Postecoglou & Lange (& Paratici) Watch

City won 6-0 and there are no doubts about Guardiola's future.
He also hasn't had to take time off to see his family, as they live in England.
Dele Alli reminded everyone of that...

 

"Tottenham planning to sack Antonio Conte during the international break!!!" - Matt Law

"Tottenham should give Antonio Conte a new contract so he can fix the team!!!" - ESPN

Ignoring the ESPN dreck because...well, seriously, Law's take certainly offers two very likely scenarios
i.) Fishing for engagement: Let's be blunt, there's blood in the water so mentioning Conte and Spurs in close proximity is oozing with SEO juice (yes, that is a term - and, no Jordan Peterson, it's not some secret Chinese repopulation factory...) which is always useful on a quiet Monday and especially useful during an international break as the sports pages are like a wasteland for a few days
ii.) He's onto something: Up until Friday it seemed that the board were content to let Conte see out his contract (and also have a Spurs manager finish a season for the first time since the 2018-19 season) and then see where we go from there - but if there has been a sudden 180, and there were rumours of the board meeting on Sunday to discuss his immediate future, that may suggest that senior members of the squad have had a word with Levy and want Conte gone sooner rather than later

...by the way, you now all owe me £7.99 for reading my highly speculative drivel with some crumbs of truth mixed into it, because that's exactly what The Athletic do

 

Not on the "season compass" it wouldn'rt

 

One of the few things that I won't slag him off for. Who cares which airline it is?

 

BILD say we’ve made contact with Oliver Glasner’s agents.

 

It's traditional for the first half a dozen chumps to tell us to "**** off!".

We come close to appointing the next 2 or 3 but have a case of the last minute wobbles...

...then we pick ourselves a real winner...

 

So you're telling me you won't be happy when we announce Scott Parker 3 weeks before next season starts?

Shame on you.

 

Interesting we're considering the German approach, as opposed to the Portuguese or Italian approaches we've taken in the past three and a bit years

That being said, Bild do have a tendency to throw a lot of bait into the water

:::EDIT:::

The source isn't BILD but sportBILD, which is the BILD-affiliated tabloid which likely remembered that Glasner is currently in negotiations for a new contract at Eintracht

 

He'll be cheaper to sack than many.

It's really got to the stage where I'm struggling to see how any coach could succeed...even to ENIC's standard of CL qualification through finishing 4th.

Here's to being proved wrong...

 

I mean, we're 4th now...
Probably not going to stay there, but it's hardly an impossible dream for a half-decent manager.
Our squad isn't that bad, especially when we attack teams.

 

Would you bet your own money on it?

 

Precisely. The issue is the balance of the team. We need to be far more proactive in games as our defensive inconsistency means we can’t rely on grinding out results like we did last year. Taking our foot off the gas is not an option as it stands. I’m not saying go all-out attack because that’s madness, but it’s more about maintaining levels of intensity and concentration, particularly when pressing off the ball, and speed of the game when we have it. Conte seems unable or unwilling to have the team consistently take that approach and he seems to rely more on his pre-coached patterns of play and moments of quality from individual players than a team approach. Conte’s approach worked last season but our defenders are not playing as well and most of our forwards are bang out of form so it’s been largely not working so well this season.

If we had the Son of 2021/22 this year, we’d likely be 3rd or higher. I’ve lost count of the number of goals we could have scored, both his chances and chances he could create for others, if he was on his game. It’s absolutely not just his fault but it’s an example of what’s going wrong. The whole system needs changing but without one of our ‘moments’ players delivering, we’re hamstrung in the current approach.

EDIT - 3rd or higher in terms of points, not table position. We’re miles off the top two obviously.

 

I don't bet, but no, I wouldn't. The fixtures aren't great and other teams have games in hand.
We also appear to be playing against VAR every week, for some reason.
At least they slag it off on Scottish TV: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/65014326

 

That reminds me, I've been waiting eleven years for that house...

 

I'm definitely over-thinking this. Does he mean tongue in cheek we're about to fire Conte for making Soton look like top 4 contenders?

 

Agreed. He's gone right up in my estimation if that's how he regularly travels. Fair play to him.

I have far more respect for him than I do for Pep moaning after we beat them that they couldn't charter a private jet from Manchester to London and had to sit on - shock, horror - a coach like normal humans for a few hours instead. The injustice of it all.

 

There can be no excuse for delaying the inevitable, unless they are working on announcing his replacement with immediate effect.

He should've been gone after the Milan game, and if not then - immediately after his last press conference.

 

It's the circle of life

 

Aaaaannnnndd bang goes that theory...