I think Eriksen doesn’t know what to make of us either to be honest...he joined a club with a 36k seater stadium, strict wage budget and would finish top 4 if lucky. Now it’s regular CL, gorgeous stadium, amazing training ground and proper wages. His agents have obviously calculated that running himself down gets him a guaranteed pay day but much like Toby’s crew, I think they are realising that there aren’t too many better options than us.
I’ve long since thought it hilarious that most of the press didn’t realise what was happening at our club, to the point where every season we qualified for the CL was followed by predictions of ‘the rest of the usual top 5 will invest, it’s going to be even harder for Spurs to get back in’ as if all we had is dumb luck. We now finally seem to be established as most people’s pick for 3rd, which is great, and it seems to be filtering through to the calibre of player now willing to join us. It must just be slightly odd for players that joined us when we were the best of the rest to really view us as the level of club that we are now.
We’ve been able to really put ourselves up a level much in the way that Atletico have. A non-serious part of me almost wants Toby and Eriksen to go, just so we can have a squad full of players that are delighted to be here and recognising the opportunity they have to be a part of a truly top club, rather than the players that seem to be umming and ahhing about whether we are a stepping stone or not.