I've seen Blanc's name bandied about as a full-time replacement, while Solskjaer is doing the rounds for caretaker - which must please Molde no end as they hear that their manager for the past three years is seen as a convenient option for a caretaker given the Norwegian season runs March-November, meaning they'll need a caretaker for the first three months of next season as well
As much as I want to agree with this, there's a massive niggling doubt I have about the United situation over Real. For me, Poch is the type of manager who likes longevity and the sense of achievement that he's developed and nurtured a group of players into a force and left a lasting legacy. Poch likes to develop youth and improve players, and get them to play to his philosophy. Clubs like Real aren't interested in the long term view. They want results now and I don't see Poch being attracted to that type of pressure. Can you imagine a situation where Poch was the manager at Real and wanted to bring some youth players through to develop them? The club hierarchy would step in and say no... you have this £100m+ player here or there, use them, not this kid! We want to win La Liga, the Champions League, the Copa del Rey... they don't care about developing youth. They just want to win everything and be ahead of Barca. After 2-3 years, Poch will be moved on like the rest and discarded unceremoniously like they always are. At United, he'll be given time to bring back the old days of developing the youth system into a serious force and will play the style of football they want. He won't be expected to bring instant success but will have a chequebook to bring in marquee players where he sees fit, but not as a mandatory instruction. They'll be far more flexibility. Real's brief will be rigid and "all or nothing" which I see putting him off. I am concerned and hope that Levy sees this as a serious warning that he needs to back Poch now, give him the resources to match his ambitions as otherwise, he may just get frustrated that his project has hit the brakes. 1-2 quality signings this January will help alleviate those concerns massively.
"First of all I want to send my best wishes to him. I feel so sorry because you know very well I have a good relationship with him. He’s a very good friend. It’s sad news what happened to him. It’s not my business what happened at another club. I only want to send my best wishes to Jose." Pochettino : he's classy you know.
Apparently Mark Hughes is looking for a job. Ex player an’all that. Match made in heaven. Just saying
Plenty on Twitter repeating the mantra "When Man Utd come calling, you go" This is the same set of fans who spent a decade berating Alan Shearer not for being a cynical, dirty bastard on the pitch, but for receiving the call from Man Utd and deciding he'd rather join Newcastle
I can see Sam allardyce being perfect for them to steady the ship as a caretaker manager until the end of the season. ...as long as someone gives him a backhander in a brown envelope
I share some of your concerns but I think its worth noting how commercial-led a club United have become from the late years of Ferguson's time to now. While I agree they would want Poch to develop and integrate youth players I think you underestimate how important players like Pogba are commercially to United and their sponsors, not least because non-British fans now increasingly follow players instead of teams. I don't think he would have the flexibility there that you think he would - the owners care very little for and know little about football other than as a way of generating revenue and it will take years if not decades more of relative underperformance for United to lose that commercial draw they built up during the Ferguson years. Add in the fact that the fans are having kittens right now about Liverpool and City being top dogs and I think they would want success on all fronts to come fairly quickly, all things told. I could see him at Real more readily in some ways, because although it would be a break in form for him to take a short term project, he could go there, probably be guaranteed a few trophies to get that monkey off his back, and then leave with his reputation enhanced even if he falls out with a player or two, after all who doesn't do at Real? I agree though, this should be a big wake up call to Levy - he needs to back his man or risk putting in jeopardy the last few years of largely good work at Spurs. I think Poch wants to see out another year or two in the new stadium and see if he can really have a tilt at the league and cups with us, and let's just face it he can definitely do this without risking his career prospects in the future. I don't think there's a club in Europe right now that wouldn't look at him if their manager position came free and another two years isn't going to change that. The danger is if he feels that he's not being backed or that the relationship between him and Levy dies off, if he doesn't feel his chairman is loyal to him and the project then he'll be off.
If you manage Tottenham and win the league, you are special. You join Arthur Rowe and Sir Bill. If you win the league with Manure, you will not join Sir Matt, it is a bare minimum. Poch must know that.
One. James Earnest Mangnall. Later joined Man City! Looked a bit Hitlery but he was around a couple of decades before the Austrian. please log in to view this image
So every new Man Utd manager when it comes to league success is standing from day 1 in the shadows of Busby and Fergie. A huge burden. Even for the likes of Jose.
He had tons of money and a load of very good players. Ending up miles off the pace and playing **** football isn't good enough, regardless of the club's history.
The thing with the hacks tripping over one another to say Poch WILL take over at Man Utd in the summer (or, as the Express are currently babbling, in January) is it's the typical hack attitude of their anointed clubs kicking the ladder down behind them, an attitude which has regularly seen those same anointed clubs routinely stripmine any club that poses a threat to them on the pitch but not on the balance sheet (which fans of Villa and Southampton are especially familiar with) It becomes even more obvious in the way those hacks have said for years at this point how Poch hasn't won anything yet the moment the Man Utd job is available he's the only choice while they seemingly forget how they proclaim the greatness of Norbert on a daily basis (which leads to some absurd mental gymnastics) or, for another example, if winning something is the criteria for their manager why is nobody mentioning Unai Emery considering his CV includes three consecutive Europa League wins with Sevilla and winning the quadruple last season with PSG, to the point they haven't even thought up a figure of what they'll have to pay to get him out of his three-year contract?
tbh I have no idea what Pochettino will do. Logic don't rely come into it ... if it did we would not have appointed AVB and Tim Sherwood would not have wanted to be made permanent manager as he was never going to be there past the end of the season. What concerns me is that we might have a repeat of the 2011-12 season. Redknapp is hot favourite for the England job...after Xmas spurs fully support him through his court case but his head is still turned as the media make him a certainty for the England job. We then get subjected to a weird assed 5 month audition which screws up our season. EVERY press conference was about it and I can see the same thing happening at all our press conferences unless Pochettino comes straight out and says he is going no where.
To be fair, he's been linked with the Real Madrid job for the past year and a bit and it doesn't seem to have fazed him or the players much. Certainly hasn't affected your results or performances. You've also got a much better group of players than you did when Redknapp was there. Obviously as a Gooner I want you ****s to fail in every possible way but I don't think it will completely derail your season in the way it did last time. Levy will have learnt from that, too.
