POCHETTINO’S BIG VASE IS HALF EMPTY
Two fundamental tenets keep the Fiver honest of a weekday. The first? You’re only as good as your last frivolous tea-time football spiel. And the second? The next frivolous tea-time football spiel is the most important. As this is very much the present one, it’s hard to know where that logic actually leaves us, but one thing is for certain: you, Thursday reader, are the central person in our world for as long as these words trip from the keyboard. The only one. Our fickle Friday fans are nothing to us.
We offer you this commitment because, on a Big Vase night, the most clear-cut sound to reach the ears tends to be that of shifting goalposts. Roll up, roll up for… well, not all that much, but did you know we’re playing Everton at home in three days’ time?
Mauricio Pochettino was accused of not liking football all that much when he looked something less than mindblown by Erik Lamela’s mindblowing ‘rabona’ against Asteras last month, but it’s unlikely the Spurs manager meant to cause offence. No, it seems more probable that Pochettino’s mind was elsewhere: on an important match with Newcastle the coming Sunday.
That’s if his forerunner to tonight’s titanic struggle against already-eliminated Partizan Belgrade is anything to go by. Pochettino found himself suitably bored to look ahead to the impact that a straightforward workout might have on their bid to nail down more Big Vase next year. How might that noble cause be furthered? By playing their next league game on Monday, not in a mere three days’ time.
“I think it is a good idea maybe if you play Thursday and afterwards Monday,” he opined. “One day extra is very good for the players to recover because maybe you play in Turkey, Serbia or Greece and you arrive 4am. It changes your sleep and after it is Friday, you need to train, then Saturday, then Sunday you play at one o’clock. It is very difficult for the players.”
Spurs play Partizan at White Hart Lane, London, tonight and then face fellow Big Vase contenders Everton at White Hart Lane, London, on Sunday at 4pm. Pochettino’s point can be judged even more clearly when you consider that a whopping four of the players who started in their win at Asteras two weeks ago were deployed similarly in the subsequent Sunday’s 2-1 home defeat against Stoke. Six of those who started the home game that served up Lamela’s showpiece were in from the beginning of a 2-1 defeat to Newcastle three days later. And here’s the clincher: ONE – that man being Hugo Lloris – of the heroes who drew 0-0 at Partizan in September started the 1-0 home humbling by West Brom the following Sunday.
This tells us three things: one is that Spurs’ record after Big Vase really isn’t very good, another other is that nobody is being flogged to death here, and a third is that Pochettino is just not particularly bothered about what happens tonight. Do we have to link the three? The shift in training patterns isn’t totally convenient, but who exactly is being overworked? To these eyes, it would seem more apposite for Pochettino, after Spurs’ regulation win this evening, to feel thankful for the extra minutes granted to squad players and await eagerly the chance to get aboard the hamster wheel again after 66 hours’ rest.
But no. Perhaps you’ll remember the local newspaper interview from February when the then-Southampton manager said this: “In my opinion [Big Vase] is not an attractive competition. That is my personal opinion, I’m not talking about anyone else, it’s my personal opinion and as Mauricio Pochettino there is no interest in [Big Vase].
“I think it is a competition that kills you in the sense that there are a lot of mid-table teams that put a lot of effort into [Big Vase] and then are not able to do anything in the league.”
Maybe Spurs saw an opportunity to hire a manager who knew the job spec perfectly. Regardless, it seems better that his players give their rabonas a rest until Sunday. And perhaps it is advisable that the fans take a well-earned breather until then, too.
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BITS AND BOBS
Pelé has been moved to a special care unit in the Albert Einstein Hospital in Sao Paulo.
Wigan chairman Dave Whelan has been charged by the Football Association with an aggravated breach of its rules following his comments about Jewish and Chinese people.
Tranmere have said no to Ched Evans.
Jack Wilshere can look forward to putting his feet up this Christmas after being ruled out for three months following ankle-knack surgery.
Gurgling sounds emerged from the dormant volcano that serves as Fifa’s lair after three ExCo members were found to be under investigation by ethics chief Michael Garcia following his World Cup bidding report.
Marcos Rojo is back in training with Manchester United after recovering from Bryan-Robson shoulder-ouch.
Real Madrid have removed the traditional Christian cross from their club crest after signing a lucrative three-year deal with the National Bank of Abu Dhabi.
And Newcastle United Ladies’ keeper Laura Wareham added a few more years’ shelf-life to the ‘All Geordies a Rock Hard’ stereotype by playing on with a suspected neck break.
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