He is half Deutsch & has a soft spot for BVB as we used to live near Dortmund
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Would you say the times are better under Conte or better under Pochettino?
Now tell me which one at the time of being at Spurs, who was the elite manager?
And I can tell you why having an elite manager in Conte isn't the route to "fixing the club" whilst Levy is still in charge.
We meet the same Chelsea, United or City teams that we have routinely beat in the league... Then you realise the fact the likes of Norwich, Middlesbrough and Palace have knocked us out of the cups more recently...
Youre right, they don't.
Which is why the best and semi realistically thing we can hope for is they luck out on their next manager. Who can improve the team (not hard) and get the best out of the players we have. Bringing a feel good factor round the place, which in turn turns out woeful atmosphere into a good one and we can ride a wave like we did for 2 years between 15 and 17.
I would be quite surprised if our next manager isn't someone with a proven track record of entertaining football.
To slip back into the middle of the pack, Newcastle will replace us in the big 6 discussion.
I just can't see ENIC selling up or putting in the required investment on the pitch to stay where we have been for the past few years.
Seen this coming for a long time now
I agree with you.
To go forward Spurs need to be set up properly like a
Brighton where they seem to plan for everything. They have lost god knows how many key pieces to their set up and they always seem to find a way to deal with it and adapt. A lot of this is because they have good forward planning and know how to adapt.
The fact is our main problem is Levy is absolutely clueless and does not understand football. The lack of any planning is atrocious and the appointment of Paratici equally so.
I think Conte is grieving after some personal loss which is recently compounded by the loss of Vialli.
Levy is being Levy.
Investment in the squad to correct some poor recruitment decisions and we have a decent chance of making top 4. Things change quickly in football. We are more or less where we should be based on spending. And over the years we have overachieved, at least since Redknapp.
Levy is being Levy.
Investment in the squad to correct some poor recruitment decisions and we have a decent chance of making top 4. Things change quickly in football. We are more or less where we should be based on spending. And over the years we have overachieved, at least since Redknapp.
I just found out that Brighton are run by one of our old ex non executive directors. Baffles me that this person can plan and Levy can’t.
Poch the football for 2-3 season we played was the best in the league. It was outstanding and he made players sing like I couldn’t believe they would.
For me however Conte would be a safer bet with an elite squad of players to get the team over the line. You hire Conte you give him elite players and he gets you over the line and gets you some silverware, otherwise you don’t hire him.
Switching between the likes of AVB, Sherwood, Poch, Jose, Nuno and Conte shows a total lack of planning. A new manager playing nice football would be good but I don’t expect it to do much and I would be surprised if we reach the Poch levels again. Even Poch coming back may not get anywhere near that.
Until there is an actual plan, an actual workable strategy we will struggle to both win things and play decent football and for me that sits with the board and their total lack of vision.
Personality is probably the reason, Barber is exceptional and a Spurs fan he would be the perfect chairman for us. I know Brighton fans love Bloom/Barber combination.
So does mine (37). My daughter takes a passing interest and says she is Tottenham if asked but has no interest in going these days.
Of course, but he wasn't an elite manager. Yet, you would argue that we were a lot better under Pochettino and competed more under Pochettino than we have under an elite manager in Conte.... therefore, it's not down to an "elite manager fixing the club". It's down to getting the right man in for the job.
Conte could well be the right man, but he's in the wrong job.
Well, of course. That much is obvious. We've gone from hiring managers who have an idea of good football (Jol, Redknapp, Poch) who like to get the best out of what they have got whilst working on a budget in comparison. To trying to bring in elite managers (Mourinho, Conte) who have always needed money and a specific profile of players to be able to do their job, something we all knew would never happen here.
Why we've abandoned the original idea, I'll never know. Maybe desperation because of the entitlement of fans to want success now, now, now. I don't know. But it's been pretty much disastrous bar 5 months under Conte where we looked brilliant. But 5 months out of 2 and a bit years between Mourinho and Conte is not good.
Well, AVB and Poch was the same plan. With different outcomes. It's obvious both were brought in to build something long term. It didn't work out for AVB on the pitch but luckily he did help build the nucleus that saw us do so well under Pochettino. Bringing in Lloris, Vertonghen, Dembele, Eriksen and Lamela. Sherwood was interim whilst we planned for the future, so not sure I'd add him to the list.
Going from AVB and Poch (and that general idea) though to bringing in Mourinho, Nuno and Conte were strange moves though you could see why. Poch took us from a team hoping of a top four finish every season to doing it consistently but it was looking more and more obvious that Pochettino himself had took us as far as he could given the restrictions so we went into the direction of hiring managers above Pochettino on the totem pole who have a track record of GETTING teams over the line.
Which was the first mistake made.
Winning domestic trophies is luck. We smashed Chelsea 5-3 in the league only to completely bottle it against them in the League Cup final a month and a half later. We battered Chelsea 2-0 at White Hart Lane only to lose 4-2 to them in the FA Cup Semi Final a few months later. We smashed Man Utd 2-0 at Wembley in the league only to go and bottle it 2-1 against them in the very same venue a month later in the FA Cup semi final... Whether that's a mental issue or not, I don't know but we've had more than enough opportunities over the last 10 years to bring a trophy home and we simply haven't. Despite watching the likes of Wigan and Swansea do so as well as under performing clubs like Man Utd and Woolwich win numerous.
We could have quite easily won things and played decent football under Pochettino with the squad we had and we didn't.
The BEST we can hope for over the next 12 months is getting in a manager who can coach this group of players on how to actually play football. Improve the squad more in line to what that manager needs and go from there. No more of this "Elite manager" bullshit. We don't need it because we don't act like an elite football club.
I agree on the elite manager aspect, you have back properly or don’t do it. The project manager situation is a problem, Ten Hag and Potter where there waiting and while yea Potter has had issues with the mess at Chelsea I think think long term he is a sure bet for success.
We are now left with going back to Poch or someone left field like Gallardo if we want attacking football with player development and that still leaves the board question. A board that truly backs long term this project and more than that lets them get on with it and not interfere. That is the issue.
Rangnick as DoF with a manager like Gallardo and yes I could get excited but then how to keep Levy miles away from the football side of the business.
There are plenty of managers out there who have an ideology we desire as a fanbase.
Sadly, I think Levy has moved on from making that sort of gamble now and he'll simply go with what he thinks should work in terms of a manager. Which is why I am quite worried he might try and go for Tuchel as our next managerial appointment. And whilst I do like Tuchel as a coach, he falls out with people everywhere he goes.
Be brave. Hire someone like Diego Martinez or Julien Stephan who both are good coaches that are young and promote great football. Even someone like Amorim at Sporting. I'd love De Zerbi from Brighton tbh and he's the one I really want out of any names mentioned. Brilliant football with supreme coaching methods.
Levy should just go into retirement and appoint someone like Barber to run the club.
As others have said elsewhere on the forum, we are no longer a football club, under ENIC we have become a tourist attraction.
Something to do when you are visiting London.
Something to do when you are visiting London.
I haven’t pushed my kids towards football or Tottenham… but they’ve both taken it up and support Spurs. I despair.
The club doesn’t really exist any more. There’s no collective Club of any meaning. The entity that has taken over the name of THFC is worth feeling a part of as much as a commercial cinema or bowling alley - and we’re treated like plastic and dispensable customers anyway - and I really don’t enjoy NWHL at all.
Football - as a culture and a meaningful part of life - is dead at a PL level. Assets that are now just the status symbols and playthings of various horrible forms of super rich international owners.
I’d love a phoenix club like FCUM. Terraces, fun, a community asset not a global economic one. Ain’t going to happen, sadly. So as fans we either stick with the monster of what Tottenham is or we take our money elsewhere, non league, low league etc… which I’m doing more and more of this season. But I still can’t shake off the bug, and I love being in and amongst other proper fans at an away day. So I’ll probably cling on for a bit, hoping, praying for things to change.
What a mug.
I wholeheartedly agree and sympathize. I'm not one to give up at the first sign of trouble, but the last few weeks have been really difficult to take. The players and coach look like they have given up, which makes it all a thousand times worse.
I just want the season to end, TBH.
I’d be happy to not be part of a “Big 6” discussion. I find it embarrassing when we are included given what we have achieved compared to the other 5.
I need to add that I am starting to resent the time taken up following the team at the moment. The cost is not an issue just yet, but in a year or two, it might. As I made the trip to Manchester a bit of a mini break (I went to the National Football Museum which was definitely worth a visit), it wasn't a complete waste of time. Not sure what delights Preston has to offer, so just doing the coach for that!
100% agree