I'm glad that he can be open about what happened and that it was a failure. Not sure where Nuno Espirito Santo fits into that whole picture, though.
He ironically is a trophy manager now and it's in the big money league, too. They all expected a Portuguese winner in the Saudi Pro League, but probably not that one.
Absolute bullshite to shift the blame onto the fans to the extent he tries to do. Of course we feel the need to win. We've won one trophy in over two decades under ENIC and pay the highest tickets in all the realm. And the "pressure" to bring in Jose or Conte is entirely in his rather defensive imagination. Can't think of many fans over the age of 12 who thought they'd be good fits for the club. Never change, Daniel, never change.
No, it isn't Just go back four months and look at the members of our fanbase ****ting on Ange before he'd even signed a contract because we should have been going for Big Manager A, B or C - as if the Big Managers we brought in during the previous 3-4 years hadn't flamed out horrifically
I didn't see that at all. Sure, plenty of fans were concerned and rightly so - on paper we hadn't appointed such an inexperienced manager (relatively speaking) since Martin Jol. There was also disappointment that we didn't seal Nagelsmann or pursue options such as De Zerbi (who was my first choice for the job by a mile and I've seen nothing so far this season to indicate I was wrong) and instead went for a relatively 'unknown' name. But compare the reaction to Ange to that received by Maureen, Nuno or the response to the Gattuso move and you'll see what real criticism looks like. What annoys me about Levy's statement, and I said this exact point after that Gattuso debacle, is that even if it is true that fans were clamouring for a Big Balls CV Manager, it would seem that the chairman and executive base their decisions on social media content, which is absurd.
Do you honestly believe that Levy is the only chairman who makes decisions with one eye on the fanbase's response? Take a look at Man Utd for a geographically relevant example of another club who does the exact same thing: not only do they look to bring in at least one Big Player per year to appease their fanbase, but their choices of manager are also similar as they either go for a Big Name (i.e. van Galling, the ubermensch), the sentimental choice (Solskjaer) with the occasional flavour of the month (ten Hag) sprinkled in Or even closer to home (even though they shouldn't be...) there's the Bottlers, and they absolutely spent a few years looking to appease the fanbase outside of all logic when it comes to signings going back to the late Wenger era where they were making Big Signings, even if a chunk of them were literally players Los Ladrones and Barca were happy to sacrifice in order to meet FFP regulations or players no other clubs actually wanted such as Aubameyang But back to our fanbase being mewling dickheads - you're wrong, because the constant griping was so persistent that it reached the gutter of the gutter press (i.e. Murdoch's Hate Comic and the Daily Heil) which most certainly wasn't the case with the ubermensch, or Nuno, or Gattuso, or Fonseca, because **** like this was a mainstay for days please log in to view this image And let's not forget that mainstay of every Spurs tweet for a couple of days when it became clear that Ange was going to be taking over, which underlines a certain degree of coordination was involved given the UKIPpers were particularly fond of this one... please log in to view this image The fact that Celtic fans started taking the piss out of us because of that ****e, because our fanbase were acting like entitled bellends
That's not "our fanbase" though, is it? It's some random pillocks on twitter. ****ty media are always going to pick up on anything for random ragebait. I don't know who any of them are and I doubt anyone else does, either.
Context is crucial. The club and fanbase was the most toxic it has been in my lifetime, including the season we flirted with relegation and played abysmal football under Christian Gross. And rightly so. I'm not sure why you climb on a high horse and point the finger at a fanbase who had every reason imaginable to become so toxic. The manner and timing of Ange's appointment was always going to be another huge hurdle of toxicity. After a shambles of a season that ended in the most farcical way, we once again found ourselves after having literally months to line up a target, without any clear target and for many fans it was groundhog day from when we flirted with half of Europe before settling on a man with a nice smile and beard as our sixth choice. It looked like a repeat comedy after Nagelsmann, Slot and De Zerbi rejected us in quick succession and tbh by that point I don't think the fanbase would've reacted with overwhelming positivity to anyone other than Guardiola. So again, even if Levy's projected guilt is true, which it isn't, he totally omits the fact that fanbase pressure had reached such temperatures precisely because of his years of mismanagement of the club.
What measures do you use to conclude he has mismanaged the club? The data shows a trend of continual improvement in league position despite the most competitive environment ever. While doing that he has built a fantastic stadium and training facilities. Which chairmen have done better?
Well if you believe the theory that he has been picking populist managers based on fan base reaction then he has abdicated his responsibilty and bowed to the crowd. His fault or the fans?
From 2005/6- Martin Jol's first full season, our league finishes were; 5th, 5th, 11th, 8th, 4th, 5th, 4th, 5th, 6th, 5th, 3rd, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 6th, 7th, 4th, 8th The first 14 years takes us up to Pochettino's last season and we averaged 5th place. We qualified for Europe 13 times (12 via the league and 1 Cup win) and made the CL on 5 occasions (once every 3 years on average). We made 3 other cup finals. (That's an average of a cup final every 3 .5 years) In that time we had 6 managers averaging approx 2 years 2 months per manager. In the last 4 seasons since sacking Pochettino we have averaged between a 6th and 7th place finish. We made 1 cup final (a lower average than previous years), qualified for Europe 3 times (once for the CL) which is a lower average than previously. We have failed to qualify for Europe once in 4 years (a higher average than previous). We have had 4 managers (I have not included Mason) which is an average of 1 year per manager. Every statistical says that we have been mismanaged in the past 4 years.
