That to me shows we were making up for lost time after 18 months of no signings at all.
Time will tell on that one i guess - not sure that evidence would suggest there was a transfer budget to carry over from those 18 months as during that period we were sell to buy essentially (so no outgoings meant no budget to carry over) if that's what you meant by making up for lost time.
Honestly I think it really comes down to: if we were going to consistently be the 3/4th highest spenders in the league, I don’t think Poch gets so frustrated, and I don’t think Kane would want to leave.
Who knows, 5+ years is a long time in football and there's more to being happy at a club than just having money to spend - we had a very tight unit at the club between the managers & players and then that seemed to collapse sometime between the 2 seasons at Wembley - there's more to that than what meets the eye imo. Wrt to backing we spent a considerable amount between Poch & Jose the past 2 years, enough of a figure that Poch could have got a rebuild close to what he would have wanted had he wanted to see it through, so i find it hard to believe, with that in mind available budget post stadium is what led to his exit.
Kane has sat through a 3 year decline of performance, taking us from top 3 looking to challenge the title to hoping to qualify for the EL, he's 28 - the last 2 years were ours to convince him to stay, not the next two.
What is pretty clear is everything that is happening is the result of a strategy to not want to push on beyond our ‘rightful place’ of 6th, so good people want out. People that have said they are happy to stay at the club as long as it feels like we are progressing.
This is your negative spin on things and not 'clear' to me at all - what's clear to me is if you don't want to push past 6 then you don't sack managers for finishing 5th-6th, which we do, regularly(?)
Effectively people are arguing for ENIC’s right to keep us 6th on average. They don’t take money out, they don’t put money in, and so we have to be ok that this is the best we can do. I think it’s rubbish. We don’t have to wait for the ‘taps to be turned on’ from the stadium to start competing. If we were actually about to, Kane would not want out. Simple as that.
This isn't what people are arguing, at least not from what i have seen apart from Glasgowspur earlier - and kinda contradicts that our 2010s decade average was 4th, why now that we have more money to spend on the squad are we going to expect to see our average level decrease? Not only that but be happy for it to happen? It's a strange opinion you have dreamed that other people hold
I don't think the idea that there 'might not have been a transfer budget to carry over' is the refutation of my point that you think it might be?
I completely agree with you that the last 2 years were the ones to show Kane should stay. And we blew it. From a position of strength. We took everything that made someone like Kane want to stay - a manager that gets the best out of him, a club that looked like it was following a plan and progressing, and totally blew it. Levy made the JM hire because he was doing the best he could, within the constraints of the ENIC plan. We weren't going to back Poch and make a real step forward, we were going to squeeze as much as possible out of this squad, and pray we don't fall too far. Kane always said he would stay if he thought we were progressing. I'm sure he is literally quoted as saying it. I'm not sure there can be too much argument about it. We don't feel like we are progressing anymore, and Kane it out. Who's fault is it?
We sacked a manager a week before a cup final. We sacked Harry for coming 4th. We sacked Poch for being a few points off of 4th and 6th when he was sacked. If your argument is we sack managers because we expect them to be top 3 with the lack of backing we give them, I'd say that's a frankly insane way to run a football club. I think we sack managers because they realise ENIC aren't going to want to push on beyond this comfortable point, and it's easier to get someone else who feels they can use Spurs as a useful stepping stone, and will be happy with the ENIC plan. I'm sure Levy is quoted somewhere as saying he wants managers to need us as much as we need them. Clearly so they will be pliable to our plan and structure. AVB needed us after Chelsea, was for all intents and purposes unhappy with how the Bale money was spent, and left. Harry was always a rescue act that ended up working too well. Poch clearly got frustrated with the constraints. Jose was clearly a punt. But we don't hire a manager and back them in say, the way Liverpool back Klopp. We sign players that will likely be good investments over the mid-term, that some other manager will likely get something out of if the current one fails, and their quality should hopefully keep us 6th. That isn't real backing to help us push on. We've arrived at a position of strength a few times, and we haven't seized the day.
Ultimately, if we want to push past 6th, we invest like we want to push past 6th, or at least back managers and get behind a plan. Our average position of 4th is almost entirely down to the ridiculous work Poch managed to pull off under those constraints, which we have squandered. What we are seeing now is a regression back to ENIC's actual level, when they don't have a miracle-working, lemon-loving crazy person who was happy to turn down Real Madrid to stick this out, because he believed in building something. If Poch wasn't that way inclined, we likely would have regressed way before it.
I'm not dreaming anything up. I'm taking these arguments to their logical conclusion. I think we all accept ENIC don't take money out, and they don't put money in. My argument is, I want someone to put some money in. Maybe a sugar daddy, maybe a tech billionaire, maybe a sports investment group, maybe someone as rich as Joe Lewis but who has a little more passion for Spurs, and is comfortable chucking the odd couple of million in to get a deal over the line, if we're at a position of strength. It seems like most people are happy to say 'we are happy with ENIC putting nothing in and taking nothing out, and we think this strategy will bear out'. I don't think the strategy will bear out, because I don't think people who love this club would want to leave if we were about to really push on. So I would challenge that point, and really ask why people seem to be happy with our owners for treating our club the exact same way that Arsenal's - who have a terrible reputation - treat theirs? People are effectively arguing for ENIC's right to not put any money in, when all that means is that Lewis does not give a flying fudge about the trophies the club wins, as long as he profits on the investment. People also seem to be arguing that by really backing a manager and getting him the players he wants, e.g. Moutinho, Skriniar, Grealish, we risk doing a Leeds, despite the blatantly obvious examples of players like Sissoko signed for big money, likely because they have versatility and longevity (so multiple managers will want them) rather than getting behind a manager who has a plan to win. I think there's a huge gap between doing a Leeds and pushing to win some trophies. It doesn't mean spending City money, but it does mean Lewis could have chucked in a few million to help us maintain a position of strength. He didn't do that because it's an investment to him. And fans, for reasons beyond my comprehension, are passionately defending his right to do so, despite the last 2 years of terrible decisions and our best player wanting to leave.
I get the argument that the stadium is about to be the game changer, I really do. And I will always refute that with the idea that I don't think Poch and Kane would be out if that was actually going to be the case. No one doubts Chelsea want to win things. I don't think people doubt Liverpool's ambition. People in the game definitely doubt ours. It goes back to this club being an investment for Joe Lewis. He isn't as passionate about trophies as we are, and he isn't going to do all he can to get us them. And beyond assuming that the stadium is going to change everything despite completing it leading to our worst 2 years in the last decade, I don't see why people are defending his right to keep us going with these constraints.
you can't just put a pause something like that
