Re: AVB Sacked page 224
AVB wanted to go according to this
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/fo...os-when-Franco-Baldini-offered-to-resign.html
Tottenham Hotspur plunged into utter chaos when Franco Baldini offered to resign
Daniel Levy’s grand plan almost fell apart at the seams when their technical director offered to follow Andre Villas-Boas out the exit door
It was just before Franco Baldini had reached Tottenham Hotspur’s state-of-the-art training ground in Enfield last Monday that the news broke. Andre Villas-Boas had been sacked as Spurs’ head coach.
Baldini, hired as technical director partly on Villas-Boas’s recommendation, then, according to club sources, offered his own resignation to Spurs’ chairman Daniel Levy. It was immediately refused. If it had been accepted then Spurs’ new, modern structure would have fallen apart at the seams in one eventful morning.
Levy wants to run his club along the lines of a head coach and a director of football and has craved it ever since the disaster of signing Sergei Rebrov for a then club record £11 million in 2000 under manager George Graham only for the Ukrainian to be frozen out under Glenn Hoddle.
Never again, Levy vowed: he duly used Hoddle in tandem with David Pleat and then Juande Ramos with Damien Comolli.
Levy wants a coach who works on the training ground with the players that the club buys and does not want a manager who has too much power. He wants value for money; he want to sweat the club’s assets – with the accusation that then follows that he is a ‘numbers man’ first and foremost.
It is why Levy fretted over the sight of Emmanuel Adebayor, Spurs’ highest earner, being frozen out by Villas-Boas.
The trio had been due to hold further talks on Villas-Boas’s future, after a brief, tetchy meeting immediately after the 5-0 humiliation at home to Liverpool, but it was not necessary.
Villas-Boas wanted to go; Levy wanted him to go and so the two reached agreement without Baldini.
Villas-Boas delivered Christmas presents to Spurs’ staff, as he had planned, and called the first-team squad together.
“He wanted to see everybody and, in front of the squad, he said it was the decision of the club and it’s not an easy situation for everybody but we have to respect that and continue our ways and our work because Tottenham have a lot of ambition this year,” goalkeeper Hugo Lloris said.
Baldini’s offer to then go himself was understandable but it also highlighted the apparent state of chaos at the club, which had hoped a high-powered triumvirate of chairman, technical director and head coach could drive Spurs’ forward into the Champions League places and eventually into Premier League title contention. Given the drive and ability possessed by all three men it could — should – have succeeded but the personality clashes hurt.
Baldini offered to go because he had to assume part of the responsibility for what happened with Villas-Boas and because he oversaw the £107 million spending spree last summer, which overhauled the Spurs squad with the proceeds from selling Gareth Bale to Real Madrid for £85 million.
So frantic was that activity that on the final day of the transfer window last August Baldini was in a whirl of meetings at the training ground finalising the signings of Christian Eriksen, Erik Lamela and Vlad Chiriches. It was a risky strategy but an understandable one and was initially hailed as turning a potential negative into a positive. All the players are talented, and Baldini retains faith that his signings will work.
But not all the seven were the ones wanted by Villas-Boas. The Portuguese had hoped the club would keep Bale and bring in David Villa and Hulk to form a new strike force. He had wanted Paulinho, Étienne Capoue and Roberto Soldado and was bitterly disappointed that Willian went to Chelsea.
The transfer deals were a source of tension, as detailed last week by The Telegraph, as was the club’s reluctance to implement changes to the medical department that he had recommended. Villas-Boas also clashed with the club in the row over Lloris’ head injury and, of course, the handling of Adebayor who Villas-Boas wanted out.
There was friction after Paris St-Germain made an approach to hire Villas-Boas and appeared willing to pay the £10 million compensation in his release clause. The coach decided to stay, there were murmurings over a new contract – but in the end nothing happened.
So what now for Spurs? Tim Sherwood was the obvious choice as interim head coach, not least because he has not been slow to voice his own opinion as to what should be done, including some forthright criticism of Villas-Boas.
The Capital One Cup defeat at home to West Ham United was a baptism of fire for the 44-year-old with his substitutions – withdrawing a striker for a midfielder – backfiring spectacularly.
He wants the job on a permanent basis and he is highly-rated by Levy who has allowed Sherwood a great deal of autonomy in signing players for Spurs’ development squads in his role as the club’s technical coordinator. Indeed Sherwood was considered, before Baldini’s appointment, to become technical director but it was decided he lacked experience.
He has no experience as a head coach, either, but will be given every chance to succeed having also toured Europe, spending time in Spain and Holland learning how other clubs operate, even if he has yet to find the time to gain a Uefa Pro Licence, which is a requirement of every Premier League manager.
“We know Tim because he’s worked for the club for a long time now,” Lloris said. “He has the philosophy of the club and he’s tries his best to put all the players in their best condition with his staff.”
Sherwood has apparently committed to a 4-4-2 formation for Spurs – he encouraged the same system with the club’s under-21s and under-18s – and Lloris said his first training session had ended with the demand to “just play our game and play on joy and try to keep the philosophy of the club, to attack”.
Understandably Sherwood has also already called for stability – something the Tottenham Hotspur Supporters Trust has demanded as it has asked Levy to “explain the rationale” behind Villas-Boas’s dismissal. That would presumably start with him being installed as the club’s next head coach. He has every chance to stake his claim over Christmas.
