Next Manager Watch

[Ghost Hardware]

The same NDombele that we were all super excited by as a statement signing. Go look at the poster thread at the beginning. He was superb the season before we signed him. GLC also had a great season. Poch got 3 months with them and they were both injured in that time.

I struggle to see Ndombele having another chance here because there seems to be a mental issue there regarding application that I’m not sure he will ever get past. It’s a big shame as he is clearly naturally very talented. Gio on the other had I would fully expect Poch to give a chance to. I would be surprised if he didn’t tbh unless an offer is made at the end of his loan that was accepted.

 

[Ghost Hardware]

I get the frustration, I do. It's just tiresome reading the same stuff over and over again in different threads. Discussions are fine, but I'm seeing childish arguments and remarks which are over the top and unnecessary.

Mate I completely agree, people are actively looking to pick fights these days. I’ve had to put a number of people on ignore because I’ve had people respond to my posts aggressively or in an increasingly condescending manner. In all the years I’ve been on here I had never done that until recently. I have no issues with anyone disagreeing with my point of view, I enjoy discussing them and it’s a big part of why I enjoy virtually hanging out here. But it’s getting to a point, like you say, where it’s more often than not people shouting at one another with zero interest in what others say. And if you don’t share a view point then you are immediately branded an idiot regardless of your reasoning.

 

[mattstev2000]

Of course, but it appointing Poch will mean the fans will be off his back for a bit.

This gets said a lot, but if anyone thinks for a second the fans being 'on his back' makes the slightest bit of difference to how he runs the club or whether ENIC will keep him on they are deluding themselves.

It's a multi billion dollar operation, they're not going to make management decisions based on fan chants, hashtags or chaps waving flags at the training ground.

Levy and ENIC are around as long as they want to be, the discussion should be what's best for the team given that limitation.

 

[SpursJC]

This gets said a lot, but if anyone thinks for a second the fans being 'on his back' makes the slightest bit of difference to how he runs the club or whether ENIC will keep him on they are deluding themselves.

It's a multi billion dollar operation, they're not going to make management decisions based on fan chants, hashtags or chaps waving flags at the training ground.

Levy and ENIC are around as long as they want to be, the discussion should be what's best for the team given that limitation.

Didn’t the fan backlash stop us from appointing Gattuso?

 

[Inq]

SC is becoming a toxic place full of the same arguments in several threads.

Been like this for a few years now. Correlates with the way the club in general has been recently.

 

[Timberwolf]

This is tin foil hat time for me but I was always curious how we was loaning players out it made me think there was a small possibility club didn't want to sell them and was waiting for something. Not so much Ndombele but others, I just found it hard to believe that absolutely nobody was interested in signing Reguilon for example or Rodon couldn't get a move.

That is an interesting point but quite a few of the loan deals do have options to buy included: Ndombele certainly does, as do Rodon, Winks and Lo Celso I believe. If we really didn't want to sell presumably we wouldn't have included options at all (although I suppose adding a very expensive option is similar to not offering one at all).

The young players like Gil and Spence don't have options, which makes sense as they're still seen as potential prospects.

I guess the one outlier is Reguilon who doesn't have an option to sell but certainly isn't a young prospect anymore.

 

[GMI]

One interesting dynamic, should this come to pass, is that of Poch and Mason. If I recall they are very close. You would have thought Mason would slot in nicely with the Poch staff.

 

[SpursJord]

SC is becoming a toxic place full of the same arguments in several threads.

Are we surprised? One of the biggest problems I see online is not being allowed to have your own opinion.

Apparently you can't want Levy and Conte out. It seems to have to be one or the other, if you want rid of Conte everyone seems to believe that makes you a Levy lover and is nothing to do with the turgid football. You also must hate Levy if you want Conte to stay...

Then you get all the insults you're a **** or **** or **** if you do/don't want him out. As a fanbase we need to learn to stop disrespecting others opinions based on a man at the top of our club doing or not doing a good job depending on your views. Nothing will ever change while the fanbase fight and argue and Levy will continue to just win and make money.

 

[Albertbarich]

Didn’t the fan backlash stop us from appointing Gattuso?

That was a social justice thing though, that kinda publicity is not the sort the club wants.

 

[TOLBINY]

Levy has stated that we try to buy the best players we can afford. That's a prudent stance, but if what we can afford is a lot less than Chelsea, City, Utd, and most likely Newcastle, we as fans can never expect to win anything and we will just go round and round in the same hire / moan / sack managerial loop.

 

[Yiddo100]

Levy has stated that we try to buy the best players we can afford. That's a prudent stance, but if what we can afford is a lot less than Chelsea, City, Utd, and most likely Newcastle, we as fans can never expect to win anything and we will just go round and round in the same hire / moan / sack managerial loop.

We can afford 50/60m pound players, they can win you leagues. We just don’t pick the right players.

 

[fishhhandaricecake]

The hatred of Levy is so dense it's warping spacetime. People see everything through the lens of this parasocial relationship, and it's driving them insane.

Hotspur88 just said that some fans still can't see that Levy is the problem. As if we're supposed to do something about it.

I could understand if he was driving the club to bankruptcy or he was a reprehensible individual or Enic were leeching money from us... but he's just made some bad decisions and has a way of operating that some find frustrating.

The thing is, despite how we are constantly being briefed, Levy has been pretty flexible and able to change. At the same time we've grown massively and have far more options than we had previously. So I am not surprised there have been some errors but the will and capacity to change is obviously there. So I just can't be as pessimistic about things as we're supposed to be.

Appointing Espirito Santo was a catastrophe but Levy moved quickly to replace him. And I really don't think we will end up in that situation again. Appointing Conte was a great bold move and it paid off. In the summer we got signings in quickly and massively increased our strength in depth. Things aren't working out but that happens sometimes.

If Pochettino comes in, I don't believe that Levy will be looking at it as a way to fool the fans or be lazy. I would expect that he believes it's the best option of those available and he would make an effort to make it work. Similarly, I don't think Pochettino would rejoin if he didn't think he could be successful. We frequently make ambitious moves. I can't see this as some sneaky, cheap way to get fans onside.

(That said, we should always be skeptical of what we hear. Maybe Levy and Pochettino just have mutual respect and let it be known. Maybe there is no desire for them to reunite. You can't invest too much into the minutiae when you don't know what's really happening. )

Nice post although I wouldn’t say levy has been flexible more like scattergun and he seems to have a preference towards quick fix serial winner manager who aren’t actually a good fit for what we need, thank god he didn’t get his first target in Louis Vang Gaal and settled in Poch, but after all the amazing work Poch did Jose was a disaster but he’s not learning from his mistakes so the same issues arise, that is why H88, Trix, Herc and many others are saying Levy is the problem.

Let’s see with the next appointment and support for said manager in terms of squad ins and outs and a plan to see if anything has changed but we won’t hold our breath.

 

[Styopa]

We can afford 50/60m pound players, they can win you leagues. We just don’t pick the right players.

I think one of the main differences between us and some other big clubs is that those clubs will keep on buying £50/£60m players until they get the right ones, whereas we get it wrong once (e.g Ndombele) and it’s treated as a major disaster for the club. If we bought ten £50m or £60m players, five of them might fail (like Ndombele) but five of them might come good (like say Romero). The five that did come good could make a massive difference to the team.

 

[funkycoldmedina]

I think one of the main differences between us and some other big clubs is that those clubs will keep on buying £50/£60m players until they get the right ones, whereas we get it wrong once (e.g Ndombele) and it’s treated as a major disaster for the club. If we bought 10 £50m or £60m players, 5 of them might fail (like Ndombele) but 5 of them might come good (like say Romero). The 5 that did come good could make a massive difference to the team.

Who has 10 £50/60 million players other than Chelsea?

 

[snakehipsspurs]

If Conte is truly going, why delay the inevitable? This is what I don’t understand about the club. We have no courage of our convictions. Ever.

If we don’t believe he is the man to take us forward, and think Poch is, then do it today. That’s why I have no faith in Poch working, because we clearly aren’t ‘all in’ on the plan so will half-arse it as always and be back here again in 2 years.

 

[djhotspur]

Who has 10 £50/60 million players other than Chelsea?

City have the equivalent. Just some were 40 at that time before transfers blew up. United have a bunch or the equivalent.

 

[Styopa]

Who has 10 £50/60 million players other than Chelsea?

I haven’t checked but I think my point still stands that particularly Man C, Man U, and Chelsea relentlessly spend considerable amounts each window and that gives them a certain margin for error. Still it’s no guarantee, you still need to spend it wisely. And we are also guilty of spending a lot of money and getting it wrong.

 

[SpursJord]

Levy has stated that we try to buy the best players we can afford. That's a prudent stance, but if what we can afford is a lot less than Chelsea, City, Utd, and most likely Newcastle, we as fans can never expect to win anything and we will just go round and round in the same hire / moan / sack managerial loop.

What we can afford or really what he is willing to spend? I believe we can spend far beyond what we are now and still be okay in the long term and possibly even short term.

 

[Timberwolf]

If Conte is truly going, why delay the inevitable? This is what I don’t understand about the club. We have no courage of our convictions. Ever.

If we don’t believe he is the man to take us forward, and think Poch is, then do it today. That’s why I have no faith in Poch working, because we clearly aren’t ‘all in’ on the plan so will half-arse it as always and be back here again in 2 years.

Yeah - I don't fully understand this either. Although I guess there are some arguments you could make for sticking with Conte until the summer even if we know he's leaving:

- Maybe the Poch rumours aren't true and we're still undecided on who the next manager will be
- Maybe we think massive upheaval mid-season could harm our top-4 hopes and after last season we think Conte is still our best bet of achieving that aim.
- Maybe Poch doesn't want to join the club mid-season and wants a fresh start with a full pre-season
- Levy is a tight bastard and really doesn't want to pay off Conte and his staff unless he really has to (no Maybe required for this one)

Ideally we wouldn't have put ourselves in a position where our manager is running down his contract and that's the main problem at the heart of all this. But if the above are true then I can understand the thinking, even if we're stupid for being in this situation to begin with.

 

[rossdapep]

One interesting dynamic, should this come to pass, is that of Poch and Mason. If I recall they are very close. You would have thought Mason would slot in nicely with the Poch staff.

True. But if Mason is to become a top coach himself he may have to think about taking a role as head coach somewhere.