Generally speaking, football fans find it rather pleasing when their club wins a cup. You could even go as far as suggesting that watching their team lift silverware is one of the key reasons they support them in the first place, spending their hard-earned cash to turn up week in, week out, rain or shine. As concepts go, that’s not the hardest one to get your head around.

Yet it seems many managers just don’t get it. They waltz through life oblivious to the fact that winning a trophy can bring untold levels of joy and happiness to those who follow the team.

As I said, this ‘trophy blindness’ is surprisingly widespread, with many managers and owners preferring to focus on league issues instead of putting energy into a good cup run. But one team in particular seems to be making a rather stupid habit of it. And that team is Tottenham Hotspur.

The London club bowed out of the FA Cup last week at the hands of Sheffield United, which was rather surprising in itself given the theoretical gulf in talent between the two teams.

But it gets worse.

This wasn’t even close to a full-strength United after a bout of illness swept through the squad prior to kick-off, forcing the manager to make eight changes to his starting line-up.

Yet despite the football gods handing Spurs a wide open goal, they missed it quite spectacularly by fielding a weakened, disinterested and largely passionless team at Bramall Lane, and subsequently crashed out at the fifth-round stage of the cup for the fifth season in a row.

Why, oh why, would they do that?

Despite being one of the biggest clubs in England, with a world-class stadium, massively talented players and brilliant supporters, they haven’t won a trophy in 15 years.

They are clearly out of the title race, bowed out of League Cup almost before it started, and are very unlikely to even get close to winning this season’s Champions League. Which meant, in silverware terms, the FA Cup was their only real chance of glory.

Yet they chucked it away in a manner that can only suggest Antonio Conte and his assistant Cristian Stellini placed little or no value on the competition. And that lack of interest filtered through to the players, who frequently looked like they would rather be watching the game at home on TV.

In the aftermath of the match I decided to take a little look online and see how Spurs supporters were reacting to the defeat. Was it just me that felt they had missed a great opportunity when in reality they are happier to concentrate on a top-four finish?

Erm, no.

I’m not going to say ‘all’ because that is never the truth, but a good 98.7 per cent of the comments I saw were supporters venomously venting their anger that yet another opportunity to win a trophy had been flushed down the toilet. They were utterly livid with the approach to the match, equally furious at the performance, and embarrassed by the result.

Speaking personally, I understand that Conte’s assistant probably thought the team he sent out would be enough to dispose of little Sheffield United. After all, it was still packed with internationals and quality players. But the very fact that you leave Harry Kane on the bench sends out a message that the game isn’t all that important; when, judging by the fans’ fury, that was certainly not the case.

I get the concept of rest and rotation. And, I’m sure, the Spurs supporters do too. But when it comes to games like this, put out your strongest team, get them fired up, and put your opponents to the sword as quickly as possible. Then, with the match won and your place in the next round secured, take off your stars and send them for a nice hot bath and a cup of cocoa.

The problem is that the management at clubs like Tottenham can’t see past the Champions League and, because of the money it generates, finishing in the top four has become a holy grail. But competition at the top end is fiercer than ever, and missing out on elite European competition is becoming more of a possibility every year. And that, in my opinion, and the opinion of most fans from what I can ascertain, makes winning domestic trophies even more valuable.

You only have to look at how Manchester United players and fans celebrated their League Cup win last week to realise domestic trophies generate positivity. This is a club with countless titles and European glory behind them, but the little old League Cup still got them dancing in the streets.

For the sake of their long-suffering fans, Spurs, and all those other clubs with delusions of grandeur, need to recognise a simple reality: fans want trophies.

José’s new collection

José Mourinho is collecting red cards in the same way he used to collect trophies.

The former manager of Chelsea, Manchester United and, well, just about every other top team, got his third red of the season last week when he was sent off during Roma’s defeat at Cremonese.

And in typical José style he didn’t hold back on saying what he thought of the incident with the fourth official.

“I don’t want to get into the fact that he’s from Turin, that we have to play Juventus and he wants me off the touchline. I don’t want to get into that. I want to get into the fact that for the first time in my career, a referee, and in this case a fourth official, spoke to me in an unacceptable way.”

Questioning the impartiality of a match official might not be the most sensible thing for a manager to do. But this is José we are talking about, and he has never been one to mince his words or shy away from ruffling a few feathers.

Or in this case, claim that a match official blatantly got him sent off to influence the outcome of a forthcoming game. Just a minor, insignificant little claim.

Oh, how I miss him in the Premier League...

 

E-mail: James@Quizando.com

Twitter: @Maltablade