I agree to a certain extent but that is an idealistic view and not the experience of other players under poch who has shown himself to be quite ruthless. Fazio, Stambouli, and Njie failed to make a mark and were moved on quickly. Granted Njie might come back but Fazio's performances in defence were better than Janssen has been as a striker so far. He will be given a chance only if he can demonstrate he is worth that chance. He hasn't shown that with his performances yet imo. In any case there is an argument why should he be afforded until next season to show he can do it? He was signed for relatively big money to cover Kane this season.
That's true - Poch has dropped a lot of players without giving them more than a season to settle in. He's also kept others on (Lamela got more than just 14/15, no?), but his buys have tended to go straight back out if they're unable to hit the ground running.
However, I'm sure that's a decision Poch makes based on what he sees on the pitch and in training, which is presumably more than what most of us see on matchdays. From our perspective, though, writing players off for bad opening seasons isn't justified given that we've seen ourselves how much they sometimes struggle to adapt to this league. And the support we as fans can give them when they're struggling is definitely appreciated by those players at times - Soldado was a shining example of this. In a difficult time for him, both on and off the field (his wife suffered a miscarriage around that time), having his name reverberate around the ground even when he remained utterly hopeless at finishing in game after game
meant something to him - something he's often alluded to in the years since, and something which I've taken to heart as a fan.
I talked for a long time about how football was different from a business, how it was more emotional, more inelastic and more tribal than a cold business proposition could ever be. I still do talk about it in those terms. Football is a sport, still imbued deep, deep down with that childlike sense of innocence and wonder that we all once had as kids - and a sport that shouldn't be run on cold business logic that is alien to the fundamentals that it was founded on.
But I realised at a point last season that I was being more than a bit hypocritical when it came to this view - I shouted about football not being a pure business, but expected so much of the players that were taking to the field each matchday, and was happy to write them off at the start of their careers or bin them after just a season or so if they hadn't delivered for us. I viewed them as assets to be switched around and ruthlessly disposed of if they couldn't benefit the parent company. And I realised that I couldn't reconcile holding that viewpoint with the somewhat naive view of football that I was simultaneously holding.
Footballers are human beings, good people for the most part who come from backgrounds much like our own and who often don't deserve the stick they get for failing to perform in the most competitive leagues in the world. I recognise that it's a results-oriented profession at the end of the day, and that it is more and more becoming the business that I firmly believe it to be fundamentally antithetical to. And I want trophies and success for Spurs as much as anyone, which entails hard decisions sometimes.
But as fans, we saw with Soldado that a bit of patience and support goes a long way to helping these players form bonds with the club they're playing for, and that their hard work being recognised (even if it doesn't lead to them performing) does touch them, even if they don't say so in as many words. The least we can do (and this is what I've tried to do, more or less) is at least extend the period during which we give them some slack for failing to perform. If the manager still bins them, fine, not like we have input into those decisions. But as fans, we can cut them some slack for a while, encourage them, and give them support if they're failing to fire straight away. At least for a season. And especially given that the players we buy now (and Janssen certainly fits that bill) are mostly young, hardworking, level-headed and respectful lads - we don't suffer characters or big-time Charlies anymore. So where's the harm in holding off on our expectations during their initial spells?
