José Mourinho's creative criticisms impress … unlike his Spurs team
FOOTBALL UNSTOPPED AGAIN
Like Bond films, the prodigal son, nits and wearing bucket hats in public, the Premier League was always going to come back sooner or later, and now here it is. There was a time, only a matter of weeks ago really, when it felt like football’s return was a wonderful distraction from the awfulness of everything, whereas now, when many of us in our real lives are attempting to paddle tentatively in the pool of vague normality, football, with its empty stands and computer-generated crowd noise, is a reminder of the awfulness of everything. Having restarted in temporary fanlessness with the absolute elite, sport has now respread so far that this week’s behind-closed-doors fixtures involve, with respect to the footballers of Macedonia, Latvia and Ukraine, such sporting irrelevances as Shkendija, Ventspils, Kolos Kovalivka and Tottenham Hotspur.
Poor old Spurs. They used to be the kind of team Amazon wanted to make documentaries about. That felt a long time ago as Everton comprehensively outplayed them at White Hart Lane. Tottenham’s most creative force now seems to be José Mourinho, whose attempts to find ways of blaming the players he can no longer afford to upgrade, for whatever failing he wants to be the focus this week, continue to impress … unlike his team. “I go home with the feeling that some of the boys could do more,” he concluded, after Everton’s expensively remodelled midfield gave his side the runaround.