2019 marked the end of a five-year era of relative stability and managerial command at Tottenham Hotspur when Mauricio Pochettino was sacked after a lowly start to the 2019/20 campaign, which resumed the negative conversation surrounding failing factors from the previous campaign.
Since November 2019, Spurs have seen another four managers in four years.
If you know your modern Tottenham history, you’ll know that it’s rather common under Daniel Levy to have a footballing team in disarray.
Since Mr. Levy took his seat at White Hart Lane in 2001, 22 years ago, Tottenham has witnessed 15 managers. 5 managers alone took control of the team in his first 3 and a half seasons. Incredible statistics for a man whose supposed business control, acumen, and foresight have made him so reputed.
Tottenham’s fall all started with a move that may have been premature
I believe Daniel Levy and the board of Tottenham Hotspur got ahead of itself thanks to the form and heights that Pochettino guided Tottenham too. Once things began to fray and spiral, Levy felt that thanks to a nice-looking stadium and training ground, Spurs as a club deserved a man of Jose Mourinho’s calibre. Wrong. However, maybe this could’ve only been proved wrong in hindsight.
The same idea now goes for Antonio Conte. Again, hindsight is possibly a grand thing. Nuno was maybe the only character fit for the difficult Tottenham manager role. Before you perhaps become agitated by the remarks I write, I don’t literally mean Nuno himself, but a manager of that level. You know, a person whose mentality to the job isn’t solely arrogant and doesn’t treat Tottenham as lowly as an Arsenal fan would, for example. The opposite of what we’ve had in Mourinho and Conte.
Both managers’ disdain for Spurs once things go wrong is brilliant viewing if you can emotionally remove yourself even momentarily.
Board holds blame for some Tottenham failures
Of course, the board hasn’t fully supported these extremely demonstrated managers. The board has a load of responsibility in this game, and many factors of what Conte and Mourinho have both griped about are utterly true to the core, and it’s their contempt that’s helped grow an ENIC out movement at Tottenham in the last 4 years, at least.
Daniel Levy runs Spurs not too dissimilar to how smaller or less competitive Premier League clubs are run. Impulsive bursts of expenditure in the wrong direction or reluctant and slow backing of a proven manager aren’t how the club’s Daniel Levy thinks we play usually operate. It’s how the clubs he supposedly believes we’re now bigger than usually function.
According to the board’s actions, Tottenham Hotspur must strive to bring in Europe’s more proven managers now. Remarkably, Spurs is possibly one of few ‘larger’ clubs where bringing in a big money, winning, and ego-centric manager doesn’t appear to work. Once more, the finger of blame can only point to the board if a big money manager who likes to throw cash around to help doesn’t win because he couldn’t throw that much cash around.
Pochettino’s Tottenham turnaround was similar to what Harry Redknapp conducted several years before. Dealing with the tools in the box, re-shaping squares to fit through round holes, asking for various players and getting a couple of who they wanted and a few alternatives to ensure they were nice. They were hindered during their reign, too, but having the coaching desires and dedication to make it work where they could.
Tottenham wasn’t below either of those managers, nor did either personally feel or declare themselves above the club. Well, Redknapp did have a flirt with the England job towards the end, though I think it’s fair to let him off for that. For the most part, they were proud to do the job and wanted what the fans wanted. Entertainment and success. Pride in your work-type credentials.
Their occasional riddled outbursts regarding the club were never too disastrous or heated. Their tone of voice and language was often calculated. Especially Pochettino in his earlier Spurs years.
Both their failures and detriments can once more circle back to the board as the driving force to find weaknesses in a manager’s attributes, but alas, the search seems back on for a new man to take the helm of football’s most painful role, likely come the end of the season.
Several options are available if Tottenham does act
I’m sure the board would have identified Luis Enrique, Thomas Tuchel, Zinedine Zidane, and whoever else is without work and has won multiple cups, but I believe we should be looking closer to home.
Roberto Di Zerbi is currently working wonders at Brighton & Hove Albion. Thrilling, expansive football. Goalscoring with defensive abilities. So far, the south coast side has rarely looked rigid or lethargic. Nor like they’ve been overworked into a failing system without a plan B or tactics that involve throwing another centre-back on when you desperately need a goal, for a random example.
This Italian has not come out in the press and hammered his board and club. He’s yet to have belittled his current club when they’ve failed to get the result he would’ve liked. Di Zerbi hasn’t questioned the history of Brighton, creating more irony than an agreement to his cause.
This option, though, is assumably fairly unrealistic because Brighton will rightly put up a fight to keep Di Zerbi at their helm, especially seeing as Di Zerbi himself said he’s under a long contract and enjoying his time with Brighton.
Regardless of the complications, a manager of his ilk and manner intrigues me far greater than a link to a more ego-centric boss.
I’m fed up with the club acting larger than its size. Especially when it’s clear the club only want to pretend they’re some London-based footballing powerhouse that can match the demands of said successful managers. It’s all make-believe. It extends no further than the architecture in which the team play and trains in. And no further than the comments in propaganda-type club interviews with Mr Levy.
Sure, there’s some undeniable talent within the team. There’s all the potential in the world for Tottenham to win something memorable. There’s the occasional big signing and wave of transfers, but it’s still either too little for the rebuild the team needs or too late as we saw with Pochettino four seasons ago now.
Give us the unpredictability of it all back. Kill off our expectations that surely start with a trophy-proven manager coming in, but delivering nothing whilst berating everything no differently than I would from the stands.
Give the club someone who will look at some of the players we have and dance at the possibility of creating their name with them, building and re-molding their careers, changing opinions, and becoming a fighting team again with a project that hasn’t got a season in the tank before it expires and stinks out the whole place.
These players we have can’t win with their backs to the wall. They can’t. Get rid of the low-block, 7 at the back, no creative player, and striker dropping into his penalty area to defend nonsense. Bin off the absolute media-focused silliness of making the squad do pre-season laps in the humidity, only for them to barely run in any competitive fixture.
Don’t get pulled in by the charm of a La Liga title or a great record in the Champions League. Get drawn in by the character of the manager. The desires and dreams he has for the squad and the academy. The honour he’d feel about managing us, Tottenham Hotspur. Not the burden, the sacrifices, and the dismay of working under an amateur board.
Find us the highest-paying customer in Europe, the next Martin Jol, Harry Redknapp, or Mauricio Pochettino. Not Jose Mourinho or Antonio Conte unless the culture of the board is to be warped to one that can provide everything that those managers need to provide success.