The last time I went to The Lane, there was snow in the air, Tottenham Hotspur won thanks to a Gareth Bale screamer. Rafa (Rafael van der Vaart) strolled around being Rafa. Luka (Modric) bewitched everyone in the ground - a real player. ‘Arry (Harry Redknapp) barked out instructions.
Fast forward nearly five years to the opening Premier League home game. Sun in the air. Fans in shorts, drinking pints, slipping out into the High Road sunshine. New shirts, all of them bearing the name KANE. Optimism abounds.
While the bulldozers slowly do their work behind the stadium, nothing inside the ground has changed. The same faces. The same songs. The same excitement and buzz. The same chatter. “Pitch looks good…. what about Arsenal and the ‘Ammers!... This is our year”. Years have passed but it’s instantly familiar. Reassuring.
On the pitch, it’s all change. A new local hero. A new impish European playmaker. A new style. More possession and patience than pace and power.
The opponent on this glorious North London day, Stoke City. Much changed. More Barca-on-Trent, than the Butchers of the Britannia. Silk has won the battle with steel.
But in a raucous opening twenty minutes, you couldn’t tell. Spurs dominated. Eriksen drifted into space, probing and teasing, testing Butland early. Kane, after the genius of Glenn Hoddle and Teddy Sheringham in the famed number 10, was all industry and clear touches. Ryan Mason, wearing Gazza’s number eight, was having a stormer. A goal had to come.
Eric Dier supplied it. From a set piece no less. Wouldn’t have happened to the old Stoke.
But as the game wore on, the problems began to appear. So did the grumbles around me. ‘What’s he doing? Take it forward! What’s Dembele doing? Why’s he done that?!'
Kane was withdrawing from the game, well shackled by Geoff Cameron. Mame Biram Diouf should have punished poor marking.
And then from nowhere, on the stroke of half time, Mason has an instinctive shot superbly saved. Moments later Ben Davies broke, found Nacer Chadli and 2-0. Relief in the Park Lane end. Now the talk was 'How many?'
But it was not to be.
Pochettino divides opinion at Spurs. For a student of tactics, it’s fascinating watching his Spurs team. A 101 of modern football.
A false 9, inverted winners, split centre backs, a screening 6, a wide 10. But there seems to be no real convincing execution of these well-worn plans.
Eriksen, so influential early, was left marooned on the left. Dembele, frustrated with extra touches and a desire to slow the game down. Walker and Davies seemed restricted. Genuine width went missing.
And then the substitutions. Mason and Kane off. Stephen Ireland on for Stoke. And the game changed for good.
Ireland pulled the strings driving the Potters forward, creating the eventual equaliser.
Spurs were awful. No striker and no outlet to relieve the pressure. Chadli toiled manfully but was left with an impossible task.
Erik Lamela appeared but looks totally devoid of confidence. A ghost player.
The demise was inevitable. The only surprise, being that Stoke didn’t snare all three points.
The grumbles continued and Diouf’s goal prompted an early exodus down to Seven Sisters.
Some things never change.
