alright, a.k.a. Wimmer’s Alive.
Mauricio Pochettino took the renamed League Cup seriously by fielding the under 12 side that went out and stuffed Gillingham, five nothing.
It’s not the first time Gillingham manager Justin Edinburgh and his assistant David Kerslake have left White Hart Lane after a stuffing. The former spending a decade at the club the latter was occasionally seen during a four year stint, in the glorious 90s.
Well this was a one way contest wasn’t it. Though again much like the league outing at the weekend it was all Spurs without any end product.
A team of kids sprinkled with some senior players were fielded by the manager. Thankfully we’ve finally seen evidence that Kevin Wimmer is still alive and still with us as he partnered Carter-Vickers who has usurped him in Poch’s affections.
Eriksen and Lamela were in the starting XI after being, well dropped, at the weekend. The latter did make an appearance then, the Dane was left on the bench. Was Poch making a statement, though he did have the armband.
Either way both Eriksen and Lamela were instrumental in the result that put Spurs through to the next round, even if it took half an hour to break through.
The other senior player making his first start was Janssen, who you thought needed to score in this game. If he didn’t get off the mark here, what would it do to his confidence going into a series of games in which Kane isn’t available.
And it didn’t look good early on as he missed some chances, one especially from a Trippier cross – you’d think Trippier’s crossing would be tailor made for him.
Would Eriksen’s screaming opener on the half hour relieve enough of the pressure that Vincent could start firing, well no. Hell of a shot by the Dane. He doubled the lead just after the break after Lamela’s charge forward and then lovely ball straight onto the foot of Eriksen for him to slide it in.
Then just a couple of minutes later came Janssen’s best chance to get that goal, Eriksen charging forward played a glorious ball through to Trippier, he cut back in the box and was cut down. Janssen had barely appealed for the spot kick before he’d grab the ball ready to take it. Not sure he’s a proper Spurs player, well he scored this spot kick, with ease.
He didn’t get one from open play, I still feel he needed one.
The next came from one of those inbetweeners, not quite a kid not quite a senior player, Onomah. He hasn’t got the same bleached to to his barnet as the rest of the kids, so maybe he’s more senior now.
Again Lamela the creator played through Onomah, who took his time, lined it up and slotted inside the post. His first for the club. It finally woke Daniel Levy’s wife, who appeared to be snoozing through the rest of the game.
Another came again a couple of minutes later as Lamela got his just deserts, Janssen laying it off into the Argentine’s path.
That was the scoring the rest was bringing on even more kids and new signings. The latter was Georges-Kévin Nkoudou, who played a glorious ball through to create a good chance. The kids were Walkes and the 17 year old Marcus Edwards. Much acclaim for the “mini Messi” according to the manager. Well he had one shot at goal after a cracking run that smacked off the woodwork, would have been a hell of an introduction.
And the introductions were something else, as the kids came on Poch put his arm around their shoulders, gave them a smile and a word and you could see the kids visibly relax.
Yes it was only a third division side and they weren’t great but look how others had struggled against lower league teams, while not playing kids – Man U full of internationals – I’m not going to just dismiss this completely…