Next Manager?

[Glenda's Legs]

Look at the latest thing the Tottenham comms department are starting to leak to club journos over the Conte farce:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1402166252815097858

"Players within the Tottenham squad had reservations over the club potentially appointing Antonio Conte. Those players were informed about how extreme and demanding his methods were."


Maybe the have learned something from Mourinho. If all else fails, blame the players.

"Were informed" - as if Levy has has phoned up the players on their holidays to forewarn them. More likely Eriksen has been on WhatsApp with some of his former team mates winding them up about what a tough taskmaster Conte is.

 

[parklane1]

"Players within the Tottenham squad had reservations over the club potentially appointing Antonio Conte. Those players were informed about how extreme and demanding his methods were."

I wonder if the were the same players who downed tools under Poch and Jose. Sick to death of hearing this brick from players who need getting out of the dressing room.

 

[Modric THFC]

"Were informed" - as if Levy has has phoned up the players on their holidays to forewarn them. More likely Eriksen has been on WhatsApp with some of his former team mates winding them up about what a tough taskmaster Conte is.

Or more likely the club has made it up. Just like all the other brick they've made up and briefed the press about in the last two weeks.

 

[milo]

I think there was enough of a core of players that would have played for Jose given that it was a cup final.

Hugo, Kane, Son, PEH, Reguillon, Dier, Lucas, Aurier. There's enough players there that seemed to be still pretty warm to him that started the game. I'm leaving out Toby but he was one of the ones so delighted that Jose joined that he signed a new contract. GLC I'm leaving out because I don't know if he'd be viewed as Jose in / out, just as likely either way. The only other player is Winks, who I can imagine is firmly Jose out.

Sacking a manager before a cup final because Winks didn't like him would be ridiculous.

I agree with FInney. I don't think 'toxicity' as the reason. I think it was financial. I think Levy calculated if we won, it would have been a punchers chance and we were just as likely to have that chance under Mason, but would save a few million. 'Time will tell whether it was the right decision', given it sent a message to players like Kane that we aren't serious about winning, and given that Jose was a trophies now manager and had actually gotten us to the final, so maybe Levy's assessment on our chances was wrong.

I think that you have misunderstood my point. I wasn't saying that he couldn't put a side out, I am sure that he could, but relations had soured with much of the senior squad and it needed to be dealt with. There were a lot of players who were meant to have initially welcomed Mourinho's appointment, Alderweireld would be an excellent example, who he lost because of the way that he treated them and other squad members. I think that it is a bit of weakness that Kane cannot see the negative impact that Mourinho was having on the squad but maybe that is just the selfishness that sets apart elite strikers.

Levy had wanted Mourinho at the club for over a decade. He wasn't going to sack him just because it was cheap and let's face it, this story has come from a leaked Jamie Redknapp recording. Redknapp knows fudge about Mourinho's contract at Spurs.

 

[Lilbaz]

And (as always) Levy thinks he knows more than the actual experts do so does things his way?

He knows the league cup is worth £2m and the cl is worth £100m. Cl will always be the priority.

 

[Gutter Boy]

Look at the latest thing the Tottenham comms department are starting to leak to club journos over the Conte farce:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1402166252815097858

"Players within the Tottenham squad had reservations over the club potentially appointing Antonio Conte. Those players were informed about how extreme and demanding his methods were."


Maybe the have learned something from Mourinho. If all else fails, blame the players.

The Duncan Castles podcast last week said that the Madrid and PSG squads gave similar responses to their owners when sounded out about Conte.

 

[Lilbaz]

"Were informed" - as if Levy has has phoned up the players on their holidays to forewarn them. More likely Eriksen has been on WhatsApp with some of his former team mates winding them up about what a tough taskmaster Conte is.

Who said the club informed them? They'll know plenty of players that played for him over the years.

 

[milo]

Has to be journalistic rubbish. Or Chinese whispers. Most of these players worked under Poch's brutal fitness regiem. Son had to do keepy upies all day long as a kid. Kane loves extra training etc. Levy would have loved the sound of this - I certainly do. Who doesn't want demanding, including players?

Conte is very restrictive in the way that his teams play. Training would have been repetitively working on the same moves. That is one of the reasons why he doesn't tend to stick at clubs very long, players get bored of his training techniques.

An organised fitness programme and using sports science is something that we were really lacking under Mourinho and I think that it is one of the main reasons why we conceded so many late goals. It should be one of the highest priorities for the new manager. Any player who isn't on board with that should be sold or sent to train with the academy.

 

[Gutter Boy]

An organised fitness programme and using sports science is something that we were really lacking under Mourinho and I think that it is one of the main reasons why we conceded so many late goals. It should be one of the highest priorities for the new manager. Any player who isn't on board with that should be sold or sent to train with the academy.

Completely agree, We need a massive bootcamp through July to get the whole squad into shape. In terms of physical conditioning they've declined into sunday league players. They barely had 30 minutes in them when Mason tried to reintroduce a bit of pressing.

 

[Finney Is Back]

"Were informed" - as if Levy has has phoned up the players on their holidays to forewarn them. More likely Eriksen has been on WhatsApp with some of his former team mates winding them up about what a tough taskmaster Conte is.

It's either flimflam made up by a journo or a line fed from the club to try to make it look less like Conte rejected us. I'd go 80-20 the former.

 

[milo]

Completely agree, We need a massive bootcamp through July to get the whole squad into shape. In terms of physical conditioning they've declined into sunday league players. They barely had 30 minutes in them when Mason tried to reintroduce a bit of pressing.

It's not the kind of thing that you can work on mid-season. By April you are nursing players game to game.

I found it amazing that Kane said in his interview that Mourinho left it to the players to decide on their gym work. Poch was taking swabs every morning, having them tested to assess the level of players fitness and tailoring training regimes based on that. The club had cameras installed at the training ground so that every training sessions could be filmed and Poch and the coaches could watch them back afterwards. Mourinho didn't use it. It's not just us, he did the same at United.

 

[Finney Is Back]

"Players within the Tottenham squad had reservations over the club potentially appointing Antonio Conte. Those players were informed about how extreme and demanding his methods were."

I wonder if the were the same players who downed tools under Poch and Jose. Sick to death of hearing this brick from players who need getting out of the dressing room.

You are constantly telling people not to believe what they read in the press and then you go and fall for the same trick yourself!

 

[Finney Is Back]

He knows the league cup is worth £2m and the cl is worth £100m. Cl will always be the priority.

So next he'll be demanding that our manager always rests his entire first team for every cup game in order to ensure that concentrate solely on making top 4?

Football is about winning trophies. The chairman needs to let the manager get on with making his own decisions on how best to achieve that aim.

 

[Finney Is Back]

It's not the kind of thing that you can work on mid-season. By April you are nursing players game to game.

I found it amazing that Kane said in his interview that Mourinho left it to the players to decide on their gym work. Poch was taking swabs every morning, having them tested to assess the level of players fitness and tailoring training regimes based on that. The club had cameras installed at the training ground so that every training sessions could be filmed and Poch and the coaches could watch them back afterwards. Mourinho didn't use it. It's not just us, he did the same at United.

So we come back to the chairman not having done his homework on the man he appointed?

 

[parklane1]

You are constantly telling people not to believe what they read in the press and then you go and fall for the same trick yourself!

Where did i say i believed and influenced by it, i have said this since Poch was let down by the players, my main point is that we have a bunch of players who have slacked under two ( three if you count Mason) and its pretty obvious to most that is excately what happened. Nothing new in s ome hack telling us what most of us already know. In this case this may be one of the very few occasions when a hack is right about a point.

 

[Lilbaz]

So next he'll be demanding that our manager always rests his entire first team for every cup game in order to ensure that concentrate solely on making top 4?

Football is about winning trophies. The chairman needs to let the manager get on with making his own decisions on how best to achieve that aim.

No. Just that the premier league and cl are the priority. If we have secured cl and are in a cup final we go 100% for it. If we have no chance of cl andare in a cup final we go 100% for it. With our debt and covid causing a loss of revenue of £200m. Getting into the cl was much more important than winning the league cup. You might not like it but that's the way it is.

 

[BrainOfLevy]

I think that you have misunderstood my point. I wasn't saying that he couldn't put a side out, I am sure that he could, but relations had soured with much of the senior squad and it needed to be dealt with. There were a lot of players who were meant to have initially welcomed Mourinho's appointment, Alderweireld would be an excellent example, who he lost because of the way that he treated them and other squad members. I think that it is a bit of weakness that Kane cannot see the negative impact that Mourinho was having on the squad but maybe that is just the selfishness that sets apart elite strikers.

Levy had wanted Mourinho at the club for over a decade. He wasn't going to sack him just because it was cheap and let's face it, this story has come from a leaked Jamie Redknapp recording. Redknapp knows fudge about Mourinho's contract at Spurs.

I think I get the point, I just disagree. If you can put a side out where the majority of the players would seem behind the manager then I'd say it's not a good reason enough to sack him.

I'm not sure the players that were against Jose were the ones we should be listening to. I'd much rather take Kane's view on what the standards of the club need to be (our only genuinely elite player) than this idea he upset some members of the squad. As others have said, sack him way earlier if it had gotten that toxic. Sack him after the Europa knock out. We then went and beat Villa, so I don't think anyone could say we were any more likely to get back into Europe under Mason as Jose.

It feels like it was money. And probably because we knew he would go before the final, and yet if we sacked him too soon before, it's too long a stretch for Mason and too embarrassing to have an even longer manager hunt.

I don't think it's just the Redknapp thing. I think it's also the fact that there isn't another clear logical explanation that beats out the others.

 

[milo]

So we come back to the chairman not having done his homework on the man he appointed?

I think that is abundantly clear. Mourinho was always a poor fit for the club and his methods out dated. I think that we may have had a lucky escape with Conte too. Conte's methods aren't outdated and he is undoubtedly one of the best coaches around right now but he is a poor fit for Spurs and what Levy has said he is looking for in a manager. I'd rather that we (or he) decided against it now rather than mid-season or at another inopportune time.

 

[milo]

I think I get the point, I just disagree. If you can put a side out where the majority of the players would seem behind the manager then I'd say it's not a good reason enough to sack him.

I'm not sure the players that were against Jose were the ones we should be listening to. I'd much rather take Kane's view on what the standards of the club need to be (our only genuinely elite player) than this idea he upset some members of the squad. As others have said, sack him way earlier if it had gotten that toxic. Sack him after the Europa knock out. We then went and beat Villa, so I don't think anyone could say we were any more likely to get back into Europe under Mason as Jose.

I think that Mourinho has lost a lot of players for a while, so he was putting out teams with players who had wanted him gone for sometime. I think that it probably reached a tipping point after Zagreb, Levy had given it a chance to repair and then pulled the plug when it was clear that it wouldn't.

Kane is an excellent footballer. I think that Mourinho would do very well with a team with 11 Harry Kanes but there aren't 11 Harry Kanes and he had shown himself incapable of getting more than the sum of its parts from what he had. He's yesterday's man and that had been clear for a long time. I think that Kane has shown that he isn't very perceptive.

 

[BrainOfLevy]

It's not the kind of thing that you can work on mid-season. By April you are nursing players game to game.

I found it amazing that Kane said in his interview that Mourinho left it to the players to decide on their gym work. Poch was taking swabs every morning, having them tested to assess the level of players fitness and tailoring training regimes based on that. The club had cameras installed at the training ground so that every training sessions could be filmed and Poch and the coaches could watch them back afterwards. Mourinho didn't use it. It's not just us, he did the same at United.

I don't think Jose gets employed if his fitness methods are so poor. I think what is more likely is:

He gears his squad to be fit enough for the style of football he plays. This has a benefit of fewer injuries and the lower likelihood of burn out in performance towards the end of the season.

He tends to leave clubs who then employ more proactive, pressing managers, who of course are going to use the easy Jose reason as to why they won't initially sustain excellent results. And it is probably true, you probably do need a pre-season to gear yourself into the style of football you want to play for the next year.

I just think the Jose fitness thing is a bit of a misnomer. He worked on N'Dombele's fitness for example because it needed to get to a certain level. I think the reason we conceded late goals was more because we are fine when pushing to score (and Jose's system had us attacking when drawing, particularly against inferior teams) and defending when winning. We didn't have good box defenders, we had players more suited to a high line. So we're able to squeeze the pitch and get ahead, but not hold on. Jose's point after Saudi Sportswashing Machine (that we aren't outnumbered tactically for their last goal, we just lost concentration) I think is a good point.

If Jose had better defenders more suited to him I think he has more success with us. I think Dier may have worked but he's missed so much football that he needs to get back into the swing of things. Rodon too inexperienced. Toby and Sanchez more suited to possession teams.