The Poch has been confirmed as manager thread!

[Donki]

I have huge faith in Pochettino. Does he have the squad he needs? No. I hope by the end of the window he has better options. We need at least two players.

I want us to stick with him but... The way we are playing at the moment doesn't suit the pace of the game here. Yes we keep posation but with most teams in this league they try to break with pace. That means when we don't score were always liable to lose, that sounds simplistic but it's the truth. despite what people will say we have a good first team squad and the more I see us play the more I think are player aren't being allowed the freedom they should be. Any manager should have more than a plan A they need a plan B and C, so far Poch doesn't seem to have that.

 

[Bobbins]

Where is the 'Levy has been confirmed as chairman thread'?

If we sack Poch we might as well start a thread for the next manager getting the boot next year as nothing will change until we invest a lot more on players - wages in particular. We have overachieved in relation to our current net transfer spend over the last 5 seasons and wage budget.

My mate reckons that even Newcastle have spend more net wise on transfers!!!

Wow, well we should definitely amend our transfer strategy based on A: what your mate says and B: the recent massive success of Newcastle United, who definitely haven't been completely shit for years.

 

[Donki]

Wow, well we should definitely amend our transfer strategy based on A: what your mate says and B: the recent massive success of Newcastle United, who definitely haven't been completely shit for years.

We should go for a drink Bobbins, we could crack some heads.

 

[Barry Mead]

The manager did inherit a squad, and made that squad finish 5th.

You talk like last season didn't happen. He assessed his squad and has decided who he can and can't work with.

But you don't back the chap, I do. So it's a basic disagreement, one which we won't solve.

He still has only had one season with us. Can we not just give him five years? Let him see it out; would be novel rather than having to do this all over again

We were still down points on the previous season and that season was one of changing managers mid season, so I don't see anything great in that.

I certainly wouldn't want to give any manager five years just on the chance he might prove himself, especially one with no track record of success, but any manager has to show that he's worth keeping for a period and performances and results have to be the deciders. If you look at his time at Espanyol much is made about he took over when the team was in the relegation area and he took them to mid table but not so much that by the time he left they were sitting even lower at the bottom. People like to suggest that the club sold the best players out from under him when in fact Pochettino was the one who forced a number of the more senior players out of the door, besides that Aguirre then took them over and got them back to mid level.
You can't just give anyone effectively an open cheque in terms of managing on the hope they might become a great manager, they have to demonstrate that the team is improving

 

[balalasaurus]

Can't believe what I'm reading. Has it not occurred that sacking him is just plain stupid? No? Well here are two small reasons why: a) he's barely had any time to prove himself and b) if we do sack him, who on earth will replace him with?

If the 'Poch Out' brigade think that our chances of attracting a top manager increase by keeping the managerial merry go round spinning, they're having a laugh.

 

[danielneeds]

No you really don't, because there are no guarantees that time will make him any better, maybe if there was some evidence that he was learning from his mistakes and expanding his tactics but that hasn't been evident

To be honest I'd be more worried if he was chopping and changing his tactics every week.

 

[Robbiepope]

Wow, well we should definitely amend our transfer strategy based on A: what your mate says and B: the recent massive success of Newcastle United, who definitely haven't been completely shit for years.

Do we need a new transfer policy? Quite clearly we do if we want to achieve but Levy wouldnt be able to deliver that investment in both transfer fees and wages.

In terms of Newcastle you clealy cant understand irony.

 

[Barry Mead]

To be honest I'd be more worried if he was chopping and changing his tactics every week.

Well the thing is if you made changes that improved things you wouldn't have to change things every week

For me it would be nice to see that steps had been taken to improve the constant problems we have, but there's been no sign of that happening in over a year so I imagine changing things every week is really unlikely

 

[Bobbins]

We should go for a drink Bobbins, we could crack some heads.

I've definitely had enough tonight mate

 

[Barry Mead]

Can't believe what I'm reading. Has it not occurred that sacking him is just plain stupid? No? Well here are two small reasons why: a) he's barely had any time to prove himself and b) if we do sack him, who on earth will replace him with?

If the 'Poch Out' brigade think that our chances of attracting a top manager increase by keeping the managerial merry go round spinning, they're having a laugh.

I imagine successful managers have enough confidence in their own ability to not be deterred by the sacking of managers. It's hardly a rarity in the PL and for example Chelsea have changed manager 10 times in the last ten years

 

[HarrysBungs]

Poch's Brief

1) Alienate/sell any shit, high earning, poor performing, egotistical players from the squad.
2) Maintain our top 6 status in league given what he has at his dispoal.
3) Coach promising talent to the point where they become sellable assets.
3) Continue to take the shit from fans until WE HAVE OUR NEW STADIUM IN PLACE then it's bye bye.

Levy does NOT have the interests of Spurs in mind, just his own personal gain once the stadium is built and flogged off to the highest bidder.

LEVY has failed to back any manager and should be held accountable for the dross that is being dished out week after week......not the Head Coach.

 

[taricco]

Can't believe what I'm reading. Has it not occurred that sacking him is just plain stupid? No? Well here are two small reasons why: a) he's barely had any time to prove himself and b) if we do sack him, who on earth will replace him with?

If the 'Poch Out' brigade think that our chances of attracting a top manager increase by keeping the managerial merry go round spinning, they're having a laugh.

Agreed, sacking him right now would be plain stupid.

However, he hasn't had no time, he's had a whole season. Whilst we shouldn't expect miracles in this time, it's not asking to much to see, well, something. I would have hoped to glimpse A decent amount of great, fluent performances or even partially great performances.

The fact is that other that I can can only remember seeing a few performances under him where we actually looked good. 80% of the football I watched last season were some of the most dire, uninspiring, turgid performances I have seen from a Spurs team (AVB aside). Yes, we grabbed a few results due to some lucky last minute winners, but those matches could have easily gone the other way. The feelings I remember the most from last season were frustration and boredom.

I'm personally willing to stick with him for the moment, but we need to start seeing some steps forward. We saw some decent stuff against Stoke, but United and Leicester were poor, dull performances. If it doesn't inprove it would be madness to stick with him.

 

[bilburger]

Do I think we should sack him? NO.

Am I concerned that he might not be up to the job? YES.

I'm not ready to give up, but I'm worried.

 

[keithtighe93]

honestly I think he'll be gone by the end of the season

the football is/has been atrocious, a previous post said that the likes of Swansea, Norwich, Bournemouth etc play better football than us and that is very true which highlights some serious problems IMO

I don't think it's the right thing to do continually changing managers but you can't sit still if it's obvious a wrong appointment has been made either, and to be honest I don't think there have been any signs of progress or that there could be light at the end of the tunnel!

 

[Mr Pink]

I'm as frustrated and disappointed as the next fan as how the season as started, and have already outlined the many reasons as to why but there's no way we will sack him anytime soon (feels stupid even saying it) - barring an absolute nosedive over the next few months. We've brought Mitchell in, a strategic appointment given his ex working relationship with Poch and it all seems to be more harmonious right across the board.

I do concede there are some worrying signs, that keep repeating themselves, but we'll just have to suck it up for now and assess when the season is coming to an end.

Lets hope we get some of the additions we desperately need in the next week or two and they have the impact we all hope they will - could well be key to how this season unfolds.

 

[ItsBoris]

The problem with this is that you could just say "Well, Bobbins is our new manager, but his system requires Messi, Ronaldo, Neymar, Suarez etc to be successful". Oh well, Levy can't get the players the manager says he needs, manager underperforms, Levy sacks manager. It's just an excuse.

A good coach should be able to make a team more than the sum of its parts - I am 100% fed up to the gills with hearing about how much Poch needs his players and needs his squad and until he gets them we can't judge him.

Bollocks! He has been massively uninspiring. He did ok to finish 5th last season - the placing was good, but we were extremely lucky to get there, we got some extremely lucky results, and a couple of genuinely good performances. And all of that while we've really not been playing very nice football at all.

But I don't think Poch has been making unrealistic demands about the players he wants, I think he just wants players that will allow him to match Levy's expectations.

Signing players like Stambouli, Fazio, Davies, even Chadli, is so far below our station. These signings wouldn't even be that good if it was a promoted team making them, never mind a team that consistently finishes 5th. Fucking Stoke are buying more expensive and more highly rated players than we are. I understand that the strategy may be that we'll find a few gems in this price range, but we still can't compete making these types of signings. We're still spending 5-15 million on players, when the players that used to cost that years ago now cost 25 million (see Berahino as an example).

But we can't expect miracles from a coach who is given such underwhelming resources. Personally, I think it almost was miraculous that we finished 5th last season, because to me our team on paper doesn't even look as good as the likes of Swansea, Everton, and Southampton, never mind Liverpool.

So if Levy expects us to play like Barcelona, then he would have to sign players like Messi and Neymar. If you are signing Chadlis and Stamboulis, then you have to lower your expectations to match the quality of those signings. Other teams, like the two Milan clubs, have signed players who would have been excellent for us, and they aren't playing in Europe and probably couldn't offer the money we could, but yet we aren't even interested in those types of players (like Kondogbia and Bacca for example).

Otherwise, if we're spending 5-10 million on most players, we have to accept that most of them won't be good enough and will just have to be sold, and a few will be good enough. In that case, we'll be making very slow progress, and if Levy decides to sell any of our good players, then we'll be taking two steps back and have to start again basically (like what happened when we sold Modric and Bale).

Plus it's not very logical to think that all of these managers we keep getting just totally suck. I think it makes a lot more sense that they are all handcuffed by our horrible transfer activity.

 

[ItsBoris]

I will answer you after the window shuts. Historically Levy hasn't backed his managers. It seems different to me - the clearout is unprecedented, especially with a number of those at a loss. Can you not wait until the window shuts before saying what has and hasn't been done?

Same thing we've said the last few windows lol.

Sure, lets see what happens. I'm more talking about what has already happened and why we haven't been successful so far though. I'm hoping that changes this year.

 

[ItsBoris]

Actually it's completely why we should never have brought him in in the first place, he doesn't have the tactical nous to find a system that suits the bulk of the squad and gets the best out of them, instead he tries to force square pegs into round holes and change the whole squad around
The silly thing was he had players that better suited the shape and style he wants to play when he was at Soton and despite our turmoil that season we still finished above them
It tells me two things, the system is not that good for the PL and he hasn't got enough experience or depth of technical ability to change
All this "a manager has not got his squad" is a nonsense, no manager taking over a team should need changes on that scale to be able to make it work, particularly a squad of players that have consistently been placed in the top 5 in recent years. Sure a manager may want to change a few players but shouldn't need to make such wholesale changes

My point wasn't that he doesn't have the players he needs for his style, just that he doesn't have quality players at all. Normally we don't invest anything in players, and when we do, we get robbed blind because in the past we've had no one who can identify a player with talent.

I agree with the point that the system doesn't suit that PL. Most "systems" don't seem to, in fact. I hate watching us play possession football against parked buses every week, but unfortunately any other manager we get in will be a "philosophy" type person because that's what Levy wants and he hasn't realized that it doesn't work in this league. Van Gaal is even having trouble implementing that style with what is now a pretty talented Man United squad. So yes I agree, I wish we played a different, more entertaining style. That's why I didn't really understand why everyone hated Sherwood so much, because I thought we played a lot better football with him than with AVB, and the difference was pretty obvious.

 

[EnfieldYiddo]

Wish the apologists would stop making excuses for missing traits you'd expect from any manager at a top flight club.

Rigid, reactive (not proactive), inconsistent, indecisive.

List can go on.

The one point that grinds my gears most is the lack of pressing... Supposedly the central focus of Poch's 'system'. It cant be that hard to get 11 athletes run around and close down gaps can it? I know I'm simplifying it but this should be trained into them one season on. We are lucky to see it once every few months.

 

[am_yisrael_chai]

No way Levy fires Poch, he is a manager that is happy to promote youth rather than demanding stars and proved both with Southampton (Lallana, Lovren, Lambert, Shaw, Chambers) and with us last season (Kane, Bentaleb, Mason) that he can increase player values. Given Levy's favourite past time is player trading Poch is his dream manager.