DubaiSpur
Ian Walker
That's a bit like saying "that was a great race because up until the last 100 yards you could have won it". You may be happy with nearly, I am not. I was brought up to believe that the only position is first, everything else is failure. Of course, I am realistic and don't expect Spurs to win everything, but I will not hail a manager as successful until he has won the club silverware. As much as I liked Arry I still don't consider him as successful. That said, he wasn't failure either, and at present that is exactly how I would describe Poch. Arry had potential until Levy got rid of him, I just have a feeling he will do the same with Poch if he doesn't win anything soon.
See, I'm a bit torn, because I largely agree with you that winning trophies is more important than consistently finishing 4th/3rd/2nd or whatever - however, I also think you're asking far too much of most of our managers by setting the bar that high. Fact is, we haven't actually won that much over the last three-odd decades - an FA Cup and two League Cups. So *expecting* that we win trophies (even if you don't think we should be winning everything) is a bit too much given that history and our painful climb from the dark days of the late 1990's and early 2000s.
For me, winning a trophy will put Poch ahead of Harry, wherever he finishes in the league. But the difference is, that doesn't mean I think Harry was unsuccessful - far, far from it. We're just not the sort of club that matches your apparent belief that the only positions that matters is 1st place - if we were, we wouldn't have managed just two 1st place finishes in a century and a quarter. Thus, incremental progress is desirable, and valued - and maybe a manager going trophyless but building a side capable of competing for trophies (as Harry did) is successful in his own way (as Harry most definitely f*cking was).