In the not-too-distant future, if the human wrecking balls that bulldoze their way around Milanese boardrooms have their way, the San Siro will be no more.
With its demolition, what will disappear? Not just 11 concrete towers which stand as a monument to almost a century of history, but the home of some of European football’s great nights – including for Tottenham, who can cast their minds back 12 years to the site of some of their warmest Champions League memories. The vision of Aaron Lennon wheeling away as Peter Crouch lashes in the winner already feels difficult to grasp. Lean into nostalgia, as they say, for fear of what lies ahead.
And if rumours in Italy are to be believed, and the ground is to once again hold the future of former Inter boss Antonio Conte, it is a matter that has to be settled sooner rather than later.
With every forward step Spurs take, there is another leap backwards. The win over Manchester City, and the celebrations of Harry Kane’s record-breaking goal, were as good as it’s been all season. Then came the crushing reality check that Conte’s Tottenham are nowhere near as coherent as they occasionally appear: a thumping 4-1 drubbing at Leicester that could have been even worse. No matter how fast Spurs careered towards another episode of chaos, no lessons were learned as the first goal went in, or the second, or the third, or the fourth.
Amidst all this, the Champions League offers some respite. In theory, anyway. Tottenham made it to the last-16 by the skin of their teeth, and still somehow managed to deceive everyone by topping the group; there is something fitting about that. Are they also-rans, or top-four worthy? It may take us a little while longer to find out.
The uncertainty surrounding Conte is not helping, with his contract up in the summer and talks understandably off the table in light of his recent surgery. The Champions League is perhaps one last throw of the dice, the competition that offers hope even to those so far short of their best – when Spurs reached the 2019 final, they had not won an away league game in the second half of the season.
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PSG and Bayern will kickstart the Champions League, and prove the Super League was never needed13 February, 2023Yet Glenn Hoddle, one of the architects of the club’s most successful European era, believes the Champions League cannot decide his fate, and that one way or the other, Conte’s future must be decided before the end of the season.
“To be quite honest, I think he’s got to be swayed one way or the other before that,” Hoddle said. “I don’t think Daniel Levy would allow that and I don’t think it’s right for Tottenham.
“[If it’s] Getting into the top four, you won’t know that until the end of the season, that’s not a good way for the club to plan. Communication has got to happen very quickly after he comes back from his operation. It’s like leaving a player at the end of his contract, expecting him to sign and then losing a lot of money – you’d have sold him a year ago if you’d known that. The manager is at the helm of any football club and if he’s not going to stay he needs to tell Tottenham, he really does.
“Then Spurs can say, if you can get the best out of the team [in the meantime], and we’ll look for somebody else – but at least they can plan. Every manager that goes in says ‘I need time to plan’. It’s the same for a club. It might be personal, it might be needing to go back to Italy. The players will get on with it game in, game out but people like Harry Kane want to know where the club’s going.”
So too will Hugo Lloris, their sidelined captain who watched Fraser Forster struggle in his place at the King Power, where the goalkeeper was joined in the treatment room by Rodrigo Bentancur, who will miss the remainder of the season after rupturing his anterior cruciate ligament.
The light at the end of a dire weekend comes in the return of Cristian Romero, who was suspended against Leicester following his red card against City. With that disruption to the defence, debutant Pedro Porro was drafted in, despite Emerson enjoying his best game in a Spurs shirt the weekend before; Emerson ended up replacing him after 75 minutes. Eric Dier was at least partially to blame for two goals, although the fear of losing Romero is a tightrope Spurs have become used to walking.
“Is he a good defender? Yes but at times he’s a very rash defender.,” Hoddle said. “It’s a poor habit, he gets himself booked so many times and it’s in areas of the pitch where he doesn’t need to be making tackles. It’s not like he’s a poor defender or he’s in the wrong positions, he’s a very good defender. But there’s these rash moments he has.
“He’s giving these free-kicks away and getting yellows when he can’t then defend like he wants to. He’s always tip-toeing because he’s on a yellow card. He’s a very good player, he’s a World Cup winner he’s got great attributes as a defender but that’s tough to take out of him. But if you’re going to get sent off make sure there’s a good reason for it, not in the opponents’ half. I’ve seen him getting yellow cards on the halfway line. Tottenham defensively are not the best team – we need him.”
BT Sport is the exclusive home of the UEFA Champions League. Watch AC Milan v Spurs exclusively live on BT Sport 1 on Tuesday 14th February from 7pm. For more info, visit btsport.com
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