FORMER Manager Watch: Nuno Espírito Santo

[ralphs bald spot]

He's my penny's worth....

Nuno seems to be getting a hell of a lot of flak and criticism for the way we have been playing and he's been sacked after 10 league games. Having put up very gracefully with a summer of bullshit including Kane wanting to leave, Ndombele wanting out, not getting some players until late in the window. He dealt with having a silly injury list and having players "lost" to international breaks and covid restrictions.

Nuno gave every player in the squad a fair crack at the whip and many of them let him down big time. He set up the team to win (whilst being unattractive) and the fans complained, he changed the team to be more attacking and the performances improved but some of the results didnt (and the fans still complained). He gave opportunities to Scarlett, Nile John and other youth products.

He took a team that has been performing utter shite and ineffective under Poch's final months, utter shite and ineffective under Jose. and after 3 months of working with most of the players (likely less time with some of the others) the board and the fans have decided thats enough time to completely change the direction of this team performances and mentality despite several senior players calling out some of the squad over the last 18 months.

With all things being considered and I feel utterly disgusted by the way the club and the fans have treated Nuno. He never said a bad word of any player or the clubs conduct. He set up the team selection (most of the time) the same way many of us on here would and yet he still got blasted by fans for team selection (can anyone tell me they would have picked a different team bar Ndombele against United?). Fans never took to him as we had threads for Nuno out from day one.

I used to look at clubs like Chelsea and Watford that seemed to change their managers every season (whether they were successful or not) and think, I'm glad we're not like that and we give managers a bit of a chance.


We're that club

Sorry I don't agree with that at all sure its a difficult gig but as a manager you rarely get to go into a job because the garden is rosie. Even with excuses the football has been insipid and you could forgive that if he was trying things and they weren't working but he let games drift against West Ham and then did the same thing against United Vitessee was awful and thats not mention Arsenal.

Would I have picked a different side against United I wouldn't have played Davies when your full backs provide your only width for starters. The selection though aren't the point though its the tactics in going forward that have been the problem you have to have some width and pace and pace when you attack even Portugese Joe worked that out. Frankly he has looked lost and then its almost always the end for a manager when he starts publicly moaning about the players.

I think you need continuity at a football club but someone wrote on here sometimes you have to hold your hands up and say I made a mistake and this is one of those. After the last few games he gave us little choice I am afraid

 

[Serpico]

A week is a long time in football.

 

[brasil_spur]

Were Romero, Ndombele and Royal cheap options?

Exactly, it's not about money spent but rather about how that money has been spent. Getting Paratici in to do some proper scouting and player buying was key. The only fault in our summer dealings was not signing more players, but this seems to have been more of a Levy issue than anything else.

 

[Pistols At Dawn]

A justified response from Nuno would be, "thank fuck I'm out of there. That club is a shambles. Good luck to the next guy who has to work with Daniel Levy, whoever that may be! "

 

[Locotoro]

I agree with you 100%.
Nuno seemed like a very decent man and I firmly believe that under different circumstances he could have been successful.

The club is in a total shambles at the moment and it all stems from Levy not backing Poch following the call for the "painful rebuild".

Mourinho attempted to polish the turd but it was a job even too far for him. Then poor old Nuno comes in like a lamb to the slaughter. Into a cauldron of chaos with big characters like Kane and Ndombele throwing their toys out of the pram and perhaps a lack of credibility having come from an inferior club. Perhaps he was unwise to have taken the job. I believe he gave it a good shot (for the reasons you outline above) but clearly the likes of Kane were not willing to take orders from him.
Nuno needs a rest and a nice club where he can build something with his obvious ability, I wish him well.
The only option for Tottenham is a big beast. Someone with the gravitas, experience and track record to shape up the team and to push back on Levy (we thought Mourinho was that guy).
Is it Conte?
We'll see.

Until Levy is willing to get rid of the players causing a cancer in our club rather than the manager we will continue to sink into even more of a pit than we have. He's trying to save the team of 4 years ago when actually he should be eradicating the team of negativity and backing the manager. He didnt support Poch at the right time, he didnt support Jose right before a final even if he deserved to go and now he's sacked Nuno after 3 months. Absolute farce

Despite what anyone says or how the football looks, I will never blame a manager for playing shit football when we've been playing shit football for the last 3 managers (Mason included). As Hojbjerg said "you could put the tea lady in charge and the players should still be giving their all"...but they're not.

 

[Spurs_Bear]

A justified response from Nuno would be, "thank fuck I'm out of there. That club is a shambles. Good luck to the next guy who has to work with Daniel Levy, whoever that may be! "

And to be honest, if he did do that, absolute fair play to him. I'd have more respect for him doing that than I did in the 4 months we had to put up with him in charge.

 

[Serpico]

Emma Hayes it is then.

 

[Athenspur]

We've become a laughing stock, haven't we?

 

[CanadaSpurs]

We've become a laughing stock, haven't we?

Frankly, not if we finally get Conte over the line. He wouldn’t come to a laughingstock.

 

[double0]

Were Romero, Ndombele and Royal cheap options?

Lo Celso Rodon Doherty no Kane back up.

We can go back for years whereby the club had seek alternative cheaper option... Sissoko was clearly one.

 

[Montalbano]

He was fucking odd. Not disappointed at all to see the back of him.

Hopefully at the minimum we’ll be bringing in a manager with more life in him than Nuno had.

 

[dontcallme]

Lo Celso Rodon Doherty no Kane back up.

We can go back for years whereby the club had seek alternative cheaper option... Sissoko was clearly one.

Sissoko was a cheap option? He was a stupid option, not a cheap one.

 

[carmeldevil]

He was fucking odd. Not disappointed at all to see the back of him.

Hopefully at the minimum we’ll be bringing in a manager with more life in them than Nuno had.

You can't be aloof and cross your arms and be a successful manager at a large club anymore. You have to engage the players, the fans, etc to get the team going. Just the way it is.

 

[Locotoro]

We've become a laughing stock, haven't we?

become?
we have been for a while

 

[Locotoro]

You can't be aloof and cross your arms and be a successful manager at a large club anymore. You have to engage the players, the fans, etc to get the team going. Just the way it is.

Pep, Conte, Zidane are probably the most successful managers of recent times and all have been described as aloof, arrogant and have frozen players out of the team without explanation. The real problem is some of our players have a sense of entitlement that they believe they should be winning trophies without putting in the hard yards for it.

 

[walworthyid]

It looks very likely that we will get this over the line. More than in the summer.

We have to presume that we will be investing in the squad.

 

[BuryMeInEngland]

He's my penny's worth....

Nuno seems to be getting a hell of a lot of flak and criticism for the way we have been playing and he's been sacked after 10 league games. Having put up very gracefully with a summer of bullshit including Kane wanting to leave, Ndombele wanting out, not getting some players until late in the window. He dealt with having a silly injury list and having players "lost" to international breaks and covid restrictions.

Nuno gave every player in the squad a fair crack at the whip and many of them let him down big time. He set up the team to win (whilst being unattractive) and the fans complained, he changed the team to be more attacking and the performances improved but some of the results didnt (and the fans still complained). He gave opportunities to Scarlett, Nile John and other youth products.

He took a team that has been performing utter shite and ineffective under Poch's final months, utter shite and ineffective under Jose. and after 3 months of working with most of the players (likely less time with some of the others) the board and the fans have decided thats enough time to completely change the direction of this team performances and mentality despite several senior players calling out some of the squad over the last 18 months.

With all things being considered and I feel utterly disgusted by the way the club and the fans have treated Nuno. He never said a bad word of any player or the clubs conduct. He set up the team selection (most of the time) the same way many of us on here would and yet he still got blasted by fans for team selection (can anyone tell me they would have picked a different team bar Ndombele against United?). Fans never took to him as we had threads for Nuno out from day one.

I used to look at clubs like Chelsea and Watford that seemed to change their managers every season (whether they were successful or not) and think, I'm glad we're not like that and we give managers a bit of a chance.


We're that club

Disagree, sorry. It was never going to get better and we would have ended mid table or lower at the end of the season making any recovery efforts even harder than they are now. If you keep doing the same thing and hoping for a different outcome you are an idiot, and he kept doing the same thing.

It looked like the players had no drive or enthusiasm for playing for him, so it was better to rip off the band aid now (and he was always just the band aid) and hope things start to cure. At least this way the fans might be on the side of the new manager.

 

[shelfstandspur]

Am I overthinking it to suggest that Levy not letting Nuno bring in his psychology staff was a big part of this? He clearly lost the team very quickly and struggled to get them to do what he wanted. I found it bizarre in the summer that we were haggling with managers over their backroom staff and that looks to have backfired.

Given all of the current issues on and off the field, the history of near misses and losing big games, plus individual players who could benefit from having their confidence and mental toughness built up.... How have we not already got an in house psychology team?

It seems amazing where we have analysis and support for their physical bodies we aren't taking care of their mental strength/wellbeing. The ROI for this is minimal.

Re Nuno it is another example of him being set to fail. You want a manager to demand the backroom team he needs to be successful. If they then say no he should walk away as if he can't get a psychologist he is unlikely to get the players he needs.

I'm not sure about Conte working, but he will demand what he feels he needs.

 

[carmeldevil]

Pep, Conte, Zidane are probably the most successful managers of recent times and all have been described as aloof, arrogant and have frozen players out of the team without explanation. The real problem is some of our players have a sense of entitlement that they believe they should be winning trophies without putting in the hard yards for it.

Don't agree. I have seen them engage with players more than Nuno ever has. Arrogant yes. Aloof, disagree.

Nuno was the wrong fit for Tottenham and I'm glad he's gone. Of course we still have a problem. Levy.

 

[Pistols At Dawn]

We've become a laughing stock, haven't we?

"become" doing some heavy lifting here... ?