Tottenham's Journey: Finding Peace in Australia

Tottenham’s 11,400-mile summer slog has left Roberto De Zerbi and his players fighting off jet lag, but somewhere between Enfield and the other side of the world they have stumbled upon a rare luxury for modern Premier League footballers.

Thirty hours, two Enfields and no sleep

It took Spurs more than 30 hours to get from their Enfield training base to Auckland, New Zealand, with a couple of stops along the way. From there, they climbed back on a plane for another three hours or so to reach Sydney for games against Sydney FC and then Chelsea.

Sydney, as it happens, is only 24 miles from Enfield. Just not that Enfield. This one sits in New South Wales, on the fringes of Australia’s biggest city rather than north of the M25.

De Zerbi has worn the journey on his face and in his schedule.

“Just work and sleep, trying to sleep, because I am suffering a lot from the jet lag,” he admitted. “No restaurant, no nothing. Just to prepare the guys to play in the best way we can, and try to sleep something more than three or four hours!”

The miles are brutal. The calendar unforgiving. Yet these tours exist for a reason – three of them, in fact.

Money, markets and a nod to the faithful

First, there is the money. These pre-season and post-season trips are lucrative, pumping millions into club coffers via promoters and sponsors.

Then comes the global grab. Clubs like Tottenham are brands as much as teams now, and every stop in Asia, the US or Australasia is a chance to hook the next generation of supporters, to turn a passing interest into a lifetime’s allegiance.

The third motive is more romantic. It is about giving something back to those who already live and breathe the club but may never be able to afford the pilgrimage to north London. For them, the mountain comes to Mohammed. Tottenham Hotspur, in the flesh, on their doorstep.

Coaches will always tell you they would rather spend pre-season locked into their training grounds, drilling patterns of play without time zones and airports getting in the way. Yet once the fog of travel lifts, tours can tighten a squad. New signings settle. Cliques soften. Work gets done away from the usual noise.

There is another, quieter benefit too – especially in a place like Sydney.

A football club in a rugby town

Tottenham have a sizable following in Australia. OzSpurs, the official supporters’ group, can call on plenty of members. But in a city of around 5.6 million people, “football” – the Premier League version – still sits well below Rugby League and Australian Rules Football in the local hierarchy.

Ange Postecoglou’s arrival at Spurs helped. His name dragged Tottenham into Australian headlines and onto local sports shows. Yet walk down a Sydney street and ask the average passer-by to name a Spurs player or pick one out of a line-up and many would struggle.

For the players, that anonymity is gold.

Back in London, a stroll outside the training ground can turn into an endless stream of selfie requests. In Sydney, they can pull on club tracksuits, wander through the city’s most famous landmarks and barely turn a head.

On Monday night, around 9.30pm, young midfielders Archie Gray and Lucas Bergvall did exactly that. They drifted through the crowds at Sydney Harbour, taking in the lights bouncing off the water and the curves of the Opera House. Both wore white Spurs-branded tracksuit tops and shorts, the Australian winter mild enough to make it comfortable.

Nobody stopped them. No autograph hunters. No mob of shirt-waving kids. Just two teenagers in club gear blending into the tourist swell.

On Tuesday, they took it further, heading out on a bike ride around the city. Again, largely unbothered.

They are not alone. Other players have been spotted only in passing by the odd fan. Members of the board, even the club’s owners, the Lewis family, have moved around the city with minimal fuss.

The coaching staff have popped up across Sydney too – in the botanical gardens, along the harbour – with De Zerbi himself seen walking the streets, phone pressed to his ear, still carrying the slightly dazed look of a man whose body clock is somewhere over the Indian Ocean.

A different kind of privilege

Being a Premier League footballer brings a life of privilege: luxury hotels, chartered flights, global fame. It also brings a loss of something most people take for granted – the ability to disappear, to stand in a crowd and simply be part of it.

For a few days in a rugby-mad city on the other side of the world, Tottenham’s players have that back. They can see the sights, feel the place, ride a bike, wander a harbour, all without a scrum forming around them.

After 11,400 miles, sleepless nights and an unforgiving schedule, that kind of anonymity might just be the freshest thing they find in the Australian air.