AVB Interview

[barry]

AVB can fuck off. With the "shite" Levy got him he still could of had a stab at playing good, attractive football, What he actually did was make us play the most dire form of possession football known to man, that wasn't even really successful, and culminated in hammerings the likes of which I couldn't fathom. The audacity of this **** is galling.

 

[Mullers]

Ok. And that's all down to Levy is it?

Who's to say Chelsea wouldn't have hijacked a deal if we went for him in Jan?

Yes. He is the man in control doing the deal.
I don't know if Chelsea would have hijacked a deal in January maybe they were not interested at the time.
I tend to think they got Willian just to stop us getting him.

 

[mpickard2087]

Not completely picky we nearly got Oscar and Willian (and Mata & Courtois) until the Chels came in.

I know he hasn't mentioned Hulk and others that were unrealistic but if I'd ended up with the likes of Dempsey, Sig and Dembele replacing Mod and VDV I'd be properly fucked off. Actually I was properly fucked off when it happened.

I think his big failure was in personality and people management whether it be the players, staff, board, fans or media.

Curiously, are we to believe that AVB wasn't told about what he could realistically expect in terms of signings and budgets etc when we took him on? Either he was told a load of bollocks or he was told the truth but chose to ignore it, or it wasn't communicated very clearly to him by the board.

Which do you reckon is closest to the truth? Genuine question because I honestly don't know.

I don't think its a bad thing to sell the club as one that has big ambitions. What are you meant to say? Yeah Mr Prospective Manager, we are just looking to finish 6th every year. Top Four? Don't be silly, never achievable! In any case, a manager should know the situation at our club and what he is walking into. We are trying to bridge the financial gap by tactical nous, squad management and getting 100% from the resources we have, rather than spend enormous sums of money.

I'd imagine there were assurances that money was available and we'd look to be ambitious. I don't believe that certain players were promised, especially knowing who was on the list. Don't forget we managed to get Vertonghen + Lloris who would be wanted by most clubs in Europe, so it wasn't all bad. I think a lot of it simply comes down to AVB believed that 'trying to be more competitive' equalled spending a lot more money and that's what was going to happen, even if it was a completely misguided belief.

 

[Gaz_Gammon]

Who gives a fuck, same old shit, different day and always will be while ENIC control the Club.

 

[JamieSpursCommunityUser]

Most of AVB's names we tried for and were beyond our reach - but the one calamity that started our decline was Moutinho.

Levy thinking he could sell Modric for £32m, then drag his feet on paying £25m for Moutinho.

Before ending up with Dempsey on the cheap and "re-inventing" Dembele into a role he wasn't suited - catastrophic arrogance.

The reason Madrid paid £32m for Modric wasn't because they were thick, it's because that is what a top class playmaker costs.

We've been in decline ever since.

 

[tiger666]

Yes. He is the man in control doing the deal.
I don't know if Chelsea would have hijacked a deal in January maybe they were not interested at the time.
I tend to think they got Willian just to stop us getting him.

Well since you're so fond of linking random articles to back up your point, Willian was linked to Chelsea before.

http://www.sport.co.uk/football/chelsea-will-sign-willian-this-january/3665888/

 

[robbiedee]

Didn't Mourinho come and criticise Levy for the way he handled the Willian deal and thats why the Chavs managed to get their grubby hands on him.

I remember us being a bit of a laughing stock?

A bit??? Those ****s even have a song about it...and still sing it.
(to the tune of Tom Hark)

The shit from Spurs, they bought his flight
But Willian he saw the light
He got the call from Abramovich
And off he went to Stamford Bridge
He hates Tottenham, He hates Tottenham
He Hates Tottenham and He Hates Tottenham

Chav wankers!

Jose also poked fun at us over this...something about when you make things public in the news then everyone can know about it blah blah blah...

 

[TaoistMonkey]

AVB can fuck off. With the "shite" Levy got him he still could of had a stab at playing good, attractive football, What he actually did was make us play the most dire form of possession football known to man, that wasn't even really successful, and culminated in hammerings the likes of which I couldn't fathom. The audacity of this **** is galling.

haha. And now he's not been with us for ages how have we progressed?

 

[Mullers]

Well since you're so fond of linking random articles to back up your point, Willian was linked to Chelsea before.

http://www.sport.co.uk/football/chelsea-will-sign-willian-this-january/3665888/

My one is a more reputable source but point taken.
We'll never know if Chelsea would have attempted to hijack the deal in January.

 

[Chris12]

AVB can fuck off. With the "shite" Levy got him he still could of had a stab at playing good, attractive football, What he actually did was make us play the most dire form of possession football known to man, that wasn't even really successful, and culminated in hammerings the likes of which I couldn't fathom. The audacity of this **** is galling.

Didn't we only get hammered twice? Once against Man City 6-0 and quite a few individual errors and the other 5-0 Liverpool where we were only 2-0 down until red card?

 

[barry]

haha. And now he's not been with us for ages how have we progressed?

We gave AVB a year and half for what. Terrible football, and terrible results. I really don't understand your love for the man. What did you see that made you believe he was the one?

 

[tiger666]

My one is a more reputable source but point taken.
We'll never know if Chelsea would have attempted to hijack the deal in January.

Ok heres a guardian one from 2012

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2012/oct/24/willian-chelsea-shakhtar-donetsk

 

[Chris12]

As I understand it we alerted Chelsea by announcing he was doing a medical, so that should have been kept quiet. The Guardian also reports we tried to get him in the January transfer window,
http://www.theguardian.com/football/2013/aug/23/tottenham-chelsea-willian

Well if they were alerted by the owner of the other club or the agent, as I think has been suggested, not much can do about that.

 

[barry]

Didn't we only get hammered twice? Once against Man City 6-0 and quite a few individual errors and the other 5-0 Liverpool where we were only 2-0 down until red card?

To me losing 3-0 to the Hammers at home is almost the worst of the lot. That was embarassing

 

[Dirty Ewok]

As I understand it we alerted Chelsea by announcing he was doing a medical, so that should have been kept quiet. The Guardian also reports we tried to get him in the January transfer window,
http://www.theguardian.com/football/2013/aug/23/tottenham-chelsea-willian

It was probably a bit more than Roman picking up the paper and seeing we had Willian at the grounds for a physical....

Kerimov was happily flogging all his Anzhi players around to whomever would listen at that point and Kerimov and Roman are supposedly friends....so a quick phone call would have been all it took for Roman/CFC to be aware Willian was likely moving...

Willian had been sited in London in the previous days....

And of course at the time (may still be as well) Willian's agent was everyone's favourite Kia Joorabchian....who i have no doubt was trying to drum up business up to the last second with anyone who would listen....

Levy certainly holds blame in a great number of things but on this one seems like we just simply got beaten on a transfer by CFC...

 

[TaoistMonkey]

We gave AVB a year and half for what. Terrible football, and terrible results. I really don't understand your love for the man. What did you see that made you believe he was the one?

Eh? People are saying now that this is the worst football they've seen in years. AVB didn't really have terrible results he had a patch of significant loses.

I know people didn't like his style but it would have got better. He had the defence fine tuned before injuries hit.

Anyway. Hindsight.

 

[mpickard2087]

If the wants truly were delusional, then why did he get the job? I refuse to believe targets aren't the kind of thing you discuss beforehand.

It's the consistent story with Levy. It's why Redknapp didn't get Cahill or a striker in 2011. It's why AVB didn't get Moutinho. It's why Pochettino didn't get Schneiderlin or Musacchio. It's always someone else's fault.

Hell, you heard the Paulinho interview. "I'm excited to play alongside Bale". Levy lies for a living, I don't find it hard to believe at all that he told Andre he'd be getting players before performing another heel face turn.

I just answered what I imagine is the case. I agree that appointing him is a stain on Levy's record.

When didn't Redknapp get a striker? As for Cahill, he turned us down. Heck, he nearly turned Chelsea of all clubs down until they gave him the wages he wanted, he strung them out for a couple of weeks.

Moutinho I agree should have been brought in instead of Dembele, but everything I saw said was that the player himself wasn't overly keen and had to be heavily persuaded.

You know why we didn't get Schneiderlin or Musacchio. Southampton wouldn't sell to us and don't need the money after Liverpool handed over a blank cheque, even when the player went on strike. Musacchio was tied up in 3rd party and court cases, and they wanted a stupid price for a player who isn't actually even that great a player.

And who says that Paulinho didn't just come out with that as a spur of the moment comment? Likely being Bale was the only good Spurs player he was aware of...

There's plenty of things that have gone wrong with our transfer and scouting system and identification of players in recent years. And I think Levy has been slow and below-average in building up some of the footballing operations that would stand the club in much better stead than us constantly fixating on transfers. Some of this transfer related stuff though that is used to bash him I think is a load of baloney though.

 

[JamieSpursCommunityUser]

in my opinion, AVB made three idiotic decisions.

1 - he allowed van der Vaart to leave. yes, we got good money, but had AVB categorically said he wanted him, he'd have stayed.
2 - he let BAE go on loan WITHOUT signing a replacement. as soon as Rose got injured, we were left with Naughton at LB.
3 - he ostracised our highest earner Adebayor when we couldn't score a goal for love nor money.

i think it was the last decision that really ended things. i think Levy wanted him to involve Adebayor with the first team more and AVB refused. because of that disagreement, it was agreed we should part company.

had AVB been a little bit more conciliatory and involved Adebayor, he'd still be in charge now. i am convinced of it. plus, had Eriksen not been injured for most of the time he was with us under AVB, i'm sure we'd have got better results.

Suspect AVB understood he was getting Moutinho for VDV - they happened on the same day, but VDV had to be sold 5 hours earlier to meet the German deadline. He had to take a leap of faith and Levy dropped the ball.

100% agree on BAE, bad call.

On Adebayor, I think there are few managers who would put up with his antics.

Wenger, Hughes, Mancini, AVB, and Pochettino have all fallen out with him.

Would Fergusson have been conciliatory with him? Would Mourinho?

 

[E17yid]

I just answered what I imagine is the case. I agree that appointing him is a stain on Levy's record.

When didn't Redknapp get a striker? As for Cahill, he turned us down. Heck, he nearly turned Chelsea of all clubs down until they gave him the wages he wanted, he strung them out for a couple of weeks.

Moutinho I agree should have been brought in instead of Dembele, but everything I saw said was that the player himself wasn't overly keen and had to be heavily persuaded.

You know why we didn't get Schneiderlin or Musacchio. Southampton wouldn't sell to us and don't need the money after Liverpool handed over a blank cheque, even when the player went on strike. Musacchio was tied up in 3rd party and court cases, and they wanted a stupid price for a player who isn't actually even that great a player.

And who says that Paulinho didn't just come out with that as a spur of the moment comment? Likely being Bale was the only good Spurs player he was aware of...

There's plenty of things that have gone wrong with our transfer and scouting system and identification of players in recent years. And I think Levy has been slow and below-average in building up some of the footballing operations that would stand the club in much better stead than us constantly fixating on transfers. Some of this transfer related stuff though that is used to bash him I think is a load of baloney though.

All the papers and ITK suggested the Saints would have sold Morgan to us, if the price was right. The price was high because we played the waiting game and by the time we made our interest serious they had sold half their team to LFC so of course it was going to be high, which brings us to the question, why didn't we get in there early if it was Poch's top target?

Moutinho was banging on about how much he wanted to work for AVB again, wasn't he? That's what I remember, that one was defo doable

 

[Mullers]

Ok heres a guardian one from 2012

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2012/oct/24/willian-chelsea-shakhtar-donetsk

My point about not knowing whether they would hijack the deal in January and them getting him to stop us still stands.
They had ample amount of time to pull the trigger and never did until the last moment.