Postecoglou & Lange (& Paratici) Watch

Somebody got sat on the naughty step, somebody did

 

That’s a bit rude and personal.

 

Ffs



****ing pathetic club

 

For me it’s not about the diagnosis. Mourinho and Conte, both extremely successful managers, both identified similar sets of issues. And they’re true and real, many observers including on here have said the same things over the years.

There IS an on-pitch leadership gap, as baffling as that is given the profile of many first team regulars and the experience we have across the squad. There IS a quality of player gap, caused by financial disparity and our inability or lack of willingness to move on underperformers and re-invest. And there IS a lack of direction and culture of excellence from the top to the bottom of the football club. Too often we do what we think is just enough, rather than being definitive about solving problems. Levy clearly feels differently about cutting corners on the pitch vs the no expenses spared approach to the stadium.

I think the big thing is with Conte, as it was with Mourinho, whether he’s the solution. Twice now we have experimented with managers who would claim to be able to arrive and transmit that mentality to their players, and twice now it hasn’t worked. For whatever reason we need to try once again to grow it from within, whether with Poch or another coach of his ilk. Spot the talented young leaders, bring them in, nurture and empower them to grow as footballers and as leaders. Create an environment that encourages players to be leaders, and a structure, a way of playing, that doesn’t rely solely on pre-coached patterns of play and individual moments of brilliance. Annoyingly, Arsenal have done this brilliantly over the last few years. We did it well under Poch but came away with no pots to show for it. The time for trying to import mentality and squeeze the last juice out of the remaining bones of Poch’s squad is surely now gone. A new cycle has to be started.

 

Seemingly about to can Conte now instead of dragging it out til the summer - Fair

Hire Mason until end of season instead of getting new manager in now to work with and assess squad for summer - Dumb

Tottenham Hotspur. Boshhhh.

 

He’s not wrong.

To sack him now and appoint an interim when the battle for top 4 is so close is absolutely ridiculous. Especially when the manager they’ll probably appoint in the summer is already available

 

You and me and all the rest of us knew this was coming…we knew by end of Jan latest

why did we know?

because we care about the team THFC…we are emotionally invested

we have spent decades watching and we know how it works and we know of other people in football and their ways…why? Because we are football fans and we love the game

Levy is a clown and knows **** all about this game and is never ready

Ryan Mason is our new David Pleat

 

Most of us were saying the new cycle needed to be started when Poch left. In fact, Poch himself said it 3 months prior. Levy it seems was in denial about this fact and was of the opinion that a squad with a broken Rose and Wanyama, a Jan and Toby on the decline, a Dele out of love with the game, an Eriksen wanting out and an Aurier/Dier/Winks/Sissoko/Sanchez clearly not good enough would be fine under a manager with zero history of building a winning mentality from scratch without a blank chequebook.

The mentality has to come from the very top. Stop rewarding players with new contracts at the first hint of a good run of form. There is no reason under the sun Dier deserved a new long-term deal. Why was Sachez' contract extension triggered after just one season? Why was Winks awarded a new 5-year contract after his first full PL season? Why was Dele given a new 6 year contract when his form was spiralling? What was the urgent rush for any of this?

We have become far too passive, far too indulging in the esteem we accord players. There needs to be a ruthlessness from the very top. If you are not good enough over an entire season, you are on a warning. If that persists for a second season, you are gone. You will not be rewarded with a new deal - making you impossible to get rid of - after half a dozen good games. Does this mean Son should now be on a warning? 100%. Painful as that is, 100%.

Not a single successful team is built on senior players who put in performances for a third of the games they play - but this is what we've come to expect from ours in a good season! Kevin de Bruyne, Sadio Mane, Cesar Azpilicueta - these guys played excellently in at least 30 out of 38 games, Every. Single. Season.

Look at City, didn't hesitate to lose Sterling, Jesus, Zinchenko even Cancelo despite all the trophies they've collectively won there. Why? Because success stands still for no one. We spend far too long standing still, waiting for a solution to stumble across our path.

 

Sorry I will add: The urgent rush to award a player with a new deal at the first sniff of good form is very easy to figure out:

A new contract for an existing player is usually popular with the fanbase and, more importantly, is exponentially cheaper than straight out upgrading that player. There's the rub.

 

Levy doesn’t understand football dynamics

he probably thought I’ll give them long contracts so I don’t have to pay the football team much attention…the team has all the people it needs so that’s that for the next 5/6 years

Took his office mentality into the football…give someone a long contract and off we go for the length of it

clown

 

It’s like we don’t learn from mistakes, we done almost the exact same with Jose.

I’ve zero qualms with canning Conte, it hasn’t worked out and both parties have to take blame on that but sacking him and not immediately replacing him does absolutely nothing for us.

It feels like you can predict what’s gonna happen:

The new gaffer will arrive in the summer whoever that may be, we’ll play pre-season friendlies against a mix of semi decent sides, one or two lower league ones and maybe a MLS/ Asian XI in which some of our weaker players will be made to look good against (Dier, Sanchez, Emerson, Sessegnon etc), the manager will probably think “**** me I’m a genius, I’ll keep them”, he’ll reach midway through the season, realise he’s made a terrible mistake by judging them in non-competitive games, then at this point we’ll have probably had another expensive flop like Richarlison, Ndombele or Lo Celso in the side struggling to look like a footballer and there’s also the possibility that Harry Kane won’t be bailing the manager out this time around and basically we’ll be heading back to the midtable glory days.

Love itttt.

 

You're needed on the prem board, we need your Ramadan thread.

Sorry for butting in folks.

 

This is the latest farce that is breaking my link to the team.

Far too expensive tickets, charging a booking fee (used to justify tickets and postage) for electronic tickets, the ESL fiasco, the furlough farce, ****e football, not taking the domestic cups seriously, **** excuses from managers, bollocks interviews from the club about how we are doing and pretending the last 3 and a half years have been anything other than a huge step backwards.

I have no interest in going to games at the moment. I am still livid at being charged over £50 to watch that **** dished up in the Milan game. I don't boo or get on anyone's backs at games but that was a truely atrocious football experience.

If wanna be bored ****less doing something I hate I'd take up ironing ffs

 

my first Fast is Wednesday

i was gonna put it up tmaro

having a phat biff atm

 

you’ll end up there with your daughters soon enough lol

anyway we’re getting Ryan Mason so buckle up it’s on again the beginnings of the next sacking

 

To a Jewish person you would say "I wish you well over the fast", what is the appropriate term to use in your case if there is one?

 

No term as such to wish one well during the fast but people do say ‘Ramadan Mubarak’ to one another to mark the beginning of the holy month. It translates to ‘a blessed (month of)Ramadan’

 

We have worse players than our competitors because we spent less money than them. We spent less money than them because we have less income. The only long term solution is having more income. Nothing else will work*. The owners, coach, culture and attitude of the players is secondary to this. It can make it slightly better or slightly worse but it can't overcome it completely. Brilliant recruitment can make a big difference but that's not sustainable.

*Spending a lot more than our income might work but is very risky.

 

The question marks about whether Paratici will even be here in the summer makes having Paratici pick a new manager now a potential banana skin

Not that I expect THEORETICAL NEW DOF to go on a Comolli-like campaign of undermining the incumbent manager to get what he wants, but imagine if Paratici brought in a manager attuned to Italian-style football but TNDOF was attuned to Dutch-style football, then there would be a potential schism between the two

 

By the way, all the objections to appointing Mason would also apply to Bill Nicholson and Matt Busby.