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

[Lemonade Money]

Bournemouth is 8th, having beaten the Scum, City, Us, United, draws with Villa & Saudi Sportswashing Machine

Plays a energetic pressing game with a little more defensive solidity (DM sits)
Plays 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1
Got the best out of Solanke
Is on $1M/yr
His pre Bournemouth achievements with Rayo are decent (again history of big results)

Honestly outside of brand brand prejudice I struggle to see a better fit in current or recent PL managers (outside top 6)

Rinse and repeat!

 

[Muttley]

Im still not convinced about the need/benefit of the back-up DM switch, i just dont think we'll get better.

We'll also hopefully raise £15m odd by selling Gil and Solomon, who are probably the only real deadwood after the releases are made (which is quite a nice situation)

We need to shift Forster, Whiteman, Davies, Reggie, Gil, Solomon and obviously send Werner back. That's 7 of our 33 listed first teamers on the official website (ignoring Hojbjerg).

We then need to promote 2 or 3 from the academy to the first team. Moore is clearly one of them. Perhaps Keeley gets that promotion as well. Then there's guys like Donley and Abbott that still operate as U21's, plus Vuskovic.

Any way you look at it, the squad naturally gravitates to about 30 before any major decisions on guys like Richi, Bents and Biss, perhaps even Sonny or Dragusin.

You are dead right in what you're saying about the squad being a decent size. We will have to work harder to reduce it, than to increase it.

We're in decent shape though. The major surgery is done as we head into this summer.

 

[Gutter Boy]

We need to shift Forster, Whiteman, Davies, Reggie, Gil, Solomon and obviously send Werner back. That's 7 of our 33 listed first teamers on the official website (ignoring Hojbjerg).

We then need to promote 2 or 3 from the academy to the first team. Moore is clearly one of them. Perhaps Keeley gets that promotion as well. Then there's guys like Donley and Abbott that still operate as U21's, plus Vuskovic.

Any way you look at it, the squad naturally gravitates to about 30 before any major decisions on guys like Richi, Bents and Biss, perhaps even Sonny or Dragusin.

You are dead right in what you're saying about the squad being a decent size. We will have to work harder to reduce it, than to increase it.

We're in decent shape though. The major surgery is done as we head into this summer.

Forster, Whiteman, Davies, Regulion and Werner are all out if contract in June, so there's nothing active that needs doing with them, they are effectively gone. Girona may also take their option with Gil. So Solomon might be the only one we need to hawk around

 

[glasgowspur]

Bournemouth is 8th, having beaten the Scum, City, Us, United, draws with Villa & Saudi Sportswashing Machine

Plays a energetic pressing game with a little more defensive solidity (DM sits)
Plays 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1
Got the best out of Solanke
Is on $1M/yr
His pre Bournemouth achievements with Rayo are decent (again history of big results)

Honestly outside of brand brand prejudice I struggle to see a better fit in current or recent PL managers (outside top 6)

That's fine, that's your opinion.
I don't have a beef with that, an agenda against him or a particular hard on for Ange.
Personally I don't see any manager out there who is a good fit for us and where are atm, and haven't done for a while.
Was not convinced about Poch (out of the three being touted, him lvg and fdr Poch was my third choice), jose, well just no, nuno I really wanted to do well, but really knew he couldn't, conte, shudder.
IMHO we got ange because there was no obvious better option, that's not a compliment BTW.

I would be interested to know where you would expect us to be in 18 months time or three windows under Iraola?
18 months, 3 windows being the rough average of the tenure of our recent managers.

 

[Kompakted]

On the squad/size. Quality can be debated but any new manager is going to have the following to evaluate in the summer (jump in if I've missed people):

Goalkeepers:

Vicario
Kinsky
Austin
Whiteman
Keeley

Fullbacks

Porro
Spence
Udogie
Davies

Centre backs

Romero
Van der Ven
Dragusin
Vuskovic
Phillips
Dorrington

Midfield

Bissouma
Bentancur
Sarr
Gray
Bergvall

Attacking Midfield

Maddison
Kulusevski
Devine

Wide Forwards

Son
Johnson
Odobert
Moore
Werner
Yang

Forwards

Solanke
Richarlison
Veliz
Lankshear

That's more than enough to be getting on with....

 

[braineclipse]

We don't have a small squad. We have a bigger and better squad now in part thanks to Ange being willing to sign and work with younger players who aren't ready made PL players. And seemingly being quite good at integrating and developing them.

We've had small available/match day squads for quite a while because of injuries. And that's taken a secondary toll on the players who have been fit.

The squad is in need of further work, but not in need of increasing in size. Mostly one in one out stuff. As steff has said in the past a need for some tough decisions.

 

[mudshark]

I was trying to think of who else might be on Levy's radar as a potential crowd-pleaser to take the heat off himself. Not that he would be my serious suggestion (I hasten to preface with), but I came up with Juergen Klinsmann.

Ex-Spurs, a name who would make a splash in the media, available (AFAIK), and could arguably be viewed as a continuity candidate ...

Was he approached in the period before Nuno's appointment? I can't remember.

 

[harr1984]

We don't have a small squad. We have a bigger and better squad now in part thanks to Ange being willing to sign and work with younger players who aren't ready made PL players. And seemingly being quite good at integrating and developing them.

We've had small available/match day squads for quite a while because of injuries. And that's taken a secondary toll on the players who have been fit.

The squad is in need of further work, but not in need of increasing in size. Mostly one in one out stuff. As steff has said in the past a need for some tough decisions.

Agree with you Brain. Personally whilst wanting us stick with Ange as decisions he makes are for long term benefit and it seems Levy is going with this vision, those who want Ange out have some valid criticisms and for me the main one is around injuries. Whilst I don't buy the 'every team gets injuries argument' as ours have been way beyond what a typical teams injury list would be (both in terms of quantity and the number of those being important first teamers), the fact is this is not the first time under Ange this has happened for an extended period so this needs to be addressed.

I hope those snippets a month or two back about some sort of internal review around how/why we are getting so many injuries is true, and we can get to the bottom of it and come up with solutions going forward that allow Ange to continue to do things his way but in ways that are better for our players physically - it will make a massive difference....

 

[Mcfee]

I was trying to think of who else might be on Levy's radar as a potential crowd-pleaser to take the heat off himself. Not that he would be my serious suggestion (I hasten to preface with), but I came up with Juergen Klinsmann.

Ex-Spurs, a name who would make a splash in the media, available (AFAIK), and could arguably be viewed as a continuity candidate ...

Was he approached in the period before Nuno's appointment? I can't remember.

If I remember correctly he (Klinsmann) advertised himself as a candidate for the job before we appointed Ange. But I don’t think his reputation is great at this stage.
Unless he’s another aging misunderstood genius.

 

[Gutter Boy]

If I remember correctly he (Klinsmann) advertised himself as a candidate for the job before we appointed Ange. But I don’t think his reputation is great at this stage.
Unless he’s another aging misunderstood genius.

He's always been a brick coach. Might have been a decent DoF a few decade or so back though

 

[glasgowspur]

On the squad/size. Quality can be debated but any new manager is going to have the following to evaluate in the summer (jump in if I've missed people):

Goalkeepers:

Vicario
Kinsky
Austin
Whiteman
Keeley

Fullbacks

Porro
Spence
Udogie
Davies

Centre backs

Romero
Van der Ven
Dragusin
Vuskovic
Phillips
Dorrington

Midfield

Bissouma
Bentancur
Sarr
Gray
Bergvall

Attacking Midfield

Maddison
Kulusevski
Devine

Wide Forwards

Son
Johnson
Odobert
Moore
Werner
Yang

Forwards

Solanke
Richarlison
Veliz
Lankshear

That's more than enough to be getting on with....

11 of them are hardly PL ready players, nobody seriously rates werner, son is in decline and three or four have very limited experience.
It's a lot of names, it's a big squad, that's not to say it's an adequate squad.

 

[NickTB]

I'm loving big Ange instead...

That feels like a lifetime ago

 

[Finney Is Back]

Everyone keeps saying we have a "small squad". We don't. It does my head in. We have a £50m striker deputising for a £60m striker. We have Son, Odobert, Johnson, Kulusevski, Werner and Moore vying for the wide forward/winger slots. Richarlison can also play there. We have Bissouma, Sarr, Bentancur, Maddison, Kulusevski, Bergvall and Gray vying for 3 midfield spots. We have Udogie, Reguilon, Davies as left backs. We have Porro and Spence as right backs. CB is probably the only position I feel the squad feels light in. Other than that if you want the squad to be "bigger" you're looking at making some of those players (or the new players) be 3rd or 4th choice in their position and I'm not sure Ange is actually that big on rotation.

We do have a small squad, especially when it comes to experience. We have no cover at left back. Odobert was 19 when he came to Spurs, Bergval and Gray 18. Moore 17. Regulion has no future at the club, he has proven himself to be not good enough over several years, Davies completely unsuited to playing as a left back in Ange's system.

We could've had 3 more players over 21 in our PL squad and chose not to. We went into this season with a smaller squad of experience than last season despite likely having at least a dozen more games to play.

What we have done is set ourselves up well for the future but this season we went in undercooked.

 

[Lemonade Money]

On the squad/size. Quality can be debated but any new manager is going to have the following to evaluate in the summer (jump in if I've missed people):

Goalkeepers:

Vicario
Kinsky
Austin
Whiteman
Keeley

Fullbacks

Porro
Spence
Udogie
Davies

Centre backs

Romero
Van der Ven
Dragusin
Vuskovic
Phillips
Dorrington

Midfield

Bissouma
Bentancur
Sarr
Gray
Bergvall

Attacking Midfield

Maddison
Kulusevski
Devine

Wide Forwards

Son
Johnson
Odobert
Moore
Werner
Yang

Forwards

Solanke
Richarlison
Veliz
Lankshear

That's more than enough to be getting on with....

The bold ones are the only ones that can be relied upon at this moment IMO.

 

[Finney Is Back]

I think seeing it as a formation makes it clearer:

---------------------------------Vicario(Kinsky)

Porro(Spence)-Romero(Dragusin)-van de Ven(Vuscovic)-Udogie(TBC)

-------------------------------Gray(Bissouma)

-------------Kulusevski(Bergvall)-------------Sarr(Bentancur)

-----TBC(Johnson)-------------------------------------Odobert(Moore)

------------------------------Solanke(Richarlison)


+ Phillips, Dorrington, Devine, Donley, Maddison, Son, Yang, Lankshear, Veliz


That's a great basis of a squad for next season. Fill the two gaps with say Dibling and Mitchell. Maybe swap Richy for Delap. And with a decent coach we are cooking.

I have bolded the players that I think are good enough to play for a top 4 PL club at this point of their careers.

I think Gray will get there very quickly (perhaps be ready next season, if not the season after) Bergval probably ready the season after next as well. Kinsky as well could be there in a season or two's time.

 

[Kompakted]

11 of them are hardly PL ready players, nobody seriously rates werner, son is in decline and three or four have very limited experience.
It's a lot of names, it's a big squad, that's not to say it's an adequate squad.

I wasn't talking about the adequacy but you make the most of what you have. Despite having players like Capoue and Dembele available, Poch turned to Mason and Bentaleb to change the mentality and direction of the club and adapt more quickly to the standards he expects and the way of playing he wanted. Ange by contrast seems to have been loathe to use the players available. He was absolutely forced into giving Spence a shot who has since been one of the better players. Son or Werner will get played up top ahead of Lankshear despite Ange's style and tactics requiring a traditional CF to work....

 

[harr1984]

I have bolded the players that I think are good enough to play for a top 4 PL club at this point of their careers.

I think Gray will get there very quickly (perhaps be ready next season, if not the season after) Bergval probably ready the season after next as well. Kinsky as well could be there in a season or two's time.

Kinda disagree with Udogie as it stands, his first few months he was really good but back end of last season and this season he has been poor - comes with an asterix that he has had injuries issues and is young. But I think he epitomises why many over rate our squad, basing it on a players potential rather than what standard he is currently at where fluctuations in form happen (and are to be expected). So many of our signings look great at the start as they are young and relatively unknown to the PL. Fans then think said player is amazing, then over the next few months opposition work them out and their performances aren't so good as a whole. This is to be expected, and potentially we have a really good squad developing but as it currently stands the level is not good enough to compete in various competitions, and certainly not good enough to withstand the number of injuries we have been getting on a regular basis....

 

[Raziel]

That's fine, that's your opinion.
I don't have a beef with that, an agenda against him or a particular hard on for Ange.
Personally I don't see any manager out there who is a good fit for us and where are atm, and haven't done for a while.
Was not convinced about Poch (out of the three being touted, him lvg and fdr Poch was my third choice), jose, well just no, nuno I really wanted to do well, but really knew he couldn't, conte, shudder.
IMHO we got ange because there was no obvious better option, that's not a compliment BTW.

I would be interested to know where you would expect us to be in 18 months time or three windows under Iraola?
18 months, 3 windows being the rough average of the tenure of our recent managers.

Isn't that how you hire anyone? the best you can get at the time?

Re Iriola, I'd expect us to be in and stay in 4th-6th. He's got fudging Bournemouth at 8th after losing Solanke in the summer (19 goals last season). Can he push on? who knows but the club could probably do with a stable run at the moment.

This is part of where Spurs fans need to get over themselves, Nuno took Wolves to 7th, not good enough for us, any idiot could see he was out of his depth, I heard it all, what has he done with Forest? no fudging question the guy could have matched the result of the asshat before/after him with 0% of the toxicity, but hey, not good enough for Spurs. Can you imagine if we appointed Chelsea's manager when they did? fudging hell, meltdown ..

Saying 18 months is the tenure highlights how data can be say anything
- The average for the whole EPL is 2 years
- It ignores that when managers have been successful (Harry & Poch), it's easily more.

 

[glasgowspur]

I wasn't talking about the adequacy but you make the most of what you have. Despite having players like Capoue and Dembele available, Poch turned to Mason and Bentaleb to change the mentality and direction of the club and adapt more quickly to the standards he expects and the way of playing he wanted. Ange by contrast seems to have been loathe to use the players available. He was absolutely forced into giving Spence a shot who has since been one of the better players. Son or Werner will get played up top ahead of Lankshear despite Ange's style and tactics requiring a traditional CF to work....

Maybe if we had some senior players around them I could see the sense, atm though I don't think it would be be wise to throw in for instance Dorrington to partner dragusin.

A midfield of Sarr, gray, Bergvall behind kulu, Moore, son with Lankshear up top is not going to cut it.

 

[billyiddo]

Sarr Gray & Bergvall could absolutely cut it as a midfield - i think Pochettino (not wanting to open that debate but just a handy example of a manager that will work with young players) would have relished having those 3 as options ON TOP of Bentancur & Bissouma. He made a midfield of Mason & Bentaleb work, he made a midfield of Sissoko & Winks work - that is not a bad set of players at all by comparison. Fans are so quick to rubbish our players or talk them down just to protect a manager, I just don't get it.