Hot Hotspurs!

Well, if this wasn’t the most exciting end to a Premiership season in a long time, I am hard pressed to recall one. Not only did the title race drag on till the very last game – with Chelsea making sure with that eight-goal drubbing of Wigan at the Bridge – the race for fourth place, the last of the Champions League places, proved an even more intriguing contest with no less than four clubs still in the hunt with a handful of rounds to go.
In the end, London club Tottenham Hotspurs took the spoils after seeing off nouveau riche Man City in a winner-takes-all face-off at the City of Manchester Stadium in the penultimate round.

Of course, that win only capped what has been a truly remarkable season for Harry Redknapp’s side, and when you consider that they finished the season with perhaps the toughest schedule of the club’s chasing fourth-place, there can be no denying that they richly deserve their place amongst Europe’s elite next season.

I will confess that I was one of those who doubted ‘Spurs ability to survive a one week spell that would see them face Arsenal, Chelsea and Man U in consecutive matches. After all, this was the very kind of test upon which Spurs’ previous attempts to breach the top four had foundered miserably in seasons past. Yet, despite losing the last of those matches at Old Trafford, impressive wins in the first two firmly established Spurs top four creds and helped build an ultimately unbeatable lead.

Redknapp will take most of the credit for Spurs achievement, especially considering that the club was floundering in the relegation zone when he arrived at White Hart Lane in October 2008. There’s no question he has put his mark on a Spurs side that seemed to have lost its motivation after beating Chelsea to win the 2008 Carling Cup. Although he inherited a decent enough squad, Redknapp, as is his wont, has bought often – and wisely - since arriving, bringing in Sebastian Bassong and Younes Kaboul to strengthen an injury-prone backline; Wilson Palacios to add bite to midfield, and England forwards Peter Crouch and Jermaine Defoe.

More significantly, Redknapp imbued his team with a confident, attacking mindset, especially in the run-in, when they were well rewarded with those big name scalps. The Man City win was especially telling of the new Spurs. Despite the high-stakes and the fact that a draw would have still left them ahead of City with one game to play, Redknapp started with his most attacking line-up, leaving out the defensive Palacios for Huddlestone, starting fast wingers Aaron Lennon and Gareth Bale, and Defoe and Crouch upfront.

And so on to the Champions League next season and Redknapp will be hoping his teams fortunes do not mirror that of Everton – the last team outside the so-called “Big Four” to reach the big stage. They didn’t make it past the qualifying round.