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The Tottenham pull factor

3 min read
by Matt Davis
Stability is key for Matt Davis as he ponders life under Poch and the start of another new era.

Mauricio PochettinoLet’s be realistic. Tottenham Hotspur is the 6th biggest club in the Premier League. It has the 9th biggest stadium capacity in the Premier League and despite many years of seeing managers come and go, the club have only celebrated one League Cup trophy in 15 years. Yet, when you look at the Spurs squad list, there are names which suggest that the north London outfit is equipped for a fight to challenge well above their means. 

In Hugo Lloris, Jan Vertonghen, Christian Eriksen and Erik Lamela, there is a spine of players who potentially could be playing at the club for seasons to come with their age suggesting that their best years are ahead of them. Whilst Jan Vertonghen is currently in renewal talks to extend his stay at White Hart Lane and follow Lloris into committing five more years at the club, Eriksen and Lamela’s contract situations enable financial security for Daniel Levy who knows that even if he is forced to sell one of his prized assets, a large transfer fee would almost ensure that a quality replacement is lined up.

With the Chairman giving new manager Mauricio Pochettino a five-year-deal earlier in May, it is clear that Levy is planning for the long-term which AVB’s three-year-deal and Tim Sherwood’s break clause in his 18-month deal failed to represent.

[linequote]There is a spine of players who potentially could be playing at the club for seasons to come[/linequote]It feels like Tottenham could almost, dare I say, have a long-term plan which could awaken the ‘sleeping giant’ of a club, words used by Frank De Boer earlier this year whilst the Head Coach position was vacant. But the truth is, the Ajax boss does have a very valid point. As mentioned earlier, key assets of the club have been tied up, a new 56,000 seated stadium which only Manchester United and Arsenal could better is currently being developed, all combining with the new state-of-the-art training centre which every player who has joined the club since it’s opening only two years ago has praised as one of the best in Europe, if not the world. This can only be proven further by the England team using Hotspur Way earlier this year during the build-up to the World Cup.

The feeling is, maybe optimistically, that a foundation has truly been set for evolution. Whilst last season’s method of a revolution failed to deliver, Pochettino has acknowledged that he has no targets this season except ensuring the players understand his philosophy, much like the work of Brendan Rodgers at Liverpool, proving that the Spurs hierarchy acknowledge there is no quick-fix for a club like the White Hart Lane outfit. Money is limited yet players who could be playing Champions League have decided to stay.

[linequote]It feels like Tottenham could almost, dare I say, have a long-term plan[/linequote]

For me stability is key, something every Spurs fan is a believer of, and whilst Levy has failed to implement this ethos, there is no doubt that he has the best interests of the club has heart. Ultimately though, it is interesting to see how many ‘fans’ have been calling for the club to sell many of the victims of last season’s £100 million splurge whilst simultaneously slating Levy’s lack of stability. As a unit, we must recognise that for Pochettino’s style to be a long-term feature of our play, we can’t chop and change our players. We need a clear direction and brand, and only when that is set in place, can I imagine a period of success more than one trophy and one big European season could offer.

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.

Matt Davis

6 Comments

  1. craig
    15/08/2014 @ 3:44 pm

    Matt, I would rather see my beloved side loose the game but show character and played a progressive attacking system than watch the drivel negative football we played last year. We have a bunch of player that can be developed into a well knit side but the key to all this is as you have said build a foundation and build in the winning mentality

  2. Spurgatso
    15/08/2014 @ 3:44 pm

    Well he’s a lucky boy then if he has’nt been set any targets for this season.Every other poor sod was told 4th or bust.He’s even luckier in so much as theres two options to obtain CL,Europa being the easier in my opinion.So I hope something happens this season,I reckon 8th if we are lucky but I expect to see anew face in the technical area around Xmas or towards the end of the season.

    • JimB
      15/08/2014 @ 4:10 pm

      Every other manager told “4th or bust”? In what alternate universe?

      Sherwood was never a long term option. AVB finished 5th in his first season but kept his job. Harry did finish 4th but was still sacked – because of his off field shenanigans. Ramos was sacked because he was leading us to relegation. Jol was sacked because he wasn’t sufficiently rated by the board.

      4th, or higher, is the target. And why shouldn’t it be? You are aware, I hope, of probably the most famous quote by our greatest ever manager? Let me remind you: “It is better to fail aiming high than to succeed aiming low. And we of Spurs have set our sights very high – so high, in fact, that even failure will have in it an echo of glory.”

      But that doesn’t mean that failure to achieve 4th is deemed a sackable offence. If the team continues to improve; if it excites; if it offers the fans hope; if the manager buys into the philosophy of the club rather than following his own agenda; if he is prepared to nurture players who have come through the academy, then he will keep his job even if he fails to secure Champions League football.

      As to the piffle about Spurs being lucky to finish 8th this season………..how do you work that out?

    • SP
      15/08/2014 @ 9:21 pm

      No they weren’t.
      This ‘claim’ just does not add up. Since the Ghodd dismissal, of the managers/head coaches who we have parted company with, the only one to we parted company with at the end of a season was Harry Redknapp – and he had just finished…4th. The rest, obviously, can’t have been dismissed for ‘not finishing 4th’ as ways parted during the season. If Harry Redknapp was the only manager to finish in the top 4 (twice) but he finished 4 campaigns with us, that means that twice he ‘didn’t’ finish in the top four and yet ‘was not sacked’. Martin Jol finished fifth twice and was not sacked either time – a horrendous start, coupled with behind the scenes squabbles and flirting with Newcastle are sufficient explanation. Ramos finished nowhere near fourth and was not sacked – two points from 8 games and completely floundering is sufficient explanation. AVB finished fifth and was not sacked. Totally inept displays, finally against Liverpool (all down to choices he made), and, according to the word, falling out with everyone out the club (the same allegations as Chelsea are sufficient explanation). Tim Sherwood was dismissed because, IMVHO, he was always a stop-gap – that’s why I christened him InterTim – and besides, he showed himself to be something of a loose canon once the pressure was on.

      The notion that Levy sacks anyone who doesn’t get top four comes primarily from the Redknapp loving media (and just look at Jamie – every time he gets near reporters or a camera he peddles this line) – determined to show that Levy sacked Reknapp in a totally irrational demand for the impossible. Harry Redknapp was a 67 YO with a dodgy ticker, who had been supported through a court case (a lot of other clubs would have let him go there and then). After shamelessly whoring himself for the England job (and meeting with Chelsea officials, allegedly), he was offered a new contract. He turned this down and continued whoring for the England job. He thought he had this to the extent that, when Spurs were in a fantastic position he, allegedly, totally lost focus and the dressing room. Spurs lost their comfortable position in the league – and then, when he didn’t get the job, he suddenly decided he wanted to be Spurs manager again. Is it any coincidence that we won the first game after Roy Hodgeson was announced as the new England manager, after a string of poor results? And finally, to compound this, he hired a new, aggressive agent to push for a new contract on the terms he had originally been offered (to stave off England), and agitated for it in a broadcast interview at approximately the same time as Daniel Levy was burying his mother. Tactful…not!

      And yet, at every opportunity, the Redknapp clan and their friends in the media perpetuate the myth that ‘poor old Harry’ was sacked for failing to get fourth (even though we finished fourth…doh) and that Levy sacks any manager that doesn’t get fourth, even though the facts just don’t fit that.

      @ Author – Levy has been implementing a long term plan since he hired frank Arnesen. It has allowed the sixth wealthiest club to finish fourth or fifth every season apart from the last, apart from the Ramos hiatus, while assembling an exciting young squad, building one of the best youth set-ups in the country, the best training facilities in England, Europe or even the World, and laying the groundwork for a new stadium that would have been well underway but for a local company refusing to move.

      The target should be to go out to win every game and see where that attitude takes us.

    • Park Lane Spurs
      19/08/2014 @ 11:28 am

      8th? seriously… I’d say more likely 5th…

  3. real spurs fan
    15/08/2014 @ 5:07 pm

    don’t worry, spurgatso is an arsenal fan, he posts his drivel all over the place.

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