Tottenham was thoroughly outplayed against Man City yesterday and obviously, out come the critics blaming Jose Mourinho, once again ignoring context and the actual reality on the ground.
Spurs went up against a team that is on a record-breaking winning run, that just beat Liverpool 4-1, that is starting to run away with the league and that spend hundreds of millions like it is confetti.
Tottenham entered the game following a grueling two-hour match against Everton midweek and with some important first-team players missing and unlike City who can bring in top-quality replacements without missing a beat, Tottenham does not have that luxury, in fact, only City can do that.
Mourinho does shoulder some of the blame for the downturn in fortunes at the club but he is the least culpable in my opinion, the board and players are far more responsible for what is going wrong right now but they are not easy targets like Mourinho.
Quite a few fans, pundits and journalists do not like Mourinho, that is a fact, it does not matter what he does, they simply cannot stand him, if he succeeds they will not commend him but when there is failure it is all on him.
It is boring now and the reason is that it is the same old stuff regurgitated time and again without any emphasis on context. Injuries are ignored, player errors, lack of transfer funds, and so on but if it was a “popular” manager, like a former player, then all of a sudden these reasons would be trotted out and “give him time” urged but never with Mourinho.
It has been 60 years since we won the league, 30 years the FA Cup, 12 years League cup and 36 years in Europe, a combined 138 years and for some reason Mourinho is expected to change that almost immediately.
He is expected to achieve glory despite all the evidence suggesting that this squad is not good enough and needs a massive overhaul handicapped by owners that are not renowned for spending heavily on recruitment.
So yeah, it’s boring the constant digs at Mourinho, but it will never stop.
Me too, they certainly hold the heat well.
We’ll see. In an ideal world, we would get a few signings done and announce them on the first day of the transfer window like many clubs seem to do.
Sell Dele, Winks, Dier, get rid of Rose and Bale and there’s a lot of wage money available all of a sudden. But can Levy understand that it’s better to move players on quickly even at a small loss (compared to his price) so that the manager can get his picks in ASAP?
I’m not holding my breath…
Oh balls
Tops of another good weekend
Kloop fav to be next manager to leave his post if you believe the press
As short as 2/1
Liverpool are targeting Mourinho as their next boss, they are looking for an attack minded exciting manager
Couldn’t resist…sorry
Interesting comments from Redknapp junior, which I stumbled across.
Harry as eloquent as ever with an intriguing perspective.
your words-
It is boring now and the reason is that it is the same old stuff regurgitated time and again without any emphasis on ….. (blankety blank)
Coys
As a brief example of what Mourinho is up against, for two transfer windows he has wanted to sign Skriniar. Who can deny we need a rugged, no nonsense centre back? In fact we need more than one. Instead Levy chose to bring in Bale – a wide forward of which we already have many and at a cost to the club of £1m per month. Build a squad to challenge for titles with that kind of thinking from those in charge. There are areas of the team that everybody knows we desperately need to strengthen. The only man who chooses not to see it is Levy.
If poch the patsie got ripped and still does even though he left 18 months ago then surely the current one deserves the same.
He in fact got some players and by all accounts is no patsie so picked them himself minus bale maybe .
Or is he just a more expensive patsie which is not suiting our weak willed squad who need a rednpp arm round the shoulder.
Is levy going to spend next year ? Is any club with the covid nightmare ?.
One thing is for sure he is more cautious than most chairman and after last year’s government loan and lidl spend he probably thinks he has done his bit.
I’m not sure if Maureen is in charge with purchases and this summer will prove it for sure.
Wasn’t his biggest fan but after his year out seemed to have not been such an abrasive twat and seemed fresh for the task and to be fair hasn’t lost it yet and I think still has the squad .
Football style not my bag but had some masterclass displays which I have throughly enjoyed it’s the smaller teams that have done my head in.
The rule on here seems to be tin pots or prem winners or your a cunt ,the standards have been set .Bit to high maybe?
Hope he sorts it out and gets some dosh or he will get ripped .
At least he is not playing at Wembley like the last patsie.
And harry I do agree the squad is not good enough ,concentrate on Europa and blood some youngsters in the league like le arse?
Many things do pass me by, no doubt about that. I don’t even have excuse of drink for it, having hung up my pint glass over 10yrs ago.
I look at what one could reasonably call “Jose’s players” – Gedson, Vinicius, Dougherty, Dier, PEH. Only one of them belongs in a PL squad challenging for silverware, and he’s being overplayed. That’s all on Joe-say. ENIC is the root of our problems, of course, but the things that Jose does control – he’s not exactly playing a blinder there.
I more worry that he got that government loan got some players in ,not very good ones and now he has had his spending spree.
This is very true everyone was very chipper Doherty was getting lauded more like we were all deluded.😂
Sorry a mere 2 points behind…
Anyway feck them.
No, it isn’t. It’s as boring as whining about Pistorious shooting his missus. He did it.
The whole ‘same players that scupper Poch’ thing appears to have passed you by, as well.
The whole ‘same players that scupper Poch’ thing appears to have passed you by
Nonsense. It is you, my friend, who are ignoring context. The context is, we’re 9th in the table with 23 played. The context includes not one, but about 20 of 23 matches under Jose this season where we looked terrible, playing football nobody wants to watch and not gettig results to offset having played football nobody wants to watch. In my best spanish waiter voice “FACT!”
Nope re kit man. I have made a few proper BBQs using old gas bottles though.
No. But I guarantee you I could find a manager on 1/4 of his wages that would actually have this team playing football we want to watch, and not find ourselves 9th in the table with 23 played. Who do you think picks the defenders who play? It aint the kit man, who I’m sure you’ll be along any minute to tell us how you welded bbq grills together with the kitman back when you were both “street”.
It all feels a bit rubbish at the moment
If the Ar$e lose and have a couple of players sent off, it starts to feel a little better
Fair’s fair, the endless whining about Levy is pretty boring, too.
These players were top of the league not long ago, when we beat man u 6 1 there wasnt any of the squad isn’t good enough.
When we beat man c we were highly commended, it was, they are not pretty to watch but they are functional and win games.
All of a sudden this is a rubbish squad, the players arent good enough etc etc
This is even after the manager has bought in 9 new players to strengthen the team.
Whether we were hugely over achieving, whether everyone else was rubbish and we took advantage or Mourinho was able to work with these players and get them to do exactly what he wanted them to do.
Maybe the players believed in the hype and thought they were going to win the league and just stopped tying. Maybe the tablets have worn off and the players have reverted to type. Maybe something has happened in the dressing room.
Something has changed, Mourinho had the right formula now he doesn’t. Is it as simple to say injuries have disrupted us, what has caused the catastrophic errors in every single game that always results in a goal.
Out of the 9 players bought in, only 2 are fit for purpose now in the first team, Rodon is one with potential.
That’s 6 players that haven’t improved the squad, or aren’t good enough.
Mourinho is the manager, he isn’t popular and people are very quick to have go at him. Football is about results always has been, players may play badly and get dropped or sold, Managers dont have the same about of time.
I think Mourinho will be given time, but he needs to be doing a lot better, blaming players and coming up with nonsense excuses is wearing thin.
Footballers have all the power, it’s not like the old’s days where Fergie ruled with an iron fist. If players don’t like things they down tools, that’s a disgrace.
If footballers were paid performance related you would see a much better attitude. Sadly they are not, they get paid a shed load of money, If they can’t be bothered to turn up on Saturday they won’t and they don’t care. They are mollycoddled pampered ar$es who do not appreciate how lucky they are. But that’s a totally different argument.
The short of it is very few of then deserve any credit, that need to be doing a lot better and that includes the manager
I dont often like what you have to say but this is spot on.
If neither Poch nor Mourinho can make this happen then other questions need to be asked. How long has Levy been in charge and what are the results on the pitch? Stadium and the Lodge are epic. Strength and size of club is awesome. He seems not to be that good at the football side of things
His pay? If you doubled his wage do you think he could get these so called defenders to defend better? Or if you halved his wage he could get them to play any worse?. José just needs some quality and some time. Oh and a bit a patience.
Apart from the obvious two all the rest from pochs time can FCK off. Replace those with quality and we’ll get this thing moving again. Simple. Not you sessy.🌚
Don’t worry, he is being judged by performances. The saving grace is the stadium is not full of fans paying top dollar.
What more could Levy have done for him last summer? Not much was the consensus at the time.
Difficult to imagine him being offered anything better.
I fully agree that context is important and Man City, thanks to exceptionally wealthy ownership and no doubt total disregard for Financial Fair Play, have elevated themselves from 40 years of mediocrity, to an EPL superpower, who can spend 50/60 million quid on any player they want. That much is undeniable.
Like many posters to this blog, I fully supported Mourinho’s appointment, nevertheless he is still being paid 15 million quid a year to manage this team, the second highest paid manager in the EPL behind Pep. Therefore, like any other manager, he should be evaluated based upon performance and based upon realistic expectation.
Regarding performance, the fact is we were leading the EPL in November, with basically the same group of players that we have now (minus Reguilon). Yet, we are now 9th, behind the likes of Villa, Everton, West Ham and Leicester. Is anyone going to seriously suggest that any of those 4 teams have a better squad than we do?
So, if you want to look at context, with only City, Utd, Liverpool and Chelsea possessing better squads than us, we should at least be challenging for the top 4, yet we are not. Furthermore, this same team that was leading the table has regressed alarmingly, so in terms of team selection, tactics, man-management and motivation, Jose has legitimate questions to answer.
I keep hoping against hope that the current situation will dawn on Levy and he will act (based on the fact that we actually bought several players in the summer for once!)
We need sustained investment over two or three summer windows to fix this mess. Slowly get rid of the deadwood and replace it with players who will work hard and buy into Jose’s methods.
My main worry is that I don’t see Jose staying here so long. Is he in it for the long run?
Haters gonna hate. It’s what they do
Very true. Jose used to be a petrodollar manager when it all started, I’m surprised he took the Spurs job. Perhaps he believed in his transformative powers a little too much? I would be very wary of working under Levy if I was a top manager…
Agree Bruce, I’m backing Jose but you didn’t answer the conundrum you mentioned in your penultimate paragraph, Jose has a squad that is not good enough , needs a massive overhaul but the owners won’t spend the money.
In that case it’s not a manager we need it’s a miracle worker. I wonder how Guardiola would have done with a Manchester City pre the oil riches.