The bloke who's won about 85% of the finals he's been in would've probably had a better chance of achieving success than an ex-player in his second game of management.
Putting aside the obvious point about that 15% in his record, the fact he had seen us crash out of Europe in spite having a 2-0 first leg lead ship five goals against Everton (guess who scored two of their goals?) to get dumped out of the FA Cup are clear evidence that, no, he would not have won the final And saying we should have kept a manager who had us playing **** football and in abysmal form because he might have won a trophy is utterly pathetic
During his reign as Spurs manager he had two wins to Pep's one in head to heads. His record in finals is one of the best around and yet somehow thinking the idea he could've won another is utterly pathetic? Gotcha.
But pre-ENIC, there was a more level playing field. Go back further and it was even more competitive The division of wealth has created an elite - Spurs are among that, having the 5th largest income in the PL, 9th in the world. It is hard to break into that elite unless you are bankrolled by wealthy owners who manipulate FFP (Newcastle) or you gatecrash for a sustained period - which a team like Villa may be capable of and Leicester have managed for a few years until recently. Spurs have underperformed this season because of Conte - both his methods when in charge and then the aftermath of his departure. It’s likely to be a blip, but it will be harder to get back to the level of the Pochettino years soon as a result. Not half as bad as Chelsea though. Success or failure has become so relative these days.
And when was that one loss? Why, it wouldn't have been a few weeks before the final where we lost 3-0, would it? Not a gotcha. Not by any means, considering I've mentioned that exact match at least twice already
Two wins vs one would favour him to grab another I say. The idea of one of the most successful managers in the game winning another final really isn't that farfetched either, as much as you try and make it out to be.
Why was that clause in Jose’s contract? Who allowed it to go in? it was to get Jose to sign on the dotted line and take the job….Levy probably thought we won’t win or get near winning a trophy because that’s not what we do but then Jose did what Jose does and got us to a final and Levy **** the bed once again and ran off with the loot. How can this be defended?
You're now arguing that he should have been sacked as we would've lost the final with him in charge anyway. So which is it, compensation or ability? Or should we continue to shift the proverbials so that Levy remains immaculate? It was a preposterous decision made two month late after he should never have been appointed in the first place. The search for his successor was farcical to the point of embarrassment.
I hope this wasn't the case, as THE only defence I could possibly think of to justify Maureen's appointment was precisely this one fact: his ability to win trophies. Nothing else about the appointment made any sense. The notion that Levy appointed a manager whose only positive attribute is his medal collection, and then sacked him in order to avoid possibly adding to that collection, is too insane even for this club.
Don’t see why this is a valid point tbh it was a cup final…that 3-0 loss was irrelevant to the conversation In no world was Ryan Mason a better choice to take that cup final than Jose Mourinho. For the fans that whole episode was about collecting silverware for our club…for Levy it was about saving money. He just doesn’t get it
Getting thrashed by the same opponents in their most recent meeting, when that team is hitting form while we are doing the exact opposite, says a lot more It is not farfetched to suggest that somebody who had overseen us crash out of two cup competitions in humiliating fashion in the weeks before a final would have made a complete bollocks of the final On top of anything else, do you not remember how god-awful our squad fitness was during his tenure? Our midfield usually looked dead on their feet with 25 minutes to go at matches at our stadium because of the combination of ineffective fitness coaching and tactics that required our midfield to clearly require much better coaching so they could actually run in the 80th minute, so imagine what the bigger pitch at Wembley would have done to them So no, he would not have won us a trophy. Anybody thinking he would have is using revisionist history with some pretty glaring omissions
he was hired because he wins finals you say, then we sacked him when we got to a final why else did this happen other than to save money? Otherwise it makes no sense to have such a clause allowed in your contract. I can imagine the conversation to seduce Jose… Levy - I tell you what, win us a cup and I’ll give you a bonus and extend your contract(doesn’t believe we will do that) Jose gets us to the final Levy in a dilemma Why not sack him 1 week later? In no world on this universe does anyone choose Mason over Jose in a cup final but Levy did. why?
It's either to save £15m or due to caving in to fan pressure. Either way, neither reason passes a fit and proper person test to be chairman of a multi billion pound asset imo.
I still think the whole Maureen episode was about winning trophies from Levy's perspective too. But when COVID hit, that priority shifted massively to saving money.
Yes, I am saying that he should have been sacked prior to the final Why should he have been sacked before the final? Gee, take your pick - Blowing a 2-0 first leg lead in the Europa League to a team whose manager was in jail - Shipping goals for fun to Everton to get knocked out the FA Cup - Our form since winning the semi final (against a Championship team) was abysmal in all competitions - A dismal run of form against Top 6 sides once our tactics were found out around Christmas that season What ability? Once teams figured out his tactics, which was hardly difficult as they were wholly predictable for anyone watching our games in real time, things started going south and he had no ideas to rectify that, so the idea of him winning a final against one of those teams that picked us apart a few weeks earlier is pure fantasy from people suffering from trophy derangement syndrome In other words, sacking him at the exact moment his compensation would have been lower and he was not at risk of triggering a contract extension was the right call. The only reason he lasted so long was because our early season form did just enough to make us look more buoyant than we actually were
Yeah but don't forget, the team you were going to play had already beaten you once that season. Makes you wonder why any team would bother playing against a team that had beaten them before
It really isn't irrelevant if we lose to the exact same opponent who are hitting form at that time The likelihood is the plans were likely laid out after the one-two punch of losing a NLD followed by the Dinamo Zagreb loss in the same week in the middle of March, as the articles from Dan KP and Alasdair Gold which were clearly turning him against him started appearing shortly after that, but the board most likely worked on the basis of him leaving at the end of the season but their minds were made up by the three matches prior to the final: draws with Everton and Newcastle plus a loss to Man Utd, which pushed him below the threshold of a contract renewal What makes that sound likely is that does sound similar to how the board viewed Conte this season, as there was definitely suggestions they were hoping he'd get the team across the line and clinch Europa League football at the very worst, but then his post-Southampton rant threw that plan out of the window
So in short, you have a CEO that ****s himself if a manager gets close to actually winning something and a board that can't take criticism when a manager points out that investment is needed to progress further (see Poch and Conte for details).
I think it's wonderful that you can blame the managers and players for all your clubs ills. Far better to blame all the transient people than the permanent fixtures, that way you can hold on to hope and still have people to vent at.
