Oh yeah he'll never leave them, at least not any time soon. He does whatever it takes to win a game and whilst some won't like the dirty side he brings, 95% of his ****housery is done to ensure Madrid can prosper. If he has to take a red card for taking out an opposition key player or preventing a goal late on in a game, he'll do it, even if it means on a personal level he gets slated, so long as the team prospers he's happy. As for coaching, it'd have to be the right person obviously but I think it could help Poch, the staff and players to have someone who's done it all.
Indeed. The "5 year" plan is nearly done. 3 (probably 4) consecutive seasons in the PL top 3 and CL. Possible CL winners. New WHL is now online (albeit behind schedule) . Come Jun 2nd, recalibrate the on-pitch targets and available finances to move even further than the above. "I do still think his comments about leaving if we win the CL were weird though. I don’t think he actually would, but they were weird." No matter how dry your humour or what your native language is, you cannot give fodder like that to sh*t-stirring hacks.
Did anyone promoting these 'Poch demands this and that' bollox actually see him and Levy together on Wednesday after the game? Or frankly at virtually any point in the last 5 years? They are on the same page 100% and talk of a disconnect is..... Well, bollox!!
Yes I agree. Poch and Levy are clearly very close. Don't forget we are talking about a board of directors not just Levy. People are quick to blame Levy for not spending but we don't know that this is the case, in fact if you look at the evidence in the shape of the stadium and the training facillity it suggests quite the opposite. I think it's easily quite likely that Poch is putting pressure on the board with Levy's blessing. It is the board that make decisions on the running of the club not just the chairman.
I'm glad Poch has finally taken the gloves off. And no i don't think this means he has fallen out with Levy at all. He has always been one of the most honest, sincere managers in the game and I think this is a genuine expression of that honesty. He was sorely, sorely let down by his superiors with no incomings and endless stadium delays. Especially given two key interviews he gave last season, one in Feb and the other in May, where he spoke of how crucial it was to bring in reinforcements as early as possible in the window, it wouldn't surprise me if he has in a way been biting his tongue all year to give this third key interview. Some are too quick to jump on his back over it. At no point does he actually say "do this or I will leave". At no point does he actually demand that we spend what City and Utd spend, only that expecting the same results as them is madness, and for him to accept a job description along those lines is pure stupidity. And he is 100% correct. My gut feeling is that Poch would be delighted if last summer's wrongs are righted and we spend (healthily, not stupidly) before pissing the entire window away trying to offload deadwood and/or save £2m on a transfer fee. Regrettably, a 'change of plan' as simple as that could transform our fortunes enormously, and in all honesty the board and DL have to take the full blame for the fact that it has come to this. Granted, there is plenty of evidence that Poch vetoed a number of targets last summer, but there is no pretending that the sell-first-buy-late model has been in place since more or less the day ENIC walked through the door. And now we finally have a manager with enough credit in the bank to push back against that approach and good for him. Comparisons with Harry's long goodbye are ridiculous tbh. If Levy sacked Poch for this there would be open rebellion. All indications are that the manager and chairman are on the same wavelength about pretty much everything and i reiterate: Poch has said many, many times that he wants to create something special by winning without lavish spending. But as others have said, we are now in a strong enough position where spending the odd £40m here or there prior to selling players and early in a window really isn't going to send us in Bolton's direction.
I think a lot depends on who owns us next year. If uncle Joe sells up, who knows who will replace DL and then the whole ball will start to roll.
They may have to upgrade that to a full sandwich, drink and packet of crisps meal deal if Villa gets promoted
I think the sell-to-buy model was what we had to do to get to this point. It was the only viable option unless we got taken over by a sugar daddy, which I personally wouldn't want. The long term plan was to always build Spurs into a big club and whilst it's taken perhaps a little longer than both ENIC and the fans may have wanted, in 2019 we're in the CL final, have the best stadium in Europe as well as the best training facilities. Everything ENIC wanted is now done. We have what's in place to now start changing our ways when it comes to buying and selling. Whilst we can't go stupid with money at the moment due to the circa £650m debt, we can certainly begin to spend amounts of money that we don't usually do. I expected us to go big last summer, although that was primarily based on the fact I thought we'd be in the new stadium early on, it still shouldn't have resulted in signing no-one but I think all has been built up to this summer now. It has too, because otherwise we risk declining and all the hard work Poch/ Levy/ ENIC have done will have gone to waste. Genuinely think ENIC are going to surprise a few of the haters.
Otherwise we lose Poch...he's made things pretty clear...if people want to interpret what he said as just Bantz or 'stupid hacks' then fine I'll make sure I'll drop some reminders. If we lose Poch we will lose some good players too quite possibly Levy time or bust
Levy's very rarely let this club down, despite what some of OTT negative bunch say. He and Poch also have a very good relationship, Levy knows Poch is key to any future success, he/ ENIC will back him this summer.
I agree with most of this. I think last summer was such a colossal cock up because Levy was so focussed on delivering the stadium on time and so it should be a one-off. But then there is the broader concern that almost out of nowhere, teams like Everton, Wolves, Leicester, Wet Spam and even Fulham are beginning to spend serious cash compared to us (still peanuts compared to City et al.). There is an admittedly miniscule pool of players out there who could improve us at the prices and wages we can afford. Until recently, the only competition we faced for their signature was Arsenal and Liverpool. The transfer battles we had with the latter became the stuff of legend. But now realistically we face competition from half the league, that's how much money there is sloshing around and that's how desperate owners are to dine at the top table of the CL. So now players we are often heavily linked with are ending up at rival clubs and that initial pool of talent is shrinking by the year. Not going to bother listing them all but i don't recall a summer where so many of our supposed links went elsewhere. Seri, Gomes, Keita, Mawson, Pereira, Tielemans, Maddison...and that's just one season off the top of my head. Sell to buy no longer works because not enough teams care to operate that way. As you, I and many others have said multiple times, the odd outlay of £30-40m here and there really isn't going to make the auditors blink anymore. I get that a marquee signing in the £70m+ range requires a clear out first, but currently we're stuck doing neither because clubs bigger than us will always catch the marquee fish first and clubs smaller than us have started nabbing the smaller ones first too.
As I suggested in the transfer thread, if we intend to keep a two-man pivot next season we need to adopt Lyon's model from this season where they use an Ndombele/Aouar pivot for matches where they intend to go on the offensive and an Ndomebele/Tousart pivot in games where they plan to press and counter the opponents That's the issue with the Dier/Dembele or Dembele/Wanyama pivots we've used for the past couple of seasons: against teams that come to play it was brutal in its effectiveness, but against teams who sought to sit back and try and nick a point it was toothless as we needed somebody capable of a 20+ yard through ball from to unlock a stubborn defence and simply didn't have one. That's what the Winks/Sissoko pivot we had to use for large chunks of this season has demonstrated, as that pivot saw us win at the Emiroids in the Season Killer Cup, utterly destroy Bournemouth, and provide just enough to beat a Watford side trying to sit on a 1-0 lead and a Newcastle side looking to nick a point
The non HG count is also an issue. If you get your targets in early, those who are on the fringes get the message quickly, and therefore may not be too stupid on wages for a possible suitor offering an exit route. THFC made 110m in profit last season. IMHO Levy can take the hit on selling the above players at some loss given the compensating factors on the non HG and wage bill counts.
I don't think it's the time for pessimism Spurs are on the map in a big way. This run to the CL final will gain us support all around the world and we will be a lot more attractive to players who will want a part of the glamour that surrounds Spurs. CK I really don't see teams like West Ham, Wolves and Fulham being serious competition for Spurs in the transfer market. The days when we sold Berbatov and Carrick to United are very different to where we are now. It's quite probable that if they were in this current team (time machine needed) they would not want to leave, why would they? To reach the CL Final in the same season we take possession of the new stadium is beyond the dreams of both manager, chairman and fans. I don't think we have mentally caught up with where Spurs are now.
