It is increasingly easy to wonder if there is anything left to look forward to in Tottenham’s turbulent season — until you remember Amazon’s fly-on-the-wall documentary, which promises to be essential viewing.
The latest instalment saw Spurs crash out of a second domestic cup on penalties, throwing away another lead in the process, and the episode concluded with Eric Dier entering the crowd after the final whistle to physically confront a supporter.
The fan was seated in a corporate section behind the dugouts, with the players’ families, and is said to have been abusing the defender before becoming involved in a confrontation with Dier’s brother, prompting the player to scale the barriers and several rows of seats to intervene.
There is no doubt that Dier acted rashly in the aftermath of another frustrating night for Spurs, who crashed out of the FA Cup, but his manager, Jose Mourinho, best summed up the conflict at the heart of the situation when he said: “Eric did something that we professionals cannot do, but in these circumstances every one of us would do.”
Dier is part of a tight family unit and his desire to defend his younger brother, who visited the Spurs dressing room afterwards, was easy to understand on a human level, if not condone on a professional one.
There is an ‘anything goes’ approach to abuse among some English football supporters, who feel empowered to say what they want to players from the safety of the stands.
The only thing seemingly off-limits is discrimination and the shameful rise of racist incidents in English football has perhaps left supporters feeling even more legitimised to hurl other kinds abuse.
Until there is a crackdown on behaviour and a fundamental shift in fan culture, incidents like Wednesday night’s are possible.
Given English football’s too-often toxic culture, the incident might have happened at any number of clubs up and down the country, but it also felt grimly symptomatic of a widening disconnect between Spurs supporters and the club, as well as a culmination of Tottenham’s troubled season and a difficult 18 months for Dier personally.
There was scarcely a club in the land more united than Spurs at the end of the 2016-17 season, as they bade farewell to White Hart Lane with an unbeaten season at home.
The campaign had been another glorious failure but there could hardly have been more optimism for the future.
Little by little, supporters’ goodwill has been chipped away at, initially during their prolonged stay at Wembley amid delays to their new stadium, and then as the realities of funding such a formidable project hit home in the transfer market, and the team suffered.
Once-loved senior players have left or gone backwards — Dier notably among them — contributing to a situation where Spurs fans no longer feel the same deep connection to their club and team.
That is not to condone the behaviour of the fan in question last night of course, nor Dier’s, just to explain that Spurs is a place sorely lacking harmony at present and it will be a massive undertaking to rebuild the bonds formed in early years under Mauricio Pochettino.
The situation long pre-dates Mourinho, of course, but the appointment of the Portuguese — an incendiary character who creates an atmosphere of productive tension at his best and bitter acrimony at his worst — has not improved the mood, with the fanbase now as divided as ever over the manager’s merits.
Mourinho sprung two surprises in his XI last night, handing third goalkeeper Michel Vorm the first appearance of his second coming and playing 20-year-old Oliver Skipp in the heart of midfield.
Making his first appearance since October 2018, Vorm was predictably at fault for Norwich’s 78th-minute equaliser, fumbling Kenny McLean’s shot into the path of Josip Drmic, who bundled home to cancel out Jan Vertonghen’s early opening goal.
While Skipp was a significant positive, it increasingly feels like Mourinho has essentially written off the season and he hinted on the eve of the match that he is using the remainder of the campaign to learn as much as possible about his squad.
Viewing Mourinho’s team selections as on-the-job trials helps to explain the presence of Vorm and Skipp in such a significant match, as well as his decision to keep Toby Alderweireld — his most trusted defender — on the bench and continue with Dier at centre-half.
Dier’s rush of blood felt all the more regrettable because the 26-year-old had played as well as he has done all season, bravely intervening to stop a number of Norwich attacks. He even buried his penalty — the hosts’ first spot-kick of the shootout — but now he is facing up to the possibility of a different type of penalty altogether.
