Tottenham's Pre-Season Tour: Embracing Anonymity in Sydney
Tottenham’s 11,400-mile pre-season slog has left Roberto De Zerbi staring down jet lag more than opposition defences, but out in Sydney there is one luxury his players rarely get at home.
Silence.
Not in the stadiums or around the training pitches, where OzSpurs and a sizeable Australian fanbase have turned up in force. On the streets. On the harbour. In the coffee shops and parks of a city where rugby league and Aussie Rules dominate the sporting conversation and where, for once, Premier League footballers can simply blend in.
Thirty hours to the other side of the world
Tottenham’s journey from Enfield to Auckland was an endurance test in itself. More than 30 hours door to door, broken up by stops, before another three-hour hop across the Tasman to Sydney for friendlies against Sydney FC and then Chelsea.
The geographical punchline? Sydney is only 24 miles from Enfield – but it’s the one in New South Wales, not the familiar corner of north London.
No one has felt the strain more than De Zerbi. “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!”
For managers, these long-haul tours are a compromise. They would rather be locked into a controlled pre-season at the training ground, with no airports, no time zones, no commercial schedules. Yet the reality of the modern Premier League is that these trips are non-negotiable.
They exist for three clear reasons. Money, first of all: promoters and sponsors pour millions into club coffers for a slice of the Premier League circus. Reach, too: every stop on the map is a chance to grow a global fanbase and hook the next generation. And then there is the give-back — taking the team to supporters who would never otherwise get close to them.
Once the body clocks settle, managers know there is another upside. Long days together on the road, away from home comforts and distractions, can harden team bonds and help new signings bed in quicker than any double session at Hotspur Way.
A football club in a rugby town
Sydney offers something else. Perspective.
Tottenham Hotspur have a strong following in Australia, boosted in profile by the appointment of Ange Postecoglou, a national hero whose name alone pushed Spurs higher up the local sports pages. OzSpurs, the official supporters’ group, is well stocked with members.
Yet in a city of around 5.6 million people, football — the Premier League kind — still trails in the slipstream. Rugby League rules large parts of New South Wales. Australian Rules Football has a deep cultural hold. Many locals will recognise the club name “Tottenham Hotspur” now. Far fewer could pick out one of De Zerbi’s players in a crowd.
That imbalance suits the squad just fine.
At home, a walk through central London for a Spurs player can quickly turn into a rolling selfie queue. In Sydney, the same players can stroll past the Opera House or along the harbour largely undisturbed, even in club gear.
On Monday night, around 9.30pm, young midfielders Archie Gray and Lucas Bergvall wandered through the crowds at Sydney Harbour, taking in the lights and the water like any other visitors. They wore white Spurs-branded tracksuit tops and shorts, the mild Australian winter making it easy to dress like it was a spring evening back in England.
Nobody stopped them. No autograph hunters, no phone cameras in their faces. Just two teenagers in club kit, folded into the flow of tourists.
The next day they were back out again, this time on bikes, pedalling their way through the city streets and parks. A normal day out, except they happen to be Premier League footballers.
Other members of the squad have been spotted in passing by the odd fan. Board members and even the club’s owners, the Lewis family, have been seen moving around town. The coaching staff have taken their own chances to explore, from Sydney’s botanical gardens to the waterfront paths.
De Zerbi himself has been clocked walking through the city, phone in hand, still carrying the heavy eyes of a man whose sleep has been sliced into thin pieces by time zones and late-night preparation.
The hidden perk of pre-season
The football never really stops for these players. Commercial events, sponsor obligations, training, recovery, tactical meetings. Life is scheduled, controlled, and, in England, constantly observed.
Here, they get something different. A little anonymity. The chance to look up at the Opera House or out across the harbour and not immediately be dragged back into the performance of being a Premier League star.
For a squad living under the microscope for most of the year, that might be the most valuable souvenir they take home from this tour — a brief spell on the other side of the world where, for once, they can just be faces in the crowd.
