The sense before the FA Cup fourth-round game against Manchester City was that Tottenham Hotspur were on the brink of a moment of real significance. That hope turned out to be misplaced.
If Spurs had won, not only would it have meant a place in the next round, but the result would also have acquired extra significance. City would have been the best team Ange Postecoglou’s Spurs had beaten. It would have generated momentum and belief in this team as they embarked on the second half of their first season together. Everyone would have got understandably excited.
But the reality was very different. There was no moment of significance, no generation of momentum and belief, no mass excitement. Spurs did not have a single meaningful chance. The whole performance was underwhelming. Tottenham worked hard but lacked quality in the final third. Maybe this game came at the wrong time for them, with James Maddison making his recovery from injury and Son Heung-min away at the Asian Cup, but no one associated with Tottenham will remember very much from it.
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It is tempting to wonder whether the most important thing that happened to Spurs on Friday was not this damp squib but rather what happened hundreds of miles away late on Friday morning, with the news that Jurgen Klopp will be stepping down as Liverpool manager.
It is difficult to picture what a Klopp-less Liverpool will look like, or even a Klopp-less Premier League. It is easy, though, to imagine Liverpool will go through a period of transition. After almost nine years, the challenge of replacing Klopp will not be that different from the challenge of replacing Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United or Arsene Wenger at Arsenal. There are no pegs to fit in holes like these.
Everyone is stumbling around in the dark. Postecoglou did not want to talk about the news. Pep Guardiola felt more able to sketch out what Klopp meant to English football, how he provided the competition that has defined Manchester City’s achievements, how football needs personalities like Klopp and will be worse off without him next year.
Whatever the world looks like after Klopp leaves Liverpool, it will be very different from this one. This moment of flux will present an opportunity to all those teams who have been jealously watching Liverpool, wondering how Klopp’s team have raced so far ahead of them. Tottenham are one of those clubs, but so are Chelsea and Manchester United.
One of the successes — among many — of Klopp’s time in Liverpool is about how a club can come together and seize a moment of opportunity. The first part is to appoint the right manager, someone with clear ideas that everyone can buy into, ideas that give the whole football club a sense of shared ethos and purpose. The second part is to build on that unity, to know that you have a window of opportunity and to be brave enough to jump through it.
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Think back to the start of Klopp’s tenure. When he took over in October 2015, Mauricio Pochettino’s Spurs were already well up to speed. They’d had two pre-seasons together and three transfer windows and you could see the imprint of the manager’s ideas on the pitch.
Spurs finished ahead of Liverpool in Klopp’s first season, and in his second, and in his third (Spurs finished higher than Liverpool in the 2010s eight times out of 10, as strange as that might sound now). If anyone was to break the grip of Manchester City and Chelsea at the top of the table, Pochettino’s upwardly mobile Spurs looked best positioned to do it. That Pochettino wanted Sadio Mane from Southampton in 2016, only for Mane to go to Liverpool and Spurs to end up with Moussa Sissoko, was an omen ignored at the time.
In October 2017, Klopp took his Liverpool team to Wembley to play Tottenham in the Premier League. Klopp had been in charge for two years by then, but his side still looked miles away. With Simon Mignolet, Dejan Lovren and Emre Can starting, they were cut to shreds by Son, Dele Alli, Harry Kane and Christian Eriksen. Spurs won 4-1 and it was the last time they looked so superior to Liverpool.
Two months after that game, Liverpool signed Virgil van Dijk from Southampton for £75million ($95m now). Two months after Loris Karius’ infamous Champions League final display against Real Madrid, they bought Alisson from Roma for £68m. With those two players in place, they swept all before them. By the time the two teams met in the Champions League final in Madrid in 2019, Liverpool were a high-functioning machine — every part new, every player perfect for his role — and Tottenham were starting to rust from under-investment. The next season, Liverpool won the Premier League and finished 40 points ahead of Spurs. Tottenham have never got close to them since.
Mauricio Pochettino and Jurgen Klopp led their teams to the 2019 Champions League final (Mike Hewitt/Getty Images)
It was Liverpool who seized their moment of opportunity, recruiting from the top of the market, making themselves the main challengers to City for the years ahead. Spurs let the moment pass, although some would argue the cost of delivering the stadium meant they never could have signed their own Van Dijk or their own Allison.
If Liverpool are to go through a long transition, entering another 2015 moment, then maybe Tottenham can capitalise and force their way back into the top four. Postecoglou reminded everyone in his post-match press conference that his Spurs team are still “very much in the early stages” compared to City, who are in their eighth season under Guardiola. But Spurs do at least have the first part in place, the purposeful manager who sets a clear path forward for the whole club.
In time, the question may become whether Tottenham can build on this early promise, something they failed to do under Pochettino. This assumes that the team will continue their progress under Postecoglou, but that is no guarantee. There may even be speculation linking Postecoglou to the vacancy at Liverpool, or to vacancies at the Manchester clubs when they arrive. Guardiola insisted after the game he wanted to stay for the last year of his contract and even floated the possibility that he may extend beyond that. But how much more attractive are other jobs than Spurs now?
The mid-2020s are shaping up to be a different time for Premier League football, not just because of Klopp’s departure. If the Premier League is as serious as it looks about enforcing its profit and sustainability rules, that is good news for the clubs who have always chosen to operate well within them.
Tottenham’s steady stream of stadium revenue and their controlled wage bill means they have given themselves room to put their foot on the accelerator when everyone else is switching to the brake. This is not just theory either: the evidence of this January window is a testament to that.
Take a step back from the weekly ups and downs of results and Tottenham look to be in the most secure strategic position to take advantage of whatever comes next. This club has missed opportunities to push on before, the opportunity that Klopp seized to turn his promising Liverpool team into a great one. Spurs must hope that next time, they seize theirs.
(Top photo: Chloe Knott – Danehouse/Getty Images)