Mauricio Pochettino’s tenure at Tottenham, in the form of one of those old fashioned competition 12 words or fewer tie-breakers, would be ‘Worked comparative miracles, despite the restraints of an increasingly distracted chairman,’ That’s accurate and fair, without any unnecessary vitriol aimed at either man.
Poch worked his squad into a hey-day where Walker and Rose were bombing down the wings, and Kane was scoring for kicks, then helplessly watched then deteriorate into a side that were so stale, that most fans were glad that the Champions League final was being played in an open air arena.
This, incidentally, was when the footballing economy was in fine fettle. Spurs were still a well run club with negligible debt, indeed, the overwhelming majority of us were blissfully unaware that Daniel Levy had £340million tucked under his mattress – which was later tossed into the stadium project.
Fast forward to the arrival of José, for some like an evil panto baddie, and we went through a few months of some fans wailing that there was no immediate and meaningful change (because he was surrounded by the same worn out deadbeats that Poch had been using) and then the pandemic struck.
It is difficult to conceive of a scenario that was worse than this one, that would affect the sport so dramatically, and as a whole. Levy was quick to identify the size of the problem and wasted little time in identifying COVID-19 as the biggest challenge he had faced. The broadcasters also knew which way the wind was going to blow and organized free to air games for customers for when the matches were allowed to return.
Tottenham were forced to borrow £170million from the Bank of England – in order to make ends meet. Let’s repeat that, for those with a tendency to occasionally skip read. Tottenham were forced to borrow £170million from the Bank of England – in order to make ends meet.
So back comes Mourinho to the green carpets of Hotspur Way. No money. In fact, less than no money, because even the chair he sits on in the canteen has yet to be paid for.
What does the Portuguese Pulis do? Tell everyone how berry happy he is? No, he goes about identifying the problems and identifying the solutions in a manner that he can convey effectively to his superior. Because that is what great managers do, folks. One might point out, that this is what you get when you pay double the market rate for the best manager.
In this climate of woe, Mourinho has (bless him) spotted that many of our squad are too nice, and as result, are unlikely to win anything in football. Second up, he has pinpointed affordable targets that he knows he can bring in to improve weak areas, whilst remaining in his budget of zero.
To date, we have a reserve goalie who is the same age as our first choice keeper, who also has won virtually every trophy going. We have a defensive midfielder who looks like his hobbies may include debt-collecting and armed robbery, opposed to flower pressing and UNO. We are said to be close to securing the services of a seasoned wing-back from Wolves, who, if I were Wolves, I would not sell to anyone!
This is what great managers do, in sunshine and in rain. They work to improve, irrespective of conditions.
Meanwhile, in his home office, Mauricio Pochettino sits waiting for the phone to ring. By his feet sit half a dozen small boxes of a £5 book, and through the window he can see into his garden, and his beloved barbecue, bearing the inscription, ‘He’s magic you know’. He checks his email to see if Amazon are going to definitely edit him completely from the ‘All or Nothing show’; no reply as yet.
Maybe one more coffee before asking the wife if she needs help with anything…
Ever since paul mitchell left our transfers have been poor. I blame hitchen and levy. I’m sure poch was saying no to loads at one point because they were offering him litter…. Pierre and hopefully we get matt doherty, those two are smelling like joses targets.. Finally..
Dier is a natural centre back that was always obvious… He can tackle and head the ball well. He is slow paced.. He learnt his trade there… He never had the creativity or pace to play in midfield… If you look into joses illustrious winning history he has won it all and in many different ways. He has played to his strengths and others weaknesses he switches tactics sometimes subtle, sometimes drastic… He’s had more glory than spurs full history. There is no glory in finishing 5th brother.
I prefer men that don’t need an arm or anything… Learn, develop then crack on and get the job done… Young players coming through may need an arm or boost of confidence but even them you don’t want to mother too much.
I’ve always wanted to know the key truth here, was poch ordered to prioritise and throw games, or was it his choice? Also was it his choice to have our squad so thin. What finished us in the league every year was certain snowflakes like tintin bottling it, but also because we never had strength in depth. Which means key players play too much and the inevitable injuries hit us like wild fire and we always fall.
The financial illiteracy of our fanbase allows ENIC (which is Joe Lewis not his little henchman really) to obtain a free pass.
The £340million that Daniel found tucked under his mattress? Money taken from us and not spent on the team. [more on the stadium below]
The £170million BOE loan (£175m actually) is free money. Paying 0.5% interest and renewable for another year. Allows ENIC to pay down more expensive debt and come out ahead financially.
Every single club faces COVID losses. The sinking tide exposes all boats. We have the lowest wage to turnover ratio of any “top” club. We are exposed more perhaps in terms of loss of ancillary revenue (NFL, concerts, match day ) but have much more fat to play with because of the miserly wage bill. Also, the revenue ‘lost’ isn’t lost because we’ve never had it. It was and is projected future revenue.
Now the best part. Of course the stadium is fantastic and a real asset. ENIC investment in stadium? Zero. THFC money and bank debt SECURED ONLY OVER THFC ASSETS (ie no Joe Lewis surety or guarantee). This is okay only if 100% of all extra revenue from these events goes to THFC. But does it? Why is nobody asking? (spoiler – other ENIC entities share in the spoils. Zero risk only reward)
Bottom line is two things.
1. ENIC runs the club like a sweat asset. Keep costs as low as possible and try to grow revenue in the safest possible ways. Hence their £80m investment is now worth £2bn+ with one trophy in 20 years. They could VERY EASILY be much more aggressive on the pitch and try to win things without being irresponsible. Wage bill and transfer spend just needs to be brought in line with peer competitors. Arsenal for those about to say “but we aren’t Man City or Man U”
2. If ENIC doesn’t want to compete then they need to sell. Take their £2bn profit and buy some more yachts. Sell to someone who is willing to play by the only rules required to win – and this may sound ludicrous to everyone totally brainwashed by 2 decades of Levynomics – INVEST CAPITAL IN YOUR OWN BUSINESS! What a novel concept….
Until this is understood by a significant and vocal proportion of the fanbase, we aren’t going anywhere worth going.
“But we can’t force ENIC to sell” – really? Let’s see. Reclusive, privacy loving, tax dodging, philandering, currency debasing billionaire who is possibly the least sympathetic figure imaginable is the one making all the decisions? If ever there was an easier target and one more likely to take his billions of profit and leave at the first sign of the temperature rising and an investment that he has zero emotional connection to becoming too troublesome ,I haven’t come across it… COYS
I’d rather watch 5-4s every week where we win 50% of them, than fall asleep every week in 0-0 or scrape a 1-0 win with 10% posession.
I gain Nothing from Levi winning a trophy. I do gain a lot from being entertained every week.
When Maureen get us to a CL final and/or gets us to 2nd in the Prem, I’ll consider him Poch’s equal at Spuds. If we win either I’ll consider Jose Poch’s superior. I’m unable to judge any other trophy wins as Mo wasn’t taking them seriously.
Players need more than just an arm round the shoulder.
I have been a fan since the late 70s and looking at what happened after Scholar has been draining at times, particularly post Venables. Spurs had a steady stream of success from the 60s, 70s and early 80s (bar the wobble in the late 70s). The success of other teams has been hard to take, but that is because we seem to be always behind the 8 ball, always playing catch up. Since the 90s we have changed styles, philosophies and managers without a clue what we wanted to be. We made progress at pedestrian pace from Jol to now, but we have totally changed direction with Mourinho. I cannot work out where we’ll be in 5 years, when the stadium should start to give something back. Rest assured, City, Utd, Chelsea and Liverpool will still be looking to be successful. To compete with them will require greater investment in players, whether Levy likes it or not.
I don’t expect too much,as I have supported Spurs a long time,during these years the odd uefa cup success or league and FA cup was great.We never have really been challenging for titles until we came third behind Leicester and second behind Chelsea.The only time I have seen Spurs play in the top competition of European football has been 5 times since 1961 ,four with Poch and once with Harry all under the current regime.When they took over we were a mid table side and quite often flirted with relegation,now we usually are classed as a top six side.We haven’t won a title in 59 years but the Enic/Levy bandwagon have only been with us for the last 20. If Spurs had won either the league recently or the CL last year(90mins away)dodgy handball decision Sissoko pen first minute,would we be having this discussion.Every detail comes down to the minuscule decisions and results going our way or against us.The whole Enic/Levy debate bores the life out of me and takes any enjoyment from football talk and memories spent watching Spurs at the Lane.I do believe the stadium would have paid for itself in years to come with the extra revenue,but Covid has put another spanner in the works for now.Steven Hichen is the man in charge of scouting and was the one along with Poch and Levy to target recruits.Poch went a bit weird in some pressers at the end either trying to get his point over or his excuses in early.
I am still not sure what your point is? Are you backing Levy during Poch’s tenure? Also, are you stating Poch lied when he said he was the coach and didn’t have an input on player recruitment? You see, I am basing this on what was he said in a press conference, not beliefs or opinions. Levy used to employ Daniel Comolli, Baldini and Mitchell in different recruitment guises but he got rid. As for Maddison and Pereira, these were on Spurs’ radar, someone at Spurs decided they were not good enough or too expensive. Whoever is in charge of recruitment at Spurs is abject. However, this falls on Levy’s head, but I am not sure of many ‘sackings’ of late in respect to this so until informed differently, Levy is responsible? My disdain for this charlatan runs deep and as we have won one League Cup this millennia. To blame each manager we have had is to miss the standout issue. Poch had to leave, his time had come, but when does Joe Lewis see that the common denominator over ENIC’s ownership is Levy?
I understand Poch put all his apples into the basket of the top four (C L)and didn’t take the domestic cups seriously.We had good enough players to win either cup. If he had been successful on more than one occasion he would probably still be in charge.All clubs control transfers it’s their money to spend not the managers. I believe Levy bought the players off (Poch/scouting dept list)were you seem to think Levy buys who ever he likes.Leicester have shown that good scouting can bring good players without breaking the bank,Maddison£22m,Pereira£20m,Kante£5.6m,Gray£3.7m,Mahrez£0.7m,Soyuncu£19m,Maguire£17m.When Levy has spent big money on Lamela £26m,Ndombele £54m,Soldado £26m Sanchez £42m,Sissoko£30m they haven’t exactly lived up to their billing.
I don’t really see your point. Levy controlled transfers, Poch made it clear he had little to no input, hence why he was the ‘coach’. Why would a man with no experience in football control the recruitment of players? Whatever Chelsea and Frank Lampard have done, it is obvious Frank has had far more input than what Poch had. Making £2-3m profit on players here and there is nothing to be proud of when the same chairman, that you seem to be eulogising (let me know if that is wrong) doubles a club’s debt by £500m on a stadium. Try picking coppers off the floor to pay for your car, see how far that gets you. £350m on 26 players averages out as small amounts on a hell of a lot of ‘meh’. There lies the issue. Fans wanted quality additions and we got too few of those.
I don’t believe any manager is in (charge )of recruitment they will have their input but all the clubs will have the final say.Ole wants Sancho and would pay anything to sign him,but Woodward is in control of the purse strings and will only pay what he think he is worth.Managers come and go but it’s the clubs that will foot the bills.Even Chelsea spending money like its going out of fashion have given Frank the option of 36year old T Silva on a free instead of say Upamecano or Koulibaly because he has spent the money on other players.You don’t always have to spend big fees if like Leicester you have good scouting. Jose said Bergwijn wasn’t his first choice ,maybe Hojbjerg ,Hart & Doherty aren’t either.When I thought about Poch’s best side only Toby,Son and possibly Wanyama signed during his time would be included,yet £350m was used for new signings.Stambouli not a good signing but Levy turned a profit of £2.7m,DeYedlin the same a profit of £2.3m. Poch turned us into a top six side but came up short , which is a fine line between being described today as a winner or loser in other posters points of view.
HH you really got ppl riled with this one.
Back to the good old days when comments went way past 100 regularly & everyone had something to say.
I’ve missed this.
Do you put blame on Poch for not having the courage to tell Levy what he thought and not walking away? That’s the only fault I can lay on his door. What would have been the point though? Few managers walk away. Even Jose wouldn’t do that.
Give it a rest, read the article again.
Poch – had money acted like a passenger.
José – had no money – but is getting stuck in.
Mark your words, you clown?!
JM won silverware everywhere he went.
MARK MY WORDS
Who’s poch?
I trust your ITK more than my hunch. I just find it really odd. Unless Jose was given a budget, and he went out and found some that fit? Maybe Poch was really bad at picking, or he was un-realistic on the cost. So he would identify a player he thought we could get for say £50m, but really there was no chance. It starting to feel that either Levy has changed his spots, or something is odd here.
Dele Alli s is a flower presser
My ITK says you’re wrong.
Who cares? But that’s what I’m told.
Get lost you dreadfully stupid
ignoramus.
This loan did NOT affect the liability to THFC one iota.
Do you understand that?
This wasn’t the same as your two bob mortgage.
Please tell me you understand that this was ADDITIONAL debt.
Please tell me, that you’re not THAT backward and that you understand basic finance.
I’m waiting…
Take your backward time.
Also spot on, Winks , Dier are nothing players not fit to wear our shirt
Both
Zzz. If it wasnt for a great tackle by Jan we would have drawn Bournemouth game, throwing away a 3 goal lead. Like we did against United 3-5, & worst of all 3-0 up against a crap City team with 10 men & lost 3-4. If thats the Spurs way , you can stick it. 60 years no title , disgrace. Unprofessional. Lets get goals galore by all means but defend properly as well. If we had a few trophies by being pragmatic for a while we can change it later. Or do you like Arsenal having so many more titles. I dont
If you win, you are invariably entertained…….apart from Newcastle last season! Lose/draw with turgid, defensive tactics and there is no positive, no place to hide and Mourinho has to be prepared for a backlash in any game where this happens. Lose playing free, flowing football and there is a way forward. That is the problem at the moment. Spurs needed tweaking 4-5 years ago with 2-3 signings of real quality, but we were left to slowly rot by Levy. Now we are having an overhaul! Look at the teams in the last 5 years who have consistently won trophies in the top 5 leagues and look at their styles of play. If Levy has calculated he can’t compete in this style (despite a 2nd, 3rd and a r/u in Ch Lg) and we are to become the Athletico Madrid of the Prem so be it, but even they invested heavily to become the nearly team to RM and Barca. No matter the style, you need high quality investment. Make doing with Sissoko, Winks, Davies, Dier is not the way forward in any style of play.
Is this a swipe at Poch or Levy? Poch said he should be renamed the coach, as he made it clear he was not in charge of recruitment. Even after the Ch Lg final two kids with potential (Clark and Sess) were brought in with another 2 future, further along the line ‘stars’ (Lo Celso & Ndombele). We needed leaders and quality, not potential. Apart from Toby and Wanyama I was unsure of the quality of the signings given to Poch (Rose’s Google remark had a lot of truth in it). Son turned out to be a bargain, very nearly joined by Dier and Dele (who thought they had made it to the 100 England cap club), but the rest have been really poor (Jansen, Stambouli, Yedlin) or ok (Moura, Davies). Every fan has been crying out for real quality, but Poch was given 3-4 in nearly 6 years. In the end it killed him at the club. It would have killed any manager. If Levy keeps chucking crumbs at Mourinho we simply won’t improve in line with the other teams.
Certainly for that 2-3 year period some of the best entertaining football I’ve seen from Spurs. No trophy at the end of it, but gave you some pride and joy in the way we played.
The problem is that until Jose’s stint is over, we ca’t make judgement. It’ll either be won something the Jose way or won nothing his way. Then we can compare and the two. If we don’t win anything under Jose it can only be Poch who gets the vote for me.
This is patently untrue. He warned the board to “be brave” two seasons before we reached the CL final. They did not listen to him and used the £350 mill on our balance sheet to part fund the new stadium. We went two transfer windows without any recruitment. Are you saying Poch wanted that?
Spurs 5 Burnley 0 was pretty entertaining as were the 3-2 wins against the Spam, Villa and Bournemouth. Granted there was some garbage thrown in there as well but the same was also true of the last 15-16 months of Poch’s reign. Playing entertaining football is the Spurs way but it has got us nowhere over the past 30 years. I would happily watch winning football.
During Pochettino’s time at Spurs of five & half seasons he/Levy bought (25)players inc Davies who arrived in a swap deal for Gylfi,to the cost of £350m. Of the( 25 players bought 11 of them were then sold on again )by Levy at a remarkable small loss of £19.5m ,leaving us now with 14 Poch signings in the current squad. During Poch’s reign Levy sold 33 players including (11 )Poch/Levy had signed for £265m. So the acquisitions cost £350m and the sales brought in £265m leaving a difference of £85m nett cost.When looking at these figures you have to remember 33 players left and only 25 arrived ,does this make Poch’ spend nett look more favourable.Those players who he inherited Levy managed to sell 22 of them for £196m.Poch was fortunate to have Lloris,Walker,Rose,Vertonghen,Dembele,EriksenLamela and Kane already at the club because, they played the best football during his time at Spurs. Only Toby & Son from his signings would get in his best 11.
If you’re genuinely happy to finish 5th and not win anything, then you are part of the problem. You are the type of fan ENIC want. You, like they, lack ambition .
It’s a sad day in sporting terms when fans don’t want to win stuff
I am not saying not a JM pick at all – what I mean is he was likely offered 3 options, a hobsons choice of crap, and he got to choose the least Crap. So JM asked for a Defensive Midfileder, and Levy offered him 2 very poor and then Holberg. We are fishing in the bottom of the barrell while the teams that pipped us to 4th or kicked our behinds are adding cream.
I haven’t ignored anything. I’m acutely aware he never won anything, and tried to point out that he watched the team stagnate because he wasn’t supported by Chief Levy for 3 transfer windows.
I think what we are seeing with his limited funds is Mourinho not making signings to make us better.What he is doing is buying players that will change the way we play and make us more difficult to beat.
Most people I know loved the swagger of our high pressing game under Poch for that 2-3 year period,but he’s gone now.This will see us being a difficult watch and if that is the case then there had better be silverware at the end of the season.
I believe this is Jose showing his greater knowledge of players,than Poch and what they can bring to a team who will now be hard cnuts and not nice boys.
I think everyone will appreciate a trophy or two if this is what it takes but you still don’t have to like him or his style of play.Even Kane if he buys into it might stay.
Oh, so the Opera is exciting is it? And how many opera stars can actually dribble down the wing past 12 players and a herd of elephants, cross it in, run so fast they get inside the box before the ball arrives, then nonchalantly do a rabona scissor kickinto the top corner. Bet you cannot name 7 that can do that
Everyone borrows money they don’t need. Do you have a credit card? This is a case of having less cash, or having cash, with little cost. It makes perfect financial sense. A club that is currently chasing a player for circa £100m certainly didn’t need to borrow £140m, being the biggest financial club in the world, but the opportunity to have cash assets at low cost, again makes perfect sense. Are you suggesting their loan was to make ends meet? As someone who claims to have inside sources at the club etc, you are terribly misinformed
Or watch spurs from Harry Redknapps reign to the champions league final?
With var and Jose I look forward to your posts on…what do you reckon? Christmas? Nah sooner than that I reckon. A solid 0-0 against Leeds at home and you’ll of changed your tune on Jose.
Mark my words…. It happened in Manchester. It happened at Chelsea.
If you want entertainment, please go to the Opera.
Maybe I am.
1. Not true, he was brassic and eating Danny Rose’s chips while Levy had Foie Gras for supper, brunch and breakfast
2. That means that as he hasn’t won anything yet, he is a loser.
3. I’ll take that £1,000 without the bet thank you very much. And you’ll have to pay 7% to get it back.
‘i don’t want pretty’… That’s handy. You won’t get pretty….and probably won’t get a trophy either. So double crap this season hey.
Sid, you’re sailing into “what you’re saying is” territory here.
Coaches that do not win are losers.
Additionally…
1. Poch did have money, but he watched DL spend it on tossers like Clinton Cards.
2. If JM achieves nothing at Spurs then he will have achieved the status of loser at Spurs, also. Which raises more questions about Levy.
3. Please go back online and cut n paste everything dedicated to the overpaid tossers that he’s upset. I bet you £1000 most of his CV is dedicated to his exceptional career as a winner.
If you’re paying a debt with 7% interest and you can pay it off and replace it with a 1%, everyone.
Infact I just remortgaged my house for exactly this reason.
Oh no. You guys really are falling in love with Jose aren’t you? I can’t remember a single entertaining game with him on the sidelines.
I’m a spurs fan. I’d rather be entertained with free flowing attack minded football for the glory, than a dull 1-0 11behind the ball bore in which Jose’s brought to Manchester utd, Chelsea on his second spell and now us.
I’m sorry, but of you want to win trophies, you’re a few decades late. I’d settle for 90minute rollercoasters every week and finish 5th than win the title where I can’t even be bothered to stay up at night to watch a game (I’m in Australia now, so games are usually midnight-1am).
Liverpool did not own this season by playing the kind of football Jose favors these days … I mean…dire dier is not anyone’s first choice centre back.
£25m pwk, I’d pay him that to wander around Hotspur Way, just talking to young players…
If these aren’t JM picks, then DL has had some class of stroke and really ought to be in care facility.
Er… you’re agreeing with me.
Failure IS no trophy.
Harold. I think this is very harsh on Poch. He was the first manager in ages to get us just 90 mins from the biggest trophy of them all, regular CL spots and without having any money for new signings. Yes, he is human and things went stale, but some of the football we played under him was breathtaking. I won’t deny him any of that, but I won’t also be slagging him off because he could only take us so far under the conditions he endured with Levy. I’ll always have a good word for him, as should you.
Mourinho may be a winner, I do not hide the fact that I don’t like his turgid style of football but he is our manager and I will support him but he is not this super panacea you make him out to be. He has a history of losing dressing rooms but I recognise he has won a lot. If he does it here, fantastic, if he doesn’t, will you be writing next season what a loser he was?
You think my language was bad you cretinous cunt? Or is it you simply are not capable of taking valid criticism especially when spouting a load of utter horse shit? Stick your fucking worthless clickbait site; one of your competition has already had a massive go at you for the twaddle you spout. It might get you some more hits, but equally it might make people realise you’re just a fucking shill for ENIC.
What is wrong with you? seems like a big question, but it must be asked.
Who borrows money they don’t need?
Tottenham indeed did not borrow £170m to ‘make ends meet’. it was borrowed at an extremely low rate of interest. <1%. Man United did the same thing. it allowed the club to pay back loans while keeping cash flow through the club, which only benefits investors and shareholders really. by no means would the club have gone into financial turmoil without it, unable to pay back loans or pay staff. nonsensical
Tremendous post, I have been saying similar things for some time without this much forensic analysis. I keep saying that the income from the football club goes indirectly into Enic’s pocket. Instead of spending any of the £350 mill on the THFC balance sheet on the team, it went straight into the new stadium which has the net result of increasing Enic’s NAV. You are also correct about the loan from the BoE being effectively free money for Enic.
You can’t say fairer than that!
Poch wasn’t proactive.
It’s difficult to challenge that.
Between you me and anyone else watching, I told er indoors this morning that I believe JM will win us the title during his stay.
No coincidence I unbanned a few of the usual suspects last night.
“It all adds to the flavour” as Oliver Reed said in his last film
Not normally a fan of everything that you write which is fine because we all have our own opinions but this is spot on.
I truly believe that we will win something this season as mourinho is a winner, maybe not a pretty one but I don’t want pretty nor do I want to have to go back to 2007 when we won our last trophy.
Agreed. Poch got us as far he could without turning the squad, as mourinho put it, into total c**ts.
Amusing (for want of a less charitable word) that your opening defence of Poch was that he made a profit in his opening moves.
Perjury? Nah, people like you prefer a good old fashioned burning at the stake. And I’d prefer that end…
I am a grossly unfair and spiteful person; who only deals in facts.
I think you were both harsh but honest although I wouldn’t say he opted to stagnate i think he like the club was too nice for top level football and accepted lesser players from levy instead of demanding his targets or reevaluating targets that he had chosen
He’s toast. Sorry that occurred.
FYI the poster with Boris in his name has had his comment removed not because he was a cretin, but because we do not use that sort of language on here.
Amen
It was necessary to identify what JM has done on no budget, compared to Poch who fell into vanity coma.
You’ve completely ignored the fact that Poch won nothing because he opted instead to watch the squad stagnate.
I think you’re sadly going to be proven completely wrong. This time next year, unless theres a big trophy in the bag or we come extremely close to the title, on that salary, its a failure. ENIC have a lot to do with it, yes, but if Mourinho’s half the manager Poch was, he needs to deliver with the resources he has.
He’s steadied the ship, it appears. Now he needs to show his worth. You’re absolutely right spurs need to get nasty. No team has won the league without some element of unabashed assholiness. There needs to be swagger, their needs to be conflict and maybe a few slaps round the chops for our biggest rivals.
‘Flower pressing’
‘ask the wife if she needs any help’
Classic. Proper lol’d at those
Seems a bit early in the day for this much vodka.
The flower pressing line made me actual LOL.
OYAY, OYAY, NOW HEAR THIS!
Mr Boy Hotspur man, I cant believe what I’m reading here. Poch did here what no manager was able to do for decades. He made us a nailed on top 4 club, swatted the gooners away with the back of his hand, and – bar Leicester City’s remarkable footballing explosion – came agonisingly close to making us league champions. Not to mention European finalists.
His downfall was not of his doing. He was the victim of his own boss. Do you think he didn’t identify weakness. The tone of his press conferences over the last two years of his tenure showed an increasingly frustrated figure as window after window went by with zero backing from the club’s owners.
Now, I agree that José is a great manager and I back him to do well, but he is unproven at Tottenham, unproven at a club who don’t back their manager. Pochettino IS, and that article is entirely disrespectful to a guy who gave his all for the club, and who was, in the end, broken because he couldn’t finish what he started.
Will always back the Spurs manager and I wish Mourinho nothing but the best in his quest for success but I do not see why it is necessary to do Poch down to provide backing to Jose. One thing I will say is that so far Jose has in no way reached the wonderful heights that Poch took us to. Poch worked wonders while having to deal with our parasite owners. Jose will face the same issues with ENIC and may deal with them in a different way than Poch. I wish Jose well in that battle because ENIC and their representative on earth, discount Dave will never make it easy as they try to get away with as little as they can in keeping us supporters invested. One thing that goes without saying is that Mauricio did a splendid job and would have won trophies if ENIC had given him adequate support. He is someone who I have the very best opinion of and who I would welcome with open arms if ever he were to return.
Thank you for your input. As someone who thinks the word ‘spastic’ is a comedy word, you’ll forgive us if we treat your opinions with the disdain they warrant.
I look at this with my ‘what we had and a what we have now’ glasses on. Poch had the former (when we still needed more) and Jose is getting the latter with ‘affordable’ replacements. Who has ever won consistently with affordable replacements? A back 4 of Walker, Jan, Toby and Rose which only has an ageing Toby remaining. That is a shadow of itself. Dembele was our best player, a colossus who could mug Godzilla, dribble past King Kong and play a pass whilst holding off the Hulk. He has never been replaced and we’d need 2 players in Hojbjerg and Lo Celso to do half his job. Eriksen, was an assist machine who failed to turn up for big games. Now we have players who don’t turn up for any games! As stated previously, Kane is injury prone now, so that leaves Sonny who is arguably still the same/better for Mourinho. When the excitement of signing affordable players wears off will we be better? Look at the team Klopp took over at Liverpool, and look at it now and ask yourself how would they have got on with affordable replacements. It has pace and quality throughout. Just comparing Hojbjerg to Fabinho is a wake up call, the latter is a far superior footballer whilst doing the donkey work that Hojbjerg does well. Jose has one hell of a job, but I am hoping Chelsea and Utd implode because we have to rely on them performing badly for us to get back in the top 4.
A grossly unfair piece. Poch achieved a minor miracle at Spurs with little financial backing. Remember the state we were in before he arrived. He gave Spurs fans something to cheer and he gave us back our self respect. As you admit, Levy had the better part of £350 mill under the mattress. Poch quite correctly forecast that the team needed radical surgery two years before the CL final. He told the board to be brave and was ignored. Whose fault was it that the team became stale? I don’t disagree that it was time for Poch to go, who wouldn’t after five years of Levy. That Mourinho’s record is far better than Poch’s is also undeniable but your attempt to denigrate Poch’s achievement at Spurs is unnecessary and I find rather spiteful.
Plus the article fully assumes that Jose buys were his first choice, and they will come good. Poch I am sure identified weaknesses, and got given players like Aurier, and Sissoko. At least these purchases have far less baggage.
Klopp and Mourinho are on identical salaries – 15 million per year … https://www.sportekz.com/list/highest-paid-football-managers
I like the way we are making transfers that will change the make up of our side. They will make a big difference. Doherty would be a big upgrade on Aurier. Once we have this one done and a striker signed, I’ll start to sleep a little easier.
I still think we will also have a nice surprise towards the end of the window.
I think you forget that Pocchetino turned around the squad he inherited for a profit of £20m. Got them into the Champions League regularly. Sold Kyle Naughton for the same price he paid for Dele.
Pocchetino operated on pretty much no money for most of his reign.
This is pure propaganda being written here.
Nothing wrong with bigging up Mourinho, but stop telling lies about Pocchetino. If you told them in court you would be sent to prison for five years for perjury……
This reminds me – the breakfast club meets every Sunday and one of my besties there is a West Hammer.
I will grill him on Joe Hart’s season there. From memory he had still been there done it won loads but didn’t pull up any trees.
“One might point out, that this is what you get when you pay double the market rate for the best manager”
I’m going to point it out to my Arsenal friends and family. A good retort too to any Liverpool fans questioning why Mourinho is on double klopp’s salary.
Once they they appreciate what has actually been achieved at spurs by Mourinho they’ll also better appreciate why levy is paying himself double the salary of the next highest paid chairman.
🎼 suuuper super sac
Super super sac
Suuuper super sac
Super sacrajose🌚