Let me forewarn you that this is a lengthy post, so if you don’t want to spend lots of time reading, feel free to move on to other topics in the forum.
I’ve found the various debates here about our current managerial situation interesting. There are a lot of names that have popped up and been debated, but there doesn’t seem to be a firm consensus on the direction that Daniel Levy should opt for in our managerial search.
I’ve posted several times in various threads why I think Michael Laudrup would be the best choice for us at the moment. I wanted to expand upon my previous posts by going into a little more detail about why I believe he’s the man best situated to solve our current woes and keep our season on track.
Before I do that though, I want to mention that we should not be naïve and underestimate what a pivotal and potentially calamitous period these next 6 months could be for Tottenham Hotspur Football Club. We have failed to qualify for Champions League football for three seasons and have seen three genuine world class footballing talents leave us in the last 3 transfer windows. We’ve done brilliantly to reinvest that money into several elite talents (Lloris, Vertonghen) and several players who have the potential to become elite talents (Lamela, Eriksen, Chiriches), as well as others who have a history of being highly productive players in top leagues (Soldado). However, a season that ends in disappointment could potentially lead to an exodus of talent next summer. Who knows whether we’ll be so fortunate as to be offered players like Lloris or Vertonghen at cut rate prices with affordable wages. What we do know is that many of these players will be coveted by Champions League outfits who can bump their pay, and we’ve shown in the recent past that we are pervious to bids that meet a specific valuation.
With all that said, it is absolutely imperative that Daniel Levy, as guardian of THFC, appoints the absolute best manager possible to safeguard the club and supporters present and future interests.
My personal opinion is that the squad is in desperate need of a manager who can rectify the creative attacking problems in the final third of the pitch. This isn’t an easy fix and will take someone with experience (both as a player and manager, in my opinion) at the highest levels of football. To that end, Tor-Kristian Eriksen (someone who has been heavily involved in high level European scouting) wrote something on his Twitter page that really caught my eye when it came to the issues we are having: “The key to improving Spurs, is to work on attacking movements and “mechanisms”. Squad packed with underperforming attacking talent And that job requires someone exceptional on the training ground, rather than a traditional “motivator” or “man manager.” I think he makes a very interesting point, but in order to make it work, we’d need a manager who had instant credibility with the entire squad to implement both new tactics and a fresh mentality on the training pitch.
I believe that individual is Michael Laudrup. Here are some primary reasons why he would be the best fit for us at the current moment.
-He has done exceptionally well at Swansea City, delivering their first major domestic trophy in the form of the League Cup last season, while playing stylish free-flowing, attacking football. His team finished in the top half of the league last season with a squad that, while talented, wasn’t anywhere near as good as the one we currently have. I’ve seen some criticism here that Swansea haven’t really progressed from last season, but the actual evidence from their results doesn’t necessarily bare that out. They have a goal differential of +1 and are on pace for 47.5 points (they earned 46 points last season and 47 points in Rodgers final year), and that’s with a fixture loaded Europa schedule (where they’ve advanced to the knockout stage) and injuries to key players like Michu, Bony, and Vorm. Given his limited resources, he also has done a commendable job in two previous La Liga stints, so he has several years of managing experience with a diverse set of players with a common streak of playing really neat, tidy attractive football.
-He was one of the all time great football players of the modern era. He is widely respected for his footballing talent throughout the continent and players who have played for him talk about how even at his older age, he’s still the best player on the training pitch. For our current situation, that sort of seemingly small thing matters, as it will immediately earn him the respect of the entire squad, which means he’d likely see less resistance if he needs to implement the necessary tactical changes in the final third to finally see us get the best of the players we have.
-He’s proven a very good evaluator of talent. He’s been given relatively limited funds in his current position and found some real value in the Spanish market. Given our larger budget, he could potentially attract some very good “value” players based on his reputation alone if we were to reinvest money from sales of players back into the transfer kitty. He also has familiarity with our squad from having managed against us several times and according to various media reports, was interested in bringing Soldado to Getafe before he left the club and also was interested in bringing Chadli to Swansea last summer
-He is well positioned, given his experience as both a manager and player, to get the best out of Eriksen and Lamela. The fact he speaks both Danish and Spanish (the latter being very important, in my opinion) is a giant bonus.
-He is at a club in Swansea, where he has likely reached his ceiling. It is unlikely given their current injury woes (Dyer and Flores are injured and Vorm needs surgery, apparently) and limited budget that they will improve greatly on their 9th place finish from a year ago, and they’ve drawn Napoli in the Europa League knockout stages, so they’ll likely be out of that competition as well. The time is right for Laudrup to move on, and we are arguably the most prestigious club in the world who are in need of a manager, as many of the top sides throughout Europe have recently employed new men who are doing well in their jobs.
Now, to be fair, Laudrup, like any other manager, may have drawbacks associated with him. Firstly, Swansea will want compensation if they are to release him to us. Though, I think it’s an investment that Levy should make, as he made the decision to fire Villas Boas for not getting the job done, and should not let money be a deciding factor in finding the best manager available for our squad. Secondly, Laudrup hasn’t stayed for long periods of time at any one club, though in fairness, it could be argued that the previous jobs he had were all smaller clubs that we stepping stones aimed at getting him a potential Champions League outfit somewhere in England or Spain. Could he potentially leave us in a season or two if he were a success and Madrid came calling? That’s certainly possible, but if it happens, we’ll likely be in a much stronger position then were are now.
There’s also a question of how he would get along with Levy. I think this is a fairly legitimate concern, but it’s one that we’d have with any manager, short of perhaps the current interim man, Sherwood. Levy is who he is, and is involved in the footballing side of operations. If that’s a turn-off for Laudrup, then so be it. If Laudrup is successful, perhaps Levy would be less inclined to meddle with the arrival of Baldini.
Despite everything I’ve written above, I’m still open to a few other candidates. Namely, I think De Boer (who looks like the closest thing to a consensus choice her at SC) would tick a lot of the boxes above, but he doesn’t have Laudrup’s experience in the EPL, and it will be much harder to tempt him to leave Ajax mid-season for a risky move to England.
With all that said, I sincerely hope that Tim Sherwood does a splendid job and makes all of the above completely moot.
I’ve found the various debates here about our current managerial situation interesting. There are a lot of names that have popped up and been debated, but there doesn’t seem to be a firm consensus on the direction that Daniel Levy should opt for in our managerial search.
I’ve posted several times in various threads why I think Michael Laudrup would be the best choice for us at the moment. I wanted to expand upon my previous posts by going into a little more detail about why I believe he’s the man best situated to solve our current woes and keep our season on track.
Before I do that though, I want to mention that we should not be naïve and underestimate what a pivotal and potentially calamitous period these next 6 months could be for Tottenham Hotspur Football Club. We have failed to qualify for Champions League football for three seasons and have seen three genuine world class footballing talents leave us in the last 3 transfer windows. We’ve done brilliantly to reinvest that money into several elite talents (Lloris, Vertonghen) and several players who have the potential to become elite talents (Lamela, Eriksen, Chiriches), as well as others who have a history of being highly productive players in top leagues (Soldado). However, a season that ends in disappointment could potentially lead to an exodus of talent next summer. Who knows whether we’ll be so fortunate as to be offered players like Lloris or Vertonghen at cut rate prices with affordable wages. What we do know is that many of these players will be coveted by Champions League outfits who can bump their pay, and we’ve shown in the recent past that we are pervious to bids that meet a specific valuation.
With all that said, it is absolutely imperative that Daniel Levy, as guardian of THFC, appoints the absolute best manager possible to safeguard the club and supporters present and future interests.
My personal opinion is that the squad is in desperate need of a manager who can rectify the creative attacking problems in the final third of the pitch. This isn’t an easy fix and will take someone with experience (both as a player and manager, in my opinion) at the highest levels of football. To that end, Tor-Kristian Eriksen (someone who has been heavily involved in high level European scouting) wrote something on his Twitter page that really caught my eye when it came to the issues we are having: “The key to improving Spurs, is to work on attacking movements and “mechanisms”. Squad packed with underperforming attacking talent And that job requires someone exceptional on the training ground, rather than a traditional “motivator” or “man manager.” I think he makes a very interesting point, but in order to make it work, we’d need a manager who had instant credibility with the entire squad to implement both new tactics and a fresh mentality on the training pitch.
I believe that individual is Michael Laudrup. Here are some primary reasons why he would be the best fit for us at the current moment.
-He has done exceptionally well at Swansea City, delivering their first major domestic trophy in the form of the League Cup last season, while playing stylish free-flowing, attacking football. His team finished in the top half of the league last season with a squad that, while talented, wasn’t anywhere near as good as the one we currently have. I’ve seen some criticism here that Swansea haven’t really progressed from last season, but the actual evidence from their results doesn’t necessarily bare that out. They have a goal differential of +1 and are on pace for 47.5 points (they earned 46 points last season and 47 points in Rodgers final year), and that’s with a fixture loaded Europa schedule (where they’ve advanced to the knockout stage) and injuries to key players like Michu, Bony, and Vorm. Given his limited resources, he also has done a commendable job in two previous La Liga stints, so he has several years of managing experience with a diverse set of players with a common streak of playing really neat, tidy attractive football.
-He was one of the all time great football players of the modern era. He is widely respected for his footballing talent throughout the continent and players who have played for him talk about how even at his older age, he’s still the best player on the training pitch. For our current situation, that sort of seemingly small thing matters, as it will immediately earn him the respect of the entire squad, which means he’d likely see less resistance if he needs to implement the necessary tactical changes in the final third to finally see us get the best of the players we have.
-He’s proven a very good evaluator of talent. He’s been given relatively limited funds in his current position and found some real value in the Spanish market. Given our larger budget, he could potentially attract some very good “value” players based on his reputation alone if we were to reinvest money from sales of players back into the transfer kitty. He also has familiarity with our squad from having managed against us several times and according to various media reports, was interested in bringing Soldado to Getafe before he left the club and also was interested in bringing Chadli to Swansea last summer
-He is well positioned, given his experience as both a manager and player, to get the best out of Eriksen and Lamela. The fact he speaks both Danish and Spanish (the latter being very important, in my opinion) is a giant bonus.
-He is at a club in Swansea, where he has likely reached his ceiling. It is unlikely given their current injury woes (Dyer and Flores are injured and Vorm needs surgery, apparently) and limited budget that they will improve greatly on their 9th place finish from a year ago, and they’ve drawn Napoli in the Europa League knockout stages, so they’ll likely be out of that competition as well. The time is right for Laudrup to move on, and we are arguably the most prestigious club in the world who are in need of a manager, as many of the top sides throughout Europe have recently employed new men who are doing well in their jobs.
Now, to be fair, Laudrup, like any other manager, may have drawbacks associated with him. Firstly, Swansea will want compensation if they are to release him to us. Though, I think it’s an investment that Levy should make, as he made the decision to fire Villas Boas for not getting the job done, and should not let money be a deciding factor in finding the best manager available for our squad. Secondly, Laudrup hasn’t stayed for long periods of time at any one club, though in fairness, it could be argued that the previous jobs he had were all smaller clubs that we stepping stones aimed at getting him a potential Champions League outfit somewhere in England or Spain. Could he potentially leave us in a season or two if he were a success and Madrid came calling? That’s certainly possible, but if it happens, we’ll likely be in a much stronger position then were are now.
There’s also a question of how he would get along with Levy. I think this is a fairly legitimate concern, but it’s one that we’d have with any manager, short of perhaps the current interim man, Sherwood. Levy is who he is, and is involved in the footballing side of operations. If that’s a turn-off for Laudrup, then so be it. If Laudrup is successful, perhaps Levy would be less inclined to meddle with the arrival of Baldini.
Despite everything I’ve written above, I’m still open to a few other candidates. Namely, I think De Boer (who looks like the closest thing to a consensus choice her at SC) would tick a lot of the boxes above, but he doesn’t have Laudrup’s experience in the EPL, and it will be much harder to tempt him to leave Ajax mid-season for a risky move to England.
With all that said, I sincerely hope that Tim Sherwood does a splendid job and makes all of the above completely moot.
