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
