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Andre Villas-Boas - Head Coach

Spur of the moment said:
Which implies you had no faith in Harry, despite him getting us 4th 5th and 4th in successive seasons and every prospect of bettering that next season.
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I have no idea what might have happened next season if Harry had stayed.

And neither do you.

So no point going there.
 
jimmyb said:
You're arguing very much from the standpoint that improvement can only be judged in relation to other clubs. You're also taking a very short term view - judging success or failure on what happens next season.

Both are perfectly valid. Just so long as you are aware that there are other ways of judging and measuring success.

Say, for instance, that Spurs were to finish 5th next season having won 74 points. Would we have improved or regressed?

Alternatively, imagine that Spurs clear out much of the deadwood, sign some young but highly promising players, start the season with a poor points return as the new team gels and acclimatises to AVB's ideas before finishing the season strongly with a ten game unbeaten run to earn 7th spot, four points short of 4th.

You would doubtless, and with some justification, describe that as failure and regression.

And yet what if, the following season, the team continues its strong form from the back end of the previous season, goes from strength to strength and finishes comfortably in 3rd? What if that improvement couldn't possibly have come about had the initial changes (which led to the initial regression) not been taken?
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If, if, if...

4th, 5th, 4th. That's the form.

Anything less is failure.
 
Pirate55 said:
Do you really think that group of players is better than the Arse, Liverpool and Chelsea squads.?If you do, I am afraid you are delusional. You base your assessments/hopes entirely on new players. That is just wishful thinking at present. We dont have CL or a CL budget to attract the best. We lost Ade and probably Modric. If you think that AVB can wave a magic wand and suddenly deliver 4th then you must be some kind of optimist to say the least.
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+1. Can't believe some of you lot.
 
billyiddo said:
1 - excellent man management - im sure Corluka, Bassong, Defoe, G.D.S etc etc would all have something to say about that - he was good at keeping the first XI motivated though for sure - but is that skill something that is exclusive to Harry Redknapp ? would the players at Porto who worked under AVB have the same things to say about him ? or could it be that when a winning team is performing well that everyone that is playing is generally happy ?

2 - this season we were playing some fantastic football in the first half of the season when morale was high and we were in full flow - after that, when we hit a bit of a wall ? not so much
the season before when we struggled to break down team after team - was that exciting attacking football ? or the season prior to that when route one to Crouch was utilized all too often ?

3 - clutching at straws there mate - where was his habit at winning prior to taking over Spurs ? is that a skill that a manager has ? i don't think so


so again i ask what makes him such an irreplaceable manager - what does he have that so few managers out there possess that means we have such little chance of stumbling upon another manager as good as him ?

i always maintained his genius was his simplicity and im sure he would agree - he himself says that football management is all about the players (90% i think he said) - pick a good balanced team and give them the freedom to play their football, the trouble was he had little to no plan b and had he had one we may have achieved more and i would have lauded him as much as some of you
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1 (Cough) So AVB has better man-management skills?
2 So you think we'll play even more attractive with AVB and his high-line?
3 Harry's win percentage was higher than any manager in decades. Better even than Nicholson's.
 
jimmyb said:
You're arguing very much from the standpoint that improvement can only be judged in relation to other clubs. You're also taking a very short term view - judging success or failure on what happens next season.

Both are perfectly valid. Just so long as you are aware that there are other ways of judging and measuring success.

Say, for instance, that Spurs were to finish 5th next season having won 74 points. Would we have improved or regressed?

Alternatively, imagine that Spurs clear out much of the deadwood, sign some young but highly promising players, start the season with a poor points return as the new team gels and acclimatises to AVB's ideas before finishing the season strongly with a ten game unbeaten run to earn 7th spot, four points short of 4th.

You would doubtless, and with some justification, describe that as failure and regression.

And yet what if, the following season, the team continues its strong form from the back end of the previous season, goes from strength to strength and finishes comfortably in 3rd? What if that improvement couldn't possibly have come about had the initial changes (which led to the initial regression) not been taken?
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Excellent points. We got more points in 2005/2006 than last season.
 
Spur of the moment said:
1 (Cough) So AVB has better man-management skills?
2 So you think we'll play even more attractive with AVB and his high-line?
3 Harry's win percentage was higher than any manager in decades. Better even than Nicholson's.
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What do you want?

Harry has left the building. Deal with it.
 
Wonder if Pienaar will have a role this year now under AVB.

He looked bloody magic back at Everton.
 
Spur of the moment said:
What if we'd kept Harry and improved on last season by qualifying for the CL? That would have paved the way to bring in a better calibre of players.

I couldn't give a monkey's about the average age of the team so long as we keep progressing. Harry proved you can do that with a fair percentage of older experienced players. So why was he sacked?
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Because Harry is the type to favour proven experience over coaching unproven youth. I have no doubt if we give Harry money to spend, he'd buy quality and do well with it. But if we are at the level where our finances are slightly below that of our competitors, we need to be doing something else, otherwise we will never compete.

Harry is often unsure about unproven players, and will sign stop gaps instead. Levy might want a coach that knows when to take a 'punt' on a younger player and has the methods that would see him improve. Levy needs someone who agrees with his philosophy otherwise there will be a tipping point where it isn't sustainable any more. Teams around us will keep improving and Harry will keep saying 'We need to spend to keep up' but the kind of signings Harry wants seemed to cost a lot of money with very little risk, but with the position we are in, we need to be able to take calculated risks in order to get a higher reward than the finances would give us.

Eventually we will have many players that need replacing and would need a lot of money to keep rebuilding, so Levy had to act. Doesn't mean he thinks he's a bad manager, or doesn't respect what he has done for us, it just means he'd prefer someone under him that is a good coach and shares his ideals. No biggie.
 
Spur of the moment said:
What if we'd kept Harry and improved on last season by qualifying for the CL? That would have paved the way to bring in a better calibre of players.

I couldn't give a monkey's about the average age of the team so long as we keep progressing. Harry proved you can do that with a fair percentage of older experienced players. So why was he sacked?
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The England drama and his dereliction of duty. Then trying very crude string arm tactics through the media with levy. He fudged himself over
 
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