Stumbling upon a manager who’s a match made in heaven for you and then sticking with him till death is one operating model.
It’s similar to what Spurs hoped for with Pochettino. But of course, Leicester seems to be doing it better, i.e. actually backing their manager and trying to keep him happy. Another way is that while you have that magic manager, you use the momentum to also improve the sporting infrastructure, and I’m not talking about spending a Billion on a stadium.
Instead of that, improve the scouting network, improve the academy coaching staff, upgrade the training facilities, and make the footballing hierarchy more cohesive. Dortmund and Leipzig did that, and they were well-placed when Klopp, Ruchel and Ragnick, etc departed. The transition was smoother.
Instead, under Poch, Levy booted Paul Mitchell from the recruitment team and put Hitchen in charge whose ‘strategy’ appears to be throwing darts at a list of footballers registered in France FA. Then our respected academy personnel like Kieren McCenna and John McDermott bailed and weren’t replaced properly, and our club hierarchy went through multiple ‘restructuring’ all of which included Levy’s yes men and women changing their titles but nothing else with the man himself on top with no accountability. The only external hire was last year as a head of footballing operations*, and he only lasted 3-4 months.
You either plan for the long term under the same manager by backing him, or you plan for sustainability in transitions by investing in the infrastructure and squad. Under Levy, we actually get the worst of both worlds.
*This was Trevor Birch. He became Director of Football at Tottenham on 1 September 2020. He left to join the English Football League as chief executive in January 2021
If we had some depth in our squad he could have rested Kane or Eriksen. I have no doubt he asked Levy for players to boost the squad as any coach would. Levy as ‘manager’ told him to do one as the team was doing well and the squad was fine.Which is what happens when you put a businessman in charge of football matters.
Two windows of no signings, Poch was coaching with his hands tied behind his back, and still gave us entertaining football.
There is one consistent factor behind all the manager/coach comings and going and limited succcess on the pitch. I don’t need to spell it out.
I would take right nowTammy Abrahams, Timo Werner & Hudson Odoi over any of the following Lamela, Bergwin, Vinicious, Bale, Ali.who all need to go.Even Moura is a debate.
We need young pomising butchers dogs not Paddle Boarders
Your 3 have got Levy’s DNA all over them. All flatter to receive. We need quality, not quantity.
Wrong, Son never play as a striker when Kane was fit, and a as matter of fact never played them as strikers together . Son did fill in on the many ocasions Kane got hurt. Just for the record, i loved Poch system, but then I realized it was only predicated on the starters making it work and he had no answer after 70 minutes. Took¹ me 3 years to figure that out.
Some manager you’d make. Levy’s the problem because he fails to back a quality squad, always the bare minimum.
He was only provided with a small number of quality players, what’s the point in having players that can’t challenge for a first team place? Lots of rubbish players training all week with not hope of playing, what’s the point in that? 🤔
That was all he had to work with, he wasn’t provided with a bs kip to Kane, what else could he say in that situation?
Son could play up top and on the few occasions when he did we looked pretty good, even if it’s not his 1st choice position. Besides, he plays up front for Korea abd is a national hero. So basically Pochettino was right and you’re wrong… what a surprise!
In 6 years he signed 27 players and sold over 40 players… He famously preferred to work with a small squad, he was always ‘berry appy’… He repeatedly informed us of this..
When asked about a second striker before and after Llorente, Botchy told us that Son and Lucas can play up top.. Neither could.
Since we have Brexit now I think the French cheap shopping market is closed they need work permits and there will be a limit.
This is very true so there is no success without sacrifice by the same token it is very true as well thinking inside the box and doing the same thing again and again and expecting different results is insane. then what is the solution? by stopping the root cause it needs someone to hold Mr Levy accountable and tell him he is not a football expert and he needs to digest that and let the football people deal with the football side of the club basically hands off in order Spurs to have any future football success.cheers
Well if it costs Levy real money and he has no control over the outcome, its never going to happen.
In this day and age you can commit genocide and get away with it. ENIC FC had become a toxic product. No decent manager wants the job Tavistock Group should fire Levy.
Yes, tell me about it. You can never be more wrong on Poch. He considered himself a teacher and the younger the lads the more command he had of them. He had at one point 5-7 players being selected for England and the rest representing their respective countries. He ran Kane and Erikssen into the ground. It was not the players in the end that cost us silverware, Poch tactical in game management is the poorest I have seen in a top class manager. I cannot remember Kane being lifted when he is having a bad day or the game in hand. Harry was playing 90+ minues per game counting injuring time. Erikssen was not far behind. I miss church services to watch Spurs play. When you mold your team, it is the manager responsibility to freshen up players, give me day offs. The reason I do not buy that he was not backed. He was not desperately fighting for top 4. He was up there every year and he could not tactical guide the team to the top. The incentive and incremental contract system by Spurs kept the young players together for 3 to 4 years. But is cute to blast the chairman when Poch average substitution time starts at 80 minute. He could not get a decent backup striker because he played no one up front with or sub him for tactical purposes. Same scrap you guys being writing on the blog.
I disagree but understand your sentiment , the true definition of insanity is trying the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. levy has thought inside the box his whole career inside that box and only by moving outside will we move out of this mess
Both are messy but the grenade one would probably have more impact. True enough.
the Chelsea bench has a lot more potential that anybody we have unless you are counting on.Skip.
I hate Levy but we have no choice but to think inside the box.
Not sure if it is a finger that needs pulling out, or the pin from a grenade
You won’t compete Chelsea and City by hiring Chelsea bench and an amateur manager you sound like Levy in disguise 😂cheers.
Yep, utterly neglected. Criminal.
We never replace key players with the right quality, go back to Berbatov and Keane… Pav and Bent? That was Comolli by the way, while we are on the subject of DOF’s (that’s Chief Scout to anyone with an ounce of common sense).
Dembele was never replaced, Wanyama was replaced two years later with PEH. . We’ve had to endure several seasons with Winks and Sissy as first choice, neither a holding player. Jan hasn’t been replaced. Walker was never replaced and neither was Tripps for that matter…
With todays daily briefing H you managed to articulate that sense of hopelessness that pervades THFC today. Definite 10. “Have you got any ideas?” kind of sums it up really. You can almost hear that question echoing around the meeting rooms at Hotspur Way. It can be useful to take a pop at our over indulged players (and it seems we have a few), the managers tactics (both Poch and Jose made errors), ENICs focus on things non football and Dan’s stubbornness like a slow creeping cancer crushing any daring, any sense of difference; even Jose, who could at least be “off the cuff” amusing at times lost the joy, the will to live and quite probably feels blessed to be out of there. That’s what seems to have happened all round. Ground down by the business machine and the greed at the expense of all else. I got the impression that the players were scared last season, scared in case they made a mistake. It is a sad place we find ourselves in and it’s clear there can be no quick fix but change is inevitable. A new face will change the dynamic one way or the other. Just wish someone over there would get their finger out and make a decision. Of course, the longer there is no manager the more money Dan saves and the more excuses there will be for lack of recruitment, no pre-season bla bla!
No Poch didn’t have the players he wanted. He had a first eleven that was as good as any for about two years but there was no depth. That led to the first eleven being run into the ground and the catalogue of injuries and the inevitable burn out.
Hard line stance on the players there, Harry, but you’re right, I feel; we need a churn to replace some of these “pansies.”And yes some of them are the best advert imaginable for the reintroduction of national service; Tottenham Hotspur is a holiday camp. And, as you quite rightly say, Levy’s brought this on himself and deserves little sympathy, especially when you consider how much he gets paid for making a complete pig’s ear of things!
This is just another day to document the failings of Dan Levy even when “backing the manager” become a catch phase like, pass me the ketchup. The last manager said he was satisfied with what Levy gave him to work with. What happen between the Everton game and December i do not know. We had no attacking mid and Tanguy was filling the role playing about 70 -80 minutes per game. He was getting the job done with Kane playing out of position and out of his mind. Once Locelso came back the manager saw it fit to now drop Tanguy into an holding position alongside PEH. Sissoko was far from perfect, but we were swimming just outside the kiddies area. Locelso offered nothing in creativity beyond what Tanguy provided. Lucas Moura and Bergwjin could not find a goal and Bale was not ready. Dele was banished as we drifted further and further back to our 18 yards line. Although the West Ham game was a disaster had we stayed on the front foot score more goals the defense would have come around. Jose chose to make the weakest part of our team the tactical focal setup of the team, defended, and hope to snatch one
We saw that with Liverpool and we lost at the death because we catch City out of tune and rightfully so we spanked them. While City learned from that game we never improved, I would say we got big heads and regress. I cannot come here and lay all the blame at Levy’s feet. Poch, had the system and the players he wanted. Young kids he can work with to install his philosophy which he did and while he won nothing , he came up short because on all the occasions we reached a final or chasing the League title our Talisman is either injured or coming back from one. Like I said. We throwing around backing the manager, but the calibre of players I see folks here suggesting we sign are not the ones persued by Liverpool, City, Chelsea and United so what does backing the manager means if we going crazy over a guy with 5 goals and 3 assists costing $15m. Poch lost his way tactically and Jose believe his tactic was second to none. My point here, when are we going to analyze the what happened in the field of play. When I look at the team at the begining of the campaign, I believe we would have won the league becuase of what I saw from Jose tells me we were ready, but he got the system with the players backwards. We were built to blitz teams and we ended up sitting on top of Lloris 80% of the time.
Be more fitting
If it carries on then the cockerel will have to be changed to a donkey.
Looking at some of our acquisitions I’d say bang on. Dier, Sissoko, Sanchez, Doherty…. All look like they should be giving rides on a beach over playing football.
I can’t remember why but he must have spent time scouting in France as he is an apparent expert. Leagues and players change rapidly though so any expertise or knowledge soon diminishes in a few seasons.
Well its Steve Hitchen who is the specialist with in depth knowledge of Ligue 1 and 2.. So I’m sure Fab won’t be wasting too much time or money there.
Pin the tail on the donkey?
I don’t know what to say anymore! Aarrrrggghhhhhh.
Throwing darts huh 🤔 I don’t think it’s that scientific…
I feel for you H! You look like an expectant father constantly visiting the delivery room only to be told, false alarm, another week. I cannot for the life of me understand the Levy’s of this world who think they have it sussed while the roof is collapsing around them. Trouble with wealth and power is, those born to it, did nothing to earn it, those who kill for it, terrorise others, but are not necessarily intelligent, but others are too frightened to say no to them, and those who open a shop, hire the premises, go to the wholesalers and buy cigs, fairy liquid, cornflakes and sit back counting the pennies which becomes thousands are just trading rather than driving a bus and are not Einstein’s either. Spurs fans have been putting up with this crap for years and will continue to, though in slightly less numbers, but Levy put up the new house after the new BT-Sky deal brought in the millions and the contract is still valid which will unfortunately see ENIC through. If you decide to learn to fly a helicopter for a new hobby if you get fed up with it all at the Lane, please do not do a proud flyover, if it dropped on the directors box, it would be disastrous. Especially if the pilot did not bale out smiling with the right parachute for emergency landings.
For what its worth, I vote Steven Gerrard as our manager, and if we must sell Harry Kane we take Tammy Abrahams, Timo Werner & Hudson Odoi in return.I know its radical but we are miles off Chelsea and City and we need a major re-boot.
Nothing would surprise me in N’Levy’s never ending paranoia for saving money. The man is so short sighted he lets a potential bargain cloud his judgement. When it comes to football matters he should be removed as far as possible from Hotspur Way.