Tottenham’s on-field problems are very different, and financial constraints following their successful stadium move should not be underestimated, but what they share is such stark inconsistency in results and performances.
New manager Conte does, at least, seem to be tackling this head-on and, with five league titles as a manager in Italy and England over the past decade, it was especially interesting to hear him address this issue two months ago.
“The problem is that you cannot buy the winning mentality,” he explained. “You transfer it day by day. There are players that are more open and they understand the process quickly. Other players need more time to understand this.
“Winning mentality, in my opinion, means when you play, I am ready to kill you and live. This is the difference. Defeats have to hurt you a lot. Not a little.” It is the sort of outlook shared by all of the very best managers and, even allowing for Saturday’s slip at Brighton, one that Conte undoubtedly embodies.
Can we really sense quite the same urgency at Arsenal or Manchester United?
Ole-Gunnar Solskjaer’s new contract last summer surely told its own story. This was the supposed biggest club in the world giving a resounding vote of confidence to a manager who, in almost three years, had won zero trophies and not seriously threatened to win the Premier League.
There was talk only in February of Mikel Arteta extending his Arsenal contract. That decision will presumably now wait but, even if Arsenal do return to the Champions League (a competition they reached 19 times in a row under Arsene Wenger), it is worth also recalling that Liverpool have never finished outside the top four in a full season under Jurgen Klopp.
Wenger and Klopp’s success is a reminder that, for all the dilution in a manager’s power, club cultures are invariably still built from the dugout. Tottenham, finally since Mauricio Pochettino, are surely now on the right track. We await, with interest, the impact of Erik ten Hag but the recent evidence at Manchester United and Arsenal remains decidedly unconvincing.
