The Mauricio Pochettino thread

[SpursDave88]

What do you mean by proper ambition?

The club were looking at a number of players in the Summer, but Porch only interested in fraction of them. By showing proper ambition I assume you mean get the players in Porch wanted. Not sure how you can force Yanited to sell us Martial and Ajax said DeJong wasn't going either. Grealish was the only one we really fucked up on, and would that really be classed as showing proper ambition?
Like I said the list of players Porch wanted was short but it wasn't like they were all readily available. Personally I think DeJong could have been done if we over paid, but I doubt Martial was the same.

There was no one we could sign that would improve upon Sissoko, Dembele who looks shot and Wanyama who seems to be permanently crocked now?

 

[brendanb50]

I reckon we might be seeing a bit of Amos / Skipp before long. No other options.

Don't see why not if we're limited, especially in terms of fitness in how we like to play.

The form we've seen in the last two games is a symptom of the watford game, a game we should have seen out more comfortably. That result knocked confidence and a bit of momentum. Bringing in young players is a gamble but sometimes it's what the 11 needs - fresh. confident players with a big point to prove.

 

[Thewobbler]

“Sometimes I have crazy ideas in this type of situation. We need to take risks. We need to be brave.”

”We need to challenge big sides who invest. If we want to win the big trophies we need to review things. What we achieved is fantastic so far but we need to create different ideas.
I don’t know if the club will agree with me.”

“We need to feel that we are a special club. We need to create that - but we need to be on the same page. I know what we need to do but it is whether the chairman agrees with me.
It is so important to show we are ambitious, and our fans need to know what we are trying to do.”

“The Premier League will be tougher next year. The ambition is always about winning but it us not easy to find a way to win.

To try to improve is up to Daniel Levy.”

Seems to me that Poch is fed up with the philosophy and wanted to get established players in. Levy and Lewis are never going to pay the prices. Poch is angry.

He is right when he said there is no one he could bring in because who can you get for 25m these days.

 

[Trix]

There was no one we could sign that would improve upon Sissoko, Dembele who looks shot and Wanyama who seems to be permanently crocked now?

Of course there was. I'm not too he one who said no to Them though am I.

 

[mightyspur]

Very good. Seb Stafford-Bloor is a smart man that talks a great deal of sense.

The point about Townsend vs Lloris was very interesting. There's no doubt that we often hold Poch up as this great man, me included, but there's some clear weaknesses that should not be ignored as they may now be coming back to bite him a little bit.

My worry is that Poch doesn't seem the same this season as he was previously. I think he's coming off as irritable and defensive in a way he hasn't before. In a way it's good to see him being a bit more fiery but it also shows a lack of self-control, at the moment anyway, which I find a little unsettling.

I'm concered that he's simply not happy and whether that's temporary or because of a bigger reason I guess will become apparent if this whole poor run isn't turned around quickly.

As far as the summer goes, whilst most of Spurs twitter was gathering together a lynch mob for Levy, I was of the understanding that Poch had a major role to play in the lack of incomings but to my mind it's not good enough on all counts. There are literally thousands of footballers across the world that we could have picked from. To only have a small list of targets is both poor management, poor scouting and just poor preparation.

I don't see us being able to do anything significant in January but we should certainly be trying to. We don't need a lot, 1 or 2 players in key areas, e.g. central midfield, could make a massive impact.

I think the point about Townsend vs. Lloris is nonsense to be honest. Townsend had a strop with a fitness coach didn't he? Lloris drink driving thing was nothing to do with football. I am sure Poch would have expressed disappointment to Lloris about his off the field behaviour and if it happened again you might see some consequences.

 

[Ossie'sAardvark]

Of course there was. I'm not too he one who said no to Them though am I.

By OTT price for DeJong are you meaning extortionate, or the normal 10% -20% inflation as soon as interest is shown?
I ask b/c I'm wondering if that's what Mr P meant by his "being brave" quote.

 

[hakano]

We can keep on making excuses as to why we are struggling (fatigued, Hugo, stadium etc etc) but that for me is more reason to keep it simple and play a system the players know and understand.

Fact is we have players sat on contract offers and the longer this slump continues the lass likely they are to renew. This could cost us a whole lot more than just a few points if we aren't careful.

Without question we have to make signings in January, or risk losing a lot more than just champions League qualification.

Without question we had to make signing in the summer, and we didn't. We are always told that Jan is virtually impossible to buy decent players, and history has proven that to be the case. If we are serious about addressing the problem we should be out now lining up deals for January so that come the first few days of Jan they are with us already. What is likely to happen however is that we will wait for an opportunity to present itself and go sniffing in the last few days of the transfer window. That is our MO and I get that, we just have to accept with DL at the helm the last few seasons will be as good as it gets.

 

[rossdapep]

I find it confusing when Poch rejects certain signings.

He inherited Dier, Rose and a group of players who may not have been deemed good enough by other clubs. His biggest strength has always been making decent players brilliant players, so if we can't sign a Kovacic he should be accepting of others who may improve with his coaching.

 

[SpursDave88]

I find it confusing when Poch rejects certain signings.

He inherited Dier, Rose and a group of players who may not have been deemed good enough by other clubs. His biggest strength has always been making decent players brilliant players, so if we can't sign a Kovacic he should be accepting of others who may improve with his coaching.[/QUOTE

What's more strange is we have loads of players in the squad who aren't good enough. Selling one and buying another -worst case you are no worse off - best case you improve.

2 seasons ago Wanyama was our best CM - now he doesn't play.

 

[Thewobbler]

I find it confusing when Poch rejects certain signings.

He inherited Dier, Rose and a group of players who may not have been deemed good enough by other clubs. His biggest strength has always been making decent players brilliant players, so if we can't sign a Kovacic he should be accepting of others who may improve with his coaching.

He could have done but those would need time. He wanted established players who could push us forward this season and levy is not willing to pay the prices.

 

[Primativ]

I have very publicly stated the window was a failure and that Levy was in a large part to blame for that. That is why in the post of mine you quoted, I said "those fully blaming Levy for the window". The lack of alternatives on the list, and being happy to stick with what we had instead of looking at others is on Poch. Don't get me wrong I back Poch on that front, but to not be prepared for that to happen, and seemingly not knowing now the best way to utilise a group he's had for pretty much his entire tenure is rrmarkable. Imo of course.

Trix with all respect, Poch isn't a miracle worker. Yes he is certainly culpable for the last three defeats as manager, he's made huge errors. But, I was banging the drum continuously in the summer. OUR CM IS TOO WEAK!! Dembele is past it. Winks is not good enough, completely unproven as a top PL player. Wanyama is injured and Dier is just a bang average player who is the most upgradeable in our squad. It is clear as day what our problem is at the minute, we have a slow weak lethargic midfield.

Last season I went to every home game, and in my humble opinion, Dier was already starting to show massive signs of being in regression. I just couldn't see it with him anymore, and he carried on that pitiful form with England in the world cup. Dembele was over the hill already. The problems were there back then and yet we completely failed to address this in the summer. Poch seems to have this infactuation with Winks. Comparing him to Xavi and Iniesta. It is laughable. If Poch can't see Winks contributes practically nothing when he plays I can't help him. The kid is just too weak and passive.

It's a mess from all at the club. They've taken their eye too much off the football side because of the stadium. Last summer the cub should have spent big on CM reinforcements. Surely everyone on the coaching side could see our weaknesses? It looks to me like there are some at the club who are not motivated at all at the moment, Dembele and Dier do not seem to be putting in 100% for sure or are unable to.

There is a critical lack of confidence, I'm not sure why we look so mentally fragile.

The lack of spending, whoever is to blame, probably a bit of Poch and also the board, it is a monumental fuck up and will have huge ramifications for our season.

It is just compounded by the fact that Liverpool have done everything we should have been doing, they've shown ambition, backed their manager, and are now winning every game, flying, beating PSG in injury time whilst we lose in injury time, and they just beat us on our own patch.

It was so so arrogant from some on here, when we moaned about our lack of signings, and pointed at Liverpool as the way to do it. Some on here actually said we didn't need to strengthen. Unbelievable. Of course we did, we fell short massively.

On top of this, I feel we've been mugged off with the season tickets this season, paying sky high prices in May, only to see the club fail to sign a single player and then delay the new stadium opening until we are half way through the season. Absolute shambles all round.

 

[rossdapep]

Yeah I agree with your first point. Binning off GKN and bringing in (David Neres, for example) wouldn't make us weaker, we'd either strengthen or maintain. The problem is when you take punts on general unknowns, then you can't get rid. I thought the club had surpassed that stage of buying unknowns and we could raise the bar slightly. Plenty of players we could sign that wouldn't lose too much value if it didn't work out. The GKNs and N'Jie's maybe cheap but they are huge risks because if they don't work out it can hinder you.

Considering the injuries Wanyama has had I can see Poch's reluctance, it may not be a good time to throw him in unless he's properly tested first.

 

[Shadydan]

Seems to me that people are resorting to their default mindset of blaming Levy for the transfer window when the truth is staring them in the face that Poch is the one who fucked up the window.

 

[ljinko888]

Maybe this team has just hit its peak.

Maybe that's why (per rumours) Toby, Rose and Dembele were up for sale.

Are this group going to give it their all and play high intensity when it's not yielded anything for three years. All while glancing over to a club like Liverpool who have shown real ambition to go the next level. And a former team mate who is having the time of his life at City.

The team is not young anymore. Maybe that is why we needed to invest more than anything. To get some new blood in that can get everyone excited.

 

[TheVoiceofReason]

Personally I don’t understand the ‘Dembele is over the hill stuff’. Dembele plays now how he has always played. He is very very easy on the eye, but he has never offered anything more than his very niche style. Makes me cringe when I hear pundits describe him as ‘the most underrated midfielder in the league’. To me he is the opposite. Our players and managers describe him as the best they have ever worked with, and I can totally beleive that he is fantastic in technical training excercises, but when it all boils down to it, he has accomplished relatively little in his career for a reason.

 

[E17yid]

Seems to me that people are resorting to their default mindset of blaming Levy for the transfer window when the truth is staring them in the face that Poch is the one who fucked up the window.

They both fucked up and should share the blame.

 

[Primativ]

Oh o agree. Just pointing out to those saying this is ALL Levy's fault that it isn't. If you are turning away players or refusing to identify others then it's because you think what you have is better than what you can bring in, but it ATM doesn't look like he knows what to do with what we have.
It's almost as if he's using these games like pre season friendlies that he can experiment with.

Can you blame Poch for that when the alternatives Levy comes up with are the likes of N'Jie and N'Koudou. The fact of the matter is Levy does not back his managers properly in the market and never has. There are players out there to improve us but Levy refuses to pay the market rate for them. You call it "over the odds", to the market it is just the market rate and showing ambition. As I said, we have reached the limit of our ambition under Levy. He refuses to spend big to take us to the next level. It is all well and good doing it organically, but by the time the stadium has us in a position to spend more money in the market, (if it ever does that by the way, it probably will not quite be the game changer some fans think, because our rivals won't stand still either), Kane will be in retirement.

Our time to win a title with this group of players was now. Levy has completely fucked it, I do genuinely feel he has got a bit cocky/ arrogant with the overperformance of the squad and Poch the last few seasons and he has thought, this is great, I don't need to pay CL money on players but I am getting CL anyway. Now the lack of investment in the squad the last few seasons is biting Levy and us on the arse. I can only conclude it was sheer arrogance from the club to not sign a single player this summer.

Poch wanted and needed top class players, but they cost 65 - 75 million minimum. Van Dijk, Keita, etc

Spurs are only ever interested if the player can be got relatively cheap, otherwise we don't deal and sorry but that just isn't the way to win trophies. One league cup in 20 years of ENIC says it all.

 

[Primativ]

Personally I don’t understand the ‘Dembele is over the hill stuff’. Dembele plays now how he has always played. He is very very easy on the eye, but he has never offered anything more than his very niche style. Makes me cringe when I hear pundits describe him as ‘the most underrated midfielder in the league’. To me he is the opposite. Our players and managers describe him as the best they have ever worked with, and I can totally beleive that he is fantastic in technical training excercises, but when it all boils down to it, he has accomplished relatively little in his career for a reason.

It is quite easy to understand. He is physically finished, passed his peak. He can't put in the extra 10% - 20% needed at this level consistently over 90 minutes to be as effective. This tiredness then impacts on his concentration and technical ability, he has given the ball away so much the last few games too. Seriously, just watch him the last 18 months compared to the seasons before that, why is that difficult to see?

 

[John48]

I agree with those who say Poch wanted quality to add into the squad & made it clear at the end of last season that was what he expected & he talked about being brave, which to me meant we needed to spend whatever it took to get the quality players because the rewards would be great. We weren't brave & we are paying the price.

 

[ardiles&villa]

He’s off next season. You heard it here first.