Aspirations?-Champions League & Club Direction (& a rant?)

[SpursDave88]

Good post, and despite the protestations against the length of the article I really enjoyed reading a balanced view point.

I have long held the view that the essence of most teams in the modern PL has been lost, and although is banded that the EPL is the most marketable product in world football one if its USP's is slowly eroding as it looses it soul.

As much as people hate Liverpool on here, them winning the PL is the best thing for Football as they have not purchased the title and will have done so based on good coaching, fire in the belly and pace in the areas of the pitch that count.

I think back to the great teams I used to watch growing up in the late 80s and 90s (when I 1st fell in love with football after Mexico 86 as a 9 year old) and they all held similar constructs! Great but eccentric Goalkeeper, Older experienced centre half, fast fullbacks, young tricky wingers, hard man in midfield with a creative schemer and out and out goal scoring partnership. For the great Milan team read Baresi, Costacurta, Albertini, Van Basten, for Ajax, they had Blind, DeBoer, Seedorf, Davids, Kluivert etc.

My point is these perfectly balanced teams worked to a formula that seems to be forgotten nowadays with clubs just stockpiling players and coaches picking reams of functional players (like AVB filled our team with). To have an essence at a team, you need a mix that gets the balance I describe, home grown players who know what the club means (2-3 at least) every great team has had that! and only 3-4 foreign top draw players that have grit and determination, most of our signings over the past two to four years have been technically great but do not give a sh@t! I am pretty certain the game has not changed so much that if you do not fight as a team you get steam rolled and quite frankly Sherwood is 100% spot on when he remarked that we are too nice, and not gritty!

In short, I want us to hire a coach that has an ethos to play attractive football, use the players coming through if they are good enough (Kane, Townsend, Carrol and Livermore all seem good enough given time to develop and will run through brick walls for the team), buy up the young talent from the UK and only introduce 1-2 non PL experienced players a season.

As for who could we entrust the next 5 years with (and it will need that) DeBoer has been successful at Ajax as he gets Ajax! As much as I would like him at Spurs, we do just not know if it is transferrable! I would like a Spurs man with pedigree and that limits us to Hoddle or Klinnsman. I am convinced that is the only way to return to the ethos of what Tottenham is.

I do not want a "Spurs" man, I want a good manager...please stop using someone who knows the club as a desirable characteristic, because unless they are Bill Nic or Dave Mackay, they don't really know anything about winning.

 

[Scottish Spur]

What's all that about ?!?!

For a start, I've got newpaper clippings of Tottenham described as the 'Real Madrid of British football' and their nickname as the 'Millionarios' due to our wealth and attraction. Lets not start this idea that we've always been run of the mill because we damn well have not. Jesus, Gazza himself turned Manchester United down for us in the late 80s.

We're a sleeping giant that has been woefully mismanaged for touching 25 years. If somebody actually manages this club properly then we can achieve anything.

Like it or not, CL football is hard to attain. Incredibly tough. We play in a league where City and Chelsea can do as they please, sign players well beyond their historical standing in the game and nobody does a damn thing about it. Manchester United are one of the richest footballing institutions in the world. Arsenal aren't far behind now. Liverpool have the largest footballing pedigree of all and have woken up. Everton are like ourselves, rich history and always there or thereabouts. Essentially, every year there are likely to be at least 5, maybe more fighting for only 4 places. You can't always win. You certainly aren't going to win when you sell star players and sack managers mid season.

I never liked Redknapp. Hated the bloke. However, it's impossible not to recognise that his was the most stable period the club has seen in years. What were the results ? We finished 4th twice in 4 years, could and perhaps should have legitimately challenged for the league title as well. Stability helps sort out the 4 from those 6 clubs. Liverpool are stable now and likely title winners. United are a mess and have dropped to 7th. Martinez's seamless transition at Everton sees them above us. Arsenal as stable as ever and again above us. City will always be higher simply because of the level of quality they have. Chelsea are probably the mentally strongest of all and aren't going anywhere whilst Terry and co are still knocking about. So we have to be realistic. We need stability. Get that, retain good players and we'll thrive once more.

 

[Trebmint2013]

There's a lot of negativity on here, but I really don't think the situation is as bad as people make out. We're not that far off top 4 and but for a couple of stupid results at home we'd still be in that race.

I think the main issue people that makes people sad is the way we've played, and with the right manager that can be fixed. AvB made a mistake trying to turn us from a fast counter attacking side into a side that has possession and presses a high line. Sherwood doesn't have a tactical clue imho. This is an easy fix and there's more than one manager out there capable of doing this.

There is no doubt we have some dross at our club... Rose, Naughton, Lennon, Dawson etc. Weird really that we loaned out Bennie cos he's a better defender and crosser of the ball than any of those. Personally I think AvBs man management is still part of the cloud that still hangs like gloom over WHL

I also refuse to believe that Lamela won't settle and show at least some of class he clearly has. And if we dump this high line obsession with possession stuff I think we'll see a lot more from Soldado too.

Basically next season we can't play worse even if we have no squad upgrade, we will get more points. Couple that with no europe and less injuries, a more settled side and a manager that has a clue we will sit at this stage with quite a few more points... and that means we'll be in with a shout at CL

 

[LB Hotspurs]

Would it be a fair point to say that we could all get behind the manager - whoever it will be - and support the team better - if the club/Levy came out and said what direction they are taking the club in? What are the real aspirations they are working to

If we knew the realistic targets for the club, it would mange the fans level of expectations. We could then all buy in to that and be more patient if we, as fans can see that we are moving in the right direction.

Are we hoping to have CL football prior to moving in to the new stadium or having a team ready to challenge for CL football at that point?

 

[SpursDave88]

Would it be a fair point to say that we could all get behind the manager - whoever it will be - and support the team better - if the club/Levy came out and said what direction they are taking the club in? What are the real aspirations they are working to

If we knew the realistic targets for the club, it would mange the fans level of expectations. We could then all buy in to that and be more patient if we, as fans can see that we are moving in the right direction.

Are we hoping to have CL football prior to moving in to the new stadium or having a team ready to challenge for CL football at that point?

Having a big stadium is neither necessary nor sufficient for a successful team...the sooner people realise this the quicker this, "wait til we get into the new stadium" red herring can be dispensed with.

 

[Donki]

Would it be a fair point to say that we could all get behind the manager - whoever it will be - and support the team better - if the club/Levy came out and said what direction they are taking the club in? What are the real aspirations they are working to

If we knew the realistic targets for the club, it would mange the fans level of expectations. We could then all buy in to that and be more patient if we, as fans can see that we are moving in the right direction.

Are we hoping to have CL football prior to moving in to the new stadium or having a team ready to challenge for CL football at that point?

I could see the posts on here if Levy came out and said "hey you guys were aiming for 12th-8th for the next few seasons, you know till we get the stadium built " ...... "Its cool though I told you what I am aiming for and if we meet that target were all good "......"thanks for listening, oh and by the way season tickets are on sale right now, 5% rise, you know for the stadium ".

We would be happy with that if the relitive success and excitement we had back since BMJ took us a notch higher than that, we and I say we cause we all do, want to be competing at the top.

What Levy needs to do is get the right man in, keep his nose on the finances, back the new man and do nothing else for 3-4 years. If the new man is happy with Baldini so be it, if not give the new man full control.

 

[Donki]

Having a big stadium is neither necessary nor sufficient for a successful team...the sooner people realise this the quicker this, "wait til we get into the new stadium" red herring can be dispensed with.

In order to compete at the top and keep our big players and sign top talant we need to be able to increase our wage structure, a new stadium allows us to do that. Keeping our top talant and having top players should increae our chances of success. Unfortunatley money does equate to a better chance of success.

 

[SteveH]

I could see the posts on here if Levy came out and said "hey you guys were aiming for 12th-8th for the next few seasons, you know till we get the stadium built " ...... "Its cool though I told you what I am aiming for and if we meet that target were all good "......"thanks for listening, oh and by the way season tickets are on sale right now, 5% rise, you know for the stadium ".

We would be happy with that if the relitive success and excitement we had back since BMJ took us a notch higher than that, we and I say we cause we all do, want to be competing at the top.

What Levy needs to do is get the right man in, keep his nose on the finances, back the new man and do nothing else for 3-4 years. Ifs the new man is happy with Baldini so be it, if not give the new man full control.

Now there is the rub.

I could no more pick the 'right man', within our reach, than grow a third willy! Its a well-nigh impossible task, they are all a bunch of overpaid charlatans.

 

[Donki]

Now there is the rub.

I could no more pick the 'right man', within our reach, than grow a third willy! Its a well-nigh impossible task, they are all a bunch of overpaid charlatans.

Agreed, but I think with any manager you need to look at his track record, someone who has one stuff in various leagues with various teams must have something going for them. Look for references and talk to other contacts in the game, nothing is garanteed. Any manager could come in and flop, it can be seraiouly argued that our best managers over the last 10 years have been accidental appointments.

Unpopular I know but, would a manager with EPL experience be better? Dispite how unpopular it maybe?

Oh and you have 2 willies? Lucky bastard .

 

[SteveH]

Agreed, but I think with any manager you need to look at his track record, someone who has one stuff in various leagues with various teams must have something going for them. Look for references and talk to other contacts in the game, nothing is garanteed. Any manager could come in and flop, it can be seraiouly argued that our best managers over the last 10 years have been accidental appointments.

Unpopular I know but, would a manager with EPL experience be better? Dispite how unpopular it maybe?

Oh and you have 2 willies? Lucky bastard .

Yes it has proved advantageous......

 

[lukadownthelane]

What's all that about ?!?!

We need stability. Get that, retain good players and we'll thrive once more.

If we could retain our best players that would be a start! I doubt under the current owners that will happen though!