Following the upheaval and struggle that both Tottenham Hotspur and Andre Villas-Boas have had to endure during the month of August, this weekend’s fixture away to Reading offers the perfect opportunity for the Portuguese to get his side’s league campaign up and running. But this month also represents the beginning of a new challenge on a separate front, in the form of this season’s Uefa Europa League campaign.
Europe’s secondary cup competition has seemingly evoked a rather mixed sense of emotions in N17 over the last twelve months. For some, its place on the fixture list represents a footballing migraine; a unwanted distraction that takes momentum away from Premier League efforts and pre-empts the death of the Saturday afternoon fixture. For others, it’s a genuine piece of European silverware that the club should be looking to respect and make a concerted effort to win.
Feelings towards the Europa League remain mixed, but there is a belief that attitudes towards the competition are certainly warming at White Hart Lane. The clubs’ last taste of success in the competition, in its traditional guise of the Uefa Cup, was a very distant 28 years ago – but the names of heroes such as Steve Perryman, Mark Falco and Micky Hazard are uttered around as if it was yesterday. Some feel that maybe winning the Europa League wouldn’t represent such a bad achievement after all. And they have just the man to make it happen.
Andre Villas-Boas’ may have a relatively short managerial resume during his time in the game, but one of his undisputable triumphs was how his Porto side triumphed to Europa League glory in the 2010-11 season. In an effort that saw him complete the treble in his first season at the club, his Porto side displayed a stunning level of maturity and attacking intent to win the competition, culminating in a 1-0 victory over Braga in Dublin in the final.
Those who watched Porto’s performance in a final, dictated by Braga’s preference to negate, may not have been overwhelmingly impressed. But his performance in the rest of the competition was a textbook example of how to win a trophy that’s often very much underestimated by teams on these shores.
Harry Redknapp made his malice for the Europa League felt on more than one occasion last term, and it can’t be denied that it has its disadvantages. The ‘Thursday nights, Channel Five’ chants, cause more of a headache for supporters in the necessity it brings in having to play league games on a Sunday, rather than it’s dubious broadcasting credentials and having to fly to far flung corners of Eastern Europe mid-week probably doesn’t do the team too many favours.
But the truth is that for a team of Spurs’ size and caliber, they should have had enough to get out of the group stage, even if they weren’t always fielding their first choice XI. Luck certainly deserted them during their campaign last term, especially in the home tie against PAOK, but their fate was perhaps ultimately dictated by their performance away to Rubin Kazan in which Redknapp fielded what was in effect, a reserve team, bar the presence of Jermain Defoe. Although one could suggest that giving youngsters such as Ryan Fredericks, Andros Townsend and Yago Falque a run out was admirable, fielding such a team away from home to the groups’ strongest team was in effect, writing the tournament off. A strong line up at home to PAOK was too little, too late for Tottenham.
It will be interesting to see quite what Villas-Boas’ approach is when his team take on Lazio at White Hart Lane in their opening Group J fixture on the 20th September, but you would have hoped that the Portuguese wouldn’t view the competition in quite the same way as Redknapp. If his side are still failing to pick up results in the league, the subsequent pressure could see him turn a blind eye to Europa League proceedings. But considering how well it served him during Porto, you’d find it hard to think he’d consider bottling it with Tottenham.
Because most importantly for Spurs, Villas-Boas has seemingly got the basics right in the cup competition, such as negotiating out of the group stage safely and grinding out results away from home. In 2010, AVB negotiated Porto out of an extremely tricky group, which included hostile trips to the likes of Besiktas and CSKA Sofia, undefeated with five wins and one draw. Even last season at Chelsea, however unconvincing it may have seemed, the Blues finished top of Group E under his stewardship.
From there on in, Porto knocked up an astonishing 22 goals in the knock-out stages on the way to the final as they produced some ruthlessly clinical football to see off the seasoned likes of Sevilla, CSKA Moscow and Vilarreal on the way. Villas-Boas knows how to win this competition and he knows how to win it well. An art of which many English teams have tried and failed to master.
There is often a pre-conceived idea that if any of the Premier League’s teams actually sought to take the Europa League seriously, that they’d come out on to. Yet in reality, this simply isn’t the case. In recent times the likes of Liverpool, Manchester City and most prominently Manchester United, have all come unstuck in recent years after fielding strong, strong line-ups. If anyone had any doubts about the pedigree of Europa League football, you need to look no further than the fate of Sir Alex Ferguson’s team at the hands of Marcelo Bielsa’s Athletic Bilbao side last year.
Because the prestige, the honor and jubilation that comes with winning a piece of European silverware simply cannot be underestimated. Of course, the Europa League isn’t quite of the stature of the Champions League but that doesn’t matter. Look at the footage of Villas-Boas’ Porto side from 2011 or any side that has won it for that matter. Witness the unparalleled joy and outpouring of emotion from the fans and players alike; that is what football is all about, as the great Danny Blanchflower said – the game is about glory.
Look at the likes of Perryman and the standing of that ’84 winning team against Anderlecht in the history of the club. No one is saying AVB will go down in history, but that is the sort of prize that’s on offer – long, hard history. A fourth place finish doesn’t have a place in any record books or trophy cabinets- but a European trophy lasts forever.
Spurs have the manager to achieve that success, in the short-term anyway. Andre Villas-Boas has had a tough time adjusting his side to Premier League fortunes and the undeniable truth is that it is a team in transition. A challenge for Champions League football must beckon but he can’t let the pressures of the league affect his outlook for Europa League success. This is a trophy the manager; the club and the players are capable of winning. And what better way to get supporters on board, than lifting it in Amsterdam next May.
How do you feel about a run in the Europa League? Do you not fancy a twirl with the Champions League’s unfancied sister or do you think it’s time Spurs brought some real silverware back to White Hart Lane? Let me know what you think on Twitter: follow @samuel_antrobus and bat me all your views.
