Just before 1.30pm on Saturday, on the corner of Brereton Road, two men stretched to display a homemade banner reading âBuilt a business, killed a football clubâ. While Sheffield Wednesday and Morecambe peer into the abyss, Change For Tottenham were âhere in the hope to push the club into making serious transfers to strengthen our squad, to enable us to challenge on all frontsâ.
Fans filing into the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium ignored them as only Londoners can, as though their pessimism might be contagious. When their arms and anger tired, the banner was draped limply over a bollard. Stonewall it was not.
Newsletters
Sign up to hear the latest from The Observer
Every Weekday
Daily Sensemaker
Clear, calm analysis on the stories driving the dayâs news
Every Weekday
The Observer Daily
The very best of our journalism, reviews and ideas â curated each day
Weekly
Food Weekly
A dispatch from The Observerâs kitchen table â from Nigel Slaterâs recipes to interviews, features and hot tips
For information about how The Observer protects your data, read our Privacy Policy.
Change for Tottenham demand âa club where football matters above commercial interestsâ, but also âinvestment in footballing successâ, presumably with money raised from some sort of whip-round. Tottenham have the fourth-highest net spend in football since 2019, spending £50m less than Paris Saint-Germain and £250m more than Real Madrid in that period. Levy wrote the playbook for how modern football clubs should be run off the pitch. It cannot have helped their cause that 30 minutes prior, reports emerged that Eberechi Eze was unlikely to play for Crystal Palace on Sunday as his move to Tottenham accelerated.
But as easy as it is to mock the protesting pair, their feelings are also understandable. Life in the Postecoglou family was chaotic and emotional and all-encompassing, but most of all deeply confusing. A first trophy in 17 years, and 17th in the Premier League. An inherently likeable man with noble, romantic ideals and a loose grip on reality and fact. Tottenham fans are institutionally predisposed to doom-mongering, far more used to and comfortable in crisis than comfort. Making sense of the neuroses triggered by one of the oddest seasons any football club has endured will take time. Cases of Long Ange are inevitable.
Yet throughout what became a joyous, rollicking 3-0 win over a Burnley side already in âyou have to fear for themâ territory, there was a distinct new era vibe in the air. This is the first season in over a decade without Harry Kane or Heung-min Son. Thomas Frank prowled around his technical area like a contemporary artist about to unveil a new exhibition exploring his childhood trauma. Richarlison not only opened the scoring with a sharp half-volley, but then contorted himself for a magical overhead kick, both created by Mohammed Kudusâs dancing feet. He had not scored a brace for Tottenham since February 2024 and Daniel Levy has spent the past year attempting to flog him to anyone with a few million quid and poor recruitment advice.
Spurs fans are institutionally predisposed to doom-mongering, more used to crisis than comfort
As Richarlisonâs mini-renaissance serves to prove, it is also unclear how good this squad really is. Constant injuries and constant Ange made it difficult to assess individuals last season, with so many seemingly playing closer to the floor of their abilities than the ceiling. We know this is not the 17th-best squad in the league. We also know there is significant unrealised potential. For all the often justified criticism of the clubâs recruitment, they have procured some exceptional young players. Lucas Bergvall and Archie Gray, both still 19, and Pape Matar Sarr, 22, all started on Saturday, the potential early days of an extraordinary midfield trio.
Elsewhere, Kudus, James Maddison and Dejan Kulusevski (the latter two both injured) would be one of the most interesting and exciting creative corps in the Premier League, even without Eze. Cristian Romero and Micky van de Ven are among the finest and most balanced central defensive pairings anywhere. Less than a year since his Tottenham career appeared over, Djed Spence has become a remarkable full-back.
Already 3-0 up, Frank brought on Dominic Solanke, Rodrigo Bentancur, João Palhinha and Wilson Odobert and Mathys Tel. Even if it is not perfect, this squad is deeper and better than many are willing to acknowledge, and Frank already has a proven history of rapid and drastic player development, of achieving well beyond his means.
The Champions League campaign will complicate things, as will the inevitable emotional and physical wear and tear of a Premier League season. Every day will not be as gloriously smooth as this. Yet in the heady delirium following Richarlisonâs acrobatics, there was a rare sense that all was right in Tottenhamâs world, that as effectively as he argued otherwise the worst of the clubâs problems might have been exorcised with Postecoglou. As much as fans understandably did not and will not want to admit it, perhaps he was the biggest problem after all.