Pochettino wins pre-season guarantees from Daniel Levy

[thinktank]

By Matt Law

11:13AM GMT 27 Mar 2015

Mauricio Pochettino agreed to post-season games in Malaysia and Australia after getting a guarantee from Tottenham Hotspur chairman Daniel Levy that he will be given complete control of the rest of the club’s summer plans.

Levy has promised head coach Pochettino that his Spurs squad will not be forced to make any more promotional journeys after returning from Australia.

Pochettino did not want his summer of work disrupted by a long-haul pre-season tour, which prompted the agreement with Levy for the squad to make any big journeys before the end of May.

Tottenham have agreed to play the Malaysia national team at the Shah Alam Stadium on May 27 before flying on to Australia to face Sydney FC three days later.

The Spurs players will be released for their summer break after the match in Australia and Pochettino’s plan is for his players to largely remain in England for pre-season.

Any friendlies against European opposition will be scheduled so that Tottenham can fly in and out for the matches, rather than spend long periods of time away.

Pochettino believes he will be given the best chance of preparing his players for another busy season by not exposing them to long-distance travel weeks before the Premier League campaign kicks off.

Over 50,000 tickets have already been sold for Tottenham’s match in Sydney and the club are committed to taking their best possible squad on their post-season trip, including striker Harry Kane.

Pochettino has already claimed he will be more vocal about Tottenham’s schedule and fixture congestion if they qualify for the Europa League next season.

Spurs only had one full training session between the Europa League tie at Fiorentina and the Capital One Cup final. Tottenham lost the latter to Chelsea, who had a full week to prepare for the match at Wembley.

“Maybe I’d have one clean week to prepare for the game, not only one day,” said Pochettino. “This is maybe what I need to improve – to shout more during pre-season to change the schedule.

“It was difficult because after Florence there was only one full day to prepare for the final, but this was the schedule from the beginning and we needed to accept it.”

Kane’s involvement in Tottenham’s trip to Malaysia and Australia has raised further question marks over his proposed participation in the European Under-21 Championships.

But England manager Roy Hodgson has backed Pochettino’s idea to take his players away at the end of the season, rather in the summer.

“I would be surprised if Tottenham aren’t taking Harry on their so-called problematic tour,” said Hodgson, who spoke with Pochettino about Kane and Spurs’ plans on Thursday.

“The thing about these tours, which are commercial tours to satisfy contracts made with big sponsors, is they want the big name players to be there and he is a big name player.

“I think, speaking to Mauricio, they are very wise to go for a week at the end of the season when it's quite relaxed and you don't have to really work your players hard. If that means you don't have to go flying around at the start of the season in pre-season, that seems to be a very wise move. The FA are perfectly comfortable with that.”

Tottenham have announced a profit of £65.3million for the year ending June 30, with record £180.5m revenue.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/fo...s-pre-season-guarantees-from-Daniel-Levy.html

 

[JerryGarcia]

I hope the summer plans include transfer strategy!

 

[muppetman]

Great news, we do enough travel for the Europa without trekking round the globe in the off season.

 

[thinktank]

I hope the summer plans include transfer strategy!

From OS:

Chairman, Daniel Levy, said: "This financial period saw major changes to the squad. The appointment of Mauricio and his coaching staff in June 2014 has resulted in a coherent determination from top to bottom of the footballing side of the Club to ensure our sporting philosophy is adhered to - that is to have a balance of experienced and home grown players, playing attacking, entertaining football our fans love to watch. This strategy will continue as we embark on the summer transfer window.

http://www.tottenhamhotspur.com/news/financial-results-270315/

 

[mill]

From OS:



http://www.tottenhamhotspur.com/news/financial-results-270315/

Talk is cheap

 

[only1waddle]

From OS:



http://www.tottenhamhotspur.com/news/financial-results-270315/

"Entertaining football our fans love to watch"

@Bus-Conductor just combusted internally..

 

[chinaman]

For me the most entertaining football is winning football.

 

[punky]

Makes a lot of sense to have the money spining games at the end of the season and keep preseason for fitness.

If we hit the ground running, I do wonder if other clubs will follow suit. We could be pioneers.

 

[Borks]

Best chairman in the league.

 

[npearl4spurs]

With the whole summer at the training center with no disruptions, I demand us to walk out of August with maximum points and a +15 goal differential.

Nothing less.

 

[Geyzer Soze]

Great news, we do enough travel for the Europa without trekking round the globe in the off season.

We're going to Australia & Malaysia. You don't get much more globe trotting than that!

 

[Bus-Conductor]

"Entertaining football our fans love to watch"

@Bus-Conductor just combusted internally..

I find it really worrying that our chairman is publicly spouting this jingoistic infantile "Spurs Way" bollocks.

 

[only1waddle]

I find it really worrying that our chairman is publicly spouting this jingoistic infantile "Spurs Way" bollocks.

I hope it's just keep the fans happy PR bollocks, what does please me is the part about making sure every level of the club are on the same page, looks like Levy might finally "get it".

 

[Bus-Conductor]

I hope it's just keep the fans happy PR bollocks, what does please me is the part about making sure every level of the club are on the same page, looks like Levy might finally "get it".

I'm not so sure it is. We've also heard Pochettino spouting the same party line in the last couple of weeks. I like a lot of what Levy does, but if this mantra is coming from him he needs to wind himself in and choose his words more intelligently, it makes a rod for any managers back if they feel they are obliged to provide a chimpanzee's fucking tea party every week.

 

[thinktank]

Nothing wrong with what Levy said. Total overreaction going on.

 

[Bus-Conductor]

Nothing wrong with what Levy said. Total overreaction going on.

I disagree. I liked the first bit about having a top to bottom philosophy, great, but the silly shit about playing entertaining football is just fucking Spursy nonsense. Like we've spent the last 20 years entertaining. I want a Spurs team who's goal is to win not entertain.

 

[thinktank]

I disagree. I liked the first bit about having a top to bottom philosophy, great, but the silly shit about playing entertaining football is just fucking Spursy nonsense. Like we've spent the last 20 years entertaining. I want a Spurs team who's goal is to win not entertain.

If you don't know by now that the vast majority of the fanbase would rather have intense, quick-paced, attacking football here than football to snooze by (even if the latter brought 1-0 victories by the pound), then I dunno what to tell ya.

Levy is telling people what they want to hear.

Poch will continue to grow what he grew at southampton.

Stop with the drama, dude.

The future is bright.

 

[Dinghy]

I disagree. I liked the first bit about having a top to bottom philosophy, great, but the silly shit about playing entertaining football is just fucking Spursy nonsense. Like we've spent the last 20 years entertaining. I want a Spurs team who's goal is to win not entertain.

Doesn't matter how many times you (and others) say it but the majority disagree. Including a certain notable character...
"It would be better to have more fans watching football the way they like it played, rather than have a few fans watching football the way we would like it played."
"It's no use just winning, we've got to win well."
"It is better to fail aiming high than to succeed aiming low. And we of Spurs have set our sights very high, so high in fact that even failure will have in it an echo of glory."

 

[mill]

I disagree. I liked the first bit about having a top to bottom philosophy, great, but the silly shit about playing entertaining football is just fucking Spursy nonsense. Like we've spent the last 20 years entertaining. I want a Spurs team who's goal is to win not entertain.

You must have been barely able to contain your excitement the day we appointed George Graham

 

[allatsea]

I find it really worrying that our chairman is publicly spouting this jingoistic infantile "Spurs Way" bollocks.

i find it worrying that you can't see beyond these statements to what is actually happening at every level of the club. There is a sea change in the way things are done and the successes are already obvious in Kane, Bentaleb, Mason, Rose and Townsend.