Fate did no favors for Tottenham on Friday but so well are things going at White Hart Lane that a daunting draw with Borussia Dortmund in the Europa League won’t much faze the players, fan,and manager Mauricio Pochettino.
Never before in the Premier League era have Spurs run such a successful dual course on the league and international fronts. They are tied for second inthe Premier League with bitter north London rival Arsenal, and by routing Fiorentina, 3-0, on Thursday to win that series, 4-1, on aggregate.
Four years ago, Tottenham matched its best-everPremier League finish by placing fourth yet in the Europa League didn’t get out of the group stage. Last year, Fiorentina ended its Europa League campaign in the first knockout phase, but onThursday Spurs ignored the absence of Harry Kane — sidelined with a broken nose — to roll over La Viola into the round of 16.
“I think it was great,” Pochettino said.“We are in the next round which was the objective and we fully deserve that. The players were fantastic and now we need to recover our energy for Sunday’s match against Swansea. We showedcharacter and played very well. Harry Kane is very important for us but we showed we have players who can be competitive in every competition. We are very proud.”
The EuropaLeague-pairing up of Liverpool and Manchester United will draw the most attention in many pockets of England, but along with the stunning success of Leicester City, the job performed by Pochettinosince taking over in May, 2014, is a developing story that each week grows in relevance.
“What I like about Mauricio is he is a very private person but he has embraced everything that ispart of the club and the history,” said former Spurs defender Gary Mabbutt, a member of the squad that won the team’s last European trophy, the UEFA Cup, more than 30 years ago.“Earlier this season he came to a dinner with the chairman and lots of past players at the club and those sorts of things are all very positive.”
Pochettino, a former Argentineinternational, came to Tottenham after club stints in Spain with Espanyol and 18 months with Southampton. His only full season with Southampton produced the most points in the team’s PremierLeague history.
A fifth-place Spurs finish last year produced five fewer points than the 2013-14 performance under predecessor Tim Sherwood, who had been in charge only five months. Buthis eye for young talent– former academy player Kane burst into prominence by scoring 31 goals, teenager Dele Alli struck a brilliant goal a month ago against Crystal Palace -– andtactical acumen have Spurs poised to perhaps claim its first top-tier title since the legendary Tottenham team that captured the league and FA Cup double in 1961.
“Whoever he plays atthe moment, it’s players who want to play their best because they can see what is developing at Tottenham and what might be happening over the next few years,” said Mabbutt. “They want tobe part of it.”
Pochettino and his players have shaken off the occasional setbacks to stay in the Premier League race while also navigating the Europa League. Tottenham lost its seasonopener to Manchester United, then reeled off seven wins and six ties in the next 13 matches to push itself into the title chase, where it has stayed. It has just three league games.
“Ifthe people believe we are contenders I am happy because we have shown enough quality for that,” Pochettino said at the time. “Agree or not, we want to win the next game and take the threepoints. I always believe in my squad and my players. I believe we can win.”
Before the second leg against Fiorentina, he reiterated his stance to balance his priorities equallybetween the Premier League and Europa League. (Spurs lost to Palace, 1-0, in the FA Cup on Sunday.) He has expressed the same ambitions as those felt by the club’s ardent supporters, who haveseen London rivals Arsenal and Chelsea as well as the Manchester clubs dominate the chase for domestic and European trophies.
Only once in the Premier League era has Tottenham qualified forthe Champions League, and it managed to reach the quarterfinals in 2011 by beating AC Milan, 1-0, on aggregate prior to a 5-0 hammering inflicted by Real Madrid. The 1984 UEFA Cup was the last of itsthree European trophies; English clubs once dominated the secondary European competitions, the Cup Winners’ Cup and UEFA Cup, but the exponential growth of the Premier League and ChampionsLeague has diminished the importance of other competitions such as the FA Cup, which Spurs has won eight times.
In addition to the Liverpool-Man United pairing, there’s an all-Spanishclash between Athletic Bilbao and Valencia, which is managed by former England international Gary Neville. Two other Spanish teams are in the last 16: defending champion Sevilla(which plays FC Basel) and Villarreal (drawn with Bayer Leverkusen).
But no matchup is more intriguing than that of Tottenham-Dortumd, especially for a prestigious English club whose fans havesuffered through more than two decades of promise without payoff.
“I can understand, because our position in the table it is a very big opportunity to fight for the Premier League but,for me, when you’re in a big club like Tottenham you need to fight in every competition and every game,” says Pochettino.
“I don’t think too much into the future. Themost important game is tomorrow and the Premier League can wait for a few weeks. When you manage Tottenham, you need to try and win every competition and every game.”
For Spurs, thatmeans a league match against Swansea City on Sunday. It starts a run of three games in seven days that concludes with a North London derby with its bitterest rival, and then two battles with a Germangiant. For Pochettino and his players the sternest tests are soon to come.