Not al all. The foundations were laid with the academy, and then completed with new WHL. This season is nothing more than Spurs "going back to basics" on pitch. Specifically, play entertaining attacking football, and trophies are more likely to come as a result. The failings have come with the management of the academy, and hiring Portu-ball managers in an attempt to sate some of the supporter base with possible shiny silver things that will conveniently allow ignorance of a season of mainly turgid football.
I'm not sure how we can look at a situation where we've hired a new manager, sold our best player in PL history, added 5 new players to the starting line up and come to the conclusion that "This season is nothing more than Spurs "going back to basics". What we are watching is Act 1, Scene 1 of the second chapter Poch called for five years ago. The one we spent that time trying to avoid by pissing money and effort up a wall looking for quick fix solutions. This is, I hope, much, much more than just going back to basics. It is a long overdue total sea change for the entire club.
Because that is exactly what is going on. So much that it has to date managed to nullify the loss of a world class forward. "What we are watching is Act 1, Scene 1 of the second chapter Poch called for five years ago. The one we spent that time trying to avoid by pissing money and effort up a wall looking for quick fix solutions." This being the Pochettino who "called for" the signings of GLC, NDombele etc.
I never argued Poch knew how to deliver that next phase, but that doesn't make him wrong for realising how urgently necessary it was at that stage. I also think there is a lot of truth to a point HBIC made the other day which is that back in 2019 we simply didn't have the structure in place to deliver a second chapter, but no one at the club actually realised the fact that a total rebuild of your external operation (i.e. the stadium) might necessitate a total rebuild internally too. The subsequent four seasons felt like delaying the inevitable if nothing else, and it took Kane leaving and fans in open rebellion for the penny to finally drop and the rebuild to begin. Case in point: back in 2019, everyone could see that Jan and Toby were sadly a declining force and that Sanchez and Dier simple weren't good enough. From 2019-2023, we signed one quality CB. Just one. We paid the price, dearly. We have signed two in the past half a year. That is a sea change in attitude and outlook as far as I'm concerned.
The biggest change in attitude is how for the longest time we would prioritise moving out players first before bringing in the expected first team players, for example in the summer of 2015 we got Trippier and Wimmer in early as they were squad signings but for every incoming there was an outgoing or two before, for example Paulinho, Holtby and Capoue were out before Alderweireld was in, while Kaboul, Stambouli and Chiriches were out before N'Jie came in, and Soldado was out before Son came in, while in the summer of 2017 Walker, Fazio and N'Jie were out before we brought in Sanchez while Wimmer was out before we signed Foyth, Aurier and Llorente Compare that to last summer: Vicario and Maddison arrived and Deki's loan was made permanent before Winks left, Mickey Van, Veliz and Phillips arrived and Porro's loan became permanent before Kane left, and Johnson arrived before Sanchez left. That's a complete reversal in our approach as instead of trying to swell the transfer kitty before we move instead we're signing players and offsetting that spend with sales shortly afterwards
