AS TOTTENHAM Hotspur’s players sat up to chatter excitedly into the small hours of yesterday morning, the emotion that underpinned the euphoria was shock. Having got the victory of their dreams at Manchester City to propel them into the Champions League qualifying round, comprehending it was something else.
Hope rather than genuine expectation has been their companion for much of the season and it certainly was going into the fixtures against Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester United last month. They would even have signed up for a draw at City, which would have left them needing victory at Burnley on the final day.
Yet there they were, after a 10th Premier League win in 11 games, one two-legged tie away from being Champions League players, breathlessly ahead of schedule.
There is a wariness, there has to be, after Everton’s experience in 2005. Having finished fourth, the Merseyside club drew Villarreal in the qualifying round and their Champions League adventure ended before it had properly started.
In Uefa’s rejigged qualifying format there is usually a greater chance that England’s fourth entrant to the competition would draw a team from one of Europe’s biggest leagues but Tottenham are better placed than City, Aston Villa or Everton would have been.
The draw is seeded on performance in Europe and, given that Spurs have played in the Uefa Cup three times since 2005, it appears likely they will be given preferred status.
Redknapp’s team will render such talk null and void if they were to win at Burnley and Arsenal lose at home to Fulham on Sunday. Spurs would then finish third and advance directly into the Champions League group stage. But Fulham have the Europa League final on Wednesday and their manager, Roy Hodgson, is unlikely to play his strongest team.
Tottenham’s chairman, Daniel Levy, will not move his club on to a Champions League financial footing, in terms of recruitment, until a coveted place in the group phase has been secured.
Yet Redknapp’s thoughts have begun to turn to the issue of new signings, with Chelsea’s Joe Cole, who could be the summer’s most attractive free agent, Michael Carrick of Manchester United and City’s Craig Bellamy on his wish list. Much was read into Bellamy’s high five with Redknapp after Wednesday’s game.
Lassana Diarra of Real Madrid is of interest, as is Ajax’s Luis Suarez. Sandro, the Brazil midfielder, has been added from Internacional. One of the by-products of Tottenham’s success is that nobody wants to leave. Luka Modric, for example, is determined to have a crack at the Champions League with Tottenham, in the face of reported interest from United.
Redknapp remained icy cool at the moment of triumph in Manchester and not only because of the barrel of water dumped over his head.
Through his laid-back man-management and tactical acumen he has turned fantasy into reality to dispel the notion that Tottenham will always find a way to fall short.
He has revived such players as Heurelho Gomes, Gareth Bale and Modric, closed the gap on Arsenal and given the club a future of tantalising possibility.
The new training ground and stadium have been signed off. So many of the players will only get better. As the magnitude of what they have achieved sinks in, Redknapp’s men will walk with even more of a strut.
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