Simply causing unnecessary unrest at Tottenham?
Date: 26th November 2013 at 6:34 pm
Written by Ollie Bishop | Comments (2)
The press can be cruel even at the best of times, but with Tottenham manager AVB they always seem to reserve a special brand of spite. The prodigal understudy to Mourinho has never been welcomed on our shores; his arrival at Chelsea was greeted with suspicion and his move to North London with ridicule.
Spurs fans probably think pundits have it in for the club itself, but in my opinion this all part of a much nastier targeted campaign against the Portuguese tactician. Turn the clock back 12 months and the situation wasn’t too dissimilar; suggestions from certain corners that AVB has a couple of game to save his job, that he had lost the dressing room and that he was a fraud.
So even after a 6-0 Premier League drubbing, it would perhaps be wise to take some of the press fallout with a pinch of salt. Jan Vertonghen even went some way to dispelling suggestions that the AVB tenure was beginning to crumble, speaking to the Guardian he had the following to say:
“Is there a problem between the players and the manager? Absolutely not. There are also no troubles between [individual] players. This [defeat] was painful. Also the way we lost. I’ve the feeling I want to play this game again.”
“We even could have conceded more goals. This is a painful experience, but it’s just a snapshot. Not everything is lost. Not only the defence was to blame, the whole organisation wasn’t there. The manager tries to make the right choices. Sometimes the choices turn out to be good, sometimes not.”
Vertonghen himself has been branded as unhappy because he has been forced to play out wide to cover for Danny Rose; of course the Belgian wants to play centre half but as a stop gap this is hardly the start of a revolution. Similarly stories have emerged in the press that Dembele is unhappy at playing time and on his way out of the club in January. In my opinion you should be more worried when a player doesn’t see lack of playing time as a concern, you want all of your squad pushing for a first team place and to be hungry for it; this isn’t the calamity that so many media sources would have you believe.
So why the unrest?
Spurs have always had more than their fair share of ridicule; it comes with the territory. A side that has traditionally flattered to deceive, snatching defeat from the jaws of victory on numerous occasions. The tortured existence of a Spurs fans is something that even they laugh about; this isn’t anything new.
What has changed though is the way in which the media are digging their claws into the manager, this isn’t a jovial attack but something much more vindictive. Even when Spurs saw a revival under AVB during the middle part of last season there was never a sense of apology from those that had castigated him, rather a wave of silence waiting to pounce at the next sign of weakness. That time has clearly come, and the vultures are circling.
For me what separates AVB from many of the established managers is a new brand of footballing intellectualism. Gone is the whole go out and enjoy yourselves mentality, replaced by a much more calculated way of playing the game, something that Spurs fans should relish after the ‘Del Boy and Rodney’ approach of the last regime. It is different to what you would get from say an Allardyce or even a David Moyes, it doesn’t surprise me that Chelsea nicknamed him ‘DVD’.
AVB has brought a new brand of professionalism to Spurs, and unsurprisingly this just doesn’t wash with the media. Harry Redknapp, the media darling, replaced by the polar opposite in AVB. There does seem to be an aversion to change and a general lack of patience as soon as times get tough, the whole if it ‘ain’t broke don’t fix it mentality’.
At Spurs though the ambition is much greater than settling for second best, Levy has a vision for the club and feels a change in approach is necessary to achieve these goals. It may not be pretty or even successful in the short term, but the club are clearly willing to show the degree of patience that seems lost on the press.
I don’t know if there is just a severe bout of anti-intellectualism amongst certain parts of the media or simply a personal issue with AVB, but it certainly isn’t necessary and clearly isn’t helping.
Is it time to give AVB a break?
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Would be a shambles if AVB was sacked in the coming months
on which players will suit it. It's also then entirely possible to change your mind about certain players and decide they would be able to fit. In Dawson's case, AVB probably thought he would have the same problems tactically as with Terry, and didn't need the hassle. Dawson showed a lot more willingness to learn though and was therefore welcomed back in. Nowhere near perfection and entirely understandable.
