The Curse of Ajax?

Two late transfer dealings may have kept Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino happy, but as the new Premier League season kicked off for Spurs on Saturday, the first half struggles that led to being 1-0 down to newcomers Aston Villa were papered over with a totally dominating second half display.   That second half featured two of the current Tottenham holdouts i.e. players how have not signed a new contract and are at risk of being allowed to leave on free transfers.

The interesting thing about the Aston Villa game was the shock exclusion of Tottenham defender Jan Vertonghen, one which the Tottenham manager did his best to play down.  What fuels speculation is that Vertonghen, like his Belgian counterpart Alderweireld and Danish midfielder Christian Eriksen are all at risk of playing down their contract.   The new signings from Real Betis include Giovanni Lo Celso and from Fulham includes Ryan Sessagnon.  These are both players with a future but both transfers are the subject of the extreme game of contract brinksmanship that Chairman Daniel Levy is known for.  There is a cost to such a reputation, because players agents can up the ante and play their own game.

What is curious is that the three contract hold outs all at one time or another played for Ajax Amsterdam.  Instead of focusing on the game against Aston Villa, which should on paper have been a simple 3 points was anything but and the game was surrounded by surprise that a defender like Jan Vertonghen was not even on the substitutes bench.  All three former Ajax players have one thing in common, they are all potentially very loyal players - but how can such loyalty end up with contract disputes which potentially are costing Tottenham as much money as they saving from the Chairman's haggling.  Maybe having burned by this tactic, the next level of contract game playing is sidelining players whose agents have advised them to hold out for a lucrative free transfer.  It is not player power that is being exercised here, it is the power of agents and the escalation of hardball contracting, where the savings are immense but long-term effects harsh.

This was Spurs first competitive match since losing in the Champions League final, a final that Tottenham were very lucky to play in because based on quality of team and play, Ajax Amsterdam were the team who deserved to be contesting the Champions League final against Liverpool last May.  Tottenham did not take their gift of an opportunity because it did give in to player power in the form of striker Harry Kane, who got his wish to play in the final though he had just come back from injury and this was first came back from a long absence.   Spurs were as ineffective during that whole match as they were in the first half against Aston Villa on Saturday.

If the value of hard bargaining made the team stronger then the value of driving a hard bargain is fully justifed.  Yet, Christian Eriksen could have been sold for 130 million pounds well before reaching the final year of his contract.  The moment his agent put the foot down on Daniel Levy, that was the moment to cash in on the player.  That move would have labelled Spurs as a selling club and cement the reputation of the team in providing quality players to the big teams.  With Spurs billion dollar investment into a state of the art stadium, the team has the potential to compete with the "Big Boys".  Technically teams like Aston Villa and Everton should be a part of the Big Boys but they do not as yet possess that mentality, much like Tottenham have not embraced the mindset of a champion. 

Tottenham are similar to Athletico Madrid except Athletico is holding on to their superstar manager and have made bold investments in the team and like Spurs in a new stadium.  It is Athletico Madrid rather than Tottenham who are more likely to win the next Champions League final.  The game of brinksmanship that Daniel Levy plays has achieved the build of one of the best stadiums of the world, but that build also carries massive debt obligations, but Athletico are showing how a team can build a great stadium but also improve the quality of the team on the pitch.  It is Athletico rather than Tottenham that Liverpool's less wealthier neighbours Everton are asked to emulate https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/lessons-everton-how-stadium-moved-16402807

One would think that what is happening at Tottenham in terms of investments should make it the showcase club in the world, but Tottenham got hit by Brexit, i.e. the cost overruns could not foresee what the British government decision to hold a referendum on staying or leaving would have.  Why would it, because when the stadium build contracts were signed there was no evidence that the British public would vote to leave Europe.  Had Brexit not happened, Spurs could have conceivably built two stadiums for the cost of the one where cost escalations went literally through the roof - and those costs included Daniel Levy wanting the design of the stadium to be state of the art - and Daniel Levy did become the architect of what today is among, and if not the best stadium in the world.  Thus we circle back to why Jan Vertonghen was left out of the Spurs team on opening day weekend.  That can only be to serve as a marker for contract hold outs.

It is not as if Christian Eriksen is a contract hold out, but rather he has set his heart to join Real Madrid, yet he is offering deep loyalty to Real Madrid which is not being reciprocated, because Real Madrid are holding out for Paul Pogba, who Manchester United will not sell, and Eriksen who could have been at Manchester United on opening day, said NO to them and it is speculated partly in honouring a promise he made to Daniel Levy.  The three former Ajax players are still very important players in terms of Tottenham's ambitions moving forward, but they are all reaching an age where they need to gain one more lucrative contract before retirement due to their age becomes the primary factor.

Aston Villa gave Spurs a brief scare before the new boys from the Championship began making the kind of errors that teams in the Premier League should punish and Spurs did, but they also showed that they do not possess the same level of physical fitness as teams like Liverpool and Tottenham, whose managers really make them work out in training.  Yet the real scare is what will happen during the next few weeks when the transfer window is still open for European clubs.  It is an absurd situation that the Premier League wanted all transfers to be executed before the start of the Premier League season, but the window for transfers for European powerhouses extends a couple of weeks longer.  As they salivate at players being dropped at Tottenham (even for one game) they will know that the hard bargaining Chairman risks losing all three of his former Ajax stars to free transfers, so they will no doubt actively sending out low-ball offers. 

The real test for Daniel Levy is if he can convince these players to sign contract extensions but why should they when their agents know one year sitting on the bench is worth more in terms of the deals those agents can craft for their clients.  If the opening day win against Aston Villa was more of a struggle than it should have been, the real test awaits next week when Tottenham go to Manchester City.  City will want to readdress the pain Spurs inflicted on them by knocking them out of the Champions League in the Quarter-Finals earlier this year - and also to gain revenge on another bit of good fortune Spurs got, which was the use of Video Assisted technology (VAR) where the video assistant referee disallowed City's last minute goal for the most marginal of offsides. 

Hopefully Vertonghen will be back for that, just as Eriksen had to come on because Spurs had no answer to how to open up and deal with a very fast breaking Aston Villa team.  With Eriksen the team looked much better beause it allowed them to play two holding midfielders instead of the three that started.  It will also be interesting to see if Lo Celso makes his debut against Manchester City and what we will learn about him when he does.  Ndombele whose currently is Spurs recod transfer buy did score the goal to level the game against Villa, before mistakes allowed Harry Kane to score two decisive goals.  Ndombele has yet to fit into the way Spurs team plays but he already looks like a world class addition to the team.  If Vertonghen, Alderweireld and Eriksen can see that adding one more year to their contract will transform this Tottenham team, then it is a question of how much more loyalty these three loyal Tottenham players can give to the team.  That loyalty needs a transformation of how Spurs negotiate i.e. not leave business until the very last minute.  For sure the Dybala deal could not be concluded because it needed time to work through the image rights issue, but that may be a blessing in disguise, because Dybala was not guaranteed to make this present side better, a side that needs first to to get together with the three new acquisitions.  An opening day win is what was expected and Tottenham did it, but now the question is whether there is the curse of Ajax sitting on the three former players, or if this is the start of something special.