Neil Humphreys: Pochettino talking nonsense
Tottenham Hotspur boss risks losing fans with FA Cup dismissal
Mauricio Pochettino is wrong. History proves that he's wrong.
The Tottenham Hotspur manager has suggested that trophies do not build clubs. They merely build egos.
He couldn't say much else after steering Spurs through two cup exits in four days, but his polarising opinion gets to the heart of the game's overriding objective.
Those suited shells sitting in the executive boxes still operate under the misguided view that football is all about the money.
But the Tottenham fans who turned up for the Crystal Palace defeat were there for the memories. Memories build clubs, not bank statements.
Manchester United supporters can't remember every one of Sir Alex Ferguson's title wins in vivid detail. There were too many. But even the most jaundiced Red Devil can remember Leicester City's Cinderella story. Everyone can.
Similarly, older Tottenham fans won't recall every Champions League qualification, but they'll never forget their 1991 FA Cup triumph.
Paul Gascoigne's injury and redemption were plot points in a gripping narrative, a regular topic of pub conversation for the barren years that followed.
Cups need context, a context that Pochettino appears to lack.
This is the one time when the otherwise irritating nationality card could be played. The Argentinian's foreign status suggests he may or may not understand the sentimentality of the FA Cup, but he doesn't get the sentimentality of Spurs fans.
Tottenham needed a cup this season, any cup, any opportunity to visit Wembley for a legitimate reason, rather than as unwanted tenants.
And English football needed a club like Tottenham to win the FA Cup to remind jaded cynics that football isn't just a business.
They were queuing up to share this blindingly obvious fact yesterday morning (Singapore time), defending Pochettino for making seven changes from the League Cup defeat.
Despite having three of his regular front line missing, Pochettino still rested Christian Eriksen.
Speaking on Talksport, Tottenham legend Clive Allen said that finishing fourth was paramount for Spurs. That was the nature of the business now.
Pochettino said the same. So did others. That was the nature of the business now. Losing. Tanking. Playing weaker line-ups in a heroic bid to finish in a position that isn't worthy of a place on the Olympic podium.
PARODY
English football is perilously close to lapsing into parody by advocating the pursuit of failure. Being the fourth-best team in the English Premier League is a more laudable pursuit than being the first-best team in the FA Cup, because of the increased revenue involved.
Is it though? Does a nine-year-old daydreamer score a mythical goal at school and shout: "And Spurs win 10 million euros (S$15.5m) for reaching the last 16 of the Champions League?"
Maybe he does. Maybe we all do. We're spoon-fed this cold, financial gruel so often that we can regurgitate the figures without thinking, without questioning, without any room for romance.
Top four good, FA Cup bad. We are practically Orwellian sheep bleating at the altar of greed. Where's the love of sporting victory here?
Of course, the much-parroted retort is Spurs require Champions League qualification so they can compete (actually, they need to pay for the new stadium that'll allow them to add increased matchday revenues to their TV cash, but let's not digress).
But why must it be one or the other? The top four or a trophy? The two aren't mutually exclusive. Tottenham are not AFC Wimbledon.
Even with their injury crisis, Spurs had enough in reserve to at least present Palace with a greater obstacle than a wet paper bag in a puddle.
And, incidentally, a key reason that AFC Wimbledon prevailed against West Ham United was the Hammers' ludicrous devotion to Tottenham's warped ideology.
Mid-table sides such as West Ham and Everton prioritised their league positions over a run in the FA Cup, losing to weaker opposition and essentially ending their respective seasons in January. Their approach seems all the more foolish when one considers only seven EPL sides remain in the last 16.
This is the cup context that continues to be missed.
Liverpool's disregard for the old silver pot was contentious, but more forgivable, considering their chase for a first title in 29 years. But Tottenham are chasing memories, victories to share with future generations. What else have they got?
The same as now. Nothing. They may still qualify for the Champions League, which works wonders for the club's ego, according to Pochettino.
But finishing fourth doesn't trigger the kind of rip-roaring euphoria that comes with a cup final win. Not that Pochettino would know. The manager has never won a trophy.
But he should know that open-top bus parades are never organised for clubs to hold aloft their ego.
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