AFTER the remarkable 3-1 win over Real Madrid at Wembley , everyone has been going on about the Spurs and their style of play. Some even say this was the best time to play Real as they were coming off a morale-sapping loss to Girona over the weekend. 

A win like this means a lot more in Europe than over here in Asia, where the majority of fans are fully paid up members of the Super Clubs like United and City, etc… Like I’ve said before, Spurs’ greatest achievement so far would be the fact that they have so far managed to assemble such an exciting squad and yet keep all their stars. 

In today’s market, most clubs would have been pressured to sell their main players or most stars would have sent their agents to negotiate for significant pay rises or else. This is what has amazed me so far; with a clutch of young English stars at their disposal, Spurs have resisted the big clubs which is in my books their biggest achievement.

Go back 30 to 40 years and you’ll find a period when a range of English clubs including smaller ones were part of a stranglehold on Europe. For all the current excitement we have to ask why it’s only an occasional thing now. Van Gaal was right about the rat race of the English game. In our era English teams just play too much for consistent impact to be achieved at Euro level.

England is the only country that has no winter break and only one of two with a second cup competition, that Premier League teams and fans hate, but typically adds 3-5 pointless games a year to top six squads, most of which coincide with CL knock out stages.

English clubs have the quality now, but quantity of games in pursuit of easy money is likely to continue to crush their chances in Europe with these stupid priorities. 

A win like this will not matter much if they go and get stuffed n the knockout stages where it actually matters. Group games are purely for the TV money and will not offer much insight other than placings. Real Madrid with all the talk of crisis will still be the team to beat in the knock-out but it’s always good for world football when the likes of Spurs upset the apple cart. – November 4, 2017.

* Gogulan Dorairajoo is manager of KL Galaxy FC and an all-round football pundit with a passion for the world’s greatest sport. He also happens to be a long suffering fan of Aston Villa FC.

* This is the opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insight. Article may be edited for brevity and clarity.