Just want to say I am massively impressed by the lad, his influence has been immense. His goal celebrations alone are worth staying up until 3 or 4 am to watch the games (I live in china). He seemed to play a big part in making Holtby choose us, Holtby's agent has confimed he choose us over everyone else because of AVB and Co in mid december. I was also reading what Freund said about Parker - He seems a class act, and really seems to drive the players forward. I cant help but feel we may now start looking at the bundesliga more closely in the future for talent. Freund is a close follower of the league, and has a lot of knowledge about its youth system and the talent thats available. Lets hope that AVB and Levy have made a good impression! Schalke have some amazing young players - I would like to see us go for Draxler and Meyer. Draxler has been better than Holtby in my oppinion, and Meyer shows a lot of promise. Any thoughts on what other german players you would like to see at spurs?
I'm afraid Freund do not impess me as a coach,so far,but bringing good players to the club is helpful.Don't know much about German player's,Roo and HBIC are usually quite knowlegeble on players from abroad
Hbic and SOS more so than me. They're ya best bet. I think Marko Marin was the last player I liked in Germany, who was a realistic target. - look how that ended up. Devastated to see him barely play for Chelsea. Players like reus, shurrle etc are out of the question for us, but that's the standard of young talent we need to be looking at. Hbic? SOS?
I liken the appointment of Steffen Freund to that of Gus Poyet a few years ago, it's a PR exercise to appease fans disgruntled at the removal of the previous regime. Like Poyet before him, Freund has done nothing within the game to justify his elevation to coach at such a high level and let's be honest here, he would never have been offered the job if he wasn't an ex-player of ours. He wasn't the choice of AVB, indeed AVB did confess in the early days that he had never even met Freund before he was appointed and the pair continue to have an uneasy relationship. I understand some fans love to see passion on the touchline, but in the grand scheme of things, it doesn't really count for much. What does count is the work and hours spent on the training ground to good effect and I am not convinced Freund is really up to it. In fact, my understanding is that he isn't involved too much and pretty much only acts as a 'go between link' betwen the players and AVB. Good on him for maybe having an influence on where Holtby has chosen to play his football, but otherwise he continues to be pretty insignificant in my opinion.
I bow to your obvious knowledge of the inner-workings of the club, OS and have no idea what contribution Freund makes on the training ground itself. However, it is sometimes easy to underestimate the value of (1) a affinity with the club and its fans (2) the ability to communicate with passion (3) to assist in the dissemination of messaging from management to players. If you add to that the apparent influence that he is having on the acquisition of Holtby, then maybe Freunds contribution should be re-evaluated. Perhaps the problem lies in his title - maybe he just needs a role name that better represents an administrative or or ambassadorial position. Certainly his passion on the bench cannot be doubted.
I confess to being a bit cynical over the value of having someone around who clearly loves the club, you're right it shouldn't be underestimated. However, I still maintain I remain to be convinced with the role of Freud. It's all very well praising his touchline shows of emotion, but if you look closely, he spends the rest of the time in total silence looking completely overawed with the occasion and having squat diddly influence. In fact some games he does nothing more than act as a cheerleader when the crowd is subdued. I'd prefer to see more influence on what is happening on the pitch than in the stands.
But on the bright side, the £100 a week he pays Levy to sit on the touch line, covers the tea ladies salary......
Relayer, his seems to more like an advisors role more than a coach. If as OS says AVB is indifferent to him, maybe he will shunted aside at the end if the season.
PL - that's the point I am making. He maybe needs a title that better represents his contribution. And AVB's indifference - as long as not outright hostility - shouldn't be a problem. But if he was brought in solely as an appeasing gesture and we have a half successful season, then his work will probably be done and he may be moved on then.
The only passion I see is when we score, or at the final whistle if we win. If its a nil-nil, its nothing more than a gormless expression like he hasn't a clue whats in front of him, (there could be more to that than you think!) nodding only when spoken to. I hope someone bought him a new watch for Xmas so we get out on the pitch on time this year. Bit of a buffoon from what I see and hear, a likeable one in some respects, but still a buffoon, and we're stuck with him.
I really don't like that, it's a bit patronising, like when Delia came on the pitch swigging a bottle of wine and shouting "where are you?". The positives of having Freund, which have been mentioned, are totally useless if he's not a good coach and doesn't have the respect of the players or the manager. That said, if we went for an assistant that knows AVB and shares his philosophy then he's got a 'yes' man which might not be so helpful and if we got someone like Jol in, who's very tactically aware and has his own ideas, they we're always at risk of them disagreeing and falling out. Maybe I'm just looking at those 2 scenarios a bit negatively. If this Real Madrid partnership is worth anything we should send Freund out there to see what their coaches are doing, particularly on matchday he either doesn't know what he's doing or needs better understanding of the basics before adding his own ideas.
Freund was a great player for us. Not the most technically gifted it could be argued, but gave 100% and could play. I think he gives the same on the coaching staff. Inspired by AVB or whomever brought him in
Did anyone see this in amongst the epileptic celebrating? "Although substitute Clint Dempsey’s unnecessary late debate with coach Steffen Freund suggests not all the new recruits are happy with life" ( For those wondering where it came from, there's nothing more on it though. Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/fo...Tottenham-Champions-League.html#ixzz2H72zUpaY ) ...nor are some of the long term players.
Guys I understand and appreciate all your oppinions, but I think we have got a great coach here. AVB who I for one like as our manager, is known for being very controlling, he is however seeming a reformed man at spurs. But Freund's coaching credentials are pretty sound, he is at spurs for a reason and I am thinking it was a very astute acquisition. Here is a man that has the inside deal on all of germany's youth prospects, and is respected by many of the youth players. I wouldnt be surprised if Holtby is the first of one or two young german players to join, germany could be our new croatia. He has great experience with the german youth squads, and has had a lot of success with them. Remember Holtby has been capped 3 times for germany now, a part in due to Freund. I am pretty certain without Freund, he would of went to Arsenal or Liverpool his first choices. take a butchers below: Coaching career On 1 September 2007, Freund was appointed assistant head-coach of the German U-20 team. On 5 December 2007, he was named as a new assistant to Nigeria coach Berti Vogts for the time of the African Nations Cup. He then resumed his work as assistant to German U20-manager Frank Engel. In May 2009 he finished his coaching badges and on 17 July 2009 he was appointed manager of the German U-16 team signing a two-year contract.[2] A year later he began managing the German U-17 team leading them to a runners up medal at the 2011 UEFA European U-17 Football Championship and a third place at the World Cup in Mexico. He then started working with the new generation of U-16 players. On 11 July 2012, Freund was appointed assistant head coach of Tottenham Hotspur
We are currently hovering around 3rd/4th. I am trying to figure out wether folk are suggesting this is all down to AVB or Freund can take some credit or not.
