The first thing that comes to mind is how when we first signed up Poch a Southampton fan came to the Harry Hotspur site saying “well done, he’s great, but he uses substitutes far too late in the game, and he has no plan B”, exactly what we would tell any fans of our glorious ex-managers new club.
A stubbornness that any pro-Poch man could not deny but a man possessed of a stubbornness to love the game and believe in its fundamental traditions that football is in its very essence ‘good’, no less.
Thank you Poch for bringing tears and delight into our lives – today feels like a death in the family and what better face for a caped ghoul holding a scythe than that of the incoming Jose Mourinho.
We live in a time when we attack those who try to do their best for us. Where the innocent are guilty and the guilty innocent. ‘Should have backed him not sacked him’ Jenas said it the best last night.
I have called for Levy Out on these pages for 15 years or so, since we sold Carrick in fact. There’s nothing more ’Spursy’ than that, the slow death of making money over glory whilst selling cheap shirts with Latin quotes about a glory we struggle to feel.
Never winning anything and then sacking the manager. Poch dampened that call for the end of ENIC at times by overachieving and somehow making that shambolic club we love tick.
The good times are gone and now we are a reality TV show in a shopping mall. I won’t tune in. I won’t tune in until ENIC are gone.
I stopped watching the games and only read about them now. Only track results. The combination of VAR and watching Poch seethe at our dream imploding was too much. ENIC horribly neglecting our squad has come to pass yet Levy gave himself a pay-rise and decked out his office like some cruel and ostentatious dictator.
Contemptuously low balling on player contracts doubling the build spend on a stadium that does not benefit us. Money we and our children will continue to owe.
He takes our money, he channels our love for the club, and he turns that into profit for him and Joe Lewis.
The NET spend is so far below teams like Everton and West Ham, yet we are rich in profit. It’s all siphoned away to the Bahamas, and we sit there in the new spaceship built on holy ground sat next to tourists eating pop corn.
Eyes bedazzled by the LED screens flashing up VAR and Chinese bank adverts and outside in Tottenham whoever they choose to vote for they will lose because there will be more austerity and more new builds and more displacement.
More money siphoned away, the rumble of dread and NFL trucks, and all I can think about now is what Keith Burkinshaw once said as he walked away, and Poch on his knees crying and slapping the turf as we got to the Champions League Final.
He wasn’t perfect, but he was all we had. At least we knew what he stood for, and he was never ever backed. No matter how hard he implored.
“I stopped watching games and only read about them now😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
Superbly written .
Our club now the best roller coaster ride around.
I did my grieving at the end of last season, all through the Summer and start of this season when I knew in my bones that it was 100% over for Poch, the project and this team. I reacted similarly by walking away from all Spurs matches because i refused to watch the car crash that was nailed on to play out over the rest of the season.
Hate Levy, yes.
Heartbroken for Poch, kind of, he was on $8mil a year and never spoke up.
Hate everything Levy and Enic stand for, yes.
Want them to sell up and walk away, you bet.
But this turn of events is a genuinely unexpected development and Levy has genuinely surprised me with how well planned and executed it has been. Given what was due to play out versus the interesting unknown that lies ahead then i’m going to take it and remain open minded. Could turn out to be one of the greatest marriages of convenience of all time.
It’s at least going to be interesting.
Poch is a very young 47, even younger at about 41 when he started at Spurs, has relatively recent memories of his own playing career — and acted like he wanted to be mates (was incapable of being a supportive father- or uncle-figure) with his favourites; seemed at times childishly stubborn towards those he didn’t favour. I’m thinking that immaturity, along with the no-plan-B and pathetic substitutions/rotations and inability to learn was bound to limit him and do him in eventually.
Nicely written. The demise of Poch was highly regrettable, but unfortunately, in recent months, inevitable. Poch was in many ways a naive idealist, a footballing purist, a modern day Keith Burkinshaw, but he came up against a mercenary cynic and a rapacious businessman, in Levy, who ultimately ground him down.
Levy should have backed him far earlier and this whole saga could have been avoided. Nonetheless, faced with the consequences of his own inaction, too little too late, Levy has showed some balls and ambition in going out and getting Mourinho. This intriguing nascent relationship is far more a marriage of equals.
Mourinho’s record speaks for itself and the man also exudes a certain aura, combined with a worldly cynicism, which demands that he is not taken lightly. Levy will know, for this to work, he cannot treat Mourinho the same way that he treated Poch. They are same age, whereas Poch was 10 years Levy’s junior.
This extra leverage that Mourinho will bring to the table, plus his own retributive nature, especially embittered as he undoubtedly is by the sackings at Chelsea and Utd, could make him a formidable adversary again. It should be noted that the allegedly ‘in decline’ version of Mourinho, still delivered 4 trophies in less than 4 years, at Chelsea and United. We can but offer our support and hope!
Well said, I can’t get my head round the fact Levy and José work in two completely different ways. Levy buys young talent cheap to sell at a big profit, José has no time for young players, prefers battle hardened veterans, who are of no value to Levy because they have limited resale value. Also those experienced players don’t come cheap, so Levy never buys them. Unless one of the two have had a road to Damascus this will struggle to work. Kudos to Levy though, it has brilliantly deflected attention from Levy.
Excellent piece.However we do have to move on.Unfortunately Poch is now history.Mourinho is a proven winner whatever anyone thinks of him as a person and his style of play.
It won’t necessarily be pretty but he will get us winning again and difficult to beat,particularly in the bigger matches.I just think top four is out of reach.
On target. Bang on target.
Beautifully written… I for one am very sad about poor pochy.. So near yet so far 😔