Tottenham has some great players on their books. In fact, we currently have one or two elite-level players, and with the right guidance, a few more could become significant Premier League stars. Equally, there are several that have become tiresome in the extreme, and the latest suggestion from The Athletic only serves to confirm it.
According to the paywalled site, ‘It’s also a group who felt they were often under-coached last season under Mourinho.’ which is amusing given that essentially the same mob complained that they were overtrained by Mauricio Pochettino.
I take a view that the less we hear from this collection of overpaid underachievers, the better for all concerned.
This was discussed on social media, and many of the responses were less charitable than my own.
In fact, in this thread, I couldn’t see a solitary comment siding with the players, even the most ardent of factions are now embarrassed to wheel out the usual excuses.
Dele Alli who was barely used under Mourinho, returned under Mason, but clearly hadn’t bothered to keep himself fit. One literally couldn’t make it up.
Each sporting athlete is different and despite the use of the most technological of instruments available, they are still suffering injury of one form or another.
The one aspect that doesn’t change is the self motivation and coaches either can or cannot add to what the individual already has, and again each one requiring something different, which a coach has to realise, but something Mourinho failed to do.
Haha yes he will be able to watch him for free at least twice a season.
Think Patrick Bamford was 2 years old when this chairman made his comment, different world back in the 90’s even Graeme Le Saux used to get abuse as he would always been seen reading broad sheets instead of the usual sun/mirror/star papers.
Patrick Bamford an obvious exception. He’s a very intelligent and accomplished gent off the pitch, seems to have come from a posh background, I know he had a scholarship offer to study at Harvard, plays multiple instruments, speaks other languages.
Great stuff, great post. I’ve been involved in weight training for 40 years, and recovery is everything, but in order for anything to change, fitness levels, muscle mass etc, there also has to be a level of pushing past plateaus. Killing players on the training pitch, then expecting them to be 100% on matchday is no longer viable.. Hopefully Nuno’s team get it right, as Wolves players didn’t look like they lacked fitness levels..
Obviously I don’t train with them, but both can be true: that Poch overtrained them, and Mou neglected fitness training. The bigger complaint against the Not-so-special-anymore One, is the same complaint his other teams have voiced – he doesn’t coach attacking patterns and movements, believing the game is too chaotic for them to pay dividends, especially with his style of counter attacking that relies on the opponent being out of shape in an unpredictable way.
As a youth, I had coaches that were not educated in sports science, and came from the old army mindset that suffering as much as possible is the way to peak fitness. It’s not. The point of digging a hole deeper than a player can recover from, whether training pure strength in the gym, or anaerobic threshhold and outright endurance on the pitch, comes earlier than many would think. At one point in university, my fitness coach had us on heart rate monitoring as soon as we woke up in the morning, and would track something called HRV – heart rate variability; all to gauge recovery, which is highly individual and also reliant on other lifestyle factors – how well did you sleep, how much other stress is in your life and so on. If football coaches wanted to learn something, they bring in the top cycling coaches, or attend seminars they give. That is a sport that’s truly dialed in on the science end (also dialed in on cheating with performance enhancing drugs, but that’s a different topic)
I remember a chairman (won’t mention his name) who once said that most footballers are thugs and if it wasn’t for their talent they would be in prison!!
Nobody wants our junk….
I agree how ever I can’t see how 7th or 8th could be sackable for much longer 😭
I’d love to know why you don’t see big squad overalls anymore….is it modern contracts?, risk? I would love an insight into the justification for nurturing crap.
In Levy’s notes after he appointed Nuno, he stated ‘To work with our talented squad’. That’s the statement that scares me the most, as i feel that Levy feels that this lot got us to second in the prem, and to a CL final, so someone needs to ‘Re-Ignite’ them. Look at the Leicester team that won the prem, how many of those are still there..
Although I agree with the general view I would not be surprised to see a number of the dross in the team next season and I also believe many will show better levels played in a system that suits their skill set( not hard I know) which sadly will probably mean they will stay even longer🤦🏻♂️.
The appointment was not that of a big shake up more coach and nurture with fewer changes…..oh including cheap and safe.
Get rid of em all. Jose, like Clough and others before him allow men to take responsibility for themselves. This post modern beta gen cannot compute that. They need hand holding in every aspect. These aren’t young players either, it’s embarrassing.
For some reason I had a dream last night I was watching Tottenham and they had all these academy youths starting in the team and they were tearing it up…..
Sadly that was a dream.
Anybody know what happened to the bald headed, red faced del boy that was responsible for bringing most of this dross to the club in the first place? I’m talking about the one who hates transfers, Levy’s BFF. The Amazon fluff piece confirmed everything I dislike about this total waste of space.
The coaching team has been announced, new DOF in place. He needs to be unceremoniously removed, along with the players that have let us all down so badly.
Paratici will earn his money if he can move these players on. Anybody watching a highlight reel of them over the last two seasons as potetntial transfers will promptly delete them for fear of being laughed at.
The same Amazon fluff piece also said Sissoko was a leader that everyone looks up to!!! Sweet Jesus, one of the most inconcistent players we have at the club! Take any and all offers for these players so we can all move on.
Apparently Nuno and Cathro know how to get the best out of youth. They’ll need all of that acumen to supplement the minimal squad we do have. I see a sprinkle of Paratici transfers coming in, some of the dross moving on, but no more.
Paratici wants to see Kane play. He will…….for City.
Not defending the players!! but there is such thing as a middle ground. Poch made tehm run for 5hrs….Jose never made them run. So run for 2.5hrs is sweet spot. As you said, or one of the comments said though, I think fitness should be somehting they do on their own time as well. Tactics are the aim of training at elite level.
how depressing…….same squad, same crap, same Levy that will sack the manager when he finishes 7th or 8th….seeing Dier, Sissoko and Winks anywhere near the team proves yet again that Levy has way too many spots that won’t go away….I would take 10m for the 3 of them and move on…
Talks cheap money buys houses, Dele needs to understand simply do it in games the rest will take care of itself
Instagram and footballers is like the old adage of people with money don’t talk about it, it’s a way of life.
in my opinion if you’re a footballer and you feel the need to show people you work hard on Instagram then you must have a niggling voice in the back of your head telling you your ethics are being questioned.
let’s face it, he knows they are and that’s why he’s doing it.
I see Dele Ali has taken to Instagram to show the world all the hard work he has been doing in the off season. The cynic in me can’t help but feel everything looks rather staged but it makes a nice change from images of him lamped out of it on a sun lounger in Magaluf
You reap what you sow…..we all know that this squad should have been updated 3 seasons ago and now all which was plain to see has happened. Poch over achieved with what he had and when he said the club needed to invest in the squad the owners shafted him.
As many have stated we will never be a football club chasing trophies under this ownership……always a business. Look on the website club is telling us to buy training kit at £60 a pop
Haven’t disliked our squad in this manner since I began supporting Spurs in 1971.
I genuinely wouldn’t open my curtains if most of them were in my back garden.
I have respect and time for Kane, Son a nice lad and when on his game is quality but disappears far too frequently, them two aside I don’t care for any of them, drink drivers to gangsters brothers and just an awful bunch.