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Сентябрь
2023

Ange: I’ll Take You There

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Football is all about the moments. That feeling. Bedlam as the ball hits the net. There is nothing like it, nothing can compare with a last minute winner. That uncontrolled explosion of joy and unity. It’s natural, unreconstructed, visceral. It’s ours.

Can’t explain it to anyone who doesn’t get football. I mean, if I say there is nothing to match it, am I merely revealing my drab, grey existence? I think of my friend Adrianna, who looks at me kindly with a mixture of bafflement and pity when I talk like this.

I’m right though. Where else can you experience such utter instinctive joy, made even more powerful because it’s shared with 61000 others, plus everyone at home who felt it too. It’s so precious. Few of the ways we express our emotions these days are spontaneous. The goal liberates us, frees us to be ourselves. In that chaotic tangle of limbs and the jerky carnival of celebration, we find our moment and rejoice in being us.  

Football at Spurs is fun again Everyone I spoke to said the same thing – you look forward to games now. Under the last three managers, football became something to be endured, now it is a pleasure. We enjoy it for what it is and what it means to us.  

The celebration police mobilised on social media. Of the all ridiculous manifestations of modern fandom, defining how to celebrate a goal is the most ludicrous. On twitter, I move like a Maddison, aware of what’s going around me and easily skip past obstructions to find my sweet spot. Live in the here and now and relish the good times. If you feel the game, you don’t think, you just do it.

Embrace the moment for all its worth. When it comes to milking it, I channel my inner Ange, the last one to leave the field, finally tearing himself away from the South Stand roar. I looked back up at the giant stand, a single pulsating being. Genuinely I don’t know what our position in the league is. That’s not what we were celebrating. We revelled in the rediscovery of good football, of our heritage. We delighted in the fact that the manager and players felt the same way. After the winner, the players ran uncoordinated in all directions. The same as us. Ange’s finest achievement so far is to reunite team and fans, to close the chasm JM and Conte opened up. They love it as much as we do. This team is a reflection of us, of who we are and what we want football to be like.

This denouement, though, had the added spice of the corniest of Hollywood sporting films. It looked like the bad guys – boo hiss – with their dastardly timewasting would win out, and that the referee – boo hiss – would have succeeded in ruining the game. We could be talking about S United’s admirable defending in the box, not only heroic last-ditch blocks but also cutting out space and covering runners. Instead, it’s all about calculated timewasting like nothing I’ve seen before. Spurs waste time. I’m not a betting man but last season, if we were a goal up with five minutes left, I would have put the house and the kids on Hojbjerg going down. But blatant slowness by the keeper, players taking it in turns to sit down in the second half while the rest of the side took on liquids and tactics from the sideline. The keeper should have got a second yellow but the ref, who was atrocious, decided against it, even after warning him and the skipper in the first half.

At one point it looked as if this would be the first test for supporters of the Ange philosophy, keep playing regardless of results, but Spurs kept going. We never stop, and they didn’t. They deserve enormous credit and admiration for such a remarkable transformation is such a short period of time. Total commitment to the cause, plus they kept their heads and played terrific football throughout. The move for Kulu’s goal, under intense pressure, is a mini-masterpeice of passing football in a tight space, all begun by what is fast becoming a feature of our play, Udogie winning the ball high up the pitch.

Ange works his players hard and doesn’t suffer slackers, yet has the emotional intelligence sadly lacking in his three predecessors to value them as individuals. Apparently if you treat people well, they respond well too. Who knew?

Richie knows. He’s been protected and looked after. On the bench but not sulking. His goal could have been portrayed as a moment of redemption and closure. Instead, his reaction was all business. I’m the striker, get ahead of my marker and head it. Job done, now get on with it. My kind of striker.

Bissouma was outstanding, epitomising our determination and drive. Romero has caught the eye this season too. He is thinking more about his game, where he should be and how he can combine with VDV. Son in the middle may work better away from home when teams have to come out and we can attack on the counter. Solomon and Kulu kept the crosses coming in but the United centrebacks lapped it all up. Johnson had little time to shine but the way he pulled that ball down and beat the keeper, disallowed but there’s mouthwatering promise and talent for all to see.




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