Opinion of AVB in hindsight?

[double0]

Sorry bro, but 16th place and a leaky defense is not better to watch.

Sorry mate but we've only played 4 games...so too early to judge.

 

[Hazelton]

I wanted AVB at the time, and was genuinely pleased when he got the job, but I expected him to have learned from his time at Chelsea. Unfortunately, he was too stubborn to change and ultimately wasn't the right person to take over from Harry, who was the polar opposite. I think he could have done well at Tottenham, but maybe it came a little too early for him. I'm sure he thinks he should have stayed at Porto for a few years, in hindsight.

Pochettino is the best fit for us, and although he has been criticised for not being attacking enough, it's hard to play attacking football without a decent attack. I think we'll see more exciting football with Njie and Son in the team.

 

[WiganSpur]

I thought he did a terrific job in 12/13 under the circumstances, however he was partly to blame for some ill thought out acquisitions imo the following summer, I don't think he wanted players like Eriksen and Lamela either.

Still, we should have let him stay until the end of that season, could hardly have been worse than appointing Sherwood for half a season anyway.

 

[riggi]

West ham, three times, one season.

 

[Shadydan]

West ham, three times, one season.

AVB was in charge for one of those games.

 

[riggi]

AVB was in charge for one of those games.

One loss is enough.

 

[slartibartfast]

Was a useless cu#t who totally dismantled an exciting entertaining great footballing team in one season and turned it into the most stagnant boring god awful shit Ive ever had the misfortune to watch.
To have Bale in your team and still play boring football is some achievement.
And we're still recovering.
So no, my opinion hasn't changed.
Truly fkin mind bogglingly dumb appointment that was only ever gonna go one way.

 

[lukespurs7]

crap

 

[Lilbaz]

Have to blame levy for his appointment. You couldn't get a more different manager than harry. Southampton when losing poch got another manager who played in a similar style. it made it an easier transition.

 

[kmk]

He did a terrible job at Chelscum and alienated John Terry. So he wasn't all bad.

Seriously it says something when his caretaker replacement (Di Matteo) was able to win the Champions League with the same squad of players.

 

[Shadydan]

He did a terrible job at Chelscum and alienated John Terry. So he wasn't all bad.

Seriously it says something when his caretaker replacement (Di Matteo) was able to win the Champions League with the same squad of players.

I think they won the CL despite of Di Matteo TBH.

 

[Sevens]

We had a good squad in that season, where do you see any weaknesses?

1GKHeurelho Gomes
3MFGareth Bale
4DFYounès Kaboul
6MFTom Huddlestone
7MFAaron Lennon
8MFScott Parker
10FWEmmanuel Adebayor
11MFRafael van der Vaart
13DFWilliam Gallas
14MFLuka Modrić
15FWLouis Saha
17FWGiovani dos Santos
18FWJermain Defoe
20DFMichael Dawson
21MFNiko Kranjčar
23GKCarlo Cudicini
24GKBrad Friedel
25MFDanny Rose
26DFLedley King
28DFKyle Walker
29MFJake Livermore
30MFSandro
32DFBenoît Assou-Ekotto
33DFRyan Nelsen
36 DFBongani Khumalo
38MFDavid Bentley

This was of course after the transfer window but before we had Nelsen and Saha we had Pavlychenko and Pienaar. I've always said that if the squad was rotated properly then we would have finished stronger that season.

We did finish the season strongly. We only lost 2 of our last 10 games, and won 3 out of our last 4. Squad rotation was never an issue. Our first team players played less matches than the first team players of our rivals.

And in hindsight that awful run we had where we only won 2 of 9 games? We had to play Liverpool, City, Arsenal, Chelsea and Everton away from home and Man Utd (eventual champions) at home. As I said we were in a false position after Xmas, which set false expectations among our fan base. Our second half season fixtures were much tougher than the first 19.

And the squad was good and probably our best of the Premier League era. It was the 5th best in the league. Pienaar was injured for most of it (and didn't fit in with our system either) and don't get me started on Pavlyuchenko who I thought was dreadful. Saha was finished when we signed him but he was still an upgrade on the player who couldn't trap a bag of cement....

 

[Spurs Lodge Kittens]

Pochettinho >AVB. He is more flexible with his philosophy and introduction of youth player, also imo Poch football is better to watch.

Only just.

 

[double0]

Only just.

And that's without Bale too

 

[slartibartfast]

8) Redknapp and England wasn't a cause. It wouldn't have effected the players and Redknapp's court case would have been far more undermining and yet during the run up to that we played very well. The only possibility that England could have played a part is whether Redknapp intentionally switched to the dreaded 4-2-3-1 to demonstrate to the England bosses that he could be tactical and flexible. If that was the case then England certainly was a factor. Only Redknapp will know.

Thats exactly what I thought was happening at the time and still do.
Your the first person I've seen who had the same thought lol.
The minute his name was in the frame he suddenly started fkin about with formation and moving players about.
Was a mistake to sack him imo. Called cutting your nose off to spite your face. Still can't belive he finished 4th again and we rewarded that by sacking him. Illogical Captain.
Thing is players liked playing for him. They wanted to come to Spurs because of how we played.
Great time and was a joy to watch. A proud time to be a Spurs fan. Neutrals loved us.
As you say we'll never know the real reason and no point going over this shit again.
Think it'll take a takeover by a billionaire before I ever get to add another CL Pendant to my Spurs wall
Its history but was fkin awesome while it lasted.
Still hard to take that it was us who brought it to an end

 

[Lilbaz]

Thats exactly what I thought was happening at the time and still do.
Your the first person I've seen who had the same thought lol.
The minute his name was in the frame he suddenly started fkin about with formation and moving players about.
Was a mistake to sack him imo. Called cutting your nose off to spite your face. Still can't belive he finished 4th again and we rewarded that by sacking him. Illogical Captain.
Thing is players liked playing for him. They wanted to come to Spurs because of how we played.
Great time and was a joy to watch. A proud time to be a Spurs fan. Neutrals loved us.
As you say we'll never know the real reason and no point going over this shit again.
Think it'll take a takeover by a billionaire before I ever get to add another CL Pendant to my Spurs wall
Its history but was fkin awesome while it lasted.
Still hard to take that it was us who brought it to an end

Yep i was in the san siro and saw us win and saw us play in the bernabau. Gutted when he was sacked.

 

[slartibartfast]

Only just.

Agree.
Its so frustrating to see the same formation, the same line up, at home against Norwich and the like as when we're away to Man City.
I reckon we could play a U15 girls team and we still air on the side of caution lol.
But it is still better than AVB.
You have to have seen us live (said this before as well lol) to really understand how we went from a fluid slick machine to a stagnant static boring shower of shite. TV coverage just cannot pick up off the ball movement.
Its a little bit better now but only a little. We still invite pressure by farting about across the back 4, take far to long to go forward and as I said, play 2 in front of the back4 against rubbish at home.

 

[slartibartfast]

Apologies for getting totally off topic but I'm bored lol.

 

[WiganSpur]

I don't know how people can say he was crap?

Flawed? Yes. Stubborn? Yes. The wrong man in the end? Probably. But crap? No.

He inherited a poor squad that was lacking in both quality and depth. DL was up to his old tricks not backing him fully in the transfer market. I know some were unrealistic but to not get Moutinho was very disappointing. VDV, Modric and King were gone and only King was replaced adequately by Verts.

We had:

-Kyle Naughton and Vertonghen at left back
-If Lennon or Bale were out we had Sigurdsson and Dempsey as back up options and that was it. We had square pegs in round holes, Dempsey CAM, Sigurdsson LM, Holtby RM etc.
-Sandro got injured halfway through the season weakening the midfield even further.

We were in four competitions to test the squad even further, despite doing poorly in the domestic cups we did OK in the Europa, losing to a good Basel side only on penalties in the Qtr final.

As the same time with our paper thin squad we still managed to take the race for the top 4 to the last day, and ended up missing out by a single point.

Yes, we had Bale but people fail to understand that AVB developed him as a footballer, and was intelligent enough to make him central to our attacks. If he's your best player by a country mile then any manager with sense would say 'give it to Bale'.

He achieved a record points tally with good to average players, after we sold two world class players. The football was pretty boring, but we were well drilled and controlled the majority of games.

Now, 13/14 was a poor start for AVB and the wheels eventually came off, partly due to him being his own worst enemy and other factors such as poor recruitment. However, based on the 12/13 season, and the circumstances we were left in at the time, I completely disagree that he was a terrible manager.

He seemed a bit cold, stubborn, and didn't really give kids much opportunity, but he did far from a crap job in his first season with us.

 

[slartibartfast]

I don't know how people can say he was crap?

Flawed? Yes. Stubborn? Yes. The wrong man in the end? Probably. But crap? No.

He inherited a poor squad that was lacking in both quality and depth. DL was up to his old tricks not backing him fully in the transfer market. I know some were unrealistic but to not get Moutinho was very disappointing. VDV, Modric and King were gone and only King was replaced adequately by Verts.

We had:

-Kyle Naughton and Vertonghen at left back
-If Lennon or Bale were out we had Sigurdsson and Dempsey as back up options and that was it. We had square pegs in round holes, Dempsey CAM, Sigurdsson LM, Holtby RM etc.
-Sandro got injured halfway through the season weakening the midfield even further.

We were in four competitions to test the squad even further, despite doing poorly in the domestic cups we did OK in the Europa, losing to a good Basel side only on penalties in the Qtr final.

As the same time with our paper thin squad we still managed to take the race for the top 4 to the last day, and ended up missing out by a single point.

Yes, we had Bale but people fail to understand that AVB developed him as a footballer, and was intelligent enough to make him central to our attacks. If he's your best player by a country mile then any manager with sense would say 'give it to Bale'.

He achieved a record points tally with good to average players, after we sold two world class players. The football was pretty boring, but we were well drilled and controlled the majority of games.

Now, 13/14 was a poor start for AVB and the wheels eventually came off, partly due to him being his own worst enemy and other factors such as poor recruitment. However, based on the 12/13 season, and the circumstances we were left in at the time, I completely disagree that he was a terrible manager.

He seemed a bit cold, stubborn, and didn't really give kids much opportunity, but he did far from a crap job in his first season with us.

Take it you didn't go watch many live games while he was in charge.
If you did I'm amazed.