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AVB calls time on ‘project’ Spurs

2 min read
by The Fighting Cock
Tottenham head coach André Villas-Boas today admitted his preferred style of play would never succeed at the club. In a short address in front of a packed press conference, the Portuguese said he was disappointed that his energetic, pressing mode of football was unsuited to the Premier League. In a stark message to his critics […]

Tottenham head coach André Villas-Boas today admitted his preferred style of play would never succeed at the club. In a short address in front of a packed press conference, the Portuguese said he was disappointed that his energetic, pressing mode of football was unsuited to the Premier League. In a stark message to his critics in the media and amongst the Spurs support, AVB acknowledged that the ‘project’ had already failed to prove it could produce a top four finish this season – seen as a minimum requirement after the success-laden years the club enjoyed under Harry Redknapp.

During this defining part of the season, AVB has come under increasing pressure to find a winning formula. Disappointing displays in the league against Newcastle, West Brom and Norwich have yielded only 2 points and Spurs find themselves languishing in 14th place. If Spurs are unable to improve on this tally in the next five games, the growing chorus calling for the return of Redknapp will be undeniable.

It was as the boos rang loud inside White Hart Lane last Saturday that AVB says he realised his attempts to make the team less dependent upon star individuals was to blame. “My philosophy from day one was to create a better defensive shape while varying our creative sources; I now know this approach is flawed,” said AVB. “The three trophies won at Porto were clearly flukes,” he added.

[linequote]AVB acknowledged that the ‘project’ had already failed to prove it could produce a top four finish this season – seen as a minimum requirement after the success-laden years the club enjoyed under Harry Redknapp.[/linequote]

AVB went on to set out his vision for the rest of the season: “It’ll be 4-4-2 all the way from here on in. I have already instructed Michael [Dawson] that I want him to get the ball forward as quickly as possible. Adebayor will be our primary target – his role will be to run around a bit.”

Asked by reporters whether his change of heart suggested he had finally learned the lessons from his calamitous time at Chelsea, Villas-Boas accepted that he had been slow to take on board much of the criticism from that spell. But he insisted he had altered some of his methods, citing as an example that he no longer does the crouch-and-point thing on the touchline.

Also present, Tottenham Chairman Daniel Levy gave his head coach a vote of confidence. There was, though, a qualification to that support: “The Board and I have worked hard to wrap up transfers early this summer in order to give André a settled squad. It’s our belief that given our endeavours we are entitled to expect more from our on-pitch performances so far this season.”

Despite his pledge to adopt a simpler style of play, doubts remain over the ability of the 34 year old to turn around the club’s fortunes. Sources within the club suggest he may have lost the dressing room after failing to publicly state that any of them deserve pay rises. This comes after similarly divisive actions such as banning the use of Beats headphones on match days and slashing Tom Huddlestone’s calorie intake to just 5,000 per day.

[author name=”garpat” avatar=”https://twimg0-a.akamaihd.net/profile_images/1139106876/image.jpg” twitter=”garpatt” tag=”garpat[/linequote]

All views and opinions expressed in this article are the views and opinions of the writer and do not necessarily represent the views of The Fighting Cock. We offer a platform for fans to commit their views to text and voice their thoughts. Football is a passionate game and as long as the views stay within the parameters of what is acceptable, we encourage people to write, get involved and share their thoughts on the mighty Tottenham Hotspur.

34 Comments

  1. Essexian76
    08/09/2012 @ 1:10 pm

    Only an idiot fails to learn from past mistakes-an intelligent man takes adversity by the throat, until he learns and therefore betters himself in the process-we’ll see, eh?

  2. ColinSC
    08/09/2012 @ 1:13 pm

    LMAO what can I say …silly season has begun.

  3. Sigg28
    08/09/2012 @ 1:14 pm

    Still trying to work out why anyone would bring themselves to write such a pile of tosh! Pointless!!!!

    • SidTheYid
      08/09/2012 @ 1:27 pm

      IncredibleTosh,
      Harry is never coming back.

      Let’s remember

      Hammered by Chelsea FA Cup 5-1
      Arsenal 5-2,
      Court Case debacle, the beginning of the end,
      English Manager Debacle,
      The end of seaon slide to 4th,
      The poor rotation policy,
      Constant feeding of bullshit to the media,
      and the Media love their bullshit.

      Harry time has come.

  4. rich g
    08/09/2012 @ 1:23 pm

    sigg, its called satire, you melt.

    • Aaron
      08/09/2012 @ 1:41 pm

      Isn’t satire meant to be funny?

  5. Mike
    08/09/2012 @ 1:58 pm

    haha good article, can’t anyone see this is a joke?! Good to make light of it all and take the mick out of the press…

  6. 82_Yid
    08/09/2012 @ 2:03 pm

    It doesnt take a rocket-scientist to workout these quotes are fictional. pretty disapointing usually FC comes up with some quality stuff. Garpat hang ur head in shame!

  7. Martyn
    08/09/2012 @ 2:07 pm

    I read this as the players are the problem not AVB. If he wants to ban head phones that’s fine because he is manager. If he wants to cut tom huddlestons calorific intake then Tom Huddleston should bloody well listen because he is ove weight for a footballer, if he were thiner he would be a better player because his mobility would increase.
    We had this with Ramos, a top manager comes in that is capable of making us a top club but the players don’t like the extra effort required so they stop playing for him and he loses his job.
    I think the players should receive fines until they pull their fingers out and actually earn the massive wages they already get before they complain that the manager doesn’t think they deserve pay rises.

    Poor babies (mucho sarcasm).

  8. the kingdom of sod
    08/09/2012 @ 2:11 pm

    If only it were true.
    Why can’t it be true.
    I want it to be true.
    Can someone make it come true?
    All except the return of Redknappers.

  9. happyspurs
    08/09/2012 @ 2:19 pm

    hardest bit will be keeping tom huddlestones intake below 5000 cals me thinks

  10. deejay
    08/09/2012 @ 2:38 pm

    “after the success-laden years the club enjoyed under Harry Redknapp.”.. haha, that’s a good one.

  11. Michael
    08/09/2012 @ 3:15 pm

    What was the author thinking?!!!?!?!
    This better be a joke. Otherwise, this author’s head is full of shit.

  12. Singspur
    08/09/2012 @ 3:18 pm

    Ha! ha! ha! Very good, keep it up, really love it.

  13. rich g
    08/09/2012 @ 3:19 pm

    lol at the morons who think this is serious, disconnect from the internet, uninstall your brains

  14. Dan
    08/09/2012 @ 3:20 pm

    Its satire, humour – aka not real! Pretty good too I thought!

  15. Indospurs
    08/09/2012 @ 3:34 pm

    funny stuff, shame the fans won’t give AVB any time to get his plans going – do we wanna be chelscum Mk II ?? That can be taken any way u want

  16. DD
    08/09/2012 @ 4:21 pm

    I don’t think now is actually the time for Satire as Spooky has been trying to attempt the same in some “look at me I am so clever” rubbish.

    • Nicholson 61
      09/09/2012 @ 10:12 am

      Agree! But this is’nt clever satire! It’s just a very poor attempt at humor!!

  17. jerkinmahjurgen
    08/09/2012 @ 4:25 pm

    WTF is this shit? This is infinitely wasteful, and wouldn’t be appreciated if I had to access your site and click on the bollocks section, nevermind that it’s coming up on newsnow. ‘F I read anymore of this shit you won’t be coming up on it for much longer.

  18. stuart senior
    08/09/2012 @ 4:47 pm

    got our deals done early bloody joke

  19. Stuart
    08/09/2012 @ 6:40 pm

    Haha how can you idiots not see this is a joke article??!!!

  20. douglas montgomery
    08/09/2012 @ 6:54 pm

    oooooh satire, get you!

    But seriously, AVB’s not gonna cut it – about as effective as your humour.

    Listened to part of your pod-cast and you make the mistake of retaining a selective memory in order to maintain your blind optimism. I think you fancy yourselves as ‘intellects’ and better able to appreciate the qualities of a ‘tactician’ in marked contrast to us, the ‘average’ fans. No one critical of AVB is basing their misgivings on just three games, but that his abysmal display at Chelsea combined with the last three games has become more than sufficient reason to raise doubt.

    Harry was distracted by the England job and our form went through the floor. Soon as the job was awarded to Hogson, the form picked up. The correlation is no coincidence. Admittedly his succumbing to this flattery cost us the top 3 finish. But Harry’s faults and mistakes are only credible as an indictment when considered in isolation.

    AVB might have some discernible left-brained skills but he’s too uptight and passionless. Not good for players.

    Harry transmitted belief. Whatever the hell right-brained, intuitive, slapdash method Harry employed, it got us playing the kind of football that had half the football industry swooning over it. If thats ‘running about a bit’, then that’ll do me.

    If you seriously think Harry’s philosophy and process was so crude and blundering then you’re incredibly stupid and suffer from a severely limited definition of what might possibly constitute intelligence. Harry may not express himself like Stephen Hawkins, but to portray him as some wide-boy chancer with no effective managerial qualities shows poor analysis or wilful ignorance.

    People who criticise Harry tend to remember things something like this:

    Spurs losses – Harrys fault

    Spurs wins – nothing to do with Harry.

    • Avonspurs
      12/09/2012 @ 1:54 pm

      So, you’re basing AVB’s upcoming failure as our manager based on a record of 40 games at Chelscum whilst ignoring his record at Porto? How’s that for ‘selective’ memory?!?

      HR may have had us playing football that had the ‘industry’ swooning over it; however, he also ostracised half of the squad, by refusing to involve them despite it being clear that changes were needed to allow players to recover/rest – he then had the audacity to bitch about having a “thin squad” when injuries started to hit. Remember: this from a manager who is famed for his ‘man-management’ skills.

      He also managed to f*ck up a 10pt lead over our nearest rivals by allowing himself to get caught up in the England managerial c*ck-up. Remember: not ONCE did he come out and say he wanted to remain as Spurs manager. Yet the minute he’s not offered it, he asks for a new contract (by way of changing his agent/negotiator to a man famed for being incredibly aggressive) and argues that not giving him one will de-stabilise the team and players. Yet it wasn’t an issue when the England job was being discussed. Now re-read those last two sentences – yep, the two stances are diametrically opposed but HR didn’t see anything wrong with this.

      Oh, and going back to AVB’s record at Chelscum, his win percentage is only 1.99% below HR – despite him being in a new league, in a different country and being told to completely overhaul the squad. In fact, his ‘lose’ percentage at Chelsea was 25%, exactly the same as HR (a man who knows the English league extremely well).

      As for this “AVB is passionless” bullshit, how do you know this? Because he doesn’t crack a joke with the press or constantly pushes his views in numerous magazine/newspaper articles? Are you on the training ground with him? Or in the dressing room? Or do you base this assessment on Graham ‘rent-a-quote’ Roberts saying so on Talktripe (soz, Talksport).

      AVB is a good manager that has his limitations. HR is a good manager who has limitations. Personally, I prefer AVB because I think, for the future and long-term future of Spurs, he is better than HR. I may be wrong, I may be right: only time will tell.

  21. Tottenham Ross
    08/09/2012 @ 9:15 pm

    Pathetic! just wasted a few mins reading that shit!

  22. Tony Rocky Horror
    08/09/2012 @ 10:17 pm

    douglas montgomery tells it how it is. Brilliant riposte. These people that are glad Redknapp is gone are obviously happy that normal service is being resumed. Now they can rest easy in the knowledge that we’ll be a laughing stock again soon, and won’t beat the scum for another 3, 000 years. But hey, ‘they’ didn’t like Harry so he had to go. Ye fucking gods.

  23. Crisandro
    09/09/2012 @ 12:31 am

    Success-laden years under Redknapp? I forgot there were trophies coming out of our ears during those four success-laden years.

    No wonder people think we’re a joke…

  24. Aicher
    09/09/2012 @ 8:15 am

    I know it’s a joke but some of it ain’t too far from the truth
    But all said and done this AVB needs to go. I can’t see him being given the time ultimately by everyone for him to become successful at Spurs, so while he is here Spurs are just standing still.
    By January AVB us Spurs fans I’ll think he’s the Devil incarnate and should be burnt at the stake

  25. 78Spur
    09/09/2012 @ 8:54 am

    The simple fact is he has had 3 games at Spurs and deserves a bit more patience, this is what the satire is getting at.

    If come 10-15 games we’re not playing well then he will deserve criticism, to say he should go now because he didn’t do a very good job at Chelsea is simply unfair.

    Clough didn’t do a great job at Leeds and I seem to remember him going off to win a European Championship with Nottingham Forest the next season. Ok, AVB might not be Clough but he does deserve a chance with a new club and to be calling for his head at this part of the season does our fans no credit.

  26. dasdasdasd
    09/09/2012 @ 9:41 am

    woeful attempt at 6th form humour

  27. Paul
    09/09/2012 @ 12:23 pm

    lol is this article a joke? it has to be a joke! if not whoever wrote it is a genuine retard! some of the made up quotes are brilliant “The three trophies won at Porto were clearly flukes,” “Adebayor will be our primary target – his role will be to run around a bit.”

  28. steve72
    09/09/2012 @ 12:31 pm

    As a lifelong Spurs fan i have endured many difficult periods when things were pretty bleak. However i am sorry to say that the sacking of Martin Jol was probably the most embarassing. I actually met the guy in a hotel in Liverpool before a game shortly before he was sacked and his passion for our club and fans was immediately obvious. Harry was not made of the same stuff as his constant pimping of himself for other jobs always showed. Unfortunately not only was he a show pony he was also a one trick pony. This AVB guy doesn’t exactly set my heart racing tbh but we really could do with just getting behind the team at the moment rather than booing during the match and calling for the manager’s head. We must trust the judgement of Levy on this one and pray that AVB learns that he cannot change the whole football philosophy of the club overnight. His transfer market work has been good and i am glad we have reduced the number of outcast players and improved overall quality. The last minute stuff was however once again messy to say the least. I believe we should be patient over the next few games and the quality will shine through. If we can allow this to happen we may have a new manager young enough to create a great dynasty at Spurs at a higher level than i have ever known and i am sure most of us have ever known.

  29. Sandspurs
    10/09/2012 @ 8:52 am

    Excellent satirical piece, sad to see that the intelligence level of some of our supporters is so low as to completely miss the point. But then, seeing how they keep falling time and time again for the Red Tops rumor mongering and blatant propaganda designed to destabilize our Spurs, I shouldn’t be surprised.

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