The Mauricio Pochettino thread

[LeParisien]

Fuck that. I have no desire to become the new Arsenal with the way they have been run the past 15 years. Levy only has one choice really. Back Poch or face a full fan base revolt.

I knew it ! I knew some fans were scared of becoming Arsenal.

We won’t because:
A) We have a better chairman than Arsenal have had since Dein stood down. He was brilliant and Arsenal haven’t been the same since he left.
B) TV money and other revenue streams have risen sharply since 2006 making it easier to meet the costs of a new stadium.
C) We will have learned from Arsenals mistakes eg by making the stadium explicitly multipurpose.
D) Wenger became stubborn in his desire not to spend, particularly in problem positions. Pochettino is ambitious and will spend.
E) we probably won’t suffer the same bad luck such as the financial crash that wrecked the revenue for selling flats.
F) Arsenal could afford to be complacent because there were only 4 big teams (no spurs or city). Attention /Focus is far higher now as two top teams will miss out every year.

 

[doctor stefan Freud]

I knew it ! I knew some fans were scared of becoming Arsenal.

We won’t because:
A) We have a better chairman than Arsenal have had since Dein stood down. He was brilliant and Arsenal haven’t been the same since he left.
B) TV money and other revenue streams have risen sharply since 2006 making it easier to meet the costs of a new stadium.
C) We will have learned from Arsenals mistakes eg by making the stadium explicitly multipurpose.
D) Wenger became stubborn in his desire not to spend, particularly in problem positions. Pochettino is ambitious and will spend.
E) we probably won’t suffer the same bad luck such as the financial crash that wrecked the revenue for selling flats.
F) Arsenal could afford to be complacent because there were only 4 big teams (no spurs or city). Attention /Focus is far higher now as two top teams will miss out every year.

G) We’re not twats

 

[mil1lion]

I think a lot is being made about these comments coming out now. He's taking some of the attention off his players. He often does and in fact did the same ahead of the Ajax game. The media are now focused on him and not as much the players.

I dont really get the negativity towards Levy either. Questioning Levy and his ambition is not the same as saying he hasn't lived up to his promises or anything like that. I honestly believe 100% that Levy has delivered on his end of this 5 year project. This isn't about Poch vs Levy. They both agreed what the goal was and we achieved it. They also agreed that they would have to spend less yet people still criticise Levy for that.

The fact is that Poch has overachieved in this 5 year period. The plan was to qualify for the CL regularly. It wasn't to make the CL final at that point because that wasn't realistic back then. Now we've made it this far and the question is where Levy wants to go from here. That's all it is. It's not criticising Levy in any way, it's just challenging him to help push us further. I'm confifent Levy is an ambition man and if there's any doubt then look at the training facilities and stadium. He's building towards something, we've built the infrastructure and now we build the squad. Poch explained it perfectly, we have the house but now need to add the furniture.

 

[Paolo10]

Seasonal Statistics (2014/2015 to this Season)

2014/2015

Win 51% | Draw 21% | Lose 28%

2015/2016

Win 49% | Draw 30% | Lose 21%

2016/2017

Win 62% | Draw 19% | Lose 19%

2017/2018

Win 60% | Draw 22% | Lose 18%

2018/2019

Win 59% | Draw 7% | Lose 34%

 

[LexingtonSpurs]

The plan was to qualify for the CL regularly.

If you have listened to Poch this season - the plan was not even to qualify regularly - the original plan was to qualify for CL when the new stadium opened. The fact that Poch has put Spurs in CL for the last 3 seasons running (hopefully 4 seasons soon) - just shows how far ahead of schedule Poch was.

Poch knew when he signed here what the plan was, and what limitations the club faced for the first 5 years. Now that this phase is over - Poch wants to aim higher.

Poch wants to aim so high, that even failure will have in it an echo of glory.

 

[neogenisis]

I'm not trying to start and anti/pro Levy debate here, but where are some of you getting the optimism from that Levy will change his ways and back the 'second phase' of Pochettino's Tottenham?

Pretty sure it was Daniels initial vision that got Poch here, why build the new stadium etc etc for it to stop here? Levy is not that stupid.

 

[Indisguise]

I don’t see any evidence that anything is rotten.

I saw Pochettino’s statement as a perfectly calm,reasonable and logical assessment of where we are now, at the end of one phase and the start of another.

That he and Levy are going to sit down together to discuss the plan for next phase is good, healthy and positive.

When he says he’d be mad not to do it, he’s right. And that’s all there is to it.

No drama, no tragedy, no hand-wringing required.

I understand what you're saying and to be honest, I'm actually a bit confused about exactly what Poch has been saying. However, it seems hard to believe that a manager who is perfectly happy with his tenure would come out and say that he might leave whether or not his team wins or loses the Champions League final. From someone who has great respect for Alex Ferguson and the legacy that he left behind and who has intimated that he would like to emulate the same success then it's a strange thing to say. If it's just a case of sitting down with Levy and banging out a plan for the next 5 years then why go public with it at all? That just doesn't make any sense. I concede that you may well be right in your conclusions, but I'm not seeing what you're seeing at all. I'm seeing something completely different.

 

[Hakkz]

Of all the reasons to leave, winning CL isn't one I'm worrying about.

 

[LexingtonSpurs]

Pretty sure it was Daniels initial vision that got Poch here, why build the new stadium etc etc for it to stop here? Levy is not that stupid.

I've seen this argument come up several times - but its nonsensical. Levy's intelligence has nothing to do with Levy's risk tolerance.

Levy and Lewis have made a lot of money in their careers by being very shrewd risk-takers. The risk required to make the jump from big club to elite club is massive. There are no guarantees of success. Levy has essentially put in a floor to the finances of Tottenham - instead of a mid-table squad they bought, Spurs are now safely in the top-6, and that carries with it a certain level of financial stability.

Everything ENIC have done is towards that goal - building an improving, yet consistent, revenue stream.

To take the club to the next level is a massive risk - a smart man does not necessarily take that risk, particularly when so much went into reducing financial risk.

 

[Shadydan]

I've seen this argument come up several times - but its nonsensical. Levy's intelligence has nothing to do with Levy's risk tolerance.

Levy and Lewis have made a lot of money in their careers by being very shrewd risk-takers. The risk required to make the jump from big club to elite club is massive. There are no guarantees of success. Levy has essentially put in a floor to the finances of Tottenham - instead of a mid-table squad they bought, Spurs are now safely in the top-6, and that carries with it a certain level of financial stability.

Everything ENIC have done is towards that goal - building an improving, yet consistent, revenue stream.

To take the club to the next level is a massive risk - a smart man does not necessarily take that risk, particularly when so much went into reducing financial risk.

What do you actually think building a £1B stadium is classed as, if not a massive risk?

 

[DotNetCoder]

What do you actually think building a £1B stadium is classed as, if not a massive risk?

Mitigated by a bars, shops, on site high-rise accommodation, retractable pitch to support non THFC related activities like events and NFL games.

 

[RichieS]

Yep there’s no way LevyPR can spin this, you have to be delusional to not hear what he’s saying coupled with what we’ve seen for 20 years.

I don't know what you've seen exactly, but I basically support a different club to what I did in 2001. We are unrecognisable from the no-hopers we were then, aimlessly meandering from season-to-season. Why are people so reluctant to admit that this progress has been driven and overseen by Levy? Do you just need someone/thing to rail against? Even now, just as we're noisily dragging our chair across the floor to the top table? FFS!

Do people genuinely think Levy is stupid?! He (and ENIC's other investors) will make their money from selling the club for as much money as possible. They could probably get just over £1bn at the moment. Another 5 year "chapter" relatively as successful as this one probably doubles that. At worst, their "echo of glory" in failure will be the £1bn they can still cash out.

They're not going to go all "sugar-daddy" on us (and that's not what FSG have done at Liverpool either), but I'm confident they will continue to use club money for the benefit of the club (i.e. the massive increase in the amount of money the club generates will be recycled into the club in the form of more competitive salaries and transfers). Before the rainbows start appearing, this is not optimistic - it's literally the MO that various posters have referred to in the negative.

They have made mistakes; there have been bumps in the road. But progress is never linear and it speaks volumes about their leadership that we are the only club to have broken into the cartel at the top of the PL and stayed there without the influence of money from shysters and murderers.

 

[spids]

What do you actually think building a £1B stadium is classed as, if not a massive risk?

That is an infrastructure investment which will both add value to the club and also yield increased returns (through increased football match day revenue, NFL matches, other events, sponsorship etc.). That is not really such a big risk.

A big risk is spending £100M on a footballer, paying his agent £10M and making a £55M contract commitment (£200k per week for 5 years) and then finding out he's not all that good. That's 1/6 of our stadium down the toilet in one go. I bet Arsenal and Man U are thrilled to be paying Ozil (£18.2M per year) and Sanchez (£25M per year) so much money for example!

Bottom line is that buying expensive players is a massive risk. Having the best training facilities and coaches and bringing through your own talent (or buying young talent and developing it) is a much more prudent approach. Winks, Kane, Dele, Rose, KWP, Dier, cost us a combined £9.5M. Pretty much the same as one N'Koudou, or half a season of Ozil. So I can see Levy wanting to keep prioritising the development / coaching approach. Let's just hope he can find a hybrid model where Poch is trusted to bring through his own players but also can buy from the very top drawer should we identify a suitable target.

 

[Shadydan]

Mitigated by a bars, shops, on site high-rise accommodation, retractable pitch to support non THFC related activities like events and NFL games.

Which will help us gain more revenue to pay off the stadium quicker so that eventually funds will go back into the club as well as allowing us to grow our profile worldwide.

 

[cider spurs]

You can't bring me down with stupid cheap shots. You are not on my level.

To everybody playing down what Pochettino is saying and how non-confrontational the content is. I'd suggest reading this, and then rereading it:

"If you want to expect the same from us as from Liverpool, the Manchester clubs and Chelsea, give me different tools to work with. If not and I see people working in the same way in the future, and I’m going to be this guy,"

That's what you call a message.

Cheap shots. ...Levels

Nothing more than jest my dear fellow. Far to laid back to get involved in spats with strangers on a forum.

Anyways...


So I've read thrice. Seems to still be along the lines of what has been alluded to in here over the past couple of days.

Back me.

How are you interpretating this ??.

 

[DotNetCoder]

Which will help us gain more revenue to pay off the stadium quicker so that eventually funds will go back into the club as well as allowing us to grow our profile worldwide.

Or a glass half empty view: to cover cashflow shortfall if Spurs suffer a bad few years due to lower team investment compared to rivals.

 

[wishkah]

Reckon it's a tactic to keep the attention of the injuries, recoveries and player contracts. Let the footballers focus on the football.

All the while the press continue the Liverpool love in

 

[LexingtonSpurs]

What do you actually think building a £1B stadium is classed as, if not a massive risk?

Its a relatively minimal risk - because you have a tangible asset in the end. When you add in the hotel and surrounding development, it becomes a very safe investment.

 

[dirtyh]

Its interesting Poch says its not about spending more money but what does he mean by this? As he then talks about challenging City, Pool and Utd? Wages possibly?

#

paying agents. simple as. it's the primary reason players go elsewhere.

 

[mil1lion]

I understand what you're saying and to be honest, I'm actually a bit confused about exactly what Poch has been saying. However, it seems hard to believe that a manager who is perfectly happy with his tenure would come out and say that he might leave whether or not his team wins or loses the Champions League final. From someone who has great respect for Alex Ferguson and the legacy that he left behind and who has intimated that he would like to emulate the same success then it's a strange thing to say. If it's just a case of sitting down with Levy and banging out a plan for the next 5 years then why go public with it at all? That just doesn't make any sense. I concede that you may well be right in your conclusions, but I'm not seeing what you're seeing at all. I'm seeing something completely different.

To be fair he has always answered questions the same way. He has always said he might leave because the future is never clear. He's just answering the questions by the media. This is no different to the sort of things he has been saying these past 5 years with us. People read way too much into and worry too much about it.