The recent interview in El Pais with former Spurs’ gaffer Mauricio Pochettino made for an interesting enough read, as certainly for me I think it was the first instance that the Argentine acknowledged in public that he was handicapped by Spurs’ lack of spending. The lack of transfer budget is what did for Poch, and him finally admitting that Levy refused to buy anyone for two years was great to hear.
However, Poch also manages to revert to his quasi-fairytale version of events during his time in England, this time how he and another coach that FAILED to win a single trophy changed the mentality of the game in this country.
It’s beyond awkward to say that Pochettino or Rodgers achieved anything outside their respective clubs. Unless either coach achieves something tangible in the sport later on in their careers, it is also beyond challenging to believe that these men will be mentioned reverently by football analysts in the future.
Can anyone imagine Jonathan Wilson desperately trying to rattle out a second edition of Inverting The Pyramid: The History of Soccer Tactics, in order to include Rodgers and Pochettino? No, me neither.
Please stop talking and take a new job – the game misses you – but not your interpretation of a period where you won nothing.
He did try that high pressing approach and had a fit enough first team to do it too. But he didn’t have the high quality players required to develop to the highest levels on a consistent basis. What he did achieve was impressive but those weaknesses let him down. He tried to rise to the top but was short of that all along. It was overachievement and then it all quickly went stale.
Any serious football opinion that continually states that too many players are top quality in a team or squad are delusional when it comes to Tottenham. The team spirit and efforts were admirable for an extended period but that is all. Too many Tottenham players were and are average and not top players.
Fortunately, some are and team balance whatever about formation must become foremost and without weakness’s particularly when these top players are unavailable. Who comes on the field should be used to maintain balance. Whatever about tactics, fitness and spirit are essential to win. Competition must be higher to establish a disciplined and worthy representation of the club on the first team.
It can be done! Christmas is still coming.
I think the team was better without Kane last season actually, still can’t believe Poch started him in the final. Son lead the line well up until then but he and Kane occupy the same space when they were on the field together. Kane starting that’s when I thought it was the beginning of the end for Poch unfortunately, if he didn’t win he was gone Bc no way was Levy going to back a rebuild of the squad, that should never have to take place if we had bought players in regularly like the big teams do.
There were spells without Kane and Rose that didn’t have such an impact as many expected, especially Rose.
See above.
Poch wasn’t perfect but overall and the budget he had to work with there were infinitely more positives than negatives with him over that five seasons. He made us proud of the team again and the way we played. Now it’s gone, Jose has big shoes to fill, let’s make no mistake about it…
I have to agree with him. Mane flicked the ball up at Sissoko’s stupidly outstretched arm in the the area to win the pen in the 3rd min or whatever it was, and sort of knew it wouldn’t be our night.
If you watch the game again or look at the stats and the chances we had we dominated the game. Liverpool sat in and really had no ideas at all after the pen, apart from long balls up to Mane which we dealt with all game. Neither team were great but we were the better side over the 90 mins without question.
I know a lifelong Liverpool fan and he said that he thought until Origi scored the late goal once the game got stretched that we’d score and go onto win it. He said that they got away with it and most Liverpool fans have been pretty sheepish about that game because of that.
I blame Levy, Liverpool spent almost 150m on a central defender and a goalie and it was those two that helped keep us out. We hadn’t signed anyone for a whole year before that game, they just had something to see them over the line that we lacked. However, we just didn’t get the rub that night…
I think the team was good enough but not the squad, we had no depth. No one to come in and change the dynamic as all we had were like for like but of a lower quality. I think he did change the game with the high press at the time nobody was playing it except Poch and Rodgers. Also I’ve read something very similar to that quote from him before.
I have plenty of time for Poch but when you read things like he thought Spurs were the better team in the Champions League Final it makes you wonder.
Poch after his first season, found and put, a system in place that was capable of winning a high percentage of matches per season , which he achieved solidly for around three seasons. However when it came to the crucial games where the result mattered more so than the performance, such as those cup semi’s and finals, or League title games, then this is where he failed to have that bit extra that successful managers have.
Whether it’s motivational, tactical or whatever that gets teams over the line, to win a trophy, he couldn’t do it.I believe that squad during that period, was good enough to lift a trophy, and should well have done, but it was Poch who failed imo.
“If we were good enough to get there , then we were good enough to win it” , has always been my way of thinking.
Wolves have had a skeleton squad in the two PL years under Nuno. On occasions a bench devoid of PL experience. You can only go so far with this, 6th to 7th place finish maybe.
Really? Best squad – what with only 1 striker on the books? The best Spurs TEAM not squad. When he rotated he had very little to rotate with as Levy would not pay up to bring decent cover for critical positions, prime examples being Harry Kane and Christian Eriksen both being flogged to death. Poch couldn’t rotate with like for like because he wasn’t given the players, that is a fact. Otherwise he would undoubtedly have won multiple trophies. Just about everyone could see it too. It always ends in tears with Levy and his managers for this reason.
The translation of that article into English made some of Pochs thoughts sound like some obscure philosophical treatise. At times I wasn’t sure if he was talking about football. Then came the mention of Brendan Rodgers, the Albert Camus of our day.
You said H that Mauricio needs to get a job but I was stunned by the revelation he is already working in a quarry.
The emphasis is on the word team. When we had injuries or needed to rotate for cup games, our bench was threadbare because the squad replacements were not up to scratch. We have been the only Premier League team to have only one forward on the books much of the time. Poch told the board to be brave in the transfer market to take us to the next level as he could see the way things were shaping up, but the board, in other words Levy, ignored him as they, (he) thought they knew better. So whose fault was this?
You can’t pin it all on Levy. Poch won nothing because cup competitions were not treated seriously. Pep and Jose respect the cups. How many of the last domestic cups have City won? Yes OK they had larger squads and could rotate more than Poch. But the facts are that Poch had the best Spurs squad since probably the late 80s and won nothing.
TBF he won nothing because of Levy. We played the best football in the land for 2 seasons and swept all before us, except our skeleton squad always ran out of energy in the few weeks before the end of the season. This period of course included the vital run in for the title, and any cup semi finals and finals. That football under Poch was intense, something it’s far from being now, compare the two and we look like two different teams, which of course we are. I’m not saying that we can’t win dirty, but it’s not the joy to watch that it used to be. Spurs fans were quick enough to criticise “parking the bus” at Chelsea, so it’s a little ironic to see those same fans lauding Jose for it now.
Make no bones about it Levy cost us the trophies that Poch’s football deserved. Our bench was always weak compared to other contenders, we only seemed to have one striker ever, even when Llorente joined Poch didn’t want to use him becuae Kane needed an apprentice not a father figure! Worse of all the players had sussed out Levy’s little game of making money at their expense, and stopped giving !00% for the club, and morale plummeted.
Levy wins the title of Troll of the century for what he has done to our club in my book, whilst Poch will always be remembered for bringing total football to Spurs and achieving miracles with the paltry tools he was given by the most disliked man in world football today.
Haha no worries, it was only a reaction to the article, I would agree with your comment 🙂
I’m sure if Levy were to write his own epitaph it would start
“First among equals” except you ain’t you tight fisted weasel.
as a footnote I advised some time ago to turn the sound off when Poch spoke (seriously) just look at how his team performs on the pitch.
Just to be clear, my post below is not Poch bashing, rather the reverse, I am a big fan.
Here we go, another day another Poch bashing….
I think Poch needs to find a job now and I hope he is successful wherever he goes and proves that he is a winner if properly backed. The trouble was that the better he did, despite being handicapped by our net spend, the more Levy thought he could get away without having to spend money. The nail in the coffin was Levy going 100% over budget with the new stadium, and it was naïve of any Spurs supporter to believe the lie that the cost of the stadium would not affect our transfer budget. When you read one of Poch’s interviews with a Spanish paper, a lot is lost in translation, but I agree his English is not as good as some other foreign managers, and he would be better off getting back to work and proving that he is a great manager. He doesn’t have to explain that Levy didn’t back him, everybody knows what happened and the media can always interview preceding Spurs managers regarding Levy’s activities in obtaining the players that have been needed in the past to take us forward as a club.
Well he would have if levy had not ripped them out and replaced them with a calculator so we could all be impressed with his balanced books.
To say you have to win something to change a culture is a bit naive, usually the first person to do something is very rarely as successful as those that follow. That said, I REALLY struggle to see what Poch thinks he changed? the high press was not exactly a new concept, Leeds in their last PL campaign had Alan smith upfront, famous for being a terrier chasing down defenders. I liked Poch and really feel that if Levy had backed him, we would have been sitting on at least 1 major trophy by now – for 3 seasons we were on the brink of winning big things, with 1 major edition each season instead of 7 average/poor ones. I think Poch actually was only missing a real midfield general for most of it, someone that could actually get the bit between the teeth and not accept failure. Anyway, he is gone, and as you say, I doubt he will be more than an anecdote in even Spurs history.
Hey, he won the heart of many a Spurs fan.
After turning down Madrid for us he was also suprised his loyalty wasn’t returned.. Never failing to confuse and bemuse. I think half his problem is the language barrier. His english isn’t up to scratch compared to klopp, pep or maureen.