Poch: It's Time to Back Me Levy!

So with another season over, it's time to chew the fat. Already just moments after the final game of the season vs Leicester, Poch is already making loud signals that it's time to really back him or he might look elsewhere.

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With the new stadium on the horizon and this crop of young players not being able to progress to another cup final yet managing to reach next seasons Champions League again, we are clearly at a crossroads if we want to progress, be more successful and have a realistic chance of silverware.

What do you think will happen in the summer? Will Levy dig his heels in and stick to the clubs strict wage ceiling and transfer target policy, and risk losing Poch to another club or will the board decide now is the time to really give Poch greater spending power at his disposal and add much needed experience, leadership and flair in areas we so desperately need?

Whatever happens, it's a really exciting time to be a Spurs supporter. What are your thoughts on this?

 

Audere est Facere

 

Oh, the joys of not having the full interview
(which I have listened to) but elided text transcripts ...

 

Once it's on YouTube, we can post it here and have a good listen.

 

Poch and DL appear to have been on the same page since he arrived 4 years ago. There is nothing to think that situation has changed and the securing of CL football was possibly the last tick in the box to ensure the purse strings are (sensibly) released to see a significant on-field development over the next few months.

The futures bright - the futures WHITE (and blue)

 

I am sure that DL has been stressing to MP that the club needed CL football next season to secure sponsorships, ticket sales and service debt. MP and the team have duly delivered.

Now, it's only right that MP should return the compliment. There should be a bit of friction at the top. It keeps everyone on their toes. One of the main reasons why Arsenal have gone so far 'off course' is that Wenger wasn't pushing Kroenke to back him in improving the players available and Kroenke wasn't asking why Wenger's teams packed up post-Christmas for a couple of months every year and went on vacation.

MP should be pushing for Bale or Modric or whoever. Whether we can afford them is another matter but I don't expect MP to produce miracles forever. If we're to continue to progress we need to invest and cut back on the GKN, Clinton N'Jie, Vinnie, Sissoko, Llorente type of signing - i.e. players bought as much with their price in mind as what they offered to the way we actually play.

Announcing a massive stadium sponsorship deal tomorrow would be handy or we could see if we could put 'Angry Birds' on the sleeve of our new shirts for next season? That should allow us to pick up Rooney and Davy Klaasen.

 

Poch wants money to spend to compete with the very best.

Simple as that.

 

The comments are certainly interesting.
With the world up starting in 4 weeks or so, I’d imagine we’d see a lot of news during this period, if there is to be any. A total change to our transfer business is needed, IMO.

But do we see Levy changing the wage structure, when we’re already seeing the Toby situation unravel before our eyes?
My fear is that if it doesn’t, and Poch thinks he’s getting a load of N’Bale’s and N’Modric’s again, he could walk.

The “leaking bucket” days need to come to an end. We need to keep our best players, and sign some top reinforcements. - not sell one of our best players to free up funds.

I think Poch has proven he can’t take this group any further than he has over the course of a season, as the strength and depth just isn’t quite strong enough. Levy really needs to back him now. If he doesn’t, and Poch was to leave, I genuinely think there may be protests over where the club is going.

Unless, of course, Poch and Levy have already spoken, and these comments from him are just him going public on the matter so we all know who to blame!

 

From his remarks, it's clear Poch and Levy have not had that talk yet and are due to sit down this week. I have everything crossed that the clubs ambitions match Poch's vision.

There's also rumours circulating that the club are sitting down with Toby again this week over contract talks so I think that could be a watershed moment. If the club agree a deal with him, it might show us the kind of wage benchmark the club are willing to go to. If not, I think this tells us exactly the type of players to expect the club to target i.e more of the same!

 

Or the 'crazy idea' is to stick to the plan, sell Toby and sign 4 or 5 young players?

We can definitely strengthen the depth in the squad but getting someone who is actually better than the current fringe player is going to be hit and miss at best.

Getting someone who is going to be a shoe in to start is going to cost £50m to £100m depending on position as well as a 50% pay rise for almost everyone else.

 

Poch said the word ambition a few times. Is ambition selling and buying more young players? Surely that's more of the same. I'd bet my house that's not his crazy idea.

 

Having put up a crystal clear post-match in the Leicester
match day article, as I said the full thing gave a very different
story.

Pochettino has said some of what we often discuss.

1. How do we compete with the financial power of
the Mancs, when they have the option to spend their way
out of trouble, take our transfer targets etc ??

2. New WHL settling in period has the potential to be another
Wembley. How do we remove/hasten that period of time ??

3. What is the financial state of play for the short term regarding
wages, transfer fees etc ??

Are the PL/CL performances bringing in the extra funds for this ??
Will the new WHL debt burden act as a drain on those funds, or
has Levy got this sorted as he intended ??


So the off-pitch scheming this summer to deal with the above,
while Pochettino deals with the on-pitch deficiences (which are
being discussed elsewhere and are his job) .

 

It's interesting because MP has not made these kind of comments before. Starting when we lost the FA Cup semi final came the first hints of any kind of conflict with DL.
Anticipation of greater income from the new stadium and confirmed CL participation appears to be leading to some discussion on how we are to spend the extra revenue. The obvious and perhaps only sensible option is to spend it strengthening the team, but don't forget the more we spend on wages the less there is for transfers.
Levy hasn't taken the club this far to suddenly become loose and foolish with the purse strings. Spurs have given a lesson to all top teams on how to behave in a sensible manner in a crazy football world inhabited by the likes of Man. City and PSG. The more teams that follow Spurs example the better for the sport in the long run.
I suspect we will pay a little more and sign a couple more but I hope we keep to the model that has served us well and IMO makes Levy the best Chairman in the Premier League by far and yes I hope we also keep the best manager in the League in Mauricio Pochettino.

 

Hopefully he's just reminding Levy to stick to his part of the deal As Bri says, Poch has done his bit this year.

Levy needs to back Poch with money not nice stories. We are that one step away from moving to the next level...been saying it since the cup semi....it's over to you Levy. The team and manager have proved themselves...anyone can tell we need inspirational signings...not middle of the road squad fillers in the hope that our first XI will play every single game.

If not...sell up and bye bye Levy because to me I don't think it will ever change and I font want yo be Arsenal...selling fans the top 4 as success every year.

 

When you listen to the entire interview, not the selected parts hammered to fit the desired headline (with ESPN being the worst offenders, as noted in Hack Watch) it's clear that Poch's saying that we need to start Phase Two of the project because not only has Phase One gone as far as it can but several components clearly need to be replaced while there's still gaps in various parts of the squad, notably any form of cover for Kane or Eriksen.

More than anything else, he's showing ambition as he doesn't want to sit on his laurels - because as we've seen down Finsbury Park way, sitting on your laurels isn't going to lead to long-term success and instead lead to stagnation and a sense of ennui within the team and growing frustration from the fans.

Of course the most amusing thing is a couple of Standard hacks are currently bickering on Twitter about when and where Poch made his comments...

 

We all know that we’re never going to be able to compete with the likes of City and PSG financially, but it’s about finding a middle ground that doesn’t deviate too far from our model, but shows some intent.
Selling any of our best players, and/or only reinvesting recouped money will only get us so far.

 

We have consistently spent between 50-60% of our income on wages during ENIC's ownership. I'm not sure that I see that changing too greatly but we are likely to have doubled our income since MP became manager and he should get at least that to spend. That would give us something of the order of an extra £100m to spend on wages. I'd be surprised if he got too much more and coming up with transfer fees could be an issue. However, it might let us make Toby a stronger offer than to date.

Liverpool are currently spending 75% of their income on wages. that's a figure that can't be sustained without significant income growth or trading your best player every few years to balance it. That's what Liverpool seem to be doing and for now, it's working well for them. They've sold Coutinho to bring in VvD and Keita and pay the former £170k per week. It's the same model that we've used over the last decade but ramped up a bit on the wage front. Might we sell someone like Sonny to buy Seri and Malcom?

I'm looking a few years into the future and speculating that clubs see being involved in a European Super-League as critical to their businesses and now is not the time to be drifting down the league, especially as Spurs are only recently making the CL on a regular basis. That need to sustain performance might help MP in his negotiations with DL but a huge stadium sponsorship deal would help a whole lot more. Maybe MP knows that we've landed a big fish and is making his play for a significant share of the extra cash?

Overall, as usual, the press are guessing because we leak next to nothing as a club. The prediction rate of the press is usually terrible as far as we're concerned, so anything they write is far more likely to be wrong than right. I still have total faith that MP will be our manager next season but time is approaching for Spurs to start to loosen the purse strings.

 

Said weeks back and will say it again, I envisage us having a huge summer. Even more so now that Poch has publicly laid down the gauntlet.

I think we'll definitely see one, maybe two or possibly even three top class signings along with a few strong squad additions.

This an opportune moment for Spurs to make a massive statement and I think Levy will capitalise on it. Big signings to go with the new stadium will generate a phenomenal amount of interest to the point where shirt sales, media coverage etc alone will help cover costs of new signings and wages. Not to the same level as how Utd recouped the Pogba money within a week or so but I imagine us to look at that example as a way we can recoup a large chunk of money.