You're right, we do lack leaders or players that can go out and perform in games which define a season and there is a real lack of belief, especially against the top four, yet even our fans prefer to focus on Bentaleb, which is fairly pathetic to focus on a young kid when you have players who have cost over 100 million struggling to play a simple pass against the top four. We may be in "contention" as Spurf is suggesting, yet it's false hope and only because we pick up a certain level of points against the weak teams, but the top four view us, as a easy fixture because they know we crumble in games and the squad is still impacted by the previous results so we can't win them games which will help us reach top four.
I take your points, and the captaincy decision is one that could cause Poch problems. Every candidate has one or two question marks now, either due to position (Lloris) or past conduct (Verts). Could we see a young player given it as a step up? I do dispute that Ledley wasn't a great captain though - yes he was never the most vocal (unlike say John Terry, who is a fantastic leader no matter what you may think of him as a person) but he led impeccably by example and had other players on the pitch who would shout at players if they had to, while Ledley got on with showing others how to do the business. I have no doubt that he was a talker in the dressing room and on the pitch but perhaps not as visibly so as others. Granted he was allowed not to be as vocal as others because of the others in the team but I still think he provided great leadership, in his own way. Edit: And I see what you're saying about such Bale-esque players in a way Spurm, but that is where we have to hope that Pochettino can further develop the likes of Eriksen, Lamela, Chadli etc. into those players. Its part attitude and part ability that needs developing, and its one of the areas where we will judge Pochettino a success or failure, and rightly so.
I was annoyed with Dawson, Sandro and Holtby going too but we had too many midfielders and weren't forced to sell any players the manager wanted to keep and Stambouli is presumably a player Pochettino wanted in. Lets give the manager a chance to earn his corn before throwing in the towel, we've started the season better than several of our rivals so lets see how we are in a few months time.
Taking the last X number of games against the top 4. We have a record of 30 against and 2 for. Not changing any of the results if after going 2-0 down we had rallied and perhaps ended the game losing 2-1 or 3-1 instead of by 3, 4, 5 goals then we have a bit of pride remaining and the confidence would not be completely shot to pieces for the next encounter with that team or for the subsequent games. Does anyone really think we would have lost 3-0 to Liverpool had we not been battered by them twice last season? I think we probably still would have lost, maybe 2-1, or gotten a sneaky draw even. We're still paying the price for the capitulations last season, and we will do so again against Chelsea and City i have no doubt.
It wasn't luck that led to the signings of Carrick, Berbatov, Bale and Modric in successive seasons, it was a properly structured club with a DoF doing his job properly. Some of the last two year's signings will likely end up being the same sort of successes.
Boss, I've been saying for a long time that Spurs need an old school boss who's a top name like Harry. This is why I wanted Ajax's boss who's a top name and would get us playing the right way. Get a top name in and we will be top four again. As it stands I'm not going to let one defeat derail me because there are signs we will be back on the winning trail again but unless we get a top name then Poch MUST turn himself into one.
"It wasn't luck that led to the signings of Carrick, Berbatov, Bale and Modric in successive seasons." Of course not. Or has lennypops been busy this summer showing why the identifying/acquiring of such players was not statistically any different to picking their names by chance ??
Luck in the sense, "Good timing" as we where fortunate to have found players that where ideal for us. Similar to VDV, We where lucky to be that position. Now we have a DOF who has used his knowledge to try and find players who could be a success yet it has been done in a way which you would struggle to class as "doing his job properly". Buying 7 players, who are unproven (either in age or this league) and chucking them into a team with an unproven manager who isn't completely happy about their arrival, isn't what i would class as doing your job properly.
I still find it hard to believe we couldn't find moves for our 3rd choice right back and our 3rd choice left back. Its not as if we were busy bringing in new players was it?
BAE has ensured the club is lumbered with him. He blew his chance for redemption even with the mighty man-manager that is Arry.
The natural leaders, those that are respected by others, are the ones who lead by example. Not by shouting commands at others. You will get no respect from today's multi-millionaires unless you can earn it by your actions.
You are not going to create value by going for proven older players. I really don't understand what else we were suppose to do last year - keeping the money in the bank was really unlikely to improve the team I would have thought. And I've got no time for this claim that the PL is somehow a different beast from every other league in the world. Football is football, all footballers have two legs and a head and the best players will come to the top wherever they learnt their trade. You ought to judge the value of the DoF's decisions five years after the signing once it is clear what the player has contributed. The only signings made during Harry's reign who have a chance of being in the Modric/Bale bracket are Walker and Ceballos. All our other signings over that period were proven older players who did a good job but didn't improve us in the long run.
It's catch 22. A top manager would require certain amount of support from hierarchy of the club, So that a no no. If Pochs turns himself into a top manager he will be cherry picked or will piss off .
"You ought to judge the value of the DoF's decisions five years after the signing once it is clear what the player has contributed." Misunderstanding of the DoF role still prevails. One of their tasks is to provide for the future, not solely to satisfy the short term needs of the current manager/squad.
Life Without Sandro, Day One Overcome with the sudden realisation that none of our team is going to sort out Charlie Adam when we play Stoke.
No, but signing players for what they offer (today) to complement the squad and its potential is what brings success (on varying levels). Building a squad where virtually all players are based around potential means we're hoping the squad will all click into place. Ultimately that will lead to disappointment. For the fans anyway.
Sums up the difference between you and me, Boss. I think the long-term building of the club is more important than the short-term success. We can only catch clubs who have got more money than us now by doing things better than them in the long run. There are no quick fixes. That is the reason I don't share your view of Harry. Everything was bet on short-term success and we are now suffering from the lack of planning
It wasn't Harry's job to plan for the long-term, his task was to manage the team we had. Long term financial planning is the job of the board And getting in to the Champions League regularly would generate a lot of income that would aid the long term plans of the club.
He wouldn't have a DoF so he must have had the overall responsibility. If he had got into the CL regularly then that would be a different story.....that's why I called his strategy a 'bet'.
