As for Levy... Right now, a good chairman would come out with a strong statement of support for his manager, offering words of encouragement and urging patience as we stick to the project. He would also reference the January window that is soon to open, and his intention to give Ange the tools to strengthen his team where possible. Levy has never done this for a single manager. Because Levy is a complete coward who hides his failures behind other people's naivety.
I'm really doubting whether he makes it to January...but would love for the club to back him publicly and financially and say... "This is our man. We back him. We gave him a contract because, having carried out a thorough analysis of what the club needs, followed by an extensive recruitment process, we are certain that our choice was and remains the right one." We won't. Putting aside a lack of loyalty to coaches, as against some players, there's no sense that the process of recruitment is based on much beyond, cost, availability and how badly 'in the ****' Levy reckons he is. I hope that I'm wrong.
Pivotal week coming up. 2 games that Ange cannot afford to lose, Rangers and Southampton are 2 teams that we should be beating but we know that nothing can be taken for granted and with potentially only 1 fit centre back which won't make things any easier, 2 defeats and Ryan Mason takes charge for a big game against a Manchester side in the league cup ....wait a minute we have been there before....
I think the Ibrox cauldron will get to us and we'll draw at best. Southampton are one of the few teams who make more individual errors than us, so I think we'll get a result there. It's the United, Liverpool and Forest (A) sequence after that that worries me. I can see us losing all three.
Would you want to work for an employer renowned for having a high turnover of staff due to frequent sackings? This would indicate there is a problem at the company. I’m with others who says Levy simply has to stick with Ange. We need him to back him with transfers but at the same time, Ange MUST adapt because his way isn’t working. If Ange refuses to adapt, then we must get rid regardless of the consequences.
I’ve constantly predicted late Jan/ Feb for a while but I agree, it does feel like one or two more bad results and it’s curtains for him. Blowing my own trumpet an’ all but I really saw this happening after the summer window. At the time I was met with a fair amount of disagreement but I seriously couldn’t believe how bad our summer window was. Yes it was great for clearing the decks but it was an absolute stinker for incomings. No issues with investing in youth but one player for the first team and someone who really isn’t much of an upgrade was always going to result in a level of stagnation/ regression. I’ve said it countless times now but to have scraped 5th after 5 losses in 6 and a patchy form record in general since December 2023, to then only give your manager a slight upgrade in the ST position was basically sending him up **** creek without paddle. Make no mistake, I think Ange has shown in these 18 months that he was the wrong choice, as I don’t think he’s a very good manager but this club makes so many wrong choices that the only way to turn it into a right choice - or give it the chance to become the right choice - is to give the manager higher calibre of players. Stumbling on another Pochettino is almost like expecting to produce another Harry Kane tomorrow, so follow through with your choice, back it to hilt and give them the best chances of success.
Sad as it is, despite Roo’s accurate comments about us being a poisoned chalice, we’ll always be able to hire managers, including thousands of Ange’s that come from lesser leagues. Those with a bit more pedigree may think twice but there’ll always be another chump for Levy to let down.
Some serious "false equivalence" there. Spurs have evolved a good time frame now for judging managers, By the end of season 2 there must be significant on-pitch improvement from your predecessor. Those that have met the criteria all had : 1. squads of varying ability (current, "rough diamonds" waiting to shine etc) 2. their teams playing entertaining football I am happy to ignore all Spurs managers on the PR front, and go purely "by the numbers" when judging them.
If this does go south as many now fear, KH wins the 'I told you so trophy' as he doubted Ange from day one. My feeling about the summer was that while it wasn't amazing, IF Ange had the skillset of another Poch, it wouldn't be disastrous as we would see a whole host of young players (Udogie, Micky, Sarr, Gray, Bergvall, Dragusin, Moore, Lankshear and Johnson) improving at a rate of knots, similar to what we saw with that cohort containing Kane, Alli, Dier, Son and Townsend. But it is now pretty clear that Ange is not a good coach and that supplying him with a line of promising youngsters is a complete waste of his time, their careers and the club's money. We're miles away from challenging for the title, but a good coach would have this group of players performing much more consistently than what we're seeing. There isn't a chance he gets the war chest his skill set needs. Jose and Conte didn't get it, why on earth should a man whose only claim to fame is winning trophies in a two-team league? Meanwhile down the road, Arteta has received extremely strong financial backing, but he has demonstrated ample evidence that he can also develop the youngsters. Saka, Saliba, Martinelli and Odegaard have all flourished under him.
Yeah Ange is King’s managerial equivalent to Lo Celso, he called him out long before anyone else did for being tripe. Club needs to hire a few of us from here, we’d do a damn site better at making some decisions.
I don't mind the marginal decisions or taking risks here and there. After all, BMJ was an absolute nobody with a nothing record when we appointed him and look what he did for us. It's the obvious idiotic mistakes that everyone can see from a mile away that rile me up. Signing Richarlison, going into a season (twice) with zero cover for Kane, going into last season without cover at CB, going into this season without cover at LB...these are the sorts of decisions that are such rank incompetence, anyone signing off on them should be dismissed the same day.
Levy could never hire me as manager (he would love the financial terms but would be absolutely terrified of everything else ) .
Jol wasn’t even intended to really be manager, he was Santini’s assistant that took over after Santini bolted but then got the gig permanent. Poch was also the backup option to van Gaal. I think Redknapp was the only one we targeted out right as a first choice option when replacing Ramos that ended up being the right call lol.
You know what, although I am very frustrated with Ange right now, I think this might be the right way forward - if only because they have tried everything else and it hasn't worked. Maybe my dream last night won't be as far off as I imagined!
Which by definition would mean he objectively failed to reach the benchmark (I take no pleasure in how rapidly things seem to be spiraling out of his control) .
I'm glad i carried on reading as i was going to ask if anyone knew what happened . I'm just glad we ended up with him and the improvement in a couple of players is clear i.e Gravenberch and Gakpo and he is pragmatic and has tried to rotate when possible .
