It really isn't Here's a few of their arguments easily dismantled "Arteta has been backed with big money, consistently, and intelligently, allowed to ruthlessly cut adrift all those he didn’t want, and able to truly build a team in his image. Antonio Conte is still forced to start the players he inherited from the man who managed the club four years ago." First of all, Granit Xhaka is in Arsenal's starting xi most games in 2022-3, which immediately renders that comment laughable on its own. Then to follow up, here is a list of players starting under Conte who were starting under Poch: Harry Kane, Son Heung-min, Hugo Lloris, Eric Dier, Ben Davies, Ryan Sessegnon while the rest of the squad is made up of players signed after Poch left - and that's before taking into account Conte liking players like Dier "Everyone knew the club needed a massive overhaul of the playing squad — and especially in defense. Yet what transpired was the same sort of half-baked, tepid foray into the market we saw with Pochettino and Mourinho; signing a couple of non-priority players, while leaving glaring issues — many of which had persisted for years — completely unresolved." First of all, that;s an outright lie: last summer most Spurs fans actually said we should overhaul the midfield, as that was lacking in creativity, hence the transfer thread has plenty of comments about Eriksen or Maddison over the course of the summer. Secondly, anyone who thinks Richarlison and Perisic (and probably Bissouma) are "non-priority players2 clearly need their heads read, not because of the fees we paid, but those were clearly moves made to strengthen the key areas of backup for Kane (which we've been asking for on and off for 6-7 years, barring when he had Llorente or Vinicius available), an upgrade at LWB in a wingback-based system, and a press-resistant CM who on paper seemed ideal for the 352 that Conte played at Inter. The only "non priority" signings would arguably be Forster and Spence, but even then we needed a backup GK while Spence is the sort of signing that were the norm in the Redknapp or Poch eras "For years Spurs have operated like a totalitarian regime, a hermetically sealed autocracy, where only the news and stories Dear Leader wants us to hear ever see the light of day" Just like every other top flight club on the planet, eh? "Antonio Conte was always likely to present a challenge unlike any Daniel Levy had faced before; an ego and personality simply too big to control. His recent quotes are illuminating." Really? Conte is the first? Not the bloke who was managing us a couple of years ago...? "Conte’s fury with the board has been brewing for a while, and he’d made comments before indicating a lack of faith in their true ambitions or desire for competing. But he has never been so direct, and unequivocal. No Tottenham manager ever has." ...apart from when Poch said he was a coach and not a manager in the summer of 2018, which is a comment most of the Lunatic Fringe have been jumping on for this past week. So that's two managers in the last four years this article forgot about "While for years it may have seemed that the club was little more than a front for a property and entertainment portfolio, with little to no actual desire of winning things" Ah yes, that chestnut - a chestnut which this berk tweets every four to six months regardless of how we are doing on the pitch. For example, when we are in a Premier League title race or a ****ing Champions League final. This "ENIC don't want to win things" narrative is utterly absurd, because if they didn;t want to win things they'd be keeping us in a state of suspended top flight animation where we're guaranteed a spot between 8th and 12th every year but with little else to report, and that clearly isn't the case "For a manager to come out publicly and state that his club’s ambition is not to challenge for silverware, is remarkable — unprecedented not just in England, but in football as a whole" It is remarkable. Mainly for its stupidity, as that makes it look uncannily like the manager wants to be fired. However, it is anything but unprecedented in England, let alone football: when Norbert arrived at Liverpool his first press conference wasn't "This year will be our year!" but saying that fans should be patient, only changing his tune in around 2018. Hell, Poch was saying trophies aren't a gauge of success in the spring of 2017 while Spurs manager, further underlining that this aimless and baseless rant has no basis in reality, which is why this bloke usually just retweets Paul O'Keefe opinions that align with theirs "Indeed, ENIC, and Daniel Levy in particular, would likely not have lasted more than a few short months at any other big 6 side" Here's something unprecedented: a Top 6 side binning off their owners in six months. That has never happened. Ever "And despite all this, rather inexplicably, it is still Conte’s name, and his management, that draws the greatest scrutiny. Four years after Pochettino was let down while on the cusp of achieving sustained success, two years after Mourinho came close to silverware, the manager still gets the blame for the failures of those above him." Conte's tactics have been self-defeating this season and anybody saying otherwise is clearly just ranting, Poch was given a blank chequebook in the summer of 2019 and saddled us with Ndombele, and claiming the ubermensch came close to winning us silverware ignores the fact that the Spurs fanbase wanted him out the door months before that Season Killer Cup final in no small part because he pissed away the Europa League in the most embarrassing circumstances imaginable - and threw the players under the bus for it afterwards "For reclusive owners operating with impunity, delisting the club in 2011, shortly after the club was presented with its first real chance for success in a generation, was a masterstroke." Fun fact: Man Utd were delisted in 2005. Also, what was this "first real chance for success in a generation"? I thought finishing fourth the previous season was an example of "(the) club's ambition is to not win trophies"? "The stadium, sadly, was their coup de grâce, their raison d’être. Suddenly there was a viable route to maintaining their vice-like grip on the club — and more crucially, for not having to ever significantly invest in the football team." Hey, remember when David Lammy said the stadium was actually a vehicle for ENIC to sell the club to Qatari financiers...? "Though it should be common knowledge, it goes mostly unnoticed that more than any manager, it is the chairman’s footprints that still loom heavily over this current squad." You mean all the players who were members of Poch's squad who, as of the summer of 2022, are not at the club and have not been for months or even years? Those members of the squad? "(H)ow three years after Jan Vertonghen left the club, do they still not have a replacement?" What do you think Cristian Romero is? "How three years after Christian Eriksen, their sole creative midfielder, left the club, do Tottenham still have a single attacking midfielder in the squad?" It's amazing how wrong such a short sentence can be. First of all, what do you think Kulusevski is? Deki himself says his best position is a central 10, and spent the run-in playing as a creative midfielder behind H before being recast as a winger this season (which is Levy's fault, right...?), while Conte turned down a suggestion to move for James Maddison in the summer. Also, it appears to have not occurred to the bloke that our formation this season has been 343 with flirtations with 352, and what do those formations have in common? They do not use attacking midfielders. In other words, our business since January has fit in with exactly what Conte wants, the issue being that if Deki gets injured our creativity vanished completely " Only at Tottenham are these things even plausible." ...with the obvious exception of The Sheikh Mansour Team last season, as they responded to Sergio Aguero leaving by not signing a striker. Unprecedented!!! "From Jol’s ignominious sacking at half time, to the infamous Saha and Nelson window when Redknapp asked for Tevez and Cahill, and Spurs were on the verge of a title charge" Jol's dismissal was disgraceful, and Levy should've sacked Comolli for deliberately undermining him in the summer transfer window, no denying that. But you know what can be denied? That we were "on the verge of a title charge" in January 2012, as we were sitting in 3rd, four points back with a grossly inferior goal difference with a Ferguson-led Man Utd between us and top spot "From the Berbatov/Frasier “swap” deal" Oh yes, that deal which the club famously wanted to make, which was definitely not under duress because Man Utd kidnapped our player on deadline day... "... it has all been a meticulously calculated gambit to extend the grift, and continue their ruthless pursuit of profit" But enough about this article. Cheap shot, but like hell the bloke isn't monetising it "It should come as no surprise that no club in the history of English football has raked in as much profit as Tottenham have under ENIC" Actually it should: Man Utd were a money-making machine pre-Glaziers for one obvious example. Also, the Deloitte Money League makes this claim utterly laughable, as the figures released today for 2022 state that there's four Premier League clubs more profitable than we are, and while one of those is clearly just their chairman pumping in money from offshore shell companies claiming to be third-party sponsorship deals thinking nobody notices, that doesn't explain Liverpool, Man Utd or Chelsea both being ahead of us. Seriously, does this bloke know what sources are? "Even less so that no chairman has amassed a personal fortune like Daniel Levy has" The Glazers have pulled an estimated £1.1bn in dividends out of Man Utd, according to Swiss ramble last August. Are they saying Levy has amassed more money than that? Or are they going to type that out and then move onto their next rant? "They have milked the club dry over the past 22 years, using Tottenham as collateral for external real estate projects, using operating losses to carry over into their various other investment ventures, while diligently insisting that the club are too poor for actual footballing investment in the first team." There is one reason why I posted this comment: it comes immediately after the previous one, thus answering my question "In light of Conte’s comments, everything makes sense. Why Spurs went for Jack Grealish, only to bid 3m + Josh Onamah" Oh ****ing hell, we're really playing the hits now. Here's the counter argument to that: Villa were a basket case at the time, and also at that time Poch was rebuffing suggestions from Steve Hitchen "Why Levy sent his chief scout to Milan, to close a deal for Milan Skriniar — the center back Mourinho had targeted — only to come back with nothing." Let's just ignore the minor detail that Inter set their value at £50m at a time where clubs were cutting back on their transfer spending due to a slight case of no matchday revenue due to a global pandemic and keep whinging, eh? "Why Bruno Fernandes had his bags packed to come to Spurs, and Levy reneged on the deal" The fact that it was established during the summer of 2019 that Poch wanted Fernandes or Lo Celso, not Fernandes and Lo Celso, is once again conveniently overlooked... "Why Sadio Mane — scouted personally by Mauricio Pochettino and then head of recruitment Paul Mitchell — was at the training ground before Levy refused to meet his wage demands" We offered Mane double his Southampton wages, which would have been roughly £80k. Mane demanded triple, which would've made him the club's highest-earner overnight, which suggest Mane is either a greedy bastard or Liverpool had already turned his head and he was looking for an excuse to not sign for us "ENIC are almost unfathomably risk averse when it comes to footballers…yet when it comes to real estate, money is still no object." Apart from the fees spent on Ndombele, Lo Celso, Romero... "Few players exemplify the ENIC con than Eric Dier" If the best example is a regular starter under Poch, the ubermensch and Conte who has not been put up for sale at any point, then it's not a good example is it? The irony is there were so many better examples they could have taken, if not for one issue: they're not here anymore, having either been sold or are currently out on loan with a view of selling them. Honestly, this part feels like this article was written sometime last season and they just replaced Harry Winks' name with Eric Dier's. And trust me, this section goes on for a long time... "Blaming managers at Tottenham for their team’s failings is like blaming a builder for not being able to build a house out of paper. Or a Formula 1 manufacturer for not building a winning car out of plywood." Does this blanket statement cover Christian Gross, Jacques Santini, and Juande Ramos? Oh, and paper was a key component of Japanese housebuilding until the early 20th century, so there is centuries worth of evidence that a builder can rightly be blamed for not building a house out of paper... "Some even aid in their bidding. Levy has long used the media to control the prevailing narrative around Tottenham Hotspur, and to do this, he needs willing accomplices." Seriously? How can we use the media when the media does everything in its power to **** us over? Tapping up our players (i.e. Keane, Bale, Kane), planting the word "Spursy" into the head of rival fans that makes r/soccer so much fun to visit, portraying us as the club in crisis this season when the league table states Liverpool and Chelsea are in utter disarray this season yet somehow that doesn't get mentioned (see also: 2015-16 being about us failing, not Liverpool, Chelsea and both Manc clubs conspiring to have dismal seasons at the same time), anybody suggesting we use the media to control a narrative clearly buys Bacofoil as something to wear on their head "Take this recent gem from Dan Kilpatrick; who mysteriously unearthed this information right as antipathy towards the ownership was building...It is as absurd and nonsensical an argument for why a manager should be taking the blame as you’re ever likely to see" This "gem" being the club expecting Conte to sign a contract extension beyond the end of this season. A club wanting their manager to sign a contract extension is not an unreasonable expectation when the manager's contract is until the end of the season, and yet apparently it's all part of Dan Kilpatrick being part of the Deep State "Another trick borrowed from the authoritarian playbook is the five year plan." Hang on, didn't this bloke previously write "Arteta has been backed with big money, consistently, and intelligently, allowed to ruthlessly cut adrift all those he didn’t want, and able to truly build a team in his image. Antonio Conte is still forced to start the players he inherited from the man who managed the club four years ago."? Isn't that an example of a five-year plan, which they're saying is a good thing? So when Arsenal or Liverpool have a five-year plan it's good, but when Spurs do it's a sign that the club's being run by Stalin? is that the argument this guy's making? "Once more, with the January window wide open, the world’s 9th richest football club, is pleading poverty" Oh ****ing hell, another one of these long-debunked lines. Tottenham Hotspur are not the world's ninth richest club. What they are is the world's ninth most profitable, and to demonstrate the difference between A and B all that I have to do is say two words: Newcastle United. They are a richer club than us due to being owned by Saudi Arabia, literally, and yet they are the 20th most profitable club in this year's Deloitte Money League. Also, if somebody looks at the Deloitte Money League and their takeaway is that The Sheikh Mansour Team are only £198m better off than we are, because that is the difference in profits between them and us, then their argument collapses
How serious is the Tuchel link , I'm not sure my mental health and pride could take another Chelsea cast off ffs I went to school with a girl I've since kept up with since leaving and she was the youngest of 16 kids ( we called her mum and dad the producers) she has 4 kids now all grown up but she swore the not one had hand me downs past the age of 4 , I'm getting to know how she feels with all the Chav cast offs that come our way
Conte's had two windows at Spurs. In that time we've signed: Bentancur, Kulusevski, Lenglet, Perisic, Forster, Bissouma, Richarlison, Spence and Romero. There's also Udogie and some youth players, but I won't count them. That's plenty of money and quite a lot of quality, plus depth and experience. We're not going to compete financially with Chelsea or City, for obvious reasons. Who else is leaving us behind in terms of signings or spending?
I don't think any link is essentially serious just yet because I don't see the club sacking Conte. But I'd imagine should Conte walk or be sacked, Tuchel would be in contention along with Pochettino and one or two others.
I give Tuchel the same prospect of success as the last 3 ex-Chelsea chumps...very little, unless there is a change of owner/chairman. Hand me downs are one of the curses of being from a large family. I failed my 11+, so I wouldn't have to follow my older brother at secondary school and wear his knackered uniform. My father was ****ing livid...
Kings Rd FC are only 40m better off, according to the latest Deloitte "Money League" report. Whatever "creative accounting" gymnastics they may indulge in to attempt to evade UEFA FFP, the "bottom line" does not lie. Unless they repeat the 2011-12 CL their finances next season look like they will take a big hit.
The main issue with Tuchel is that, let's be blunt, we may as well offer him the same contract Nuno was under because with his track record of clashing with higher-ups, there will come a day where Ryan Mason will be all that is coming between Tuchel brandishing an Iberico ham and Paratici's face
Top read bang on the money interesting that we follow the same pattern as ENICS other sporting investments all money spinners achieving **** all on the pitch
Reports in Italy suggest prosecutors are pushing for a total footballing ban and potentially even restricted international movement for Paratici for close to two full seasons. Why. Why. Why.
Lucky for us that Daniel Levy is 50% Don Corleone and 50% Joseph Stalin so he can make this all go away Because that's what a non-laughable blogger said in a calm and rational online post...
This might explain why Spurs are currently the only PL club not to complete a transfer in or out in this transfer window, as Levy will no doubt be back in charge of transfer negotiations. The rumoured Porro deal certainly has all the hallmarks of Levy`s fingerprints being all over it, so that means probably deadline day shenanigans once more or no activity whatsoever.
The following is a list of Premier League clubs to not complete a transfer in or out so far this window Crystal Palace Fulham Leicester Manchester United Tottenham So does that mean Daniel Levy is also in charge of transfer negotiations at Man Utd?
Leicester have signed Victor Kristiansen so you can cross them off your list. Manchester United have signed Wout Weghorst and Jack Butland so you can cross them off your list as well. Crystal Palace have loaned Jack Butland to Manchester United so you can cross them off your list too.
Looks like we've already reached the "Making **** up for clout" stage of events Why do I say that? Well, for one thing, if Conte was screaming at Paratici yesterday we all would've heard it, what with Paratici being in Italy as numerous sources prove...
