Jasher rushes to the defence or our "under pressure boss" and reminds us where we were and where we are.
Stop Chasing AVB
Anyone who knows me will attest that I love AVB and make no attempt to hide it. Personally I can’t think of any manager I would rather see in charge of my beloved Tottenham Hotspur than Andre Villas-Boas. He’s got style, class, and unshakable desire to succeed.
So why the hell are we trying to chase him out of our cub?
Don’t get me wrong, I accept that of late we haven’t been performing to the standard that a ‘top four’ team should, but to my mind I can’t think of a more catastrophic error than sacking Villas-Boas, even after the Etihad nightmare on Sunday.
We’ve all read articles this week about how he’s the bookies favourite to be the next manager to lose his job, about how the players all hate him, and about Spurs missing Gareth Bale.
[divider_flat]
[authquoteleft text=” To my mind I can’t think of a more catastrophic error than sacking Villas-Boas, even after the Etihad nightmare on Sunday[/linequote]
The thing is though, I and the vast majority of fans don’t care what makes back page headlines, I’m far too battle hardened to let any ‘exclusive’ in The Sun worry me or indeed change my opinion. What does bother me however, is when our ‘fans’ start demanding a revolution and calling for heads to roll.
Not only is this public witch-hunt detrimental to the team, it’s preposterous to comprehend where some of them are coming from.
I spoke to a fellow Yid in a builders merchants today, who watched Sunday’s debacle with two City fans and a Gooner, He asked me: “Do you think he’ll go?” to which I replied: “It’ll be the worst thing we could do.”
He cast a bewildered figure and the expression upon his face forewarned me that he was about to cut me down. Instead his response rejuvenated me, it filled me with hope and restored my faith in all of Spurs-kind “I dunno about that” he responded “But you’ve gotta’ stand by your club haven’t you?”
Amongst other things we spoke about, mainly reminiscing about the response after the 5-1 defeat by City at home not too long ago, and debating who would score our 8th goal when we thump United on Sunday, we both agreed that we as a collective have come a very long way in a short space of time.
This result may serve as a wake-up call and be the catalyst that our support needs. He poetically and elegantly mused that: “Some of them forget just how s**t we were.”
That in a nutshell is the basis of my argument. Comparable to seasons in the not too distance past, this is far from crap, this is joyously flourishing.
The first season that I can properly remember was the 2003-04 season, I was about eight and under the stewardship of David ‘Chimbomba’ Pleat we had just recorded a finish of 14th, and if those dizzying heights of mid table mediocrity weren’t enough for me to savour and brag in the school yard at break time, we had also thrown away a 3 goal advantage against a ten man Man City in the F.A Cup.
[linequote]This result may serve as a wake-up call and be the catalyst that our support needs.[/linequote]
That is the quintessential Spurs that any true fan understands and to a certain degree cherishes. For every Ricky Vila in 1981 there is a John Macken in 2004. For every Danny Blanchflower there is a Johnathan Blondel and for every Glenn Hoddle there is Ben Thatcher. With Spurs, and to be fair the lion share of other teams, you have to take the rough with the smooth.
I’m not saying we shouldn’t aim high and expect the best, they are equally as Spursy as failing. Nor am I trying to sound defeatist. I’m merely asking that AVB’s era be judge by all recent seasons not just one particularly pleasant one.
Furthermore, to anyone who thinks that AVB’s sacking would ratify with instant and tangible success, who replaces him?
Who can we genuinely go out and get that would be an improvement? There are some laughable suggestions floating around Brian Laudrup, Jurgen Klinsmann, and most ridiculously of all a return for Harry Redknapp.
Many people suggest that we are not as good now as we were under good ‘arry, that may be so, but think of the players that have left us in that meantime, Ledley King, Luka Modric, Rafeal Van Der Vaart and Gareth Bale.
[authquoteright text=”Furthermore, to anyone who thinks that AVB’s sacking would ratify with instant and tangible success, who replaces him? Who can we genuinely go out and get that would be an improvement?[/linequote]
Redknapp was lucky enough to have arrived at a time when expectations were low, and inherited a squad of decent quality, true he may have brought them along but the squad more or less remained constant in his time. Now compare that to the task at hand for AVB.
All four of said players have since left, and AVB has had to buy and bond an almost entirely new squad.
Fundamentally AVB is a better manager, and for those of you that use stats to berate him and promote Redknapp, here is one you may like, I’ll put it as brutally honest and as devastatingly simply as I can.
In his fledgling career as a coach Villas Boas has won three trophies. In Redknapp’s twenty plus year tenure as a manager he has only won one, he has also taken two teams down.
Calling for Redknapp now is like waking up next to Fearne Cotton, and pining for Fern Britain.
I’m not asking for much, just keep the faith.
[author name=”Jasher” avatar=”https://si0.twimg.com/profile_images/3312741970/6fa7e44f3ba28d68923d6fbc7033a42b.jpeg” twitter=”james_asher” website=”[/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.
8 Comments
Would you like to write for The Fighting Cock?
28/11/2013 @ 10:28 am
Well said, in AVB we trust #COYS
28/11/2013 @ 11:35 am
A well written article and I for one agree totally, the past is the past and now we look to the future. I’m sure both AVB and the team have learnt a lot from our last game, so we move on, the team must start playing as a team and not for their own agenda. COYS
28/11/2013 @ 11:44 am
Roma wasn’t built in a season .
28/11/2013 @ 11:45 am
Whilst I agree that we should stick with AVB for the time being. Compairing his trophy haul with Redknapp is a bit daft as Porto have won the league 8 times in the last ten years, any half decent manager would do the same.
And as for a wake up call, I was hoping the west ham game was precisely that. We’ve shown glimpses since then, but then lapse back in to the normal current normal routine.
Let’s hope for some solid and attack minded football this Sunday against United.
28/11/2013 @ 3:06 pm
Of course we can’t blame AVB totally. Levy/Baldini have to take a share of the blame with our summer buys. Nearly £60m for Soldado and Lamela has proved ridiculous (especially compared with what we’ve lost in Bale). Of course, they might come good one day (well Lamela anyway) ..but we didn’t pay that amount for ‘potential’ talent, we paid it for ‘here and now’ talent. Also, as good as our DMs are, there’s too many of them ..and they all want to play (naturally). Meanwhile in the final third there’s only Eriksen and er ..Tom Carroll on loan.
Replacing AVB now would not be a good thing ..but it angers me that he acts too slowly during games at home where our system has been quickly sussed by other teams/managers. His system may well come good for us (although he should only be playing one of his 4 DMs at home, not two) …but right now he has too many square pegs in round holes. We have no bright pacy imaginative playmaking midfielders ..and I’ve been screaming for a Modric replacement on blogs for the past 15 months. Eriksen can reach those heights one day, and we didn’t pay a fortune for him ..but he was almost an afterthought at the end of the summer, when that area of the pitch was the top priority. Plus his recent injury exposed an energetic and enthusiastic (but not creative) Holtby and the others in midfield against a City teeming with bright, pacy and imaginative playmakers and strikers. Better to have given Sig a chance in that position. Dembele is, I’m afraid, a shadow of his former self. He always lacked imagination when it came to making a killer pass, but he frightened defenders and midfielders with his strength, pace and shooting. Now they almost yawn when he’s running with the ball, and he still can’t see, let alone make, a cutting pass. Paulinho and Sandro can be good lynchpins in front of our defense away from home, with the former linking better with the final third, but unless we have balanced and fast flanks plus creative players in the hole then I fear that we will be a mid table club.
Without Bale last season we would have been closer to 8th or 9th without question! Our left side, once feared, is now pathetic ..whether it’s poor Verts filling in again (when we should have retained BAE to cover Rose), Sig (out of position horribly), Chadli (static) and Lennon (not a natural left side player ..his need to cut to his right foot before he crosses kills the time and opportunity), and Soldado is the wrong player at the wrong time. He would have been a perfect foil for Modric, Bale/Lennon a few seasons ago ..but right now, in this system, and without creative players playing the ball he wants, he’s a dud. Although 6-0 was a shock, a beating wasn’t. We’ve been awful to watch for 75% of the season in the PL, but our defense has generally stood firm. But finally they’ve now given up the ghost, because there is nothing so demoralising as doing your own job well but seeing hardly any goals being delivered at the other end. AVB will probably see through this flak ..but there’s a lot of players not using their heads properly, and/or stepping up, in the absence of someone who can truly dictate what’s happening in the middle of the park and final third.
28/11/2013 @ 4:48 pm
Just for the record I’m not saying fans aren’t entitled to an opinion and even a moan or two but activley campaigning for AVB to be sacked is against what I believe a supporter should do
29/11/2013 @ 11:38 am
Agreed getting rid of AVB is not a solution. Our team and individual players may be better than crap we have endured over the years prior to Jol but this current level of performance is equally as boring as anything I have ever seen in my 17 years of going to spurs. This for me is the biggest point. I am bored or angry (often both) whenever I watch the team the season. That has to change but I cant see it coming yet. I ask myself, who will be our offensive player of the season and there is no answer. Who is going to step up for us and drive this team forward to attack?
So I really hope AVB can turn it around. I don’t necessarily have a huge amount of faith that he will anytime soon but a mid-season sacking is never going to be the answer. The only answer I have right now is to find a way to inject pace, determination and enthusiasm into our performances. If the team can’t manage that this weekend and for the other 9 games this year after last weeks humiliation, then we are in for a long season of this boredom or a new year sacking – I cant see any other way. It saddens me that I am filled with so much pessimism about the team but what else can we think based on current displays.
29/11/2013 @ 11:14 pm
The fan base is the pulse of a club. If the manager isn’t in tune with it and doesn’t understand what it wants, it’s a slippery downward slope. When a fan base is so fractious and divided over a manager, nothing good comes of it. He won’t last. Yesterday he had a HOME fan ejected for voicing an opinion. At the next away match will 20,000 be escorted out for chanting the same thing?
Bizarre tactics, team selections, comments about fans and players, and now this? The writing is all over the wall. He may or may not last out the season……..but he’ll be elsewhere next season. No doubt.