Over the last few years, no managers have had better finishes without winning a single trophy than Maurizio Sarri and Mauricio Pochettino. Chelsea offer more hope to Sarri than Tottenham can to Pochettino, simply as a matter of culture.
If you want to understand the cultural difference between Tottenham and Napoli, consider this: Napoli are owned by a film producer, but they have never released a commemorative DVD for any of their recent second place finishes. In the last six seasons spanning three managers, Napoli have finished second three times, third twice and fifth once. Maurizio Sarri contributed two of those runner-up seasons, coming on either side of a third-place finish.
Over the same years Sarri was at Napoli, Mauricio Pochettino produced the mirror image, going 3rd-2nd-3rd. But while Sarri closed the gap to Juventus each season – from nine to five to four points – Pochettino’s Spurs never came closer than seven points to the league winner. That was the immortal season when they kept the pressure on Premier League champion Chelsea. One year earlier they bottled even a second-place finish, thanks in large part to the tailspin Eden Hazard’s equalizer at the Battle of the Bridge initiated.
Despite the similarities in outcome, Napoli differ from Tottenham in ambition and belief. Napoli’s challenge was to overcome the dynastic juggernaut of Juventus. They came closer each year, even as Roma pipped Napoli for second-place in 2016/17.
Each year, Napoli needed Juventus to stumble during the run-in. Juventus never obliged. Napoli did not have the quality on their own to directly challenge Juventus over 38 matchweeks. But Napoli were always ready, so that if – however impossible that if – Juventus fell, Napoli would pounce.
The competitive parity of the Premier League denies Tottenham this hope of simple opportunism. When Manchester United stumble, Chelsea are there. If Chelsea stumbles, Liverpool are there. If Liverpool stumbles (and they will), Manchester City are there. And if all of them stumble simultaneously, Claudio Ranieri leads Leicester City to the Premier League title.
Tottenham have the mentality and structure necessary to overcome one adversary. Sadly for them (hilariously for the rest of us), they seem to forget just how many adversaries the Premier League serves up.
Watching Tottenham over the course of several seasons is like watching a cliched fight scene in a movie. The bad guys have the hero surrounded, they come at him one by one, and – being the hero – he disptches them one by one. You sit there thinking “Why don’t they just rush him en masse and overwhelm him?
(Notable exception is Kill Bill: The Crazy 88’s do rush Beatrix in groups, whom she defeats before going on to a series of duels with Johnny Mo, Gogo and O-Ren Ishii.)
Bear with me as I cast Tottenham as the good guy here, but they do the reverse. Besieged by the rest of the top six, they go out to battle one opponent at a time rather than organize a campaign to slay them all over the course of a season. Like Napoli, they wait for someone to fall. But unlike Napoli, one adversary falling is never enough. From a broader strategic perspective, Tottenham do not know who the crucial adversary will be in a given year. By the time they know who the real enemy is and go through the requisite banter about “tedious trophy talk,” they can do nothing more than keep the pressure on.
This is what makes Tottenham a stiff challenge to Chelsea on any given matchday, but non-threatening over the course of a season. Tottenham have the quality and tactical nous to trip up anyone’s march to the title, but they do not have the mentality to go from daily spoiler and perennial challenger to eventual champion.
This leaves Maurizio Sarri in a new position. He can no longer look out for number one. He has to look out for all the potential number one’s. But he also has his best chance of being the number one, simply because there is no “one.”
Just as Chelsea’s midfield is his attempt to recast the “Allan position” and the “Marek Hamsik position,” so he will see in the opposite technical area a team in the “Napoli position.” Part and parcel with the eventual necessity to break out of the Napoli-defined player roles is the need for Sarri to recognize he is now in the Chelsea position.
Maurizio Sarri may see a lot that is familiar and admirable in Tottenham. But he is in a much different place now than he was last season. He must keep the Spurs at bay for the day, and let them trip themselves out of Chelsea’s way in the trophy races this season and in years to come.