Spurs Bore A Way Through

It is never pleasant to be booed and whistled at by your own fans, but that’s precisely what happened to Spurs as many of the large crowd which had gathered at White Hart Lane for the UEFA Cup game against Slavia Prague grew increasingly dissatisfied with their team’s performance against a little known outfit with the defensive organisation and attacking flair of Bristol Rovers, a rookie goalkeeper and an alarming tendency towards panic attacks on entering the final third.

Forget about the convenient claptrap that says all you can do is beat what’s put in front of you. What appeared in front of Spurs ought to have been annihilated, even by a side that hasn’t scored a Premiership goal since their victory over Sheffield United in the opening game of the season, and progress into the group stage of the competition courtesy of a Robbie Keane goal as late as the 80th minute was little consolation for a turgid, uninspiring and unimpressive display that fell embarrassingly short of even an acceptable level of entertainment.

The truth is that Spurs are dull in midfield and confused up front. They are missing Michael Carrick desperately and feeling acutely the absence through injury of Aaron Lennon. And there is no real evidence that Martin Jol has really made his mind up about who his best strikers are and how they should be playing together.

Or to put it another way, in spite of considerable investment in new players the promise of last season seems already to have evaporated.