I'm not sure he's helped himself tbh. In a similar way to Poch reportedly turning down numerous other (better) players because he was fixated on Ndombele, Ange seems fixated on only signing players who are falling over themselves to be part of a project at Spurs. It's a noble sentiment but in the modern game, wishful thinking. If we'd taken the attitude of not signing anyone who saw Spurs as a stepping stone to a bigger club and/or because they wanted exposure on the European stage, I doubt we would have signed the likes of Berbatov, Carrick, Modric, or maybe even Bale. Players change their mind all the time. Some come here and fall in love with the club, ending up staying for far longer than anyone would have hoped for. His stubbornness on the pitch is matched by his stubbornness off it, and as a result he is holding himself and us back.
I agree he’s made mistakes and said some strange things but they should give him who he wants and then he’s got no excuse and can be held accountable for results. Giving him youngsters that aren’t ready for PL whilst selling the likes of Hojbjerg and even Lo Celso has left the club very light in midfield. Sacking another manager mid season and then bringing in someone else with a different system isn’t the answer.
This is where I've been for quite a while. I'm fed up with the appointment of a succession of 'chumps' who are destined to fail as soon as they start the job. Is there any point in doing it again? Does anyone believe that the next bloke will be any more successful than the last one, given our aims, budget and ever wonky and unbalanced squad? At the beginning of the season, I predicted that we'd finish 8th. That may prove ambitious and if the board retained faith that Ange was on the right track, I'd go with it. I rather suspect that the board will ditch Ange before it gets too hot for ENIC and European football looks unlikely next season. It will only achieve an even larger cost to the already enormous cost of paying managers not to work for the club during ENIC'S ownership.
We all knew it would be a bumpy ride with Ange so the club needs to persevere but only if we see some changes. I would like to see Spurs buy players for “now” rather than “later”. Buying for the “later” is purely with the aim to make big profits rather than see progress on the pitch. Ange needs to be more flexible with tactics. He has made some positive tactical changes in recent games but these tactical changes should be made before KOs after analysing opponents strengths and weaknesses. The “high line” approach isn’t always suitable. Ange’s focus is on flair predominantly, and a case of hoping for the best. We simply don’t have any “flair” in our team. We really aren’t progressing the youngsters. Archie Gray looks a great prospect but he’s not a defender. I know Ange puts him in the full backs positions in the hope that he gets forward but I don’t think that plays to his strength. He needs to be in central midfield. Thus I think Ange should stay but only on the proviso we see him adapting and using the squad better.
It's difficult to give the manager who he wants when the pool of quality players who would want to play for a club that doesn't win trophies and can't offer CL football is already extremely small, and he then goes and makes it even smaller by insisting that they must also really want to join the specific project happening at Spurs. Just like the way he sets up the defence, he's created problems for himself before we've even started.
I truly thought that at the end of last season the club were gonna really back Ange in the market, last season was far from perfect and Ange himself is as such too but I felt there was a platform/ base that we were able to build upon and that added quality would’ve papered over some of Ange’s tactical flaws but it seems the board had other ideas. I thought our window was about a 3/10. It was great for exits but our incomings were abysmal, Solanke being the only (minor) improvement to the XI of a side that just scraped 5th after a run of 5 losses in our final 7 games. That run alone should’ve prompted the club to hit the transfer window all guns blazing and we just laboured through it and it’s no real surprise our win rate is still below par this season. I’ve said the similar as you have with regards to your last paragraph, I’ve predicted for a while now that late Jan/ mid Feb as to when the hammer could be dropped on Ange and the next scapegoat arrives for future failure. I suppose the only potential plus point for any new manager coming in within around the next 12 months is that a few of the young players will be better experienced and that could suit a Poch-esque type of manager/ head coach but knowing Levy we’d hire another Conte in that regard who only wants players roughly over 28.
Since we moved out of White Hart Lane, we have spent every penny we are allowed to as far as I can see. @Citizen Kane. is right that the very best players won't come to us currently. Their is remarkably little evidence that any manager or coach improves players by a noticeable amount. If that were true the correlation between money spent and success would be much lower. The same is true about whether tactics matter. However if you have the sixth best team based on squad cost then the only way it is going to win something is by taking more risk. That's why I like Ange as coach...his system is really risky so should widen the spread of outcomes. Since I believe the mean will be about 6th, I would much prefer a few firsts and a few 11ths in the outcomes than the current spread (which still averages higher than 6th).
We need to do both. We can't sign the AAA players at the moment. Buying potential or bringing through youngsters is the only way we'll get them. We couldn't have signed Harry Kane, Heung-min Son, Gareth Bale or Luka Modric in their prime if they were playing for someone else. Bring in the best and most appropriate players that we can sign and pick up the most promising youngsters and give them game time. The other things that we can do are to ensure the squad is balanced and we have plenty of depth. Homegrown and club-trained numbers need to be maintained for this to happen.
The amounts we spend isn't so much the issue, it's who we're spending it on. We're in our 5th or 6th year of playing at the new stadium which is/ was essentially meant to act as a game changer and yet the two biggest players we've signed were Perisic on a free and Bale on a loan, two players who likely would've joined had we still been at White Hart Lane. That's not to say I/ we only want top class players, because I'm a huge advocate for bringing in the Sarr's and Gray's of the world but it'd be nice if the club actually fronted up and gave our manager(s) a couple of players that'd have the rest of the league or Europe concerned about before they'd even kicked a ball for us.
They have over spent on the wrong players and under spent on wages to attract the better players, the decision making is diabolical and has been for over two decades.
The thing is we are doing both, for example in the summer Solanke was a NOW while Gray was a LATER The real issue is how we approach our evaluations of players: at the risk of allowing the Football Managerfication of football to continue, the most straightforward way to do this is to look at where players are in the squad over three year periods and use the stats and data to come to a decision on whether to retain or replace them To try and make what I'm saying sound like it might make a degree of sense, let's say the current block started in the summer of 2021 and ends in the summer of 2025, so let's look at the players signed in the 2021-2 season as they are the ones who will be having a decision made about them Cristian Romero - retain (though make it abundantly clear if he's injured he will be rested) Pape Matar Sarr - retain Bryan Gil - replace (and bloody hell are we trying to...) Emerson Royal - already replaced Dejan Kulusevski - retain Rodrigo Bentancur - replace, thanks to injuries and general dickheadedry (note: Romero and Kulusevski are italicised as they were loans that season, but we count that as Day One) Similar can be said for the following summer, since I'm on the subject Destiny Udogie and Djed Spence to retain Yves Bissouma, Richarlison and Fraser Forster to replace Ivan Perisic has already left This does underline the batting average, as half the signings need moving on or have already been moved on - but mainly underlines the issues that started in the late Poch era and persisted until pretty much last summer where a bunch of players were still Ndombeleing around the club for far longer than they should have been
As I've said many times we've been the sixth richest club over those two decades and come above 6th on average which suggests the decision making is fine. The issue is increasing the wealth of the club at the fastest rate possible. There are only two ways of doing that...organic growth or someone tipping a bundle of money in.
This is what the people who think looking at CL qualification over winning the FA Cup fail to comprehend, at this point to the point it can only be stubbornness CL qualification is a significant cash injection, as well as the elevated status helping attract players (most obviously Eden Hazard in 2012) - winning the FA Cup is just a footnote in comparison
I keep saying it...we are a decent young inconsistent team. Hopefully as they mature as a team they'll get that maturity.
On my thesis that Ange could be gone this season by one of three milestones ... We reach the end of november milestone. PL : still on target for a top 4 finish, but things are precarious. EL : a bad showing this month (1 pt from 6) . League cup : a major hurdle cleared (Citeh) . So in summary : not sufficient to get the boot. But no peace for the wicked, and he gets to do it all again up to the Jan 31 milestone, with the dec-jan fixture melee, little room for error now in the EL, and throw in FA cup R3.
