When a footballer is photographed wearing another club's shirt, it usually means only one thing -- he is sending a message that he is looking for a move and wouldn't mind being on their shopping list.
But when Georges-Kevin N'Koudou was snapped wearing a Chelsea shirt on holiday last week, no one jumped to that conclusion. The Spurs winger has struggled to make much impression at White Hart Lane, with his appearances limited to a few cameos from the bench, and the idea that Chelsea might make a bid seemed laughable. Instead, the photo was seen for what it was -- a naive blunder.
Yet, in its own way, it highlighted the disconnect between some modern players and their fans. Fifty years ago, no player would have dreamed of such a blunder. The players lived -- and often grew up -- alongside the supporters; they would travel to and from games on the same trains and buses, knew the importance of the shirt and would never have worn an archrival's colours.
Now the game has moved on and become more international. Those changes have mostly been for the better, but something important has been lost. Local derbies now often feel far more important to the fans watching them than to the players involved. The West Ham derby at the London Stadium towards the end of last season, which Spurs lost 1-0, was a case in point.
It wasn't the loss that particularly rankled with those fans who had made the effort to attend, it was the manner of it. Throughout the 90 minutes, Spurs played without intensity; players were second to every challenge and the team barely managed a shot on target.
Even though Spurs desperately needed three points to keep up the pressure on Chelsea at the top, they weren't able to rise to the occasion. And, just as importantly, no player seemed to grasp that this game had its own context separate to league position -- the matter of bragging rights over rival fans for the next 12 months.
No one these days expects players to feel the same loyalty to the club as the fans do. A player arriving in London N17 from abroad won't immediately understand the nuances of what it means to play for Spurs. Indeed, most of the current team weren't even born when many supporters first started watching Tottenham. But the fans do have a right to expect a certain basic level of local knowledge, and N'Koudou showed ignorance of that when he pulled on a blue shirt.
Hopefully, manager Mauricio Pochettino let him know about his mistake in no uncertain terms. It's not just results that have endeared Pochettino to the White Hart Lane faithful, it's also his passion for the club. Fans feel he really gets what playing for Spurs means. His priorities are their priorities, and he has gone the extra mile to take on board the club's tradition and history -- and that shows.
His celebrations are not just a private expression of a plan and a method that has delivered results; they are a shared, collective triumph. Under Pochettino, games like the one against West Ham have, thankfully, become increasingly uncommon.
Not since the days of Bill Nicholson and Keith Burkinshaw have Spurs had a manager who is so obviously in tune with the fans. Not even Harry Redknapp came so close to capturing the Tottenham spirit.
Redknapp was always more about Redknapp than about Spurs. No game better illustrated this than when they lost 2-1 to Chelsea at Stamford Bridge in the 2010-11 season. Spurs had gone 1-0 up through a brilliant long range effort from Sandro, only to concede two goals to appalling refereeing decisions -- the first a ball that didn't cross the line, the second a blatant offside.
After the game, Redknapp did his best to endear himself to the media, saying: "It was just one of those things." But that wasn't the way any Spurs fan in the ground saw it. The club hadn't won at Stamford Bridge for years and had been cheated -- the fans didn't want the manager to be reasonable, they wanted him to voice their anger.
If that had happened under Pochettino, the manager would have gone the "full Fergie," slamming the officials and risking a touchline ban. Pochettino feels the pain of defeat every bit as intensely as the fans, and that's all most supporters really ask of their manager and players. No one can expect their team to win every game, but they do expect them to show that it matters.
And that is why Pochettino will have been as appalled by N'Koudou's indifference as the fans. The winger may have apologised and revealed that the Chelsea shirt was just a gift from Blues striker Michy Batshuayi, a good friend, but he will have a long way to go before he is back in the good books of the Spurs fans as well as those of his manager.