Being a Spurs fan and having had to time to watch and assess various types of managers at the club, as well as analysing situations elsewhere, I think there's a fair assumption to say that different managers are just suited to different levels of management.
Managers like Conte, Jose, Pep, Ancelotti etc are the types you bring in if your club is expected to win major honours either because they have a country's wealth or are already the best team in the land. They can handle the expectations and they know the one or two big money signings required to almost ensure success.
Then you have managers like Poch, Klopp, Nagelsmann, Galtier, Emery etc who are the types to manage clubs who are hopeful but not expectant of any silverware whilst trying to achieve continental qualification and are therefore capable of improving multiple players to up their games (often younger ones with potential) to help the team go from pretenders to contenders, Klopp especially is a master of this, as he's achieved some of the very best silverware at both Pool and Dortmund. Arteta may fall into this too bracket too.
Then you have managers that can help teams expected to do relatively little punch well above their weight and begin to dream of continental qualification; Potter, De Zerbi, Frank, Gasperini etc do just that by improving the style of play despite working with restricted budgets and often rely on great scouting to benefit from both stylistically and eventually financially to reinvest back into the club to maintain steady improvement.
There are many more managers that fit into these categories and I'd say the large majority of them are unable to do what those in other brackets are capable of but it's why I don't think anyone in the top category is necessary better than those in the middle or bottom ones, they're just simply better at others things, they all are. We're seeing Potter struggle with the expectations at Chelsea, Poch never set the world alight with PSG, Conte and Jose both struggled with us and Nagelsmann has had his critics at Bayern.
Whether it be before the season ends or once it has ended, Conte should leave and the club needs to start being more methodical with their choice of managerial appointments. A Poch return may or may not be the best thing depending on what side of the fence you sit but he probably makes more sense than many other candidates, one thing's for sure though, we need to steer clear from managers with primarily a defence-first outlook because unless you have the best defenders available (which we absolutely do not!) the style of football won't work long term and we also need to steer clear from managers who are reluctant and even incapable of improving players, especially younger ones, because a club like us generally need to unearth or develop some gems in order to compete with bigger clubs.
First and foremost, the Club needs to decide once and for all what its identity is. Our choices of managers and approach to transfers since Poch left reflects an almost all-encompassing confusion from top to bottom in this regard.
As you've said, broadly speaking there are two types of club. 'Alpha' and 'Beta'. Alpha clubs are geared toward success at all costs. They will typically hire and fire managers pretty quickly, spend eye-watering sums in the market and will also sign their fair share of dross, simply because they are trawling with wide nets rather than targeted fishing to reel in very specific fish. Beta clubs prefer slow-burner projects, progressive and young coaches who are able to nurture young talent and create a whole greater than the sum of its parts.
We appointed an alpha manager in Maureen but serviced him with two strongly beta transfer windows.
We then appointed a beta manager (sixth in a long list of other beta managers) in Nuno and, weirdly, gave him something of an alpha window by bringing in Romero but not really selling anyone to raise funds.
We then appointed another alpha manager in Conte and in his first window leaned towards treating him like an alpha, but then reverted back to beta in the summer.
I had zero qualms with Levy's responses to the THST questions. He makes a very valid point: poor transfer policy in recent years has indeed created the illusion of "minimal investment", when in reality investment has been operating at unprecedented levels for a few years now, the issue is it has largely been spent on dross who we are now struggling to shift. What he says is true, but...
Only if we are still a Beta club operating under Beta rules. A true alpha club goes through Ndombeles, Lo Celsos and Richarlisons like I go through pairs of socks. It's just part and parcel of the modus operandi being success at all costs. The clue is in the description. It is clear that we would rather achieve success at minimal or zero cost...that is very much Beta club thinking. That is the mind-space of a Brighton or a Dortmund, teams who accept the fact that they will routinuely be strip-mined by Alpha clubs, but will then reinvest those extortionate sums back into the team as part of the ongoing long-burner projects they are committed to.
We've been sitting on the fence since the day Levy had that little fanboy chat with Mourinho in March 2018 after the Inter Legends friendly game to inaugurate the new stadium. He's been confused ever since.
