I just cant stand us continuously getting a new manager tbh. Graham, Hoddle, Pleat, Santini, Jol, Ramos, Redknapp, AVB, Sherwood & Pochettino since Enic took us over in 2000. They average 18 months each. Only 2 were successful Jol (took us from 13th -14th each year to 8th 5th and 5th) and Redknapp. Take them out (Jol got 3 years and Redknapp just under 4 years) and Graham (who Enic sacked but didn't make manager) means they have an average of 12 months each. That has to stop
100% Our recruitment strategy under ENIC - both in terms of playing staff and managerial staff - has been nothing short of farcical.
Again, I can't disagree. I just wish I knew what the answer was. I suspect it's getting rid of Levy, but not all will agree with me. I'm just sooooo...sick of this same old ****, it's so ****ing frustrating!...
We have a tough run of games coming up and 3 london derbies in November, but the positive thinking is that if the team finds form or a kid appears to become a superstar overnight, then as we witnessed last year with Kane, it can change quickly, yet you feel no matter how impressive we may perform over a short period, once the form drops, Pochettiino gets found out.
Given the instability both on and off the pitch at our club, it's actually a miracle that we are where we are. Look at the likes of Fulham, Leeds, Sunderland, Newcastle, QPR etc. Instability usually only works out if you've got a bottomless pot of gold behind the sofa like City and Chelsea.
Its down to the manager to make that stop, a good manager keeps himself in the job for at least 3-4 seasons, with his performance level (unless people above want him out) but Pochettino is fortunate in that Levy wants him to succeed and there is nothing to suggest he is having doubts. But remember, while Pochettino is here, 80% of games will be dull, we stand no chance of top four and little chance of winning a cup, while Pochettino clearly has been employed to bring through youth and coach players such as Lamela, to show some improvement - in many ways he has been given the spurs job for 2 seasons, unless he manages to make himself sackable this year. We're a big club and fans demand a certain level of performance/style of football, while some look ahead to the future and have this fantasy about Poch developing into a great manager with Kane and Alli being word class (or is that just YV thinking that ).
For the record, I don't think we should get rid of Poch. I like what he's doing with the kids. I want him to do more of it. My beef is with the board. I want Levy and his mandarins to be honest with themselves, with Poch, the players, and especially with us. We are not a top 4 side. Any Spurs fan who thinks we are is deluded. We are a long way from top 4. We do well to finish 5th as many times as we do. Given the fact that we are not a top 4 side, what I'd like the board to do, after admiittiing to the fans that they know that fact, is to publicly state that Poch's main criterion is to develop our youth. So long as we can avoid relegation during this building process, and provided that we can see improvement during the development process, that should be all that is necessary to ensure Poch's survival. We're not going to buy our way to success, the way that Chelsea, £ity, or United do, or even 'Pool. Our owners won't spend the necessary cash often enough, and when we have spent big our board/manager have ****ed it up big-time! What we can do is make the one decent asset we do have - our superb state-of-the-art academy - work for us. I would be able to accept the continual under-achievement if I knew that our board was being honest with its own expectations and that it was planning for the future, and had in place a plan to build from our roots. It's the pretence that we are capable of challenging for top 4 without any apparent plan in place, a haphazard managerial recruitment strategy, and a culture of wasting huge sums of money on too many players who do not fulfill their potential, that's what greatly frustrates me. Can Poch deliver us top 4? No, he cannot, in my opinion. Can we attract the kind of manager who can work miracles to turn this current squad in a regular top 4 side? Is there such a manager out there? And if there is, why on Earth would he want to come to Spurs? He'd be snapped up by one of Europe's elite clubs - a position that we are no where near occupying. Is Poch good enough to develop our youth, whilst making certain that we avoid relegation? Yes, I believe he is. I know there are people who want to take issue with me on this, but I genuinely believe that the best thing for the club I love is to take a very long look at itself, and to work on the things that are realistically achievable, and to plan for the future, certainly, at least, to a point in time when we have our new stadium built, and are free from the costs that its going to take to build. I really cannot see why any Spurs fan would be against that, as a plan of action.
Superbly put. A part of me hopes that this is precisely what's going on at the moment at the club. The sheer amount of deadwood we've shifted - and continue to look to shift - almost entirely at a loss, suggests that we've more or less given up on buying our way into the top 4. The transfer market is so hit-and-miss as it is, even to clubs with limitless cash. But whereas Chelsea can piss away £25m on Cuadrado, City £32m on Mangala, Arsenal £47m on Ozil, United £49m on Di Maria and Pool £35m on Carrol without so much as batting an eyelid, a club in our position cripples itself every single time a dud is purchased during the transfer window. We are far, far closer to the Swansea's and Southamptons of the PL in terms of financial power than the Big 5; which means youth development is without question the safest and most logical plan for our medium term future. Our transfer strategy for almost 6 years now has been moronic at best, lamentable at worst. Even the standard of players we view as 'success stories' are just country miles off of top 4 level. Would Chadli get into any of the top 4? Vertonghen? Davies? Even Eriksen I have my doubts about... There's no way on Earth Levy would actually come out and say words to the effect you've described as it would immediately put off all potential targets and thousands of fans. Sorry, did I say 'fans'? I meant 'consumers'. Silly me. But then again, there's also no need for him to publicly declare anything. All he needs to do is let MP quietly get on with it while focusing as much as possible on bringing young talent through the academy and into the first team squad. I am in full agreement with the fans on here who critique MP's style of football as bland and his substitutions as routinely bizarre. Yet I am also yet to hear a single sensible suggestion as to who could possibly take over from him. His main strength is undoubtedly working with the youth and nurturing them to a PL standard. That is precisely what we need to be doing more of, more regularly, so why not let him carry on? Not a manager alive would secure top 4 with this squad, nor for that matter win the Europa League.
One of the assumptions made is that fans that question Pochettino believe another manager can take us to top four, merely an assumption, as when Redknapp was sacked I said we wouldn't finish top for at least 4 years, while top four under Levy/ENiC (again) is unlikely due to other clubs moving ahead of us. The only fans that discuss top four are ironically the fans behind Pochettino as they tend to be deluded on that view, that we can still finish top four but a more polite way is saying they are optimistic! However there seems to be a view that Pochettino is going to develop our youth players to a standard that will eventually take us to top four, and that during this process we will keep our best players and once we move into our new stadium we can then compete, that is a fantasy and long term you see that to be the case. That aside, football is also about entertainment and Pochettino fails on this point, while suggesting managerial alternatives depends on who is available, but the club have to keep a certain level of performance while developing youth, while Pochettino through his quotes and interviews clearly understands the aim is to build for top four and that is part of the pressure which comes with being our manager. If Pochettino can't handle that pressure, while showing his lack of tactical nous and giving us dull football, then playing a few kids isn't going to keep him here long term. Its quite clear the popular view on here (and in general) is that Pochettino needs time but I'm surprised many of you haven't learned from recent times as the popular view (in the main) gets proven wrong, especially when its based around hope and being overly positive/optimistic when it comes to this football club!
Well what a f**king shambles of a game that was. i had a perfect stream to watch yet it was so dire, i decided to string some tennis rackets instead. That's one step up from watching paint dry I believe! The more I see us play, the more I realise just how deficient we are in so many ways. I'm getting slightly nervous because at this rate, we could have another 2 points in 8 games season and we all know Harry's out of work. Oh lord! At this point in time, I think Levy has an obligation to get on the telephone asap and: a) call Poch to apologise for agreeing to such a stupid, dumb arse pre-season schedule b) call Poch and his coaching staff to apologise for faffing around like a twat in the transfer market for so long, leaving us thread bare c) call WBA and make an offer they can't refuse for Berahino d) call the entire Serie A clubs to let them know we have a well groomed show pony going cheap, who prances about beautifully and should win a few rosettes if given the time to play in a very slow league, about the same speed his brain operates at. We are short of at least four players if you ask me and I really can't see us getting them before next week. Why or why do we go through this **** every year?
aye its going tits up .... think that chadli should carry a mirror about with him on the pitch cause he thinks he is IT
He makes some stupid decisions in games, dithers on the ball, cuts inside when he should be taking it outwide, etc. Yet time after time he comes up with an important moment. He scored the opener against Stoke and set up our opener yesterday. He's a frustrating player yet he's one of the few that actually produces regularly in attack. I thought Lamela linked up a bit better with Walker yesterday but once again there was nothing of note that he produced. Dembele has started the season well, to be honest, but even when he's doing well he doesn't actually do anything that benefits the team. He just goes on these runs with crashing through players that only seems to cause problems in the immediate vicinity, which is usually well away from goal. He just doesn't work for us. He's just another slow player in a slow attack. Dier's in a similar position to Dembele, he's not done an awful lot wrong on the face of it but you have to look at the effect on the team. Is he stopping more attacks? No. Is his presence in midfield making us more defensively solid? No. I'd put him in defence for the Everton game instead of Vertonghen, we'll need someone with pace up against Lukaku. The players need to get their arses in gear. Pochettino needs to get his arse in gear. Levy needs to get his arse in gear most of all, he's let us down most of all so far, handing us a crap preseason and happily selling off players without addressing two key areas we needed to strengthen. There's only 9 days inwhich Levy can actually have any effect and he's got a lot to make up for.
I'd give Tom Carroll a go in midfield, he's calm and will control the game instead of all the huffing, puffing and chasing of tails that you're doing in there.
I must say that every time I see a replay of Dele Alli's goal, it gets better and better. Some great work by Kane in the build up and at long last, a Spurs player busting a gut to get on the end of the cross to score.
I'd play all the kids, and a couple of the older heads. Let them make mistakes - don't blame the manager when the mistakes, inevitably, happen - just accept that mistakes will happen, as part of a long and hard learning curve. We've got the talent. Give that talent a chance to learn and mature; and we'll have ourselves a fantastic squad that will win things, in 3 or 4 seasons' time.
Vertonghen needs to be dropped. Made a lot of mistakes already. Also why does he always back off instead of making a challenge, Mahrez exposed him big time yesterday.
Carroll plays exactly how he looks, shy and timid. We're not chasing tails, it's not a lack of control or possession that's doing us over, it's a lack of penetration in the final third as well as a backline that falls apart when ever a player runs at them. As @O.Spurcat says, the goal was a rare moment of someone other than Kane showing commitment to getting into the box. There was another good move yesterday which ended up in Kane's sliding chance which unfortunately deflected straight to the 'keeper. We're getting these odd flashes of what we should be doing but too often players either aren't commiting to the attack or they're not quick enough to keep up with it. There was another example yesterday in the first half where Kane, alone on the left handside of the area flashed a ball across the face of goal. How we could've done Berahino, or N'Jie(if he's any good), or Townsend, or Rose busting a gut to get on the end of it. None of them were even on the pitch though, 2 of them weren't available, 1 isn't even our player and I've no idea what's going on with Rose. This is what we need to see more of from our team: Rose was left wing in that game, I believe, is involved early in the move and then puts in a blistering bit of pace over 10 yards making himself impossible to mark and is left with an easy tap in. It's not difficult, you just have to have the right players. Suarez, Sterling and Sturridge were scoring goals like that for fun 2 seasons ago.
The change we need is to react better to taking the lead. There should have been change yesterday and wasn’t. Pochettino and at least one other player should have been yelling at the goal celebrators to get up and get ready. That it didn’t happen is Pochettino’s fault. That the pattern of cowering back into the box also repeated was awful as well. It’s hard not to blame Vertonghen for the goal, but I would say Pochettino also failed in not getting better tactics out of the team. There is a way to defend aggressively--or even, competently, as a team--and we’re not doing it. Appointing an onfield leader to crack the whip looks necessary as well. Sit Dier and Dembélé? First of all, I’m afraid it’s a distraction from fixing what was clearly the cause of us dropping points two straight weeks. Nevertheless, assuming Eriksen isn’t ready, we need a number 10, which Dembélé isn’t. I think that means Carroll, since I don’t think Pritchard is quite ready to start. I think Dier has helped to improve our defense--but it’s been night and day: behind or even, we’ve defended well, ahead we’ve been pathetic. I agree with YV about Chadli, on reflection. His cross to Alli is just the kind of end product we lack all too often. It was anything but brilliant. It was just the right thing to do at the right time, done competently, and accompanying another good thing, Alli’s fearless run straight at the goal when he saw we were in a dangerous position. It was created by some great work by Kane, who did similar work three or four times in the second half. So they’ve made a case for their spots. I’d say definitely drop Lamela and add Rose, whose aggressiveness and pace we’ve missed badly. Add Carroll. Add Alli as well, but where? Can he play as a RM? Should he replace Dier, who I think has been reasonably good?
Thanks for the detailed response, I get your point and haven't seen you enough this season to argue it.
No problem, we've only been on TV once and I wouldn't expect you to have been bothered enough to find a stream to watch us on. I certainly don't bother watching other teams at 3 when we're on the box. Anyway, RWAEB seems to agree with you on Carroll, we all have different opinions. I just don't see it, he doesn't seem to have progressed since he was at QPR on loan. Dembele might be a totally different build but they're similar, they give us a bit more control of the ball but take too much out of attack. I much prefer seeing Mason play, he loses the ball a fair bit but he does it playing ambitious passes and upping our tempo. I'd be over the moon if we somehow managed to get Illaramendi. He's a great passer when he's given the license to. Dare I say it there's a touch of the Modric's about him, he looks up, spots the pass and plays it precisely. All of a sudden you've gone from a defender making a simple pass to being 20 yards or more up the pitch with an attacker on the ball. Hopefully you bastards don't get him
