24/25 Season Preview 20 in 20 - Tottenham Hotspur

Ange Ball. Spurs Gaffer Ange Postecoglou was born in Greece but grew up in Australia where he played and coached professional soccer - and won everywhere he went including when he led the Australian National Team in 2013-2017 as manager. He made his way to the UK when he spent two seasons at Scottish Club Celtic where he won FIVE trophies. Ange has a distinctive style: Attacking play, from out of the back and encouraging players to play bravely and take risks, even if that leads to mistakes. We saw this last season as Spurs created a ton of chances but also allowed a ton. Notably, when Spurs went down to 9 men after 2 red cards against Chelsea, Ange encouraged his players to stay in attacking mode and Chelsea scored late and often winning 4-1. Ange took some heat, but it also sent a message to his players on his desire to focus on the attack.

It’s Always Sonny. Heading into last season the question was what would happen with Harry Kane and, if he left, how would Spurs score. Well, he did leave a couple games into the season, yet Spurs went W8 D2 in their first 10 matches. A lack of depth and injuries saw Spurs struggle throughout the remainder of the season, but they were good enough to finish fifth and qualify for the Europa League and it also allowed others to take a step forward, most notably Son Hueng-min who took over the Captaincy and thrived. Son scored 17 goals and clearly earned the respect of his teammates and the fans in his new leadership role. He will be a key player for Spurs this season.

Buy. Buy. Buy. It seems Spurs are rumored in more acquisition targets than any other team. Will be interesting to see what materializes. Ivan Toney (Bees), Conor Gallagher (Chelsea), Eberechi Eze (Palace), and Jacob Ramsey (Villa) are just a few targets.

Measuring Success. Spurs have had a run of qualifying for 15 of 16 European competitions, with the best result coming in 2019 when they fell in the Finals of the Champions League. Two years ago, Spurs finished a disappointing 8^th place in the PL with no Europe, so last season’s fifth place without Kane and with a new manager was a pleasant surprise for fans. How-ev-ah, with Arsenal’s resurgence the last two season, and challenging for the PL title, Spurs fans will not be satisfied with finishing behind the Gunners. In fact, when Spurs played City late in the season the home fans were vocal about their team losing so Arsenal would not win the league. That pissed off Ange, and he was vocal about it. Will be interesting to see how the relationship with the players, fans and Ange are this season - winning solves many problems, but it seems if Spurs win 36 of 38 matches but lose 2 to Arsenal the fans will not be happy.

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