I think galeforce is exaggerating, but I did expect a difficult season ahead. I thought it was clear that Levy would want all of the summer 2013 players given a fair shot (which is understandable given the investment) but to me there was not much hope in my heart that Soldado, Paulinho, Capoue, Chiriches and Chadli would disprove my significant doubts about their mentality, quality and suitability. Lamela had hardly played and Eriksen had improved as the season went on.
I also thought that it was a good possibility that we'd lose Lloris and that Vertonghen had a very poor season and seemed to be regressing as a player. Rose had a shaky first season, BAE had been frozen out. Kaboul and Walker seemed to have constant fitness issues which affected their form. There seemed to be an atmosphere of 'rotten core at the club' with negative match-day home atmospheres. It all seemed ripe for a disaster for me.
It did seem to start off that way. We missed Poch's main summer targets whether due to injury (Moreno, Rodriguez) or difficulty of the transfer (Musacchio/Schneiderlin). It is clear to me he doesn't really rate Fazio and Stambouli as being suitable. Vorm is a fine back-up to Lloris I suppose, but was not going to add anything. Dier was one for the future, although he appears to have surged ahead of Fazio and Kaboul in the pecking order, more due to lack of viable alternatives than he is really ready for a first-team spot at a top 6 Premiership team.
Anyway, I was fully prepared for a very difficult season. I though Pochettino might struggle with the politics and Baldini and Levy trying to justify their massive splurge of the Bale money on tat.
I was pleasantly surprised. As soon as he has been able to he has dropped those consistently under-performing. I think he's done a fine job this season. Why, you may legitimately ask. It isn't immediately obvious to many that we have improved, or even been 'as good' this season as last. What I would say is that the squad, from being a 'where do you even start?' situation as one poster put it, a real mish-mash of similar looking players, is starting to take shape into a core of players we can see are suitable for the philosophy and style of the manager, who train hard, are hungry and have been involved in some very promising performances.
We've also highlighted a group of players that are definately for the chop. From this situation, we can work with building on this to improve the squad in the areas Poch think it falls down in terms of his philosophy. He's mentioned mentality and attitude numerous times this season as the key weakness for him in the squad. I'm very interested in what happens this summer. I'm quietly excited about next season.
