Poch has produced a minor miracle at Spurs

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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2017/02/20/mauricio-pochettino-wise-preach-patience-tottenham-another/


Mauricio Pochettino is wise to preach patience at Tottenham - another top four finish would be a huge achievement

By
Matt Law
Football News Correspondent Matt Law

20 February 2017 • 7:00am


Mauricio Pochettino is wise to preach patience at Tottenham
Pochettino has produced a minor miracle at Spurs Credit: Reuters


Standing still is no longer accepted in the Premier League, just ask Arsène Wenger, who appears to be crawling towards the end of his ars*nal managerial career.

A few hours before Wenger suffered one of his most humiliating defeats in charge of ars*nal, Mauricio Pochettino had told the travelling English press in Gent that Tottenham needed to be patient for him to achieve his goals for the club.

Following defeat by the Belgian side, it was then put to Pochettino that he may not lift a single trophy this season – having seen Spurs touted as realistic candidates to win the Premier League, the Europa League and the FA Cup.

Pochettino took the point in good grace, but he would have been within his rights to remind his inquisitor that Tottenham have not won a trophy in nine years, since Juande Ramos lifted the League Cup and was then sacked eight months later, with Spurs battling against relegation.

A so-called ‘cup team’, Spurs last celebrated an FA Cup success 26 years ago and have not won the title since 1961. Serial winners, they are not – even if Sunday's fifth-round victory at Fulham had the visiting fans singing “Glory, Glory Tottenham Hotspur”.

A scroll down the ‘honours’ sections of his players’ Wikipedia pages will take only a few minutes, as Pochettino has the youngest and most inexperienced squad of all his rivals – partly through design and partly through necessity because of the size of Tottenham’s budget.

This is not to absolve Pochettino of any scrutiny or blame for disappointing performances or results. His team selection for the key Champions League match in Monaco in November remains baffling and the decisions to sign Vincent Janssen and Moussa Sissoko last summer for a combined £47?million have yet to be justified.

But, practically working with one arm tied behind his back while Manchester City, United, Chelsea and ars*nal can spend fortunes, Pochettino has produced a minor miracle in his two-and-a-half years at Tottenham.

Should Spurs manage to “stand still” this season, Pochettino would be the first manager to take the club into the Champions League for two successive campaigns.


Tottenham

Pochettino has built a young and exciting Spurs squad Credit: Rex Features




Wenger has long argued that consistency is one of the most difficult achievements in football and, while it may no longer be good enough for the Frenchman and ars*nal, it should be very much celebrated down the Seven Sisters Road.

The key difference between how Wenger and Pochettino should be judged is that Wenger rebuilt a winning mentality at ars*nal, lost it and has not been able to bring it back. Pochettino is still at the first stage of that process and is moving forwards.

Whether or not the final league position ends up reflecting it, Spurs are progressing under Pochettino, but the next step will be the most difficult and possibly the most time-consuming unless the club receive an injection of cash.

If he is not handed a big transfer fund, comparable to that of his rivals, then Pochettino must be shown the patience he knows it will take to turn Tottenham into a club who can be legitimately questioned about the number of trophies that are on the table at the end of each season.

Until then, Spurs must accept that standing still is no mean feat and look forward to the day that their nemesis, Wenger, leaves ars*nal and the fans at the Emirates can no longer take top-four finishes for granted.
 
Poch did have meetings with players after the Gent defeat and it seems to have worked. He is working with a limited budget and is continuing the youth policy with Winks the most recent emergence. I think his hands are tied and should be shown patience.
 
As I've said since pre-season, a top 4 finish this season will be an incredible achievement and of course could herald our arrival as true consistent competitor for Top 4 - that doesn't mean we've reached nirvana , but it will mean that our momentum and direction of travel is upwards and onwards.

 
With the improvement in Man U and Chavs top 4 would be a huge achievement with what he has had to work with . That is my worry with cup distraction, yes it's nice to have a cup run but the PL will need huge commitment to get top 4.
 
If we can get past both Gent and Millwall I would happily give up top 4 with favourable draws in the next rounds. Next season in the CL at Wembley would not really excite me, winning a trophy would.
 
When you think about it, City, United and Chelsea are going to spend between £100m and £200m apiece and we are supposed to compete with that. I can't see Liverpool doing it either. The author is right in that Spurs are producing a minor miracle at the moment. Saying that, it doesn't help when you spend £60m on 3 players that don't have much of a 1st team impact. That's what we have to avoid doing again. I still think that our number 1 target in the summer should be Barkley. I really think that Eriksen, Alli and Barkley could be phenomenal together behind Kane. I'd also like to see a natural replacement for Rose in our squad so we don't lose out so much tactically when he is out of the side.

 
Greavswasthegreatest - 20/2/2017 12:05

We dont need Barkley imo, we need to splash the cash on 2 x top class forwards
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So damn obvious and I agree! Must be the only team in the whole of the Football League to have ONE proven striker on the books....seeing Jannsen out of favour...utter disgrace.

EDIT: So, performing a minor miracle, but also dropping an almighty bollock!
 
Knowing that our rich owners are focused rather on being successful only on the financial part of managing a big London football club, the main effort should be to have one of the best scouting departments, staffed with a number of people who know and can rate at first glance who is a flop player and who is a young player with perspectives.

The head coach should determine the positions where the scouters should look for effective and affordable players and the owners should specify the available funds.

 
Its not really a miracle is it. Its shrewd signings that came good that make the difference. City threw 50m at sterling whilst we went and picked up alli for peanuts on the advice of david pleat. Kane came good and saved us 50m.

lloris was 12m
Alder 11m
Dier - 4m
wanyama 12m
alli 5m
walker - 5
rose 1m
verts - 11m
eriksen- 11m
dembo- 15m
Kane- academy product

Most of our first team cost us 100m. Shrewd signings and a defensive minded coach is why we are doing so well. Now if he can bring in the forward players to match his defence then that would be something.
 
Ioan X - 20/2/2017 13:44


Knowing that our rich owners are focused rather on being successful only on the financial part of managing a big London football club, the main effort should be to have one of the best scouting departments, staffed with a number of people who know and can rate at first glance who is a flop player and who is a young player with perspectives.

The head coach should determine the positions where the scouters should look for effective and affordable players and the owners should specify the available funds.
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"The head coach should determine the positions where the scouters should look for effective and affordable players and the owners should specify the available funds..."

You obviously do know already that this is exactly what happens, right?

You do know that a year ahead of the two transfer windows our board informs/forecasts and tells the Head Coach/manager exactly what net funds are likely to be available based on pre-determined income and performance related income, right?
 
..all the good work you mentioned potentially iruined by shite expensive signings NJIE, N'Koudo, Janssen shitsoko and the homegrown waste of space onemonah
 
Taricco the yid - 20/2/2017 14:58

Its not really a miracle is it. Its shrewd signings that came good that make the difference. City threw 50m at sterling whilst we went and picked up alli for peanuts on the advice of david pleat. Kane came good and saved us 50m.

lloris was 12m
Alder 11m
Dier - 4m
wanyama 12m
alli 5m
walker - 5
rose 1m
verts - 11m
eriksen- 11m
dembo- 15m
Kane- academy product

Most of our first team cost us 100m. Shrewd signings and a defensive minded coach is why we are doing so well. Now if he can bring in the forward players to match his defence then that would be something.
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Our issue is still quality in depth, unlike the other top 5 we can't afford for long to have £100-150 millon of loan players and reserves sitting around...

And if anyone has been paying any attention to Poch and how our club has to perform in the market we are able to rarely compete for the very best and therefore have to take measured gambles.

When I told everyone here about what a player Vert was, he was almost universally dismissed as an 'unknown', we had the same 'debate' again about Bale (although all now claim they knew he'd be a World Class player) and the same debate about Walker and Rose - and even as he broke through exactly the same debate about Kane - the pelters and ill-informed comment abput Kane when he first broke through was utterly ridiculous.

Our income is around (it various) anywhere between £100 million and £200 million a year less than our main rivals - the ONLY way we can bridge that gap is to take measured gambles, sometimes they pay off, sometimes they don't , but overall we've got far more right than wrong, to prove that all you have to do is look at what we paid and what others now value our squad at i.e. in excess of £300 mill...

So, IF we finish in the Top 4 for the second time in a row we may well have shattered our glass ceiling and have the greatest possible chance of building both a winning mentality and toughness, but most of all we might well convince others that we're a genuine Top 4 contender for years to come...that's a sea change from where we've been in the 20 years the PL has existed.
 
I think the true measure of a team is what they achieve relative to net-spend....

any Arab dictator's family can steal all its nation's wealth and buy a title or 2...ditto Russian carpetbaggers
 
Greavswasthegreatest - 20/2/2017 17:26

...but we need to stop panic buying at the eleventh hour...set our targets and entice early
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Despite what some think, we try, but it really isn't as near as simple as some think.

It would be injudicious of me to say what agency I was a shareholder of for many years, but I'll give some idea of the the way we predicted income and the way we measured 'success';

You start with potentially 100 possible deals by staying close to owners, managers, scouts and even the dreaded competing agents/advisors, around 50% of these potential deals are based on clubs chasing players typically 12 months before (i.e. a firm target), for those clubs they'd often have 4 - 5 targets to fill that role and a reasonable firm budget (but even that can change dramatically up and down as other positions are filled, or factors change).

Every deal is different, but at each step in a potential deal 100 things can and often do go wrong.

At each stage in a deal you see drop out as you qualify a multitude of issues i.e. the selling club/player changes their mind, their demands are outside our wage structure/available funds, player wants the move, but family decide at last stage that they don't fancy it...

Physical issues/character interviews/poor meetings between agent/club/player - you get the picture, it goes on and on, so as a percentage of probably 100 deals of which you might be acting on 5-10 those targets for one club, you're often lucky to drag one or two over the line..

We track every up and coming player in most of the World's top leagues, but so does all our competitors and often they have far far deeper pockets than us, are in most attractive climes and a much better track record...so in the pecking orders of transfers you won't be surprised to hear that we are often the players second, third, even forth choice - until they get to us of course when we are their 'dream move'...

By way of example there were five Bundesliga and two French league 1 clubs competing for Janssens signature, and even up to the week before we signed him, we weren't the favourites to get him ...and we'd been tracking him for two years and seriously for the previous twelve months...some might say, we were unlucky to win that race!
 
Ex I presumed as much, but other clubs seem to be able to do early doors business and we never seem able to.....which is a shame, because getting a player at the end of a season means they have a full pre season to gel, settle down.

Maybe thats the problem with shitsoko...he is missing the heady lifestyl of Newcastle and cant settle in the capital... :2:
 
Greavswasthegreatest - 20/2/2017 18:04

Ex I presumed as much, but other clubs seem to be able to do early doors business and we never seem able to.....which is a shame, because getting a player at the end of a season means they have a full pre season to gel, settle down.

Maybe thats the problem with shitsoko...he is missing the heady lifestyl of Newcastle and cant settle in the capital... :2:
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It's so much easier when you aren't competing for Top drawer up and coming players; you have to be far more patient than you would like, or take a much much bigger gamble - I was amazed at what we threw at Janssen and Sissoko (as I made clear)...but I still don't think anyone should yet be writing them off - I still suspect that Sissoko will be given the chance of a full pre-season and upping his fitness..the word from those who should know these things is that his fitness was nowhere near good enough, but the belief is it can be given a full pre-season, to some extent the same is true of Janssen, but the pressure appears to have really affected him.

Both may well rebound and surprise, the question is will the coaches persist or chuck the towel in and move one/both on.

At the moment, I think we may well persist.
 
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