The way forward

The issue is that, at the time, Baldini and Mitchell both seemed to be the right man - only for Baldini to wind up being almost as much of a disaster as Comolli, while Mitchell was very disappointing while also making some very questionable recommendations

I'm pretty sure I said it before, but the summer of 2016 looks really bad when you look at some other moves that happened that summer
Vincent Janssen & GKN: £28m
Timo Werner & Ousmane Dembele: £14m

The fact we paid double for GKN that Dortmund paid for Dembele really calls Mitchell's judgment into question, partly because a better player was available for less, but mainly because as soon as Marseille started playing silly buggers (again...) we should've pulled the plug on negotiations and told them to piss off

 

It's essentially the same for anything I guess, why sign players when they could be poor? Why appoint a new manager when they could be poor? So questions will also be asked as to why you'd appoint a new DoF? Ultimately you hope the players you sign will be great, the new manager will do better than the last and so a new DoF will help us get back on the right track as a club.

I'd say Arnesen was a success until his departure and whilst Commolli wasn't amazing he did make some great signings, Baldini was a flop and Mitchell had a mixed bag.

I think over the last 2-3 years (possibly longer actually) Spurs as a club haven't made good enough footballing decisions and because of that we're now in our worst state since probably Ramos was sacked, not quite "2 points from 8 games" thankfully but it's currently 3 points from the last 6 games and looking very poor with little sign of improvement. Because of all this, I want to see some significant changes, both at the top and lower down.

 

There is no way to ever fully mitigate risks but the key to success is surely appointing a DOF who "gets" the club in terms of its ethos, its fanbase and its financials, but above and beyond all else - someone who the senior coach trusts and works well with.

It's that latter point that I think has hurt us most, as our collapses from some impressive heights coincided with the disastrous working relationships between BMJ-Comolli and then Baldini-AVB. The damage those two DOF's did was almost unimaginable and yet we obviously didn't appoint them thinking they were crap and both had noteworthy successes at other clubs. The main breakdown was due to the DoF steering in the opposite direction to the coaching staff.

On the rare occasion that this isn't the case - such as BMJ-Arnesen or Pleat advising Poch, we have reaped the rewards.

The only other model is to scrap the whole idea of a DoF and give the senior coach the title of 'manager'...but actually mean it and believe it. Best examples of this were Harry and Poch, both of whom supposedly had independence in terms of recruitment yet both clearly had their hands tied in a number of ways at board level.

Either way, the common denominator is that the board should not be getting involved in footballing decisions. They can set the annual budget, but if a manager says he'd like to sign Player X for £40m, the default response can't be "here's Player Y who costs half that, has a fancy name, dodgy haircut and happens to play in the same position".

 

The board is always going to be involved in decisions, that's why they are there. Whether that's to pick the manager or DOF or to approve or not the of purchasing players Don't forget that Spurs were the first to become a public company in 1982 and no PLC can just hand financial control to individuals without accountability to the board of directors who are in turn responsible to the shareholders. There is also little evidence to suggest that it makes a positive difference whether we have a DOF or not or whether we have a coach or a manger. You can also argue that the Levy led board has had as much success picking players as anyone else at Spurs. Some managers strength is in identifying players other it is tactics with others it's motivation. The secret surely is to have a manager who recognises his weaknesses and employs back up to cover those areas. Take Fergusson, one of the all time successful managers his strengths were clearly motivational skills, not so hot on tactics so he employed a right hand man, he made some very expensive errors with signings, all clubs do. Spurs have punched ABOVE their weight in recent seasons through astute transfers and that's how we beat teams bigger than us into the top 4. We are having a bad run but that does not mean that what Spurs have done in recent years has been wrong. We have come from a team around 8th in the division to a top 4 team that reached a CL final and now has one of the world's best stadiums and training faciilities. We are in a low point it does not mean that we cannot quickly change that and to do that we might have to change the manager again but we certainly don't need the kind of root and branch change some advocate.

 

So I noticed something interesting on r/coys

Usually the Reddit crowd treat The Pathetic as Tier 1, even though that's patently not the case as Tier 1 is Spurs' Twitter and website - however, now they've published a piece with "sources" critical of the training methods, now of course the Jose In mob have come stampeding in to say The Pathetic is a load of ****e, which is a complete 180 from the tune they were singing six months ago

So that's the current shape of our support base, and it looks like Salvador Dali was having problems at home

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/56172230

"I want to know which coach has always had blue sky and never cloudy or a bit dark," Mourinho said on Tuesday.

"Perhaps only a coach who is always at a dominant club in a league. It shows how beautiful my career has been."

#gaslighter

 

We should thank him

...wait, wrong gaslighting twat

 

Half tempted to say this means he'll stay, given the source...

 

Can not see a way forward other than sacking JM after that NLD farce.

2 attempts on target by the 88th min and 5 attempts in total.

Shameful

 

I sense that you're a little unhappy, RCL.

 

Posted this on the matchday thread...
This is the latest in a VERY long line of appalling performances.

Man Utd away 2019/20
Chelsea home and away 2019/20
Southampton away 2019/20
Norwich away 2019/20
Norwich home fa cup 2019/20
Red Bull Liepzig CL away 2019/20
Wolves home 2019/20
Burnley away 2019/20
Watford away 2019/20
Everton home 2019/20
Bournemouth away 2019/20
Sheffield United away 2019/20
Palace away 2019/20

Everton home 2020/21
Locomotive plofdiv 2020/21
Southampton away first half 2020/21
West Ham home 2020/21
Antwerp EL away 2020/21
Palace away second half 2020/21
Leicester home 2020/21
Wolves away second half 2020/21
Fulham home second half 2020/21
Liverpool home 2020/21
Chelsea home 2020/21
Brighton away 2020/21
Man City away 2020/21
West Ham away until last 20mins 20/21
Fulham home second half 2020/21
Arsenal away 2020/21

That's 29 matches.

He's been our manager for 79 games.

Unacceptable imho

 

I wonder how long it'll be before we go back to the theory that the ubermensch is sacking off the league to focus on winning the Europa, which is what he did at Man Utd

Slight problem: our derby actually matters, while the Manc derby didn't matter until The Sheikh Mansour team won the Euromillions and all of a sudden those weirdos from Stretford got weirdly obsessed with local bragging rights...

 

Genuinely am tbh.
I have no issue with pragmatism.
We won the FA Cup in 1982 being very pragmatic in the final and replay cos we were running on empty.

But what we are being forced to put up with is shocking.

3 good league games since before Xmas is a sacking offence.

If Pochettino deserved to be sacked so does JM imho.

 

We face the very real and some might say existential dilemma that the very thing that will potentially keep Kane/Son at the club will also almost certainly keep Jose at the club. Win the EL and finish respectably in the league and there is no way he gets the sack imo. Anything less than that, I think he'll go. But so will Kane and Son.

That is what I feel like I have to chose between.

 

We ain't winning the EL....not a ****ing chance.

 

The first decent team we draw we'll be out so doubt you'll need to worry.
This is all so predictable and the fault firmly lays at Levy's door

 

Just seen JMs print interview where he says "Big name players hid" and moaning about the officials.
The man is a joke...
Wrong tactics, wrong team choice and now once again publicly slating players while taking no responsibility for anything.

How bad do we have to get before Levy and the board act ffs