The Blame Game

[spurs-r-us]

Interesting article from John Crace of ESPN.

http://www.espnfc.com/club/tottenham-hotspur/367/blog/post/2112439/blame-levy-for-the-spurs-mess

How many times is it possible to experience deja vu? It is tempting to call Tottenham's second-half disintegration in Sunday's 2-1 loss against Newcastle the most hapless, spineless and inept 45 minutes of the season. Yet to do so would merely be a visceral response to the most recent pain. The real truth is that Spurs played pretty much the same way they have all season and last.

The current side is unrecognisable from the one that reached the Champions League quarterfinal three years ago. Not just in the personnel; all teams move on but the chance to use the legacy of Luka Modric, Rafael van der Vaart and Gareth Bale to build a side that would maintain Spurs' ambition to be one of the best sides in England has been lost. It is as if those couple of years when Spurs played with an energy, freedom and creativity were just a rare cosmic collision and that normal order has inevitably been restored.

The most disturbing feature of the team, though, is its fragility. It is as if nobody really wants to play for the club. Turning out for Spurs has become a chore; not something worth fighting for when the chips are down. Nobody is prepared to take responsibility and mental disintegration is always only a heartbeat away.

He blames Levy.

It's a fair point. We were never going to be able to keep Modric or Bale, but despite his QPR shambles, Harry was onto a good thing here.

Personally, whilst I liked Sherwood, I don't think Levy was at fault for sacking him or AVB. Results killed AVB, though he was worth a shot, and it was our fans at fault for Sherwood's sacking.

Sacking Ramos was the right call, Jol being more complicated but also a long time ago.

I don't really know who I blame. I'd look at the players, but we've had enough turnover and they all feed off each other so who do you turn on?

Poch hasn't made such great decisions since he got here (average signings, captaincy choices), but he absolutely needs to be given time.

Baldini is rubbish, but he's not significant enough in the hierarchy to blame for what has become a cultural collapse.

Who do we turn on?

I've always taken the good with the bad with Levy, grass ≠ greener etc, but has he run his race. Will we ever reverse the slump that has finally accelerated?

 

[EastLondonYid]

Levy has been great for us no doubt, but what we are seeing now is not only us being left behind by the top 4 or so clubs, but the very serious danger of other clubs taking us over ...Soton, West ham etc.

This is down to a number of reasons, clubs getting ambitious new owners, clubs spending more money with the new tv deal, and more worrying us not really buying top players, we were supposed to buy MS and the Villerreal ch for 35m but ended up buying the Argentine Dawson and Stambouli who can't get on the bench.

DL has been great , but football has moved on and we haven't, we missed a trick 3/4 seasons ago when we were ready to be real title contenders, now we are dropping back to where we were before., but worse....without the great WHL atmosphere. we once had....DL/enic must realise whats going on and act..... before its too late.

 

[Black]

Fans got what they want and now they realise the grass in not always greener

 

[Strikeb4ck]

We need a leader, a player to transform the mentality of the dressing room. Van der Vaart did it while he was here, along with Daws, Ledley, and Sandro. And of course because we had Modric/Bale/etc we played well, so that helped.

We have no one like that right now. The mentality on the pitch is awful.

Every top club has talismanic players. Players that you look at as the identity of the team. Terry, Cahill, Fabregas, Hazard. Kompany, Toure, Aguero. Koscielny, Wilshere, Alexis...Casillas, Sergio Ramos, Pepe, Ronaldo. Xavi, Iniesta, Dani Alves, Messi...Neuer, Lahm, Schweinsteiger, Mueller...Buffon, Chiellini, Bonucci, Vidal...etc etc.

We don't have any players like that anymore. This team right now is a collection of players - very good players, but there is no team spirit. The team has no identity, and no fight. There were videos on the Southampton Youtube of Poch and his team doing player bonding/team bonding stuff, like the coal walk video. I don't see anything like that coming from us.

 

[sim0n]

Lots of good points all around here, so just gonna touch on a couple to keep things moving:

• no point blaming Levy - he's never kicked a ball. His game is to make a profit for ENIC and is a champion at that.
• Baldini seems poor and not sure there is any direction or focus in the players he's signed to shape the team
• Spurs team on the field is crying out for a leader and some professionalism/motivation/fight (not convinced Kaboul is the right man for this job)
• Poch is struggling with the same problem as AVB and Sherwood -- no team balance and too many of the same type players in the squad best suited to the same position...

so IMHO, I do believe the DoF + Manager system can work and does work in many parts of the world. But, either the DoF has to choose the Manager to work with, or the Manager has to choose the Dof -- those 2 ARE the team that builds the squad, so they have to be together,.... no idea what the hell Baldini does and/or is doing....

 

[Nebby]

Everything in football is a gamble, especially so in regards to management appointments and player acquisitions.

There is also a limit to what the club can afford to pay, which obviously restricts choice.

We seem to be obsessed with taking the high risk gamble. Manager-wise, maybe we should have gambled on a more experienced coach than AVB, Sherwood and now Poch.

Player-wise, maybe we should have spent the Bale money on fewer players, but better quality, or some with premiership experience.

But we've bet on a series of long shots, and thus far they don't exactly look like winners.

 

[allatsea]

I blame us fans. We have totally unrealistic expectations. No one can compete with the likes of Man City or Chelsea unless they have a sugar daddy and that approach is unlikely to work now because of FFP.

Arsenal who have one of the best and cleverest managers around are no longer realistic challengers for the title as their very best players are poached virtually every season. Liverpool are in the same boat witness Suarez going to Barca and proving to be irreplaceable. We all know what has happened at Spurs. We could have been cleverer or luckier with our buys but at the end of the season we still wouldn't be winning the PL.

It is all very sad as we thrash about trying to find someone to blame when we never had a realistic chance in the first place.

 

[Shadydan]

Was it really the fans fault that Sherwood got sasked or his own?

 

[spurs-r-us]

Was it really the fans fault that Sherwood got sasked or his own?

His results were decent.

Even if his tongue was a bit loose, the histrionics from our side didn't help him out at all.

 

[Shea]

I blame Levy's decision making - well Levy and whoever help him make the key decisions at our clubs

I can't really say I blame any of his sackings - but you have to question our choice of manager hired in the first place, Levy and co have pretty much got it wrong every time (bar perhaps Redknapp and hopefully this time will prove the right choice)

Implementing, scrapping, reimplementing the DOF system. Drastic changes in style of manager leaving the club with no cohesive direction

Signing players in a money ball fashion as assets to appreciate in value rather than build a team unit leaving us disjointed and unbalanced

Wanting crazy money for our deadwood at the expense of our own ability to add real quality to our squad, moving away from the policy that saw us sign the best promising and unproven talent to try and sign established stars we can't obtain only to end up with last min inferior alternatives that often don't serve the same purpose

Chasing our tails with the new stadium, going for and failing to get the olympic stadium, back to the original plan (spending God knows how much in the process) then having to move to MK for a year? but still don't seem to actually know what we're doing

Levy should have focused on the business side of the game and charged someone more knowledgeable with running the football side of things years ago (but his choice of DOF never seem great since Arenson either)

I like Levy and I appreciate his taking us from obscurity to CL but once reaching that glass ceiling I think he's got pretty much every major decision wrong, tried to be too clever and messed up time after time and ultimately wasted a golden window of opportunity and now taken us backwards

I hope Poch turns out to be a success - I hope the next two windows see us add quality in key positions that complement our current squad and build us into a strong unit and I hope we get the green light for our new stadium asap but frankly I''ve lost all faith in Levy ever getting any big decision right for the club anymore

But I agree with the poster above - with Man City and Chelsea's money and Man U being the established power house under Sir Alex we never had a realistic chance of winning the PL itself unless it had been us not City the Shake or Roman had bought (if only)

 

[Reclamation Project]

Player-wise, maybe we should have spent the Bale money on fewer players, but better quality, or some with premiership experience.

Or maybe we shouldn't have felt we needed to spend it all at once, instead holding onto some for when a truly appropriate player became available.

 

[Shadydan]

His results were decent.

Even if his tongue was a bit loose, the histrionics from our side didn't help him out at all.

But you can't blame the fans for his sacking, everyone knew he was a gonner, ultimately so did he in the end.

 

[allatsea]

Or maybe we shouldn't have felt we needed to spend it all at once, instead holding onto some for when a truly appropriate player became available.

Most Fans wouldn't have tolerated that. A big net credit at the end of the transfer window would have been unacceptable.

 

[DEFchenkOE]

There's lots that Levy has done that I'm really happy with so I find it hard just to say that he's to blame. He's put his faith in managers, coaches, DoFs, and all seem to have ultimately failed. As the OP says, I think most people agreed with the sackings of the managers at the times with Jol dividing opinion mostly but it's not like he has gone on and proved to be a world class manager.

But where Levy has failed is with our transfer policy. I have no idea who oversees the ins and outs at our club, whether it's Levy and a board or how much influence the DoF has. But either way we will continue to fail if we carry on as we have been.

Players see Tottenham as a stepping stone, and always will until we become title contenders on a regular basis. There's nothing really bad about that, many clubs are in the same position as us, even Arsenal have been used to propel players onto bigger and better things. But we need to start handling this better. Yea we might squeeze a few more millions out of clubs by playing hard bargain till the last day of the window but in the end that does us more harm than good.

I can see the same thing happening with Vertonghen in the summer, bids will come in and we'll fight them off until the last minute then be scrapping around for a bargain replacement. When what we should be doing right now is identifying 2-3 ball playing centre backs that fit the criteria of what we're after, we should look internally first to see if anyone is ready to make the step up and if not look externally.

We have to stop our random scattergun approach to transfers as a club like ours cannot afford too many mistakes. We simply can't let a situation like last summer occur again where we bought 7 players at once with not a minute of epl experience between them. Madness

 

[Mr-T]

Ahh you cant beat a good old blamestorming session when the chips are down.

Personally I think we all share some of the blame.

Levy - for putting profit first and for continually sacking the managers.
The managers - Arry for whoring himself out for the England job, AVB for the awful football, Dim for playing Walker in central midfield against Chelsea etc etc
The players - spoiled millionaires with poor fragile little egos who dont REALLY care for the club
The squad - because competition for places aint worth shit if you've got Paulinho and Soldado clogging up the bench
The fans - because we bitch and moan, create a shit atmosphere at the lane yet still fork out our hard-earned dosh to pay for those listed above.

Yet every now and then we get a glimmer of hope. Remember being behind against Forest? The Forest fans making all the noise at the Lane and our fans sitting there with faces like smacked arses. Then, all of a sudden Mason came on - he was hungry to prove himself and show he deserved to play for Spurs. BOOM, he hit a cracker, the crowd exploded into life and all of a sudden we knew we were going to win.

Its the Spurs rollercoaster again - having a good blame always follows the unexpected lows. Get a grip, remember Grimsby in the cup a few years ago, put things in perspective and see where we are at the end of the season innit.

 

[Shea]

There's lots that Levy has done that I'm really happy with so I find it hard just to say that he's to blame. He's put his faith in managers, coaches, DoFs, and all seem to have ultimately failed. As the OP says, I think most people agreed with the sackings of the managers at the times with Jol dividing opinion mostly but it's not like he has gone on and proved to be a world class manager.

I agree but the problem is he makes the wrong decisions when it comes to hiring managers and DOF and therefore puts his trust in the wrong people, so their failure is ultimately his failure

Can't really argue with any of his sackings of manager but the need to sack comes from poor selection of appointment in the first place

The difference between us and City/Chelsea may be billionaire owners buying success but the difference between us and Arsenal is the work of David Dein compared to Sugar/Levy

 

[sim0n]

I blame us fans. We have totally unrealistic expectations. No one can compete with the likes of Man City or Chelsea unless they have a sugar daddy and that approach is unlikely to work now because of FFP.

Arsenal who have one of the best and cleverest managers around are no longer realistic challengers for the title as their very best players are poached virtually every season. Liverpool are in the same boat witness Suarez going to Barca and proving to be irreplaceable. We all know what has happened at Spurs. We could have been cleverer or luckier with our buys but at the end of the season we still wouldn't be winning the PL.

It is all very sad as we thrash about trying to find someone to blame when we never had a realistic chance in the first place.

I disagree a bit -- I do not think it was an unrealistic expectation to beat relegation candidates NU at WHL last Sunday.... but I do get your point in general

 

[the shelf]

I agree but the problem is he makes the wrong decisions when it comes to hiring managers and DOF and therefore puts his trust in the wrong people, so their failure is ultimately his failure

Can't really argue with any of his sackings of manager but the need to sack comes from poor selection of appointment in the first place

The difference between us and City/Chelsea may be billionaire owners buying success but the difference between us and Arsenal is the work of David Dein compared to Sugar/Levy

This. Spot on.

 

[Reece]

What gets me is why such successful businessmen at the top at Spurs didn't see one thing 4 years ago: Opportunity Cost

 

[Everlasting Seconds]

His results were decent.

Even if his tongue was a bit loose, the histrionics from our side didn't help him out at all.

This is somewhat flawed, though, on the basis of self contradictory. You stated that AVB was sacked over results, but then go on saying that TS' results were decent. That simply doesn't fit. If you look at AVB's and TS' results statistically, there is no significant difference. Save maybe a few more goals under TS.
If it's true that AVB was sacked over results, then Pochettino's future is on rocky grounds. His results so far are, in truth, appalling. Ultimately though, I don't think AVB left due to results alone at all, and I don't think the fans holds the power to get a head coach sacked. Unfortunately.