Where do we go now?

[mmidgers]

The spine of the team is broken.

I think Lloris and Alderweireld have been great servants but have been on the decline since the CL final season. That was when this team as a whole was a year past its peak and on the way down. Eriksen knew which is why he wanted out. Dembele was broken. Kane has been carrying us since then. Now looks like it’ll be a major task to re-energise and re-focus him.

The answer is a major overhaul. The new manager is key. Then recruitment is essential. That manager needs to assess this squad and be given serious cash to buy a new spine with great players.

We have a lot of talent that can improve, the likes of Tanganga, Rodon, Reguilon, Skipp, Sessegnon, Bergwijn, Ndombele and Lo Celso are all young and all have a lot to offer.

Winks, Dier, Sanchez, Sissoko, Aurier, Moura, Lamela etc. are all simply not good enough.

Son and Dele - the new manager needs to quickly work out if their hearts are in it or if they’ve gone stale too.

Højbjerg can be part of that spine but worryingly he’s looked a fraud the last few months, bottling tackles and waving arms like Steffen Freund.

But first major task is we need to replace that spine of Lloris, Toby/Verts, Dembele, Eriksen, Kane.

End of an era.

This horse has been well and truly flogged. I just can't see what needs to be done actually getting done. There's been a lot of expensive mistakes made by levy & co

 

[BringBack_leGin]

3 months is a long time in football.

 

[Yiddo1982]

I'm pretty much at my lowest ebb in my Spurs supporting history. The only player I'd want to keep is the one that wants to leave - even the 1990s were more fun that this. We knew who we were and the unexpected victories were sweeter.

I'm now desperate to finish 8th or below. There's no way we should be in that 3rd rate Europe Conf League. New manager, new ideas, one game a week. Plenty of time for coaching, plus less players needed - so we can bin off the rats...

There's a small core group of players that I'd be willing to give the chance of working with a progressive coach. None of the players have been coached properly - it is so obvious. No training in attacking phases or defensive work.

Levy needs to step back and concentrate on the commercial side (getting naming rights - was there a better chance than the months following the CL Final?). We need Rangnick and Potter. New ideas and vision. This needs to be the end of the chapter that started 2016.

 

[Gilzeanking]

Well , the basic requirement in the Prem is energy ,without that there is nothing eg us . So complete overhaul needed and we require money for that so Kane definitely out...and seeing the appalling 'performances ' of Son this year plus his continued value , I'd lose him too . He just doesn't understand the basics of how a forward defends in Prem 2021.

OK , just those two will bring 160 mill . Then critical to sell the deadwood , even miser Levy must take a bath on them..who knows even pay some of their wages at the inevitably smaller outfits they join . But whatever happens GET RID...so there's another few quid for the pot to tempt a new manager .

Take some of this money and completely overhaul the scouting system , bring it totally up to cutting edge . Pay the fucking money for a top DoF and buy wisely...but always players with energy younger mainly....and lastly pay over the top if necessary for the right manager .

Gotta say that overseas people coming in to the Prem from abroad are often stunned at the physicality of it...so in some ways someone who knows how super fit Prem players have to be...rather than realising it 6 months in . Fuck me Mou should have known..but clearly didn't.

Oh yeah and lets lose by a cricket score vs Leicester to completely ram down Levy's throat that the Poch team must be dismantled .

 

[Meercat]

Where do we go from here?

We’ve got players who, it would appear couldn’t give a shit on the pitch, we’ve sacked arguably the best manager we’ve had since Keith Burkinshaw in terms of bringing the glory days back, then sacked the most decorated manager in world football in an 18 month window a week before a cup final, we’ve got owners gouging fans for 600,000 quid and sticking them in the upper tiers, we’ve got fans booing the team who didn’t come out to honour their support until the stewards wanted to close the stadium creating a toxic situation, we’ve got no leadership and are rudderless in ways we haven’t been forever... with genuine world class talents moving away from us. It’s heartbreaking.

Mason was on a hiding to nothing, the plan was that his story would be enough to raise the players for that run in, a feel good moment that soured, but during the last year where normal people have suffered so much in their day to day lives, and football has been an escape we’ve seen this peculiar parallel of a weird decline from challenging for the premier league to collapsing in the Europa and fizzling out in the league without a manager in place and no idea about a future. And so much more... which I think makes it feel worse in away. You know the idea, it’s the hope that kills you. That statement that we’ve spent 250m on players in the last few years just shows an absolutely devastating lack of over arching plan.

So where do we go? Rip it up and start again?
There’s so little between 4-10 these days, and not much between 11-16... the potential to slide is there if we get this wrong. And by get this wrong, I mean, considerably worse judgment calls than where we find ourselves which is already painful. Could it be as simple as taking the income from player sales and buying two high quality CBs to fix the spine, and one creative passer and actually it’s not as bad as it feels... or is it beyond that? Is the soul of the team broken and we need to face reality?

The problem is, for me, right now, something is emotionally broken. It was hard having a manager I’ve actively disliked for nearly twenty years of football, and it’s been tough to watch this disintegration. I want someone who makes me love my club again, and be excited to watch the season develop, putting hope back into the heart.

 

[Black]

To be fair, Poch is where the rot started. The players were very apathetic (although pathetic fits too) long before he was sacked. He alluded to needing a full rebuild due to schisms in the dressing room.



I don't see why Levy is at fault. The dressing room is supposed to be sacrosanct for directors that they never cross. Even when Levy tried to socialise with players in the training ground, people mocked him for acting like David Brent. Is he supposed to be giving the players pep talks before the game?

You can always accuse Levy of not getting better players, but the fact is the players we have *are* good enough. We got into the top 4 and beyond on merit, and we can get there again. My take on it is that that footballers are no different to any other employees, they are humans. They all have different wants and needs and need to be stroked the right way. If they aren't happy, they aren't going to play well. Poch couldn't deal with the personalities. Jose seemed completely ill-equipped to deal with it too. I suspect it will be well above Mason too as it looks like removing Jose wasn't enough to united the dressing room. What we need is someone who values man-management above everything to do whatever's necessary to each individual player to them going again and then we can start to remove the most toxic employees and replace them. That's the rebuild that Poch said we'd need.

This is great post.

Unfortunately a lot of fans live in the fifa world and think its as easy and pressing X a couple of times

 

[shelfboy68]

This season's been shiiiite but there always next year. New manager, new ideas and we could be competitive again. There so many examples of this without a total overhaul. We've got players we just need to get a cohesive plan to maximise their abilities. Forget this season it's done.

Competitive as in what top eight, reach quarter finals of both cups I think this is what we are looking at.

 

[worcestersauce]

The spine of the team is broken.

I think Lloris and Alderweireld have been great servants but have been on the decline since the CL final season. That was when this team as a whole was a year past its peak and on the way down. Eriksen knew which is why he wanted out. Dembele was broken. Kane has been carrying us since then. Now looks like it’ll be a major task to re-energise and re-focus him.

The answer is a major overhaul. The new manager is key. Then recruitment is essential. That manager needs to assess this squad and be given serious cash to buy a new spine with great players.

We have a lot of talent that can improve, the likes of Tanganga, Rodon, Reguilon, Skipp, Sessegnon, Bergwijn, Ndombele and Lo Celso are all young and all have a lot to offer.

Winks, Dier, Sanchez, Sissoko, Aurier, Moura, Lamela etc. are all simply not good enough.

Son and Dele - the new manager needs to quickly work out if their hearts are in it or if they’ve gone stale too.

Højbjerg can be part of that spine but worryingly he’s looked a fraud the last few months, bottling tackles and waving arms like Steffen Freund.

But first major task is we need to replace that spine of Lloris, Toby/Verts, Dembele, Eriksen, Kane.

End of an era.

That sums it up "end of an era".

Time to start a new one.

 

[Gilzeanking]

We have a lot of talent that can improve, the likes of Tanganga, Rodon, Reguilon, Skipp, Sessegnon, Bergwijn, Ndombele and Lo Celso are all young and all have a lot to offer.

Winks, Dier, Sanchez, Sissoko, Aurier, Moura, Lamela etc. are all simply not good enough.

Ahh the old Bergie great , Moura useless confusion..

 

[eViL]

Winning trophies and playing the Tottenham way is our raison d’etre.

Playing the Tottenham way is. Playing with maximum effort, with a talisman like Hoddle, Waddle, Ginola, Gascoigne, Bale, Kane, Son leading the line, winning the majority of games we play.

Trophies are bought these days - they aren't the achievement they used to be. (Leicester being an exception to the rule) It's empty.

Fans need to have their priorities in order, and I think for the majority, they are, but some have an expectation of winning the Champion's League or the Premier League and if we aren't challenging every season, the fans start calling for the heads of coaches like Jol and Poch and we're back to square one.

EVERYONE needs to have a long, hard look at themselves. ALL OF US.

 

[muppetman]

For some reason (perhaps the wife put tomething in my tea!?!?) I'm feeling much more optimistic today. The whole forum is awash with doom and gloom, woe is me, the sky is falling and I can only cope with that for so long.

However, the flip side to all of this at the moment, is that if we can get in a coach in who can work with some of our talented youngsters - Parrott, Scarlett, Skipp and get a bit more out of the likes of GLC, Bergwijn, Reguilon, Tanganga and Ndombele to work with the experience of Hugo, Toby, Kane and Son then maybe it's not a total disaster.

We need to establish an identity, get back some hunger and accept we aren't the finished article (which is what I think Jose was all about) and get back to what worked so well under Poch - agression, hunger, will to work and a burning desire to make it miserable for the opposition.

I don't think the coach needs to be a complete world beater and I don't think we need to invest £200M to get us back actually competing. We then see how that goes next season and build on that. I'm not talking about a new 5yr plan but I think we need a short reset to focus on what we are about - which might even chime with Levy's statement recently.

 

[Metalhead]

This club is dead.

That's a bit hyperbolic.

 

[Metalhead]

Playing the Tottenham way is. Playing with maximum effort, with a talisman like Hoddle, Waddle, Ginola, Gascoigne, Bale, Kane, Son leading the line, winning the majority of games we play.

Trophies are bought these days - they aren't the achievement they used to be. (Leicester being an exception to the rule) It's empty.

Fans need to have their priorities in order, and I think for the majority, they are, but some have an expectation of winning the Champion's League or the Premier League and if we aren't challenging every season, the fans start calling for the heads of coaches like Jol and Poch and we're back to square one.

EVERYONE needs to have a long, hard look at themselves. ALL OF US.

If we win the majority of games that we play then ipso facto we should end up with trophies.

 

[dtxspurs]

I have a hard time seeing anything else in our near future than we are pretty fucked. I have such limited belief in management to successfully re invest the Kane money should he end up leaving.

 

[wrd]

I know realistically we don't need to name a manager for a couple more weeks yet but I'd love nothing more than to hear we have landed a more system based manager who can get more out of the team than the sum of it's parts. I'll be honest the only reason I'd want to be in europe next season is if it impacts who we can sign/what manager we can get.

Personally if we could land a manager like Ten Hag and have no europe and just focus on those 38 games with the domestic trophies I think it would accelerate the transition process significantly.

 

[weststandyid]

Europa league (at best) will make zero difference re transfers. Much better off without.

 

[eViL]

If we win the majority of games that we play then ipso facto we should end up with trophies.

The only guarantee of that is winning every game. See Man City when Liverpool won the League.

 

[Metalhead]

The only guarantee of that is winning every game. See Man City when Liverpool won the League.

Of course but look, at the end of the day, every club should be aiming for trophies because that's being ambitious and every club should show ambition. Obviously we have to temper expectations in the short term but I'll never accept personally that we should just aim to play attractive football and that's it. For me, that's just people trying to save themselves from disappointment.

 

[eViL]

Of course but look, at the end of the day, every club should be aiming for trophies because that's being ambitious and every club should show ambition. Obviously we have to temper expectations in the short term but I'll never accept personally that we should just aim to play attractive football and that's it. For me, that's just people trying to save themselves from disappointment.

So you'd rather watch the dropss that's been served up lately and win the League Cup or Europa League every other year? People pay their money to be entertained all season. Not for one game.

 

[Metalhead]

So you'd rather watch the dropss that's been served up lately and win the League Cup or Europa League every other year? People pay their money to be entertained all season. Not for one game.

Like someone said once, does it have to be one at the expense of the other? Leicester weren't far off a top 4 finish and an FA cup. I'll take that.