TV Review: All Or Nothing – Tottenham Hotspur

The documentary follows a season alongside Premier League side Tottenham Hotspur as they not only tackle the loss of their manager, but the disruption to football and a journey to build the club up again.

Amazon Prime’s own documentary – voiced by actor Tom Hardy – released the first three episodes to the nine-part documentary on Monday 31 August. As viewers, we got behind the scenes access into the Spurs team through their change of manager to Jose Mourinho – after the departure of Mauricio Pochettino – and a look inside their new £850 million stadium.

In episode one, we focus on the start of the season. In the previous season, Tottenham had just finished runners up to Liverpool FC in the champions league, their best stint in the competition. However, as the 2019/20 season started, not only had they experienced their worst start under Pochettino in his five years there – winning only two out of their first eight games – but other problems over shadowed the club including it becoming public knowledge midfielder Eriksen wanting to leave and Mauricio himself questioning his role in the club.

This is when we see the departure of Pochettino and the appointment of winning manager Jose Mourinho.

Episode two sees a new era to the club as they move not only on to a new management, but a new style of play. We see as Jose sets out to know his new team and try to get them in winning shape so he can once again prove himself.

Episode three follows Jose’s team as they suffer their first loss under his new leadership against his previous club Manchester United. As well as this, the speculation of Eriksen wanting to leave the club once again rises to the surface – and a look into some other players future at the club.

Prime Original series are starting to become familiar to us – just like Netflix originals – and although some may not be as good or as successful, this one on Tottenham in the first three episodes is not one of them. What it does well is making it easy for us as viewers to follow the season. Scenes include the footage from important games of the season, and then the behind the scenes footage not only from the changing rooms at the games but also the training days.

For some reason, this makes you like Mourinho better than before (unless you were already an admirer of his). It reveals a funnier and lighter side to him, one we do not see in the press room. To many people he is grumpy – which he admits some there is some truth too in episode one – but seeing the way he is with his team and his training style, it creates a new fondness feeling towards him as we uncover his dedication to the game and team.

There is hardly any pitfalls you can find in this documentary as for one, we have only see three out of the nine episodes of the series but also the fact it does all a documentary does well, and that is tell us the facts we need and want to know. It makes me excited to see what is to come in the next episodes.

All or Nothing: Tottenham Hotspur is available on Amazon Prime. The first three episodes are available, with the next three episodes premiering next Monday.

By Katie Green

Feature image: BT.com