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Contingency planning : When Ange is sacked, who should replace him?

thfcsteff said:
Can't help but have a laugh at all this...jesus...where were you all in August/Sept 2020 when he needed and deserved support? That's right, gathering yer stats about 'brick' he'd made us in 12 months (the same months which still saw us scrape 4th as well as get to that CL Final, most of it without a fit Kane)...honestly, I give up LOL.
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I loved (and still) love Poch.

I’d take him back tomorrow (in fact, why wait - get him back today!).

He needed to go when he did last time though imo. He was spent; he gave every impression of being very unhappy; he’d openly spoken about potentially moving on; our results and football (CL run not withstanding) had not been good for a long time.

He wanted a rebuild - our owners weren’t willing to fund it. So there was no point in a demotivated and very unhappy manager sticking around. A change at the time, in the circumstances, was best for everyone.

Bloke needed a break, we needed an injection of enthusiasm, energy and fresh ideas. Not sure we got that…but that’s a different discussion!
 
Mikey10 said:
I loved (and still) love Poch.

I’d take him back tomorrow (in fact, why wait - get him back today!).

He needed to go when he did last time though imo. He was spent; he gave every impression of being very unhappy; he’d openly spoken about potentially moving on; our results and football (CL run not withstanding) had not been good for a long time.

He wanted a rebuild - our owners weren’t willing to fund it. So there was no point in a demotivated and very unhappy manager sticking around. A change at the time, in the circumstances, was best for everyone.

Bloke needed a break, we needed an injection of enthusiasm, energy and fresh ideas. Not sure we got that…but that’s a different discussion!
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The huge irony is that not doing Poch's rebuild has ended up costing us about 5 times more, as well as making us endure 5 years of on pitch misery
 
Wrote this in the 'Ange in or out' thread, but seeing everyone on the Poch train this morning is here, this also belongs here (in reaction to thfcsteff saying that now is not the right time):

It looks like exactly the right time to me, for the reasons outlined by Raziel - we have a ready-made young core of a rebuilt squad that can quite easily adapt to 4-2-3-1. I am sure Poch would be one of the best if not the best candidate to get the most out of Gray and Bergvall together in midfield, and we know he has the courage to play the young players (like Ange). The overlapping potential of Spence and Udogie is massive, on a par with Walker and Rose I would argue. Being Argentinian, he might be able to convince Romero to stay (and make him into our permanent captain), he might be sufficiently courageous to play Moore more often - I think he is our only genuinely creative player in the long run in our catalogue of Ange-type wingers - and with Lange/Munn (and Paratici?) around he would not have to identify and sign players on his own, so we should avoid a repeat of the Lo Celso/N'Dombele summer. No guarantees, of course, but it seems like the perfect moment to me, esp. if we wait until the summer and he has a full pre-season to get to know the players.

Why do you think that now, specifically, is not the right time? Do we simply need more water under the bridge because the wound has not yet fully healed?
 
Mcfee said:
Or is it just manufactured hearsay?
Is there any suggestion he’d drop his current position 15 months out from hosting the World Cup?
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Just watch his interview from this weekend. Its the biggest 'come and get me' you've ever seen.

America's best player is a rotation option at Raith Rovers. Trump's Boys will struggle to surpass what Qatar did last time round
 
Gutter Boy said:
Just watch his interview from this weekend. Its the biggest 'come and get me' you've ever seen.

America's best player is a rotation option at Raith Rovers. Trump's Boys will struggle to surpass what Qatar did last time round
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Don't be silly, the host nation always gets an unofficial bye into the knock outs, to maintain interest and $$$. Fifa have still got the FBI breathing down their neck.
 
thfcsteff said:
Can't help but have a laugh at all this...jesus...where were you all in August/Sept 2020 when he needed and deserved support? That's right, gathering yer stats about 'brick' he'd made us in 12 months (the same months which still saw us scrape 4th as well as get to that CL Final, most of it without a fit Kane)...honestly, I give up LOL.
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It can be both true that he had to go then, and that maybe he should come back now.

Things change with time.
 
Baleforce said:
It can be both true that he had to go then, and that maybe he should come back now.

Things change with time.
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True. Given the situation at the time, it was probably inevitable. One can of course debate _why_ the situation at the time was as it was, but that is neither here nor there. The result was nevertheless that Pochettino was running on fumes himself, at least since the CL-final but probably even earlier.

I normally don't think it is a good idea to "go back". But this one??
Ah feck, I'm such a romantic sucker... (To bad my missus don't think so!) 😅
 
thfcsteff said:
Can't help but have a laugh at all this...jesus...where were you all in August/Sept 2020 when he needed and deserved support? That's right, gathering yer stats about 'brick' he'd made us in 12 months (the same months which still saw us scrape 4th as well as get to that CL Final, most of it without a fit Kane)...honestly, I give up LOL.
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Hey, some of us never wavered that he was the right man for us, and never have even today. ;)

I have been steadfast in the opinion that Postecoglou, utterly mediocre journeyman though he is, deserves the season. But if Poch wanted to come back, we should move heaven and Earth to make it happen. I know you have previously alluded to boardroom opposition to his return when he was last available (when we passed over him and got the current rando instead), but that was when we could afford to be choosy.

We can't anymore. We are 14th and plummeting. Our fans have broken ranks and are hurling abuse, some of it offensive, at our players, at Levy, at Postecoglou, at each other. The unity of the club is broken. We are lost.

The patience has run out for Postecoglou. But the one man who would get some patience, and the love of the stands, is Poch. If nothing else, he would start the process of piecing this club back together.

As long as Deadweight Dan is charge, we will never do. But, we might as well dare. And Poch at least had us doing that. No reason he can't do it again.

Plus, we have fallen so miserably far that no one better than him would touch us with a bargepole anyway. Most good managers would laugh long and hard at the prospect of working for Daniel Levy. And if it's between Iraola and Poch, there is nothing in that.
 
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dingdongo said:
I doubt he would leave the US job before he has really even got started to be honest. He might end up coming back after our next coach
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That's the thing - I dearly want him back, but he would probably stay loyal to the US, at least until their World Cup on home soil in 2026.

Same reason he rejected United (iirc) and Madrid, to stay with us. Man is loyal. And managing at a World Cup is a dream for any manager, especially if it's being held in that country.

Plus, the money's great, lots of media coverage in the wealthiest nation on Earth, and it must appeal to spend most of your time lounging in California compared to perpetually overcast London.

But...he isn't saying this now for no reason, either.
 
DubaiSpur said:
I have been steadfast in the opinion that Postecoglou, utterly mediocre journeyman though he is, deserves the season. But if Poch wanted to come back, we should move heaven and Earth to make it happen.

We can't anymore. We are 14th and plummeting. Our fans have broken ranks and are hurling abuse, some of it offensive, at our players, at Levy, at Postecoglou, at each other. The unity of the club is broken. We are lost.

The patience has run out for Postecoglou. But the one man who would get some patience, and the love of the stands, is Poch. If nothing else, he would start the process of piecing this club back together.
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Exactly this, on all three counts - and also for me an important reason why now would be the right time to consider the return of Poch.
 
Gutter Boy said:
The huge irony is that not doing Poch's rebuild has ended up costing us about 5 times more, as well as making us endure 5 years of on pitch misery
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Same as not giving ourselves the best chance of winning the EL now (and securing CL for next season) by changing the manager will potentially cost us more than paying him off and paying a break clause for someone else.
 
I don't think it's too hard to write a list of reasons why Poch would be a good fit for the club. We should think about the following though:

1) Poch abandoned his successful system in his last year or so and had a system that actually looked like we're currently seeing with Ange. Poch tried to build a hybrid of 4-2-3-1 and 4-3-3 and it failed miserably. The system became a sieve in midfield and the forwards weren't help out defensively at all.

2) Poch's obsession with keep-ball meant that nobody ever crossed the ball into the box. There is only one time to get a cross in and that is the right time. I watched for years as Poch's team declined the opportunity, so scared of losing possession. The strikers stopped even bothering to get into the danger zone such was the problem in the side. They just came short. That is not how I want my team to play.

3) The amount of times Spurs got possession and let all 10 of their outfield players get behind the ball before we tried to score was incredibly frustrating. Another obsession with keep ball that cost Spurs loads in key moments of games.

4) Ange seems to burn out players. So can Poch who wasn't always responsible with his players. He put them in the red zone and left them there for long periods. Perhaps with a bigger squad, he will rotate at Spurs. He never had the luxury, and didn't seem to have the inclination last time around. We were at total burnout at about 3 years of Poch.

5) Youngsters - let's get our facts correct on this one. Poch only ever worked with one quality U21 player and that was Dele, who he eventually broke by putting his body through very long seasons with no respite. The soft tissue injuries eventually came and the player has never recovered. Poch refused to give KWP a chance even though Trips and Aurier were hapless in a Spurs shirt at times. He tried a little bit with Onomah but clearly that player wasn't good enough despite some early promise. What we have today is a different scenario. You don't have to take a 22/23 year old and help them into their mid-twenties. You have to really work with something like 12-15 players that are young U21s and coming through. Poch would have never worked with this much potential. Could be a great fit, but there is no option to leave those kids out and ask for new purchases.

6) The PL has moved on since Poch last managed. Clearly it's been half a decade since Poch managed us and it's great he worked with Chelsea to keep his hand in. Remember those games where opposition teams stopped Walker and Rose, whilst kept Erisken quiet? Those games where we were clueless against the parked bus with Poch just doing plan A, plan A, plan A. Has Poch got more about him now that he can get past these teams. The PL has become way more tactical since he was at Spurs and there is no guarantee that the way he played before will prosper.

I'm definitely not against Poch coming back, but I do think he needs to answer some tough question in the process. It shouldn't be guaranteed. I'm left wondering whether the sorts of questions that I am asking would get asked though. We know Levy is incapable of this level of football scrutiny. Lange probably is. Paratici definitely is. Munn, not so sure.

If he answered these questions well, I'd have him back.
 
Mcfee said:
Not much. But it feels like an itch that has to be scratched. Until then his shadow will remain over every manager we have. Not a healthy situation imo but it is what it is.
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Most are convinced we are on a 18/24 month cycle with managers anyway (like most clubs tbh)....so one of those cycles might as well be Poch.
 
Raziel said:
Interview would be a weird way to phrase it , Poch knows Spurs and Spurs knows Poch

It's more, how have we both changed, is the framework for operating clear, what is the commitment, and does the timing work?
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Mauricio.....come down to the kitchen garden.....deal clincher;)

Screenshot_2025-03-18-11-34-50-87_40deb401b9ffe8e1df2f1cc5ba480b12.jpg
 
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