The Mauricio Pochettino thread

[Johnny J]

It's even fairer to say that those in charge of buying and selling are guilty of negligence or incompetence or both. It stinks.

I remember posting a long time ago that our relative success three or so years ago would lull Levy into a false sense of security; that he'd think we didn't need to invest, because of the received wisdom that we basically couldn't upgrade our first team without paying inordinate sums of money.

I think there's some truth in that. The lack of succession planning has been shocking. For example, we are looking at our first-choice back four all leaving at once. That's ridiculous.

I really wish we'd invested properly for the Leicester season. We were absolutely primed for the league that year, and it will go down as a legendary missed opportunity to push on to the next level.

I think Poch has run his course with us. There's only so long you can stay at one club as a manager. I'm astonished he's still in a job, we are finishing bottom half at this rate. But Levy isn't blameless either.

 

[DelBoyN17]

Have seen a few comments saying that match going fans are still behind Poch and don't want a change. Are there any of them on here? Would genuinely like to know their reasons, I'm not fishing etc I just want to try and understand their point of view

I’m a home season ticket holder & occasionally get to away games, normally 2 or 3 a season, I personally think a change is needed, but also because I want Poch to leave with his reputation semi intact, however I do still think the majority want him to stay which I find baffling, for me he’s finished, it’s sad because he’s brought me the best team in my 36 years of supporting spurs, but right now we look mediocre & I don’t actually enjoy watching us play, it’s all become very Ramos again, sad times I’m afraid

 

[Phil-spur99]

It's a legit question imo. If Poch stays we are looking at what are currently 5 starting XI players either out of contact or wanting out. No CL could very easily see another 2-3 big players wanting to leave.

I'ts my opinion(educationally informed)new contracts would be strongly considered by certain players if Poch was to go. This is info I received a good while ago(and have posted it) and as far as I'm aware that is still the case.

In all honesty from the little bits I've heard recently things arent getting any worse behind the scenes. Problem is they aren't really improving either.

But are those players who would consider new contracts ones we actually want to keep long term, not just sign them up to ensure they have some sell on value?

If the players you are talking about are Rose, Toby, Jan, CE or Aurier I think they all need to move on anyway so I wouldn’t base any managerial change on pandering to any of them.

That said I’m getting sick of Poch now and wouldn’t be opposed to a change because I don’t see any signs of improvement. My first choice would be Rodgers if we want a project manger. If not I would take Mourinho over Allegri, only because he has the knowledge of the EPL. However, I would expect an FA Cup win this or next year then for it to go south when he and Levy ultimately clash.

 

[sidford]

Probably because they’re getting behind the team when they need our help, booing the manager at games is not going to help is it

I never mentioned booing or not getting behind the team - that has nothing to do with whether you want the manager sacked or not.
I'm trying to understand why some fans don't want him sacked so I can try and understand where they are coming from

 

[homer hotspur]

that's why I don't want him, especially as it means in 3 years time we will be starting to look for another manager

3 years sounds highly optimistic to me

 

[Chirpystheman]

Just like to know

Not many leave except the obvious ones who sre leaving on a free. As the rest have long term contracts so will be going nowhere. If they do then whatever manager is in the helm will have a hefty war chest.

 

[yankspurs]

I haven’t followed every page of this thread, but weren’t you ready to die on the ‘Poch In’ hill about a week ago?

A month ago

 

[Johnny J]

Go all out for Simeone? Thoughts?

It's never happening, but my God how I wish I could see an Amazon documentary of Simeone's first few days sorting out our players.

 

[cjbyid]

Have seen a few comments saying that match going fans are still behind Poch and don't want a change. Are there any of them on here? Would genuinely like to know their reasons, I'm not fishing etc I just want to try and understand their point of view

I'm a home ST holder and I think I've enjoyed 2 games in the new stadium(CL quarter final and palace this year). Every other game has been a chore to watch, I'll always be a fan of poch but he needs to go and I made that choice after being at the Bayern game.

 

[Thewobbler]

Go all out for Simeone? Thoughts?

His is on mega money. Levy will never pay what atletico are paying him.

 

[Lighty64]

Only because he’ll feel he can’t take the club any further after winning consecutive quadruples.

Three years is pretty long for a manager these days. If we can get someone in for three years who gets us back in the Top 4 and wins a couple of trophies, I'm more than content.

the trouble is we have a very good squad on paper, but still can't see Mourinho get trophies out of a team that has 4-5 distractions and no one to play in their positions. his 2 trophies since Pep turned up was a league cup which had VAR been in play he would have lost, and the Europa League when their hardest fixture in the whole comp was Ajax in the final. I think even Poch has as good a record v Pep as Mourinho has, so how will he turn it around with a chairman that won't give him the funds he had at both Chelsea and United

 

[Lighty64]

We still don’t need to buy in January (when good players are hard to buy) ... we just need to pick the right team. Freeze out the ones who want out. Takes bravery to sack off 4 or 5 players but we still have a lot to come in. KWP, Sessegnon, Skipp, Dier, Foyth, Parrott, Lo Celso... all have a big part to play this season. Kane, Son, Moura, Lamela... all up for it too.

Freeze out: Wanyama, Toby, Aurier, Rose, Eriksen

Gazza
Foyth Sanchez Verts Davies
Ndombele Sissoko
Son Lo Celso Dele
Kane

Subs from: Lloris, KWP, Dier, Winks, Skipp, Sessegnon, Lamela, Moura, Parrot



​

yep a pretty tidy 20 players, but knackered if we suffered injuries and suspensions

 

[Jay.]

Erik ten Hag?

 

[rossdapep]

Three years is pretty long for a manager these days. If we can get someone in for three years who gets us back in the Top 4 and wins a couple of trophies, I'm more than content.

Yep. Despite people continuously bashing Chelsea it's not done them any harm.

Mourinho - won the title twice and domestic cups
Grant - won nothing but finished 2nd and CL final
Scolari - nothing
Hiddink - fa cup
Ancelotti - domestic double
AVB - nothing
Di Matteo - CL
Rafa - Europa Cup
Mourinho - League
Conte - League
Sarri - Europa Cup

11 coaches in 16 years and only 3 of those were unsuccessful.

Now, I don't want us to become a club who sack coaches whenever we hit a bad run of form but I do want us to be a club who set a standard that winning trophies is important and regression has consequences.

We are in a rut and rather than state that this is unacceptable we are just happy to drift along in the hope it changes.

Chelsea sacked Di Matteo after winning the CL, they followed thaf up with the Europa Cup and soon after another title win.

The club are showing no ambition to win trophies and it's unacceptable considering how much the fans pay and travel.

 

[SpartanSpur]

We look an atrociously coached side. That has nothing to do with any signings or lack of. Anyone using that as an excuse is deflecting.

Poch should be getting far more out of a very talented group of players.

This is the crux of the matter.

We can all complain about past recruitment and Levy prioritising the stadium but it's well beyond that now. We are 11 games into the new stadium and Poch has got less points with a CL level squad than Brighton, Bournemouth, Palace and Sheffield fucking United. They hardly have a player between them on paper who would get in our 25 man squad! We spent more money than all of them, but it's amazing what you can achieve when a team is well coached and committed.

What Poch has done with the players at his disposal this season is abysmal when looking at the results on paper. Actually watching the games it might even be worse! We've now gone past the point where we need to bring up the awful league form at the end of last season. Now is bad enough.

We're even behind the Manchester comedy club and their out of depth manager on GD.

Levy, Poch and the players all deserve to share the blame, but for me Poch is making more and more problems as things go on and is simply the easiest person to change.

I'll always love him for what he's done and given us, but I just can't see how he turns it around from here.

 

[stevenurse]

that's why I don't want him, especially as it means in 3 years time we will be starting to look for another manager

So you're happy with the turgid shit we're currently being served up?

 

[Yiddo100]

So you're happy with the turgid shit we're currently being served up?

No ,which would be why we’d change manager to play better exciting football, hopefully

 

[rossdapep]

I remember posting a long time ago that our relative success three or so years ago would lull Levy into a false sense of security; that he'd think we didn't need to invest, because of the received wisdom that we basically couldn't upgrade our first team without paying inordinate sums of money.

I think there's some truth in that. The lack of succession planning has been shocking. For example, we are looking at our first-choice back four all leaving at once. That's ridiculous.

I really wish we'd invested properly for the Leicester season. We were absolutely primed for the league that year, and it will go down as a legendary missed opportunity to push on to the next level.

I think Poch has run his course with us. There's only so long you can stay at one club as a manager. I'm astonished he's still in a job, we are finishing bottom half at this rate. But Levy isn't blameless either.

To be fair we did sign a DM who was a must, a back up striker that many had been screaming out for, a young winger and Sissoko.

Poch seemingly signed off on all these which shows he was happy or at least relatively (I don't recall him being prickly about it). We were also told that Janssen was a Poch pick. So you could easily argue that Poch had the opportunity to take us to the next level but blew it with his choices.

Signings in which some of us have felt is one of his weak spots.

Now there may some truth in that he wanted Mane ahead of Nkodou or Wijnaldum ahead of Sissoko, who knows. But both seemed to turn us down cause they wanted to play for Klopp. I suppose it's all speculation. If that was the case then why accept Nkodou? There was plenty of options at the time.

I do think the summer of 2018 and how well Leicester are doing doesn't reflect well on Poch and his signings. Being too stubborn over the likes of Maddison, Tielemans, Gomes, etc allowed the team to suffer from a lack of freshness.

Levy is certainly to blame but Poch certainly has his share in the attempt to take us up a level.

 

[stevenurse]

No ,which would be why we’d change manager to play better exciting football, hopefully

Quite frankly, we've had that, and whilst it was great. I want winning football now.

I refuse to accept that all Mourinho does is play shit football. Its a myth that is used by fans of opposing sides to beat him with because he is a bit of an arsehole. Even if there is an element of truth, he also undeniably wins things. Something we need to start doing

 

[rossdapep]

Erik ten Hag?

Too naive