I read that interview slightly differently, although this is not to take much criticism from JM. He appears to be saying that there are (a few) players who, because they don't get picked to start, don't turn up at all. He is placing a lot of blame on the general lack of togetherness and trust on those players - not the manager. Guess we can speculate who this players might be, but based on appearances, absences and performance etc I would say Dele, Ndombele (and Aurier?) would be prime candidates to start with. Bale too, although the noises coming out of the club are confused as regards his attitude. Bottom line, I respect Lloris and don't remember ever hearing a captain of our club saying such brutal comments about the players around him. Not even in some of the darkest days of 70's relegation etc. 'Winter is Coming', I fear....
Who slept well last night, not me, It's been a long time since I've lost sleep about my football team , not the CL final or missing out on the league with Poch but last night I saw the complete implosion of my club, man for man we had the superior team but on the pitch we just did not give a flying **** , something is rotten in this club and I reason the only way forward Is for Levy to either stand down or side step into a more club admin role and leave the football to someone who knows what they are doing From Hugo's interview the dressing room is toxic at the moment and I would not be surprised to see the likes of Kane and Son hand in transfer requests in the summer , the rest of the team can do one if that is their attitude ,**** the lot of them , I feel sorry for those young lads who have had to witness that ****show but I would gladly see a team 1 to 11 who want to play for us rather than picking up big fat wage packets while the manager and his so called team of experts blow smoke up their arses I have a lot more in my life to worry about than this bunch of tosses , it the team don't care I refuse to
Lloris may have stopped short at laying the blame at Jose's door and he may even believe it himself but whatever has happened we have ended up with a team/squad who are not motivated enough to put in a performance. That can only be laid at the managers door. Just go back to the 6 - 1 against United and we had a team that was fully motivated and excited by the prospect ahead of them. Up until the last 15 minutes against West Ham all was bright then in that short time it all fell apart. The inexperienced OGS has pulled his Manchester team together made a crucial signing and moved forward from the last few seasons. The hugely experienced JM has done the opposite and literally destroyed the team that was Spurs. There should be no question of waiting until the end of the season he should go now.
The other mistake is this: I've seen some reports say it'd cost circa £30m to sack him. Regardless of anything, not having a break-clause in the contract is extremely negligent from Levy. Because it doesn't protect the club. It's not going to be cheap to get rid. I've said before that the impression I get from Levy is that he's weirdly in awe of Mourinho. I stand by it. It's almost as if he's in disbelief that a man with Jose's CV would ever come to Spurs, and so he felt like he needed to seize the opportunity. But surely not by any means necessary? Not without mitigating the risks? Mourinho's been given a lucrative contract and was supported in the market more than anyone since AvB. He has no hiding place. As you say though, shocking lack of foresight from Levy to not envisage how this would end. This is what happens when you hire someone based purely on their CV and don't look at the intricacies/dynamics of other factors, including why he's been sacked so much. Especially in the last 5 years.
So I had a word with the Norwich mods and they say that, if we don't talk about signing Max Aarons, we can stay until the end of the season
I agree with all that, of course I want to see better football - it is mostly what we are used to. Not success, but attractive failure. But I have woken up angry, not at Mourinho, but at the players. I don't care what is going on behind the scenes (and something must be) but it is unforgiveable how uninterested they looked last night. It may have been complacency, but whatever it was I won't forgive. Players strolling around not caring. The team he picked was plenty good enough to at least score a goal in 90 minutes and that would have been that. There are problems with the squad for sure, Dier and Winks are not good enough in key positions, but they are both England Internationals, it is not just Mourinho who fancies them, it is Pochettino, it is Southgate. They are good footballers, even though they are not showing it. Aurier was a disgrace last night, so was Lamela (usually the one we rely on for passion), so was Sissoko (again another one that usually puts in a shift). From the weekend Hojbjerg, Doherty and NDombele were disgraceful, in a match that matters to us so much. I didn't get the impression any of them were that bothered. The one thing we know Mourinho brings is a desire to win. If he can't install any of that into this team, then we have to start again. Get some hungry players into the team. I can take failure, but I won't excuse not even trying for it. So sell Kane, replace the entire defence and added some steel to the midfield. Any players that stay are on final warnings.
Once again I find myself asking why Spurs fans are as obsessed with us selling Harry Kane as Skyte Sports' pundits are...
I strongly suspect we'll have no choice, and who could blame him. It is also the only way we can fund the changes we need. Of course I want him to stay, but why would he.
I thought this too, though my money would be on Dele and Winks, possibly Dier too. I don’t think Aurier is unhappy as he’s generally first choice under Jose (whereas under Poch he wasn’t favoured) and he seems like the team joker, a lot of players mention the likes of him and Son as being the funny guys. I think Ndombele after a difficult first year is now also first choice who seems settled to a degree, so I don’t think either player will be the types to be moaning and moping about the place right now. Dele strikes me as the sulking type, he’s gone from young prodigy to useless piece of **** and I think he can’t handle that, accused of being a lazy trainer too so I reckon he’s definitely the moping type around the place. Winks has made comments after games about a lack of game time and there’s been media reports too of his unhappiness. Dier wasn’t favoured under Poch towards the end and now recently under Jose, I can see him siding with Dele in any conflict behind the scenes. All three are generally quite close too so I can see these as a group of players who aren’t pulling their weight and having a negative influence, whether they realise it all or not. If you compare these guy’s attitudes to say Lucas and Lamela, two players who often lose their spot but always seem determined to help the team, it’s chalk and cheese. I’m not the latter two’s biggest fans either but I can’t fault their commitment.
Actually, I think this may be one area where you won't have to worry. He's still got 3 years left on his contract. Unless there's any clause or stipulation in his deal that has a minimum buyout option, or an option to sell if a particular club comes along, he may have Zaha'd himself into staying. Levy has all the power in this situation and he's notoriously difficult to deal with. It'll cost an astronomical fee to prize Kane away. Unless a club is willing to offer £150m+, which I don't think is likely, then I don't see him leaving.
When a team is 2-0 up from the first leg at home, scoring one goal leaves the other team needing 4 to win. Most coaches would back their team to score one with Kane, Son & Bale at their disposal. So you'd play to score a goal rather than be a pragmatist and just defend a 2-0 lead for 90 minutes on the basis a 0-0 or even 0-1 loss is a great result. But Mourinho is a pragmatist and he wants his team to play in a way that isn't suited to its strengths. Lloris has a mistake in him, Sanchez is erratic, Alderweireld is past his best and none of the available full backs would call defending their strong suit except Davies. So why invite trouble? Why put pressure on probably the weakest part of the team currently to earn the result? Kane, Son and Bale however carry a huge goal threat even without an Eriksen to create chances. Kane and Son have spent all season creating chances for each other. Mourinho blames the players for being lacklustre, tired, not committed enough etc, but he is responsible for how they set up and the way they are asked to play. He should be getting better results from this group of players even if the squad isn't perfect. Utd played dreadful football under him, but he had a couple of star players to bail him out. Be defensive and containing and then rely on someone to get a goal or two.. He had Lukaku to regularly chip in with goals and Martial, Rashford and Lingard (who had a good season under him) to occasionally do something special when required. Utd came second and won the EL and League Cup under his tenure so he got away with it. But you'll remember that the football was just as dire.
If Levy has any self-awareness at all, he will know that picking managers is not what he does best. We all know it - there have been too many duffers to ignore. He will have seen Mourinho's departures at Chelsea and Utd. and the falling out with players and staff and that he wasn't a 'big ticket' attraction anymore. If he didn't get some form of break clause, it's inexcusable because we need him out of our club TODAY. Levy's been made to look a fool...again....and this time it's going to be really expensive and really damaging to the club and I've had enough of him doing it. ENIC won't sell and I've little hope that Levy will walk or get sacked but he needs to focus on non-footballing matters. It's now time to get in a professional DoF and rebuild with the next generation of kids.
How do we know those were the instructions/tactics? He picked Dele, Lucas, Lamela and Kane. If defending a lead was the issue, he'd have picked Lo Celso or Dier in midfield and left out Moura. It was a 4-2-3-1 formation. I believe the tactics were to score a goal, not defend a lead. I just think the players let him and us down.
Your argument makes no sense because our profits would be higher if we were winning trophies. Both Levy and Lewis know that. We've spent plenty of money on players but not with much success recently. And your first argument is basically that we have to win at all costs and the rules don't matter. Other clubs bend them so we should too. Sorry but that is completely absurd. It is a sport. Winning by cheating is worse than losing.
That's why I mentioned the Inter match under AVB during the match 3-0 up after the first leg so all we needed was an early goal to have them needing to score five, instead we went through on away goals after extra time (with Clive Tyldsley spending the entire match cheering on Inter...) due to setting up so badly that Inter overran us for the whole game The fact we somehow did worse against a team who aren't as good underlines just how much of a collective brainfart last night was
If Levy can't be trusted to choose a manager how can he pick a DoF? Levy has had a sensible policy on managers in my view, take some risks but change them quickly if they are going nowhere. Let the better ones run.
Yes, the players let him down. And the absence of Son in this particular game was a big loss. But watching the game (the first 90 minutes or so anyway), it looked uninspiring against a team Spurs should have been able to dominate and push back, but ultimately handed the advantage to. It was only at the end of 90 minutes that any urgency was shown. It looked clear that for the most part the team were looking to contain - which is often a Mourinho tactic in these circumstances. One corner in the whole 120 minutes suggests their defenders weren't under pressure to defend enough.
That stay at Wembley during the building of the new stadium, the new ticket prices, that night in June 2019, 3 seasons of terrible football and Covid breaking the 'habit' of going to the match, have all created a disconnect between the club and a lot of the fans. In 52 years of following Spurs, I've never felt as distanced from the club as I do now. Last night, I didn't want us to lose, but I thought that there was a fair chance that we were going to...we deserved to...we were never going to win the EL...and there was no comparing it to the anger I felt when the players and manager ****ed up against Genk. The fun and the hope has gone....but it's not forgotten. Let's get in a young manager who will craft a team out of what he's got, trade up some of the duffers we're currently playing and then, when next season starts, I might get the 'itch' to go back. If Mourinho's still there...I won't be.
There's always Pleat. to advise him...but then again, maybe he picked Mourinho... One of my main problems is that Levy can't stop himself from interfering in everything. I know that it has some benefits but it also leads to far too many **** ups. A member of my family won a significant contract at the stadium and his mind changing and bloody mindedness became legendary and was why the systems were so badly incompatible, when actual construction was almost completed. I'm advocating taking football decisions away from Levy and doing it before we pick anyone on the footballing side. A month ago, we brought in a board member to try and sort another thing that Levy didn't manage very well - getting a stadium sponsor. We also brought in Trevor Birch to do something or other...so bringing in some expertise would seem to be sensible. It can be short or long term...but we really need it. I'm a fan of much of what Levy has achieved but he's not an expert on everything and we're too amateur in aspects of running the football side and it's beyond time to put it right.
