Time for the players to raise their game

Football changes fast. That is possibly the only good thing to hope for after the last failure at the Lane. After another shocking defeat at home we need to have a look at where we are. This might hurt a bit. Especially for the players.

Before coming back to the positive part I’d like to have a look at how we ended up in this situation.

In Harry’s last season with us we did look like league title contenders until the ‘England job offer that never was’ disrupted Redknapp’s concentration – and the team imploded in spectacular fashion as a result of that. The story has been told a million times already, so I’ll leave it at that.

Since then, it has been different at Spurs.

The frustration levels are high. We have signed a stupendous amount of players while losing some of the greatest players to have played in our shirts the past decades in Bale, King and Modric especially. With Lloris as a glorious exception, has there been a successful incoming transfer since AVB came to the club?

[linequote]We have signed a stupendous amount of players while losing some of the greatest players to have played in our shirts[/linequote]

If you remove those blue & white tinted glasses, has anyone really performed great at a regular basis?

Have any of the new players become stalwarts at Spurs?

I think it’s fair to say; no – they haven’t. It’s a matter of being honest, and for all the wonderful promise of Vertonghen, Chiriches, Fazio, Holtby, Paulinho, Lamela, Dembele, Eriksen, Capoue, Chadli, Soldado etc they haven’t done what we bought them for. At times, you have to admit that some have been good, even very good before fading, but reading those names now brings tears to Spurs fans’ eyes for all the wrong reasons.

It might even sound harsh, but as per November 2014 not many of those players would be truly missed if they left in January. That is hardly a positive sign. Oh how I’d wish that a few of them would make me regret those words. Not expecting it though, unfortunately.

Technical skills, tactical understanding and mental toughness as well as the ability to integrate in a new culture are all important aspects when recruiting a new player.  In my opinion there are too many current players lacking in several of those criteria.

You can look at how we buy players and there will be a lot blogs, forum posts and articles doing that. The potential level of the players is less of a problem though. Most of them could become good players, no doubt. The reality is that only the best players fulfill their promise. It’s a sink or swim business and too many seem to sink at Spurs.

[fullquote]When players are new to the league they should be afforded some time to adjust, but we still need them to perform at a certain level[/fullquote]

I’m rather fed up reading interviews of players ready to bounce back and fight to win. Useless words as long as we keep losing games. Show the will to win with your boots, interviews are a waste of space as time as long it’s not followed by a good performance. Four defeats at home so far this season tell their own story. Apart from Liverpool, we lost to WBA, Newcastle and Stoke!
That’s what relegation candidates do – reality check right there.

And although this is a another team ‘too good to go down’ there doesn’t seem to be much fight in them – and that is never a good thing.

It can be argued that the players haven’t been helped by the chopping and changing of managers. That is a decent point, but good players would do well under bad circumstances too. We’re not seeing that at Spurs now. At difficult times we need players to step up their games and we must expect more.

When players are new to the league they should be afforded some time to adjust, but we still need them to perform at a certain level and there is a limit of how long we can wait until we cut our losses. Therefore, getting so many new players in from abroad at the same time was a risky decision.

I want the management team to be absolutely ruthless the next coming months. Those who don’t show enough heart or character should be moved on, amazing talents or not. We cannot carry half a dozen players with sexy names. I’d rather want a young, less talented player who gives his all than someone who’s looking for a way out of the club as soon as the top4 isn’t achieved. Good riddance in that case.

There are several things wrong at Spurs. One of them have been at board level where there have been a feeling among the fans that the managers haven’t been backed enough. This summer, after we hired Pochettino, there were loud cries from the fans that we need to stick with the manager for longer than 18 months and that the next one to go should be Levy, not the manager. I think Enic is staying for the immediate future, but I want to see them backing their manager for real this time.

We all know how things escalate in football when it starts to go sour, but at this point we must return to where I started this article; ‘Football changes fast’. It does, just ask Pardew or Allardyce. You can probably ask them in 4 months time again and it might be back to where they were, but this season is long enough for a proper comeback, for us as well.

[linequote]If giving youth a chance and replacing the goners with a few quality players is what we need to do, then so be it. [/linequote]

For that to happen the players need to play for the shirt and start fighting. The most likely candidates to do that right now are coming from our own Academy. If cutting our losses, giving youth a chance and replacing the goners with a few quality players is what we need to do, then so be it.

There might be talent enough in the squad, but you also need dedication and fighting spirit. It’s time to show it.

“Any player coming to Spurs whether he’s a big signing or just a ground staff boy must be dedicated to the game and to the club. He must be prepared to work at his game. He must never be satisfied with his last performance, and he must hate losing.”

The words of Bill Nicholson says it all.