 20+ years, the man who has to defend the club and make it believe, is the manager. Everyone in the ecosystem - players, fans, media and onlookers - take their cue from the manager, since he's the club's only spokesperson.
It's a uniquely high-pressure role, and managers have commented on it in the past - most notably Conte, who questioned why he was always the one who had to answer questions in times of crisis. But it is the role of a Spurs manager nonetheless. Be a political messiah, set the message.
Managers who don't stand up for the club and its players suffer, because the ecosystem is relentless at kicking us when we're down. Ange said it best - Spurs does weird things to people, and there's no shortage of people willing to put the boot in. Which then saps everyone's confidence, and the cycle worsens. Frank was the epitome of this - he was a decent coach, but by refusing to be a political communicator, to stand up for the club and instill a vision everyone could buy into, he doomed himself.
By contrast, the managers that succeed are the ones willing to be the club's figurehead, who sets its vision and defends it to the world. Poch was the most famous example. Ange, too. You need to believe, so others can take their cue from you and believe, too.
And de Zerbi, personal flaws aside, seems to be one in that mould. He's kept to his message of the players being better than they are showing, that we can win 5 games on the trot, that the club should think of itself as a big club expecting to win, not relegation battlers. And finally, it's filtering through - to the players, who look like they believe. To the fans. And, finally, to the media ecosystem used to savaging us without reply.
Long way to go, and we could well go down. And personally I don't think I'll warm to de Zerbi.
But he understands what it means to be a Spurs manager. It isn't like any other job. You need to believe, even when the whole world doesn't. And from what I've seen, de Zerbi does. And combined with his tactics and coaching, it's showing results.
Good on him.
