Everyone tries being positive but Spurs and Conte quickly remind us there’s jack to be positive about most weeks.
This is not the year 2000, the club has moved on off the pitch (yes thanks to Levy & ENIC, I will give them credit where it is due) and most fans now have loftier ambitions on the pitch higher than being satisfied with qualifying for Europe and no trophies. ENIC have taken the football operation as far as they can, we are no better off now than we were when Poch left, that is 4 years of basically going around in circles and achieving nothing apart from a healthy balance sheet. We can only hope one of these takeover rumours comes to fruition.
But why do we think that? While Conte has had the best start of any Spurs manager I think that is down to his qualities as a coach as much as it is to us having a relatively better squad than AVB or Pochettino took over. It may be that we have too high hopes. We still have a long way to go before we become favourites to win something. I share the disappointment of the way we play under Conte but it's not at all obvious that we would actually do better under someone else.
No it's not. Your circumstances change with time quite naturally. Spurs circumstances get better if we are managed well and worse if we are managed badly.
I am not in the change the manager camp. I think it's just counter productive to keep changing, but Conte himself may not want to stay, that's the unknown in this scenario.
The point with the squad Poch inherited is that two years of Villas-Boasball meant that we had a core of players who could slot into Poch's high-pressing tactics the moment he arrived, as those were qualities that Villas-Boas also wanted so all he really needed to do was curate what he had available instead of an overhaul which was necessary when Jol needed to rejig the squad when he shuffled up the bench when Santini was sacked or Redknapp had to correct so many of Comolli's mistakes In comparison Conte inherited a squad where some parts could follow his tactics (the front three certainly could, and the CBs had potential) but the midfield wasn't set up that way as his system needs a Kante or a Brozovic depending on which configuration he's using and the WBs certainly needed fixing, but the real issue this season is he's actively making elements of the team worse either due to how he deploys them (i.e. playing Kane as an out-and-out striker) or some of the tactical choices (i.e. how our midfield, barring Bentancur, never seems to attempt playing through balls) which wasn't the case last season This is why I've been comparing Conte to Villas-Boas for a while, because while last season there was a consensus between players and system, this season is purely about playing his system in spite certain components not being a fit for it - and he is trying to brute force it instead of taking a step back and taking a different approach to what isn't working
I think this is generally true of life as well. Circumstances get better if we manage life better and the opposite is equally true. But to argue that a person should be happy with today because in theory they would have been happy with it 20 years ago seems a foolish approach to life imo.
I am not suggesting that it's right that tickets and shirts are more expensive. My major criticism of ENIC would be the prices they charge are far too high and exclude a lot of their traditional fanbase.
I’m not sure life works like this considering we on average live under 100 years on planet Earth…certainly not in my universe You’re basically saying no matter what happens…always be grateful because once it was worse wow
The only real difference between those two games was that Conte was absent in the former and the players seemed to approach the game differently. Next week will be different, for sure. The crowd alone should help create an atmosphere to push the team along. But personnel? We pretty much know how Conte will pick and set up the team. He has only one way it seems and to quote Einstein (who definitely would have opted for 4-3-3 by now ): "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.”
This so far is the worst week of the season in terms of performances. Leicester was a proper low and last night not much better, and I don't expect the spammers will improve our mood over the weekend. Clueless in defence and attack. Yes Sarr and Skipp can hold their heads up higher than most but in all honesty mainly because expectations were low and the rest of the team so awful. Sarr shows great promise and handled correctly may develop into a very good player and I think Skipp has a skill set that could also yield a very good career. When Emerson is amongst the best 3 players for a 3rd straight game that he has been picked for you really need to ask the question has he suddenly improved or are rest of the teams performances just declining to make him look better? Last night other than 3 players mentioned above (and Forster who was a tad unlucky for the goal imo and did everything else competently) that leaves 7 players who reached levels of incompetence that are not sustainable in 11 man team. From appalling Son & Perisic, to the distinctly below average, Romero, Kulu and Dier, to the tried hard but still poor Kane & Lenglet. I place the manager in pot 2 (below ave) as well.
I'd go a step further: our circumstances get better when we put the player first, and worse when we put the system first This is especially true when you look at some of our managers who put system before anything else: Bloke in a Coat, Santini, Ramos, Villas-Boas, the ubermensch, and Conte is rapidly placing himself on the list It's always a delicate balance between the players you have and the system you use, which is something that Poch and Redknapp knew as they both had clearly identifiable systems yet the way we were set up never looked like the system was consuming the players and it was only when their systems were wholesale changed where things started to unravel, but the issue with managers who have a very rigid system is they miscast players in their system or need very specific players for very specific roles ad only those specific players - which sometimes isn't an issue, for example the very specific player Villas-Boas needed fit very well into Poch's system, or it's a complete rebuild such as when Jol needed to reshape the squad PDQ because Santini's players were ill-suited to pretty much every Spurs manager we've had since
In terms of Deki, one question that needs to be asked is why he seems to be a little sluggish when he starts to go on a run In other words, did we rush him back too early as per, or is he playing with a niggling injury to make sure we trigger the clause in his loan?
I wasn't trying to argue that. I was trying to point out that we had improved a lot. In my experience progress is never linear and if you can manage two steps forward for every step back things are going very well. Our steps back were taken under Mourinho and I think we've progressed a bit over the last 18 months.
I didn't mean to imply that...see my reply above. What's happening now is still progress I think. It's a marathon and the last few miles are the hardest.
Conte would argue that since he has a better record than any other Spurs manager, what he is doing is working fine.
I have been to see us play Southampton, Wolves, Leeds and Marseille. I have tickets to Milan and West Ham. None are or were Category A matches. That's a total of £295 for me (plus £2 booking fee per game and £4 per programme). That's £331 for 6 non Category A games in the "cheap seats". I probably won't go to anymore due to the cost and lack of entertainment. I have been to a women's spurs match, and to 3 Charlton games (QPR, Brighton (cup games) and Exeter in the league and have tickets for me and Mrs RCL for the Wednesday match (her team). Those 6 tickets have cost a total of £112 plus another £18 for programmes making a total of £130. I know the Premier League is the top of the football pyramid so will be more expensive but it is pricing many of us out. I took my daughter's to 2 of the games and that's another £200 plus booking fees for those 4 tickets. I love going but even "cheaper" matches are becoming too much. And if thefootball is poor fans are going to react and tbh (while I never boo or get on players backs) it is inevitable.
yes I agree about us being on the last few miles…this is why we are stuck imo takes someone slightly braver than what Levy has shown to get over that hurdle imo So when would you maybe lose the patience with him? Or will you forever feel as though we are indebted to him and therefore he can do as he wishes with THFC?
I will lose patience with him if he starts behaving differently from the way I would run the club. Much in the same way that I think he loses patience with managers when they behave differently to the way they promised when appointed. As far as I can see Conte does exactly what it says on the tin so I can't see Levy sacking him unless results are really dire.
