In the London Evening Standard today; "Pleat, who has now gone four games undefeated in his caretaker role, also spoke in more detail about Hoddle's sacking and the type of man Spurs are looking for. 'The man we want has to fit a certain profile. Would he represent Spurs well to the media? Is he a top coach? Would the players respect him? Is he a nutcase? Those are the boxes I'm talking about.' The clubs director of football has been careful to avoid questions on Hoddle's departure since taking temporary charge. But he said yesterday; 'Because of his pride, he (Hoddle) wanted to be the best player in training every day -- at 46 years of age. I don't think you can see the whole picture when you're training out there among the guys. Can you imagine Wenger playing with Henry and the rest? Tactically, he was obsessed with the wing-back system but the players weren't comfortable with it. I changed it back to 4-4-2 immediately. 'We had been exposed against Chelsea when they played balls between our centre-backs too easily. Glenn wasn't judged on half-a-dozen games. In some cases, wickedly, a chairman decides to make a change for political reasons, but that didn't happen in this case. 'It was an accumulation of all sorts of happenings and incidents.'" So there you have it. Very funny. But going back to this comment '.....a chairman decides to make a change for political reasons, but that didn't happen in this case.' Is he trying to say that he's going to get the job but had nothing to do with the decision?
http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2002390000-2003482688,00.html Interesting. He's absolutely right, especially about our problems being down to a long run of mismanagement. I'm sure we've actually spent more money on players than A*senal over the past 7 years, especially if you take into our total lack of income from selling players. Ridiculous, makes me sick to think of all the money that has been pissed away. This next manager is absolutely crucial, and judging by the way Blackburn are going down the toilet after throwing away all their Duff and Dunn money, it's clear Souness is one of the last people we should approach to take over.
I think Pleaty may be referring to his own career as manager with regards to the "political reasons" comment. He may be saying that Hoddle had a fair chance, but when the players whom Pleat considers to be quite good (as he should ... he picked 'em!) didn't take to the 352 Hoddle wasn't flexible enough to adapt his system to Pleat's players. I do kind of wonder whether Convey could have made a difference. His speed, vision and crossing ability surely would have created more chances, and judging by the early lack of scoring, possibly won another game or two. I think we all wonder how it would have been had the full squad been healthy, as Ziege crossing to Kanoute obviously might have been an extra dimension. But all of that is behind us. Keep looking for a manager, but don't expect to find a great candidate during the season. If Pleat keeps us in contention for a UEFA spot, he's doing a good job. Frankly, despite being tied for 10th in the table, we really only have 1 club (Man Citeh) standing between us and a Champions League spot. We're tied with Liverpool and already drew at Anfield. We're ahead of Newcastle, Blackburn and Everton. And frankly, we should finish ahead of the likes of Brum, Fulham, Charlton, Southampton, and Posh. This has been a very competitive season all around, and despite our place in the table, we're really right in the thick of things. -Digital
"We should finish ahead of the likes of Brum, Fulham, Charlton, Southampton, and Posh." I reckon we'll finish ahead of Posh. Queens Park Rangers will be counting on it, too, even though they only got a nil-nil draw at London road last Saturday. OK OK, pipe down, smart-arse Calispurs. That was a fascinating and insightful Pleat interview - I read it in full in The Times (online). I hope he writes a book someday on his career. He has an interesting way of articulating and interpreting recent and unfolding chapters in the Tottenham Hotspur story. Talking of Pleaty interviews. I love his post match musings. From his Sugar days he's learned beautifully to sidestep "banana skin" questions, but since then he's also learned to avoid being pompous and patronizing, and above all he's having fun - which is nice to see coming out of oh so serious THFC. Did anyone hear the one on BBC Premiership audiofile? He was asked, after the Leicester game, what he did differently from Hoddle to get such dramatically improved results. He aswered something along the lines of "Well, I've told the boys to go down to the canteen and eat more food. And today.....well, it was a nice Autumn day." I half expected him to add: "and as we alighted the team coach, the birds were singing harmoniously in the trees...." or maybe he did, but by that time, he'd been edited out. Quality stuff. I think we should keep him in charge because he's the second most entertaining managerial interviewee after QPR's Ian Holloway. As someone mentioned somewhere else, he thinks he's the new Brian Clough.
Posh ... Pompey ... Senility ... it's all the same to me. OK, so that's a primary example of how haste makes waste ... oops! But seriously, who here wouldn't feel that Spurs have failed somehow if they do not finish ahead of all of those teams? Sure, if we end up behind Manchester United, Arsen*l, Chelsea, Liverpool and Newcastle, few would be surprised. But Spurs are in the group with Blackburn, Manchester Citeh, Everton and possibly even Leeds United (no jokes please), that should be competing for at least the final UEFA spot. -Digital
You mean like every season since Venables left? I truly feel (barring some disastrous appointment) that Spurs are finally turning the corner, that they'll actually finish in the top 6 and not let us all down again. Fingers x'd! And as I've said elsewhere, just give Pleat the job! Hell, they're mostly his signings in the team anyway.