Oh. Spurs. I can't help but admire West Brom and their manager's heart and cleverness in finding the ways to get the most out of them. Still... Oh. (facepalm) Spurs.
There was a brief moment there where it looked like Spurs might finish 3rd with a cup final and you could make it down another season of progress Perhaps a knee jerk reaction, but this season is feeling like a step backwards.
Don't know what is wrong with this group of players, when the pressure is on, they find a way to choke, regardless of the opposition. Is it the players? Is it the manager? A bit of both? We are undefeated against the 2 CL finalists, yet we can't beat Brighton or West Brom. Four games ago, we were 10 points ahead of Chelsea - 10 points! Fourth place should have been wrapped up already. Now we are barely hanging on to 4th. If we blow CL qualification, it would wash away all the progress we have made the last 3 seasons and severly dampen our move into the new stadium. And I think it would be fair to say the manager's position would be under question as well.
according to some supposedly reliable ITK on SC, Pochettino is wanting a significant pay raise, the uncertainty of which is (naturally enough) holding up new deals with some players. Levy will be (this is my extrapolation, by the way - the ITK stopped at the last bit) hard pressed to be able to make the same kinds of offers should Champions League earnings not be forthcoming. I don't doubt the incentive and commitment of Poch and the players, and suspect we'll win out (even though we've been a bit shit lately); but I have no difficulty whatsoever seeing the whole thing coming apart if we don't qualify. and here's the weird part: I'm not really all that bothered. maybe it's the time of year. maybe it's that things are particularly shit at work and I've got more important* stuff to worry about. but my life won't change too much if we're scrapping it out with Newcastle for 12th. I'll hang on every result. It's Spurs. *scratch that. 'more pressing', perhaps, would be better. 'more important' ... ha!
The highest points total that Liverpool and Chelsea can attain is 75. The ceiling for Spurs is 77 which would guarantee a spot in the group stage. That requires us to win out. *insert laugh track*
The top 4 qualify automatically for the group stage, so it doesn't matter where we finish in the top 4. With 6 games to go, Chelsea needed to basically win out and hope we dropped points in at least 4 of the remaining games, which included Manchester City, Brighton, Watford, West Brom, Newcastle and Leicester. Ok, City you can understand, but if you had told me we would drop points in 3 games against Brighton, West Brom, Newcastle and Leicester, I would have said no way, even with our history of collapsing down the stretch. Yet now, the unthinkable seems quite possible.