"The Project"

Since Poch's arrival, there's been many mentions of "the project" coming from the boss during press conferences, interviews and even players. But what exactly is the project? What are it's objectives, aims and ultimately, over what period?

When MP first came to Spurs, he and his coaching team quickly went to work on changing and evolving many aspects of our squad, player development, mentality, playing style and ambitions. You could also argue that behind the scenes, the project began before he even arrived with the club hierarchy developing new training facilities and the soon to be opened new stadium.

Chairman Daniel Levy laid down the challenge of delivering Champions League football after two years. Poch delivered and has since then, consistently delivered that every season. But surely that is not the sole aim of "the project" and there must be far more to it than simply finishing top four every year?

As recently as this past April, Poch was quoted as saying "We are victims of our own success because we are ahead in our project.”

So if we are ahead, where exactly did he expect us to be after four seasons in charge? And exactly how long is the project expected to run - 10 years, 20 years, indefinitely? No one really know these answers but it is certainly worth discussing.

Now into his fifth season as Tottenham head coach, it is surely a critical point in the timeline of the project.

For the first time in many years, the club failed to sign any new players in the transfer window. Conversely, no regular first team players left during the window, so we started this campaign with more or less the same group that we ended last year, with the addition of one or two loanees returning.

We started the season strong with three wins, yet the last two poor results and more importantly, flat performances have shown vulnerabilities in our squad depth and options. Poch's failure to identify times when changes in personnel and tactics were needed on the pitch have at times, shown his own weaknesses or refusal to be bold and brave when necessary. It's fair to say that Poch himself is not the finished article and has been found wanting at many critical points.

Arguably, you could say this season really is critical to the success of the project. With a lack of fresh blood and the unfortunate stadium delays, there's a sense of stagnation or even regression for the first time under his reign (albeit not all his doing). If we go backwards and fail to get Champions League football next year and again no silverware, is "the project" working?

It is not time to call into question Poch's reign at the club however, surely the success of "the project" hugely stems on his ability to develop and improve as a coach likewise.

It would be hard to disagree that by many teams we have been found out. Our playing style, shape and tactics have become very predictable at times. And when Plan A doesn't work, is there a Plan B? For "the project" to succeed, surely the club and the team needs to constantly evolve, otherwise it cannot be expected to improve or gain in strength. And surely that starts by looking inwards.

So ultimately the many sub plots up for discussion surrounding the project could be:

• what are it's ultimate aims?
• can and will we get there?
• can Poch alone deliver it?
• are the project's aims even achievable?
• should the project change or evolve?

I think this subject is really worth everyone's input on how they feel about the project, from day one up until now and beyond.

 

I think the project is to become better and better on/off the field.

The end aim would be to win the league I guess.

 

Interesting thread, Spud.

There’s so many factors to consider, it’s mind boggling.

To try and keep it brief, my opinion on Poch is as follows.

He’s a great coach, but one who can improve in certain ways. However, we are very fortunate that on the whole he gets a lot right and we’re in a far better place for having him.
When we consider financial constraints etc etc, there’s no one else I would rather have, or we could attract for that matter.
He’s managed to assemble a very strong squad of players, and we’re definitely punching above our weight when you consider the abundance of cash our rivals have invested over the last few years.

Tactically, there’s room for improvement. We often say there’s no plan B, or subs are made too late. As for the former, I’m not too harsh on him when we don’t see a plan B, because part of me thinks that we perhaps don’t have enough quality in depth for a specific plan B to work out. However, regarding subs, particularly the timing of them, we could utilise this better during games.

However, without some backing to help push the squad on (not millions and millions like our rivals) I think his hands are tied to a certain extent. We are just mere fans, however it doesn’t take a genius to work out where we needed to inject some investment into the squad. But it’s not poch’s fault that that didn’t happen. If we continue to “stick” rather than twist, there’s always going to be a risk of us stagnating, or even potentially going backwards by default with our rivals pushing on at a much quicker rate.

We are in a much better place because of Poch. He’s done wonders on the pitch, and got the best out of many of our players, including the ones he’s brought through from the youth system. But he’s just a human, and he’s not capable of miracles. One might say that he’s actually come close to that with what he started with, to what we have now. But there’s only so much he can do. Yes, he’s got faults, but for me the pro’s massively outweigh the cons, and the cons aren’t massively significant, although do still need some attention somewhat.

Whatever this project is, Poch overall is doing a great job in the grand scheme of things. But help needs to come from elsewhere, especially if the project has evolved from what it may have once been. If he’s delivered his part earlier than planned, the people in charge need to be adjusting and adapting to continue that progression.
Whilst Levy has done a great job with infrastructure, many fans feel that the investment on the pitch was neglected. And this is why I think the fan base is so divided at the moment.

Poch needed some support IMO, and didn’t get it at a crucial time. I think this has left many of the fans wondering where the club is at right now in what ever stage of the project we’re at. And I think the frustration is that fans feel let down and don’t know where they stand.
The on pitch performances echo their feelings and add to their frustrations, as many of them saw it coming.

 

Initial project was to just vastly improve, which we've done significantly, going from Europa League regulars to Champions League regulars who've challenged for the title in two of the past four seasons. Now I'd say the target has moved on to winning things, which is what we need to accomplish to be considered a truly top side.

For that to happen, the players and manager need to improve.

Players have the talent but lack the mentality. It's hard to say how we can improve their mentality, maybe bringing in some players-turned-coaches who've been used to winning things to try and somehow mentor our players. For instance Carles Puyol, Rio Ferdinand, Xabi Alonso, Andrea Pirlo... I don't know if any of them are coaches but they're the types who we could do with having around the place.

As for the manager, he is an excellent man manager and has a great style of football but needs to improve in-game management. I don't believe in Plan A's and Plan B's but managers at times need to alter the personnel in their Plan A to make it effective and that's where Poch falters. He isn't proactive enough, he only reacts when things get too bad and by then it's too late. He needs to makes changes before potential problems arise. As fans we can usually tell when things aren't working so I'm sure he does too, so why not change things? Take yesterday for example, we had Sonny and Lamela on the bench, Wanyama too, why didn't any of them get brought on earlier when it was apparent Eriksen, Dier and Winks were either not effective or damn right ****? Instead Poch waited 6 minutes after Pool's second to change it up, for me that's poor.

 

Updated for you!

 

Too true!

 

I doubt that he expected from his second season in charge, that Spurs
would finish in the PL top 3 for 3 consecutive seasons, and actually be
in a real title fight for two of them.

So with that, the bar has been raised.
We now expect him to finish in the top PL 3 at the minimum, and to
be in title fights in addition.

 

To be honest, The Project predates Poch by a decade: The Project began with the appointment of Frank Arnesen...then got delayed by a few months because Levy got cold feet because the fans wanted a Big Name™ manager so he bypassed Arnesen's recommendation of Martin Jol and instead brought in Jacques Santini (with Jol brought in as an non-specific assistant) before beginning properly in the wake of Santini not only pissing off the entire team in record time but pissing off the majority of the fanbase by handwaving the death of Bill Nick

That's the weird thing about The Project: it was stop-start for several years because one component didn't work, be it a bad manager (Santini, Ramos) a bad DoF (Comolli, Baldini) or key components being spirited away (Arnesen, Carrick, Berbatov & Keane, Modric, Bale) or a combination of at least two at the same time.

 

Poch, for me, 5 years in should be telling Levy he’s more interested in building a winning team than anything else. If Levy keeps his games up when it comes to the team..then Poch might decide to carry on his project somewhere else.

I just can’t for the life in me unsderstand how people don’t realise that this team won’t stay with us for their whole careers...I expect some to trickle out...then on the other end you have Levy who won’t back Poch unless Poch sells first.

That ploy can work to get us where we are...but to stay there and to rise further..you need a change of strategy...i’ll wait to see what happens with the revenue of the new stadium.

 

New Stadium
New Training Facilities
CL football
Retaining top players
Then
Competing for the league

Cup victories are ALWAYS a bonus unless your team is completely dominant.


All of these achievements and fans still moan and complain

 

The season prior to his appointment we finished 6th (behind Everton in 5th) and 10 points behind Arsenal. We'd just bought 7 players with the Bale money, sacked AVB, who Levy hand picked and lasted a season and a half, appointed and sacked Tim Sherwood and missed out on Louis van Gaal, when Levy thought that he'd got his man.

In addition to having had 3 managers in 2 seasons, we'd had a massive player churn since 'the Harry Years'. Since then, we'd lost Corluka, King, Woodgate, Gallas, Parker, Bale, VdV, Modric, Crouch, Defoe and Tom Huddlestone. The summer that MP came in we also lost Michael Dawson, BAE, Gylfi, Sandro and Jake Livermore.

The club was about to borrow £100m to start the new stadium build in earnest, so there was no prospect of additional finance to right the wrongs in the squad, either that summer or in the immediate future. The club had some real talent emerging from the Academy and Mauricio Pochettino's brief on his appointment was to get the team closer to the CL spots using a zero spend to do it over a period of a 5 year contract. Towards the end of last season, MP said...

"I remind you that in my first meeting with (chairman) Daniel Levy and (owner) Joe Lewis, the target was to arrive in the new stadium in four years and to create a team to have the possibility to fight for the top four and the second year to play Champions League.”

It was pretty telling that his first contract was for 5 years. It indicates that this wasn't something that could be turned around easily. Nobody thought that, given the mess the club was becoming, that within that period, he could finish in the top 4, above 2 clubs that had the benefit of massively better finances than Spurs.

So, we're way ahead of where anyone had any right to expect when MP was appointed. We've benefited massively from the enormous income from the 3 CL qualifications that MP and the players have achieved. That has resulted in massively improved commercial deals and sponsorships. We've picked up Audi and Nike and the like. They're partners we wouldn't have got within a million miles of before. We've overtaken Dortmund and Juventus in the football wealth table and are in the Top 10 richest clubs in the world and are due to enter into the best football stadium in Europe, if not the world.

The problem is that we owe £400m for the build of the Northumberland Park Development and that stadium. Whilst we've significantly increased our wage spend and Harry Kane's acknowledged to be the best paid English player in the PL, we have a debt that needs to be financed. Brexit has upped prices and there's likely to be some additional cost escalation on top. Arsenal financed The Emirates by stadium sponsorship and selling their best players. It's quite possible that the CL money and commercial growth has saved us from that fate.

We've got a debt akin to borrowing to buy the 2 most expensive players in the world. So far, how we repay the debt is unclear. That's what determines where we go from here. ENIC have taken a massive risk in building the stadium and long term, it's going to be a massive help in our growth.

The short term is less clear. Can we get the sponsors to carry the major cost of the build? Will we have to sell major players because we can't compete? Or will we have to sell to pay off the debt? Will ENIC refinance the club, or take on a partner or sell up? There's every possibility out there. The one that I don't see as likely is the club going bust. The club won't be giving out any clues, so we're going to have to wait and see.

No matter what, this has been properly financed and we have a great future ahead of us. Yes, the immediate future is uncertain but after years of knowing that we were going nowhere post 1995, I'm prepared to enjoy the short term and trust that we're on the up. Next year's my 50th year of going to Spurs, I'm going to enjoy that at the best stadium in the world watching us compete. Fifteen or twenty years ago, I'd never have believed it possible.

Keep the faith and get behind your team. COYS!

 

What a brilliant post

 

So Pochettino is the man with a "5 year plan" .
I hope thousands are not going to die because of it
(or is that just the 20th century form ?? ) .

Seriously though, it would be very interesting to be told what
PL/CL targets Pochettino had initially set for himself at the
end of seasons 1-5, and whether he has adjusted his own
targets upwards as a result of doing better than initially
anticipated.

 

Like I said I'll reserve my judgement on things until the stadium is up and running and let's see how much Levy invests into the squad from the money made from there on in.

All these off field things are absolutely marvellous...but I want a winning team on the pitch...not one with glaring holes in it that could easily be plugged with some serious backing from the chairman.

I feel as though we are being made to owe a lifetimes debt of gratitude to Levy because of our plight when he took over 20 years ago and because of it he is immune from any critisicsm.

You won't hear me crying about the stadium delay etc etc or the things he has done but I will cry about a chairman who hasn't backed his manager in a summer where he needed backing in order to help us along...but once again...I understand...we got a stadium to pay for...therefore let's see how the finances pan out from the stadium.

 

Levy's an employee with a minor share holding. Joe Lewis owns the majority shareholding in ENIC and therefore Spurs. I congratulate Levy on getting us to this point given that Joe Lewis had no intention of putting in large amounts of his own money. We're no longer competing with Everton, West Ham, Newcastle, Leeds, Villa or , whoever were our competitors when ENIC took over. With less investment than most of those, we've left them in our dust. Levy deserves to be congratulated for doing something that every one of those clubs would kill to have got anywhere near.

We're mixing it with teams that were a million miles ahead of us financially a decade ago. We're closing on them financially but that depends upon continuing to feature regularly in the CL. This season, there's a 38% increase in money from that competition. that could put the value of getting into the knockout phase up to near to £100m per year, if you are a regular competitor. Now, 30% of the carve up is now based on your involvement over the preceding decade. You need to be in the CL with a major stadium if you've any hope of getting into 'European Super Club' status and be invited into any new competition. Levy has produced this with no sugar daddy. He deserves the respect due for that achievement.

The new stadium brings a new level of finance and we should be expecting to push on from here. However, nothing's a given. If we drop out of the 'Big 6', commercial partners and sponsors will start to question their involvement, we lose momentum and the new stadium won't be the game changer we need it to be, We're in the most important few years for our club since Scholar ****ed it in the 80's. We move forward or we start to go backwards. It's as simple as that in business, which is what we're involved in. Failing to land targets this summer is a set back but it's not the end.

I can't make Joe Lewis put in more money or stop him taking a dividend. I can't make us pay £75m for Martial, Zaha or any other player. As a fan, my contribution is choosing whether to be positive, buy tickets, turn up and shout myself hoarse backing my club or staying away, not putting in my hard earned, casting doubts and waiting for us to fail (NOT AIMED AT ANYONE HERE). That's all there is for us to do. The club may succeed or it may fail, irrespective of what any of us choose to do, but I'm going to be positive and hope. If not, what's the point?

 

Paul Coyte, is that you?

 

No, but I see why you might say so........

 

Completely agree with this.

A lot of fans seem to think new stadium means better team. Take Arsenal for example, like us they clearly needed a new stadium but on the pitch it has set them back even though they bring in much more money than before.

 

Where are these glaring holes you speak of? It seems we tried to buy Grealish, Mata and Martial in the summer. While I think they would have strengthened the squad I can't put my hand on my heart and say they would get us a lot more points.
I'm very happy with what Levy has achieved for us. I see no reason to lose faith now. The final push to trophies was always going to be the hardest bit.

 

It creates the money to pay for a better team if it is financed properly. It should bring in about 70m more per year than WHL did. The interest on 400m is only a small fraction of that. What isn't certain is that we can spend that and actually improve the squad.