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What Tottenham Do You Want???

Serious question

On reading fans thoughts on the New Spurs Manager V2 thread it seems all your choices for who you want as the next spurs boss stems from how you see the club.

It seems the latest craving is for Rafa Benitez. It further seems that most fans don't see us as ever having potential to challenge for the title and having Benitez is a good fit as he might win us the odd cup.

For sure winning the odd cup is better than what we now have and we may be content with emulating Liverpool's trophies during the Benitez era. Even I have caught myself for a few minutes thinking its a good idea to get Rafa in to maybe at least enjoy some cup wins.

But we are Tottenham!
In the last few years we've had Bale, Modric, Berbatov and VDV in our shirt! We've been close to glory! We've been close to a title winning team bar a couple of small things that got in our way.

Why should we settle???

In my opinion Rafa will never win us the league. LVG should have tho. Or at least have us challenging. At the very, very least he would have set up foundations that would last long after he'd leave - while he's not soley responsibly for the success of Barca and Bayern he did have something to do with it. He should have done the same for us and set us on a trajectory that would have us challenging for the title at some point in the coming seasons.

So what Tottenham do you want? Do you feel its a pipe dream to see us going for the title one day? Or do you think its best we are content with the odd cup that we might get every few years and should be happy with that? as opposed to going for this romantic appointments such as Ramos, AVB that no big club will go for but may end up a) being an amazing coup or b) setting us back to square one each time? Me personally, id rather keep gambling and hope for the new Pep Guardiola than go for a what you see is what you get type in Benitez etc.

Me personally, I don't believe money and stadiums are the only way to win. It takes a chairman to find the right man, give him time, invest in youth, build a winning mentality and have the balls to keep your best players.
Me personally, if we don't get LVG, need to give FDB a try - who may..just may achieve the above.

But thats because I believe in this club. Maybe if we get Rafa and start winning some cups I may think this aint that bad and can live with this, he is after all better than what we have and if its a choice of Rafa or TS then the choice is no choice at all. Im just hoping our next appointment isn't at the expense of someone like LVG or FDB. I fear if we get someone like the FSW who doesn't play great football, doesn't have a great personality but wins the odd cup we will lose our identity but worst of all be happy with it if it comes with the odd FA Cup or EL.

In my opinion we are better than that. My question isn't what manager do you want, thats on a different thread. My question is.. amongst the Premier League where do you see our great club in the mix.

Judging by most comments it seems some people don't think we belong anywhere near the top

I think you're selling Benitez a bit short and I don't agree that there's a glass ceiling with him as you seem to indicate.

Money is a very important factor. Most evidence clearly points in that direction.

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Ideally I would like to see us move towards more of passing/technical football along with high pressing, but that's more of a personal preference and I know there's more than one way to be good at football.

At the very least we have to start defending and attacking as a unit, cohesively working together.

I think we desperately need a transfer strategy that's top class, scouting, planning, transfer dealing, balancing long and short term goals. Along with that I really want us to keep producing good young players, it seems that we've turned a corner in the last 6-7 years with some good players now emerging at the end of that. Hopefully it's not just a good generation, but the result of a system that works and will continue to work.
 
Players that give a ****. That's pretty much it.

I actually think this is a huge part of our problem. Our culture to compete (ie buy young, resale value etc) has meant players see us as a stepping stone only.

Unfortunately, I feel the only person in the Tottenham hierarchy who actually sees this, is dear old Timmy himself. This leaves me with a massive conundrum - he is tactically inept, and a mouthy gooner. I don't believe our key players seem to support him, and are simply wanting out, or not trying as they know he's off.

However, he seems willing to mould and maybe the cycle we've been in and have hit a ceiling with. I'm just unsure whether his approach will be the 'something different' which kicks us on (at best Liverpool), or the approach which gets us relegated.......
 
I'd like a bit of luck, and serious bad luck on Chelsea and City.

I'd like a club that doesn't sell unless the guy has 2 years on his contract.

I'd like a club where the chairman is devoid of any footballing decisions, or at least minimal.

I'd like a club that was two years removed from the start of the stadium build.

I'd like a club where its chairman is not ripping its fans off through stubhub, replica shirts, ticket prices.

Make Europa league fixtures part of the season ticket, with a scheme to give back tickets should you not want to go 2 weeks prior to fixture. In other words you claim your seat. If you claim and don't go you loose the right for he next fixture.

I'd like a club that spoke to the fans

I'd like a club that listened to fans regarding its beverages and food within the stadium

I'd like the fans to vote on shirt design.. Under Armour gives the fans three designs and we choose one.. not Daniel fookng Levy, we are the ones that wear them.



Its a start...
 
I actually think this is a huge part of our problem. Our culture to compete (ie buy young, resale value etc) has meant players see us as a stepping stone only.

Unfortunately, I feel the only person in the Tottenham hierarchy who actually sees this, is dear old Timmy himself. This leaves me with a massive conundrum - he is tactically inept, and a mouthy gooner. I don't believe our key players seem to support him, and are simply wanting out, or not trying as they know he's off.

However, he seems willing to mould and maybe the cycle we've been in and have hit a ceiling with. I'm just unsure whether his approach will be the 'something different' which kicks us on (at best Liverpool), or the approach which gets us relegated.......

Which clubs comparable to us in size and/or recent (lack of) success are not seen as stepping stones by their best players? What is this approach that we can take where this doesn't happen?

Are you saying that we have to go almost exclusively for home-grown players. Are you saying that if we have similar results 5 years from now and big clubs come knocking for Bentaleb, Kane, Townsend, Pritchard or another of our current youngsters they will be happy to stay and abandon their personal ambitions?

I don't see it at all. Perhaps the most "home grown" club around surely is Athletic Bilbao, they're like a national team in a fairly nationalistic part of the world. Yet their players leave, Llorente (at one point their big hero) even ran out his contract and left on a free. Borussia Dortmund have produced and developed some fantastic young players recently, they've had the success we dream of, they seemed to have a strong group with feelings for the club. Yet when Bayern came knocking Gotze upped and left. What is the approach that we can take that these clubs (and as far as I can see, every club in the world) are missing?

A player like Modric probably saw us as a stepping stone. But he worked his socks off on and off the pitch to reach his personal ambitions here or elsewhere. I wish we had more players like that. I would much rather see a player like that come, struggle to fit in, take the step up, shine and move on for tons of money than to see players without much in terms of personal ambition come, oscillate around average for the better part of a decade and then retire at a smaller club with a lot of positive feelings about the club to talk about to the press.
 
I want a Tottenham that is resilient. A side that is extremely hard to beat. A team that can grind out results. One that wins 1-0 10-times in a row. I want a Spurs defence that is rock-solid and so reliable that I can rest my nerves on it.

We managed several 1-0 wins under AVB in the first months of this season but all I can remember now is the tide of scathing comments on this forum about the crushingly tedious style of play we employed to achieve them.

I'm all in favour of 1-0 wins, brilliant, fantastic but never if it comes at the price of entertainment. That is when i switch off.

'The great fallacy is that the game is first and last about winning. It's nothing of the kind. The game is about glory. It's about doing things in style, with a flourish, about going out and beating the other lot, not waiting for them to die of boredom.'
 
We managed several 1-0 wins under AVB in the first months of this season but all I can remember now is the tide of scathing comments on this forum about the crushingly tedious style of play we employed to achieve them.

I'm all in favour of 1-0 wins, brilliant, fantastic but never if it comes at the price of entertainment. That is when i switch off.

'The great fallacy is that the game is first and last about winning. It's nothing of the kind. The game is about glory. It's about doing things in style, with a flourish, about going out and beating the other lot, not waiting for them to die of boredom.'

Agree fully.

Those resilient 1-0 wins are great against some top teams and on an off day, tough away day etc. But they can't be your only win.

Mourinho gets a lot of criticism for his negative play and so on, but they've still scored more league goals this season than Arsenal and Everton. When we were getting 1-0 win that seemed like the only way we could win a game against any PL club. That's not what anyone wants.
 
I have been a long term viewer of this site and I suppose I have been drawn to sign up and contribute due to the happenings of this season.

The way I see it, is that there is no way of outspending Emirates Marketing Project and Chelsea due their financial clout so if I was in charge I would clear out all the high earning non-contributing players and fill out the squad with the promising young players the club have produced recently.

The squad would look something like this.

4:3:3

Begovic/Archer

Walker/Fredericks
New RCB/Caulker
Vertonghen/Olgilvie
New LB/Rose

Capoue/Veljkovic
New LCM/Carroll
Holtby/Bentaleb

Lamela/Townsend
Adebayor/Kane
Eriksen/Pritchard

This means selling:

Lloris (I think PSG will be in for him this summer), Friedel, Gomes, Naughton, Dawson, Kaboul, Chiriches, Assou-Ekotto, Lennon, Falque, Livermore, Paulinho, Sandro, Dembele, Sigurdsson, Chadli, Mason, Soldaldo

With the money recouped from selling those players above you could make signings of serious quality (RCB,LB and LCM). Any left over cash could then be re-invested in the new stadium project.

It would be brave to trust the young players to fill in the gaps when injuries occur but with a fixed formation which makes the most of the players that we have at our disposal and the fact that the youngsters have a point to prove and have a real bond to the club, would mean a 5-6th place finish would be very achievable.

Blooding the younger players in the Europa League would help their development no end and prepare them for the higher intensity games when they are called upon.

I know it seems like a surrender to not want Champions League football but until the new stadium is ready as top player wages are unsustainable in our current financial position. Inevitably players like Eriksen, Vertonghen will be cherry picked but there will be other starlets to attract and perhaps the younger understudies will be ready to fill the gap by then.

I guess it's a very similar model to how Ajax run and it's a shame to sell off the best talent but aside from throwing oil money at the first team like City have done it's the only way to run. Put it this way, I would rather see Spurs come 5th running the club like this (playing under a young progressive coach working to a sound system) than winning the league by paying mercenaries a fortune.
 
The Spurs I fell in love with in 1989 which developed into the 1991 FA Cup winning team had the following ingredients:

1. Coach/Manager who understood the clubs traditions, wanted to play with flair and panache and had natural charisma
2. Had an inspiring captain who bled navy blue and lilleywhite
3. More England players than the goons
4. The most exciting and creative player in the country
5. Several homegrown players
6. The ability to beat the best teams out of nowhere
7. The ability to lose to the worst teams out of nowhere
8. A desire to progress in the cup competitions, often at the expense of the league.

For me the 1991 team was the most sexy Spurs team of my lifetime followed very closely by the 1994/5 team which for added value included an audacious signing (Klinsmann). Barring the 4-1 defeat to Everton that cup campaign was so Spurs - the 6-2 win at Southampton with the Ronny hat-trick after looking hopelessly beaten at 0-2; the incredible 2-1 victory at Anfield with last min Klinsmann winner. Even the 6-3 victory at Watford (having gone a goal down in about 20 seconds) and then the 0-3 defeat at Notts County had something instinctively Spurs about them.

Both those seasons (1990/1, 1994/5) were fun to support Spurs (lets forget the 1-4 v Nott'm Forest and 2-5 at Emirates Marketing Project etc!) - you never quite knew what you were going to get each week but you did know that there was a rough plan to at least go out and entertain and try to perform the spectacular.

I guess its the way football has gone and also symptomatic of our rise to challenge the 'top 4' positions but nowadays it seems that every game is so crucial and 3 points so vital; the pressure has been immense and the way that the hyperbole of the PL is blown up so much detracts from the sheer joy of going to watch Spurs play. We go into games like Hull or Swansea at home and we NEED to win more than WANT to win and that makes a difference - as frustrating as this season has been the last few weeks, since we've known top 4 is out the equation, have started to be a bit more enjoyable in that the result hasn't been the be all and end all.

In conclusion to the question I want Spurs to be classy; to have a bit of swagger and charisma but above all I want to win a trophy; i want to win the FA Cup because that was Spurs used to do!
 
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I think you're selling Benitez a bit short and I don't agree that there's a glass ceiling with him as you seem to indicate.

Money is a very important factor. Most evidence clearly points in that direction.

--------------------------------------

Ideally I would like to see us move towards more of passing/technical football along with high pressing, but that's more of a personal preference and I know there's more than one way to be good at football.

At the very least we have to start defending and attacking as a unit, cohesively working together.

I think we desperately need a transfer strategy that's top class, scouting, planning, transfer dealing, balancing long and short term goals. Along with that I really want us to keep producing good young players, it seems that we've turned a corner in the last 6-7 years with some good players now emerging at the end of that. Hopefully it's not just a good generation, but the result of a system that works and will continue to work.

To be honest I didn't watch any chelsea games while he was managing

How did they play?
 
A team with technical ability, flair and vision over athleticism and none of that defensive possession bull****.
 
In an ideal world? A manager who plays exciting attacking football and can win us trophies.

Realistically? I haven't got my head in my **** like many of the new gen Spurs fans who reckon we can that is a viable option. We're out on our own as the 6th best/biggest club in the country right now - miles behind the top five in terms of revenue and stuff but also well ahead of those below. So if that's where we're going to be stuck in the next few years I'd prefer if it was done playing attractive football with the odd break into top four/five. de Boer seems the best realistic option for this, but I'm under no illusions that if he achieves success with us he'll be off in two or three years for bigger and better things. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't turn my nose up at a Benitez or someone like that who is a great manager and proven in this country, BUT

Having thought it all through over the last few weeks I really would like to see Glenn Hoddle back at my club. My fave player, loves the club and would bring back the feelgood factor. Yes he isn't an incredible manager or anything, but he has our traditions at heart and will get the club standing again, play nice stuff in the process.

Ultimately I'm not overly fussed, as long as it isn't an AVB II who sucks the life out of the place, or a P.E. Teacher.
 
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