Three bold predictions for Tottenham Hotspur in the 2020/21 season.
Tottenham Hotspur‘s first full season under head coach Jose Mourinho begins in just a few weeks. They kick off their pre-season preparations with a game against Ipswich Town on Saturday at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
This is a big season for the club’s near future. Spurs reached the Champions League final a year ago and looked set to establish themselves as one of the biggest clubs in Europe. Instead, they now enter a season without Champions League football following a managerial change. The good news? The new manager is Jose Mourinho, who has achieved just about everything possible at the highest level.
Mourinho will be aiming to build his team this summer and with a full preseason to prepare, get Tottenham back into contention in the 2020/21 season.
And Tottenham will have a busy season. They will be competing in the Premier League, Europa League, EFL Cup, and FA Cup. That’s four chances to win a trophy, but it also adds a lot of games to the schedule. Spurs will need a deep enough squad to compete in all four competitions.
The start of the new season is just around the corner and it’s set to be an interesting one. Here are three bold predictions for Spurs in the 2020/21 season.
1. Harry Kane scores 30 Premier League goals
Harry Kane is one of the most consistent goalscorers in the Premier League. He very rarely goes out of form and can find the net even in an otherwise quiet game. He’s a game-winning striker for Spurs and up there with the best in the world.
Kane is a two-time Premier League Golden Boot winner and scored at least 20 goals in the league four years running between 2014-15 and 2017-18.
Kane’s numbers have dipped a bit in recent years, which is mostly due to the fact he’s missed time with injury. Kane made 28 appearances in the 2018-19 season, scoring 17 times. In 29 games this past season, he found the net 18 times.
But there’s good reason to believe Kane is set for another big season. It didn’t take long following the COVID-19 break for Kane to rediscover his best form. He looked powerful, strong and 100 percent following a significant hamstring injury, scoring seven goals in the final eight games of the season, all following the restart.
Kane quickly silenced the talk of him not being able to score goals in a Jose Mourinho system. He was dominant towards the end of the season.
In the 2020/21 season, I predict Kane will score 30 goals in the Premier League for the second time in his career.
2. Tottenham win Europa League
It’s about time Tottenham Hotspur won a trophy.
It’s been over a decade since we last saw Spurs lifting a trophy. It was the 2008 EFL Cup final in an extra-time, 2-1 victory over Chelsea at Wembley Stadium. Jonathan Woodgate headed home the winner, but the fact Woodgate is now a coach shows that it’s long overdue for Spurs to win something.
Yes, they’d much prefer to have qualified for the Champions League. But they might not get a better chance to win a trophy than in the Europa League. They’ll have to do it the hard way as they enter the competition early, in the second qualifying round. But Spurs should have no problem advancing to the group stage and will likely enter the competition as one of the favorites to win it.
Not many coaches can match Mourinho’s record of success. He was a Europa League winner with Manchester United in the 2016-17 season. Mourinho knows how to win, and he also understands the importance of Tottenham winning a trophy. He’ll take this tournament seriously and will be in it to win it.
Tottenham will be hoping their absence from the Champions League is short-lived, but an added bonus of winning the Europa League is that the winning team qualifies for the Champions League the following season.
Mourinho goes all-in, and Spurs go all the way in the Europa League.
3. Spurs secure top-three finish in Premier League
Breaking into the top two positions in the Premier League won’t be an easy task. Liverpool and Manchester City are clearly ahead of the other teams in the league at the moment. But a spot inside the top three isn’t out of reach for Tottenham Hotspur this season.
Manchester United and Chelsea will likely provide the toughest competition for Spurs in the league, but all three teams are fairly evenly matched. United and Chelsea finished the past season on the same number of points. Spurs were some distance off, but just looking at the table since Mourinho took over, Tottenham finished fourth in the league ahead of Chelsea and five points off Man United.
The addition of Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg is a big one. Spurs need to improve at the back, and Hojbjerg is the type of midfielder they have lacked in recent years. A player who won’t necessarily make the highlight reels, but he’ll break up play and win back possession.
Tottenham will likely make a few more signings before the window shuts, potentially including a right back or backup striker.
But even before then, a full summer of preparation with Mourinho will help in a big way. Tottenham’s run of form before the end of the season was encouraging, and they’ll take that into the new season, leading Spurs to a finish inside the top three.