Where do we go now?

[Gassin's finest]

levy was shit but poch wasn't any better when he refused any signings other than de ligt or de jong and put us into a relegation position

Really? I don't recall us being in the bottom 3 at any point? In fact we never left the top 4.

Edit: I'm not turning this into another lament for Poch, and refuse to go back down that rabbit hole.

 

[Nerine]

The whole setup is largely just a joke, now.

If this was Football Manager, this is where I’d hit “new game”.

A good 10-11 players need to leave. But won’t.
We don’t need big names. We need fucking effort and desire. We’ve got none.

If it were me, I’d ditch all these so called “pros” and play some youth.
I’d get rid of absolutely anyone that is not at least 100% committed to winning at any cost.

 

[coy-spurs1882]

Really? I don't recall us being in the bottom 3 at any point? In fact we never left the top 4.

Edit: I'm not turning this into another lament for Poch, and refuse to go back down that rabbit hole.

we were 14th when he was sacked and our form in his last year was pathetic

 

[coy-spurs1882]

The whole setup is largely just a joke, now.

If this was Football Manager, this is where I’d hit “new game”.

A good 10-11 players need to leave. But won’t.
We don’t need big names. We need fucking effort and desire. We’ve got none.

If it were me, I’d ditch all these so called “pros” and play some youth.
I’d get rid of absolutely anyone that is not at least 100% committed to winning at any cost.

much more than that i am afraid

 

[michaelden]

I don't think we should talk about it. It's like erectile dysfunction, if you talk about you add more pressure and then it happens more. ... So I've heard.

 

[13VanDerBale13]

I’m sorry to be blunt but nothing will change with these owners as history shows with countless managers

 

[muppetman]

For the first time I am hanging all of this on Levy. Everything since 2018 has been a steady decline, with the outlier of the CL final aside.

Either poor or no signings, sacking rather than backing Poch, Jose, the Amazon piss take, the ESL...

He needs to step back from football, stop sticking his oar in, and let someone who actually knows what he's fucking doing take over. Until the football club is ran intelligently, this isn't going to improve.

As such we need a new "project" now. I'm leaning towards Potter, seeing as no one else will want to take over a team with no Europe, and he can at least start instilling a proper footballing culture into a new team. Because this one is finished.

I think Levy deserves loads of credit for the improvements that have happened under him and ENIC - the league finishes, appointing Poch, the training ground and the new stadium.

I also agree that he needs to take the blame for the downturn over the last few years - not just appointing Jose but the lack of support for Poch's "painful rebuild" before that.

Not sure if Levy needs to appoint someone else or see it through himself but, I agree with you, we need to reset the project and appoint a manager that can sort us out top to bottom - youth team to 1st team and create an identity that we then recruit toward.

Is Potter the right man to do so - perhaps with a decent DoF (or Levy not being distracted by the stadium build)? Quite possibly but I don't see how a short term fix like Benitez is going to do anything other than put off the inevitible.

I think if it was sold in the right way many fans would get behind a temporary setback, knowing that in a year or two the stadium will start to generate some serious wedge which will allow us to take a punt on players of a much higher calibre than the N'Kodou's that Poch had to put up with. To do this, we also need to get back the connection with the team that we had before - so no more ESL, £60 tickets, Amazon doc etc.

 

[DFF]

I have absolutely no confidence that we’ll have the player turnover this summer that’s necessary.

 

[coy-spurs1882]

I have absolutely no confidence that we’ll have the player turnover this summer that’s necessary.

the dawn won't come as long as ENIC is still here

 

[shelfboy68]

So it’s obvious there’s a lot wrong with us at the moment. While we know a new manager will be announced in the next few weeks, I’ve been thinking about the sorts of things I’d like to see happen under their new tenureship.

Firstly, watching Leeds give us a hiding today just reinforces the obvious that we have been poorly coached and managed for the last 18 months. We desperately need a coach that will create coherent systems of play and forge an identity the squad can shape themselves around. We absolutely have neither at the moment.

We need to shift the dross. But I also think we need to be careful here. It’s hard to truly evaluate players that have joined us since the wheels started falling off in the autumn of 2019. While I’m frustrated with Reggie, GLC and Ndombele, I’d like us to see what they can do in a team with an identity, a team that is well coached. However, there are also players, for different reasons, that have to be moved on.

I’d like to see us move away from choking every time an opportunity presents itself. I’m fed up with seeing us lose semi finals, or finals because players have bad games and seem to be either overwhelmed by the occasion or just not bothered. We had a brilliant opportunity to put pressure on the top four today after Leicester lost to Newcastle, and we go and do the expected: we lose, and throw away the opportunity.

We need our chairman to step up. We need Levy to be decisive, as much as is reasonable, in the transfer market this window. That’s sales and purchases. No prevaricating, no pissing off third parties over additional haggling- just getting the right players in and out in a timely way. He needs to back the new manager

None of this can be relied on to happen real shame.

 

[McArchibald]

It's obvious that there are serous issues with the squad in terms of quality, depth, drive, coaching and a few things more. No manager we can appoint is going to walk in and turn us into a top-4 team with just a wave of his wand.

A rethink of the whole football operation is required. Appointing a Director of Football to oversee the entire operation and with sole discretion in relation to transfers is in my opinion an absolute must. Levy - with his accountants approach to squad building - has dominated the footballing side of the club for far too long and the (lack of) results are there for all to see.

 

[Hazelton]

This all comes down to that Leicester season when the people in charge somehow thought that a team that finished second to Leicester, in the short-term absence of Chelsea, United, City etc, was fine as it was. This team should have slowly been rebuilt already, replacing or upgrading 2-3 players every season. Instead, we let it stagnate and watched as Liverpool did what we failed to do, ironically through daring and taking a chance.

I've never been totally ENIC out because throughout their whole time here I've seen positives as well as negatives, but in terms of sheer club fundimentals they have achieved everything they can here. Thank you for the good times, thank you for the stadium and the infrastructure, but it's time for you to walk away and to pass the torch on to someone willing to take us to the next level. As much as I respect Levy for some of what he's done, he represents everything wrong with the team. It was good, but you never had the nerve or the bottle to take risks and push the limits towards greatness. Always just nearly there.

 

[hellava_tough]

So it’s obvious there’s a lot wrong with us at the moment. While we know a new manager will be announced in the next few weeks, I’ve been thinking about the sorts of things I’d like to see happen under their new tenureship.

Firstly, watching Leeds give us a hiding today just reinforces the obvious that we have been poorly coached and managed for the last 18 months. We desperately need a coach that will create coherent systems of play and forge an identity the squad can shape themselves around. We absolutely have neither at the moment.

We need to shift the dross. But I also think we need to be careful here. It’s hard to truly evaluate players that have joined us since the wheels started falling off in the autumn of 2019. While I’m frustrated with Reggie, GLC and Ndombele, I’d like us to see what they can do in a team with an identity, a team that is well coached. However, there are also players, for different reasons, that have to be moved on.

I’d like to see us move away from choking every time an opportunity presents itself. I’m fed up with seeing us lose semi finals, or finals because players have bad games and seem to be either overwhelmed by the occasion or just not bothered. We had a brilliant opportunity to put pressure on the top four today after Leicester lost to Newcastle, and we go and do the expected: we lose, and throw away the opportunity.

We need our chairman to step up. We need Levy to be decisive, as much as is reasonable, in the transfer market this window. That’s sales and purchases. No prevaricating, no pissing off third parties over additional haggling- just getting the right players in and out in a timely way. He needs to back the new manager

Summer of 2018; the one where we signed NO ONE!!

What a crock...

PS Agree with the rest of your post though

 

[Spursmatty87]

Always been pro Levy, but this is all on him. Personally I think he’s had his time at the club. Every business evolves and change CEO every few years to keep things fresh. I personally think that is the point we have reached.

Personally I think he’s done a great job for us in 20 years however, in the last two years his decisions have set the club back 5/6 years. The fact that 20 years in we still don’t have a footballing plan, switching from one type of managers to another. Is it really any wonder these players look like strangers with each other. (Btw we were saying the same thing back in 2014).
I don’t think it’s as simple as a manager or even a director of football we need a new CEO.

 

[Frozen_Waffles]

For all our supposed talent up front we have no cohesion.

I was watching Dele press high with intensity and then Son and Kane were dropping off, then I saw son press on his own.

The key thing about all our attacking players is that they can't tackle so pressing is a little pointless unless they all do it together.

Today I saw hoijberg doing the job of two midfielders. If he has no one in front of him winning the ball back or even dropping in to add an extra man in midfield then he is on a hiding to nothing, if he sits and doesn't press the ball we are just going to be dominated, if he presses he leaves massive gaps.

But it all starts at the back, distribution from our players is appalling, with no one in midfield who can actually switch the play quickly.

This team is in rags, we saw a team today bereft of workrate, overpaid, over hyped individuals. I hate to use the word, but it's the only word for us at the moment - legends.

If I was lloris or Kane I'd be off.

This all comes from poor signings and the inability to sell players who are not good enough. Kane, lloris, son, PEH and Toby that is all. The rest are either not putting in the effort or are not good enough.

How Steve hitchen and our 'transfer committee' still have jobs is beyond me.

We have no style of play, this comes from poch, we stopped playing the press and played deeper and deeper. This is not his fault, but due to a lack of quality and effort from the players.

Jose tried to get us to play counter attacking football until the players gave up on him as well.

Yet levy still persists with 'the squad is good enough'.

Poch called for big changes he didn't get them, José said it was the players. And now suprise, suprise, mason is having problems.

Imagine bielsa with this group of players, he'd have killed them by now.

What is our style now? It's not pressing, it's not counter attack, it's not possession. It's just let's hope Harry or son can get a goal.

There is massive problems with this team. I didn't think poch was the problem, I didn't think José was the problem, IT'S THE FUCKING PLAYERS

 

[Gassin's finest]

Always been pro Levy, but this is all on him. Personally I think he’s had his time at the club. Every business evolves and change CEO every few years to keep things fresh. I personally think that is the point we have reached.

Personally I think he’s done a great job for us in 20 years however, in the last two years his decisions have set the club back 5/6 years. The fact that 20 years in we still don’t have a footballing plan, switching from one type of managers to another. Is it really any wonder these players look like strangers with each other. (Btw we were saying the same thing back in 2014).
I don’t think it’s as simple as a manager or even a director of football we need a new CEO.

Every time its looked like we were on the verge of seriously making it, he has made some dumbass, knee jerk decision, that has rewound us right back where we were before that cycle began.

Jol to Ramos, Redknapp to AVB, Poch to Jose, and all the shenanigan's in between.

Its almost like he's doing it on purpose.

 

[RuskyM]

anyone blaming players are missing the forest for the trees. you can talk about effort or mentality but the basic fact is this is a club that demands to be judged like we're barcelona when we've won as many trophies under ENIC as birmingham. either we've got a ceiling due to financial constraints, in which case stop trying to ruin football by sucking up to the big boys whilst pretending we're one of them, or we're the king cheese, in which case fucking act like it. so, so sick of the cycle of excuses.

 

[dontcallme]

My general view is if players, excluding youngsters, aren't performing well after 3-4 season then they need to be moved on.

I like Lamela but ultimately we have been waiting 8 seasons now for good, consistent performances. Not saying it is his fault but after 4 seasons of no return it was time to move on.

Right now we have Aurier, Davies, Alderweireld, Dier, Sanchez, Winks, Lamela, Dier, Sissoko, Alli and Moura who have all been here for a sufficient amount of time and all have either never got up to level or did get up to level then faded away for several seasons.

I remember Poch talking about slow integration of players and giving them time to develop and I liked the idea at the time. But it massively backfired and now we're beyond stale. Selling the 11 players listed above is extremely unlikely for one transfer window, same as finding replacements in such a short period of time.

But it is time for decisive moves.

 

[Spursberg]

We are in a bad spot at the moment, we have waited to long to move people along and strengthen when we should. This will have implications for many years now before we will be able to compete for top 4 imo.

We honestly need to move along 6-7 players but we know that wil never happen. Levy treats the players as assets only and not humans that have voice that poisons the others around them. If he gets 5 mill for a player he wants 8 for, he will not sell even if he is poison and we will keep going backwards.

Enic/Levy will only react if we are out of EL reach and he sees we are going under the top 8 line regularly, as that is the only way Enic will lose money.

 

[spids]

Right now morale is low, and the players are also not fit enough. We need a good clear out. 7 or 8 to leave with only 3 or 4 coming in. We need a proper pre-season. We need fit and hungry players. We need the chairman to realise that to be competitive you have to have ambition and take a chance.