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

Who do you want as the next Tottenham Hotspur manager?

  • Andoni Iraola

    Votes: 5 20.8%
  • Marco Silva

    Votes: 2 8.3%
  • Thomas Frank

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Kieran McKenna

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Mauricio Pochettino

    Votes: 14 58.3%
  • Edin Tersic

    Votes: 1 4.2%
  • A.N. Other

    Votes: 2 8.3%

  • Total voters
    24
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
The money will be great wherever (plus once you've managed Chelsea money is never a problem). Yes, it must be great living in America right now.Roll eyes.
If he wants sunshine he's got Catalunya. His home is still here. And who wants 'media coverage'?
 
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But...he isn't saying this now for no reason, either.

Exactly .. it isn't fudging subtle

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.

I disagree, again as not the biggest Poch fan

- He showed last year, he could still cut it in the PL, at the right level, with a club in disarray and a squad with massive balance issues and no striker.
- The depth of squad at his disposal will be different, so will be the initial team he inherits, biggest question for me would be, is he able to accept Munn/Lange/Paratici providing the bulk of the players

I think both us and Poch need to move on tbh

He hasn't, and some of our fanbase haven't.

Outside of that, he's a good manager and we will be looking for one shortly ..
 
The depth of squad at his disposal will be different, so will be the initial team he inherits, biggest question for me would be, is he able to accept Munn/Lange/Paratici providing the bulk of the players

That could be a great additional question. I would love to know the following:

whether

Poch wanted more control on the football ops side of the business when he was last here because people like Levy were so bad at running it. He didn't really want it, but felt compelled because of the disarray he saw supporting him.

or

He just wants control of everything and will just be difficult to work with. He'll undermine Munn/Lange etc and just go and have his cosy chats with Levy to get his own way.

The latter is a reason not to hire him. We should not change this new structure we've built.
 
Don't get why people are making a meal out of Poch's comments. He has been saying the same things since he's left the club, it's not as if he has just woken up these past few days and started talking like this. People just getting desperate for him in our current plight, he was apparently the obvious choice last time and we didn't touch him and he is not any more likely to be coming this time. Levy doesn't have the same itch to go back that some fans do.....
 
Don't get why people are making a meal out of Poch's comments. He has been saying the same things since he's left the club, it's not as if he has just woken up these past few days and started talking like this. People just getting desperate for him in our current plight, he was apparently the obvious choice last time and we didn't touch him and he is not any more likely to be coming this time. Levy doesn't have the same itch to go back that some fans do.....

I think I'm right in saying Jesus Perez has said the same thing publicly on a couple of occasions over the years. It's no biggy.
 
Don't get why people are making a meal out of Poch's comments. He has been saying the same things since he's left the club, it's not as if he has just woken up these past few days and started talking like this. People just getting desperate for him in our current plight, he was apparently the obvious choice last time and we didn't touch him and he is not any more likely to be coming this time. Levy doesn't have the same itch to go back that some fans do.....

He's had at least 3 separate interviews recently where he spent a fair amount on responding/commenting on Spurs

Lets be clear, there is a massive difference between

- I'm 100% focused on the US job right now and until at least after WC, I've been a manager for Spurs, PSG & Chelsea and while I'm might have a soft spot for some of those, and there may be future opportunities that I wouldn't rule out, my current job is US NT manager.
- re Tottenham Hotspur – and while he again reiterates his desire to return, he is more interesting when admitting previous “friction” and how he has learnt from it. “In the bottom of my heart, I still feel the same. I would like one day to come back. Not because of my ego, it’s because my feeling is I would like one day to win with Tottenham. We were so close and it was so painful,” Pochettino says. “I made mistakes, you know? But the good thing is, when you are clever, you learn from your mistakes. It’s like when a relationship finishes. I feel empty. I feel so disappointed. With everyone but also with myself because I didn’t manage well and when that happens, it’s part of my responsibility. “I think now Tottenham is a club with an expectation to win because if you see the facilities – training ground or stadium – now you can see it is about winning trophies. That is why I would like one day to come back. But if that doesn’t happen, it doesn’t happen. With all the possibilities again to build something special, that is my feeling and it didn’t change. It’s six years since we left and it’s always going to be a special club for me.”

His decisions to go down the second answer route is why people are "making a meal" of it.

Personally I don't think he's on the market right now, but I think he may be the guy after (or at least that is how he is positioning it)
 
That could be a great additional question. I would love to know the following:

whether

Poch wanted more control on the football ops side of the business when he was last here because people like Levy were so bad at running it. He didn't really want it, but felt compelled because of the disarray he saw supporting him.

or

He just wants control of everything and will just be difficult to work with. He'll undermine Munn/Lange etc and just go and have his cosy chats with Levy to get his own way.

The latter is a reason not to hire him. We should not change this new structure we've built.
On point 2....he certainly didn't have that at Chelsea or PSG.... although the caveat is they are a crazy pair of clubs
 
The money will be great wherever (plus once you've managed Chelsea money is never a problem). Yes, it must be great living in America right now.Roll eyes.
If he wants sunshine he's got Catalunya. His home is still here. And who wants 'media coverage'?

Err..yes it is?

Feel like you overestimate the effect politics has on everyday life in the US mate. ;)

He's rich and, being the USMNT coach, has a leisurely schedule of being paid to sit in sunny California and occasionally fly around that country. A lot of coaches would kill for that job.

As for Catalunya, yeah, but he wouldn't be paid for that. For the USMNT he's essentially being paid for a half job - they're already qualified for WC 2026 as hosts, he just needs to take them into it. Otherwise, lots of time for sightseeing and shopping with the wife.
 
Err..yes it is?

Feel like you overestimate the effect politics has on everyday life in the US mate. ;)

He's rich and, being the USMNT coach, has a leisurely schedule of being paid to sit in sunny California and occasionally fly around that country. A lot of coaches would kill for that job.

As for Catalunya, yeah, but he wouldn't be paid for that. For the USMNT he's essentially being paid for a half job - they're already qualified for WC 2026 as hosts, he just needs to take them into it. Otherwise, lots of time for sightseeing and shopping with the wife.
Think I would prefer a full time job in bricky London.

Oh wait....
 
I was very much against him coming back, but Ive changed my mind after Ange for a couple of reasons

On the pitch, he has shown he can improve young players and we have a squad full of them, they need someone like Mopo to trust them and carry on their development.

I think his jobs at Chelsea and PSG would have taught him to be more ruthless and less sentimental over players and better at moving them on.

Fell good factor, even though it was correct he left, there is not a single Spurs fan that doesn't like the bloke and would unite behind him if he came back

The US contract wont be an issue to get out of
 
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