Spursy

adjective

1. To consistently and inevitably fail to live up to expectations.
2. To have success within one’s grasp but to ultimately throw it away.
3. (?). A word that no longer applies to the team for whom it was coined.

THE evidence is mounting. It’s been nine and a half months now. Over 40 weeks of unusually sound decisions. Of performances in line with – or even exceeding – expectations. Of tangible results and steady, sustainable improvement. Of – shock! – investment.

It has been over 280 says since Tottenham Hotspur appointed Antonio Conte, and everything that has followed has been uncharacteristically well thought-out, consistent and decidedly unspursy.

After their 4-1 demolition of Southampton last weekend, as the curtain raised on the 2022-23 Premier League season, Spurs’ stellar start to the new campaign is in stark contrast to the apathy in which they were mired last summer and in the early weeks of the previous term.

Harry Kane spent much of the 2021 offseason agitating for a move to Manchester City. Tottenham admirably dug in and held on to their captain, but it was hardly plain sailing once matters on the pitch began. Nine points from their first three games and August’s Manager of the Month award for Nuno Espirito Santo masked the struggles that lay ahead for the Portuguese who’d been hired to replace his compatriot Jose Mourinho in June. A run of five defeats in seven matches meant Nuno was out come November.

The inevitable – albeit faster-than-expected – demise of an ill-fitting manager they’d been reluctant to hire in the first place signalled yet more disarray and disharmony for Tottenham. Spurs had been trending steeply downward since their 2019 Champions League final loss to Liverpool, a decline hastened by years of gross under-investment during the latter part of Mauricio Pochettino’s reign. And Mourinho was a gamble that didn’t pay off. The former Porto and Inter boss brought all his customary acrimony but little of the on-field success he once guaranteed.

Some might have felt Conte, as Nuno’s replacement, was too similar to Mourinho to wrestle Tottenham into a new direction, sharing a dictatorial, often abrasive man-management style and a heavily dictated tactics when out of possession.

But whereas Mourninho was a manager whose peak was in the rear-view mirror, Conte remains in his prime. At the time of his appointment he was barely a year removed from guiding Inter to a first Serie A title in more than a decade. Conte has been demanding from the off, even appearing to be on a collision course with chairman Daniel Levy early into his reign when desired transfer targets were not quickly forthcoming. But, organisationally, Spurs have followed their manager’s lead.

In fairness to the Tottenham hierarchy, their increased transfer spending pre-dated Conte’s arrival. Argentinian centre-back Christian Romero, who has so impressed since his arrival from Atalanta, was signed in the summer of 2021 in a loan deal to later be made permanent for in excess of £40m, alongside wing-back Emerson Royal for £25m and winger Bryan Gil for a similar fee.

Conte pushed for more in January, though. In came playmaker Rodrigo Bentancur and winger Dejan Kulusevski, both on initial loan deals. And both shone, taking lead roles in Spurs’ climb to a fourth-place finish last term, securing Champions League qualification for the first time since their defeat in the final three years ago.

In preparation for that return to Europe’s top table, Tottenham spent again this summer to round out their squad. Richarlison was signed from Everton in a club-record deal worth up to £60m. Yves Bissouma arrived from Brighton for £25m and full-back Djed Spence has come in from Nottingham Forest for £20m. Further continental experience has been added in the form of the versatile veteran Ivan Perisic, with whom Conte worked at Inter, and French centre-back Clement Lenglet.

PREMIER LEAGUE TOP SCORING TEAM – SPURS 8/1

Last season, Conte’s forthrightness and decisiveness helped transform Tottenham quickly. The Italian tactician instituted a 3-4-3 set-up similar to that with which he won the Premier League as Chelsea manager. Previously under-performing players such as Eric Dier and Harry Winks were transformed. And Kulusevski slotted seamlessly alongside Kane and Son Heung-min into what could now be argued – with Robert Lewandowski’s Bayern Munich departure and Sadio Mane having left Liverpool – is the best front three in Europe.

And so the new season has brought new and strange hope for Spurs fans, replacing the dread that had become familiar in the post-Pochettino wilderness years. The 4-1 opening-weekend victory over Southampton was Tottenham laying down a marker for the season ahead. They can’t be expected to end their 61-year wait for a top-flight title this term or, really, any time soon. Even with their upped investment, they operate on a different financial plane to Manchester City, and Liverpool are well entrenched as the champions’ primary contenders.

But, at long last, Spurs are doing the right things. Under Conte, they consistently and inevitably succeed in living up to expectations. Should success come within their grasp, you’d back them not to throw it away. On the last 10 months’ evidence, they are spursy no more.