Beginning of Nuno's reign

Portuguese manager Paulo Fonseca says his move to take charge of Tottenham collapsed because sporting director Fabio Paratici wanted Spurs to play defensive football. (Telegraph - subscription required)

 

He wasn't even in the picture until Paratici came in. This makes no sense.

 

Who wasn't even in the picture?

 

Fonseca. The move for Conte broke down, we brought in Paratici and he wanted Fonseca.
It collapsed over money, according to the reports at the time, due to a tax difference if the hacks are to be believed:

 

Yeah I recall that... however we do seem to have a certain brand of football and it isn't free flowing. Fonseca's teams might be average but his team's play on the front foot.

No doubt there was more than one issue but as always, money will have been the biggest one.

 

I agree that our style of football is too conservative and it's not what the fans want to see.
It's early days for Espirito Santo, but I'm not seeing the return to Tottenham DNA at all, frankly.

Fonseca's version of events still makes no sense, though.
Paratici didn't bin him because of his football, as he was the one that wanted him in the first place. Not a Levy choice in the least.
I assume he's trying to remind people that he's available. Maybe there are some jobs coming up in Serie A soon?

 

Yeah I share a similar view and even said pretty much the same with regards to transfers - I was happy with what we did but unhappy with what we didn’t/ failed to do. Though I suppose sorting all our problems out in one window was never going to happen, even if it was somewhat possible in my opinion. We were a creative mid and a striker away from a very decent window I’d say.

His main decision so far I’m not on board with is the manager, Nuno’s a really decent bloke but I don’t think we’ll play the attacking football that Levy implied in the identity statement and whilst I think Nuno won’t flop in terms of results overall, I don’t see him being someone who’ll excel or get the very best out of the players at his disposal. At best I’d say we’ll possibly finish 7th under him and it won’t be a pretty watch along the way.

 

We still need to change about half the squad, which is a massive undertaking.
Our homegrown balance is horrible too, which restricts us even further.
I don't think that Paratici is perfect for that part of the equation either, unfortunately.

 

For me the one thing which sticks out is that, for the PL at least, we still have two Non HG spots available (although that gets messed up in Europe, as Davies and Rodon take those)

That certainly paints a picture of there being at least one player we were looking to sign but didn't get through, or that we're gambling on getting to January in decent shape before bringing in a key player then (for the sake of argument, one of Kessie or Nandez)

 

Yeah I was disappointed at how many remain though I can’t completely blame Paratici for that, no one wanted Aurier to the point where we released him, Winks refused to go, the club still persists with Dele and Lo Celso, Ndombele also had no suitors either despite him seemingly thinking one of the best sides in the world would come in for him and Sanchez seemed to be up for sale one week and off it the next.

I’m not overly worried about the HG side, it’s not ideal by any means and I agree that based on Paratici’s signings, he’s not going to be looking too much at domestic based players but with a few promising young players coming through I’m happy for them to be given a few chances in place of what would’ve likely been a senior HG option if they were here.

 

And nobody has picked him up, as yet. I find that utterly bizarre, given the state of some teams' defences, to be honest.

 

At the very least I would have thought he'd have got an offer from one of the big Turkish clubs

...that sounded meaner than I intended it to, didn't it?

 

Maybe he has, but he turned them down?

The ACON coming up in January will put some people off, but I still don't think that's enough.
There may be something that we don't know, of course.
That would explain why we were so ready to get shot of him at seemingly any cost.

 

Wasn’t he linked with Everton? What’s happened with that

 

I remember you fussing about this at the time. Didn't realise it still bothered you, though.

 

No idea. Perhaps they needed to free up a space? Now Rodriguez has gone, perhaps he'll go there?

 

Just another obvious example of dogshit, biased refereeing.
Literally happens every week and nobody ever gets booked for it.
Michael Oliver doing his usual against us. The prick.