Summer Selling: Moving on to next season... already :|

if this is true, you can count me as on board, and more than happy to endure the time that it takes for this policy to come good. it's been my single biggest complaint about Levy going back to Jol/Comolli.

two caveats, though.

1) It's mildly disconcerting how utterly similar this window felt to the windows under the 'old' system (if 'system' is the right word) ... but that one's minor, and if someone with genuine insight into the club's operations says that Poch is happy, who am I to say he's not.

2) This one's more of a concern - basically, will Levy really be able to stay the course if results go from bad to worse? they shouldn't, of course; the 3 points we're on are hardly representative of how we've played (we should have more), and even mid-table mediocrity won't force his hand if he's committed. but what if the players buy out? do we have the kind of clubhouse leadership in this young squad to buttress itself against the debilitation that will come with the boos and venom that are, if results continue as they are, sure to come?

it's weird. the quoted sentence above is the best thing I've read about spurs in I don't know how long. but for some reason, reading it has just increased my concerns about where we are in the table five-fold. it's like all of the sudden I realized there's really something here to lose.

*not technically SPURious's quote ... but you know what I mean

 

the difference is that all of the primary actors, the chairman, the DoF, and the manager, are on the same page. the problem with Rebrov, Lamela, and Bent (and soooo many others) was never that they weren't good enough footballers, it's that they were not the footballers that the manager wanted. the DoFs wanted talent, the chairman wanted sell-on value, and the managers wanted specific skill sets ... and if those things aren't closely coordinated, they're working at cross purposes. Frankly, t's been a staple of the Levy era.

Let's be clear, though, that there was one point during Levy's tenure that we did have all the components pulling in the same direction. when Frank Arnesen and Martin Jol decided to go with young British talent - Lennon ... Huddlestone ... Routledge ... Reid & Dawson ... Jermaine Jenas*, etc. - we saw a clear, coherent strategy that resuted in a squad that really gelled nicely - and it's the one that really moved us out of the dark ages.

Arnesen getting poached by Chelsea set us back I-don't-know-how-far.

... excuse me ... I've got to run to another thread real quick.


*I think Jenas was one of Arnesen's, though he may have come very shortly after.

 

I completely get your point, and to envision us as a Europa league team 5 years down the road is completely reasonable. the point, though, is that if the policy is ok starting the season with a single forward (wrong as it seems), then it means that Pochettino is ok with it. And if he is ok with it, it means that 3 months down the road he won't be looking for a way out, as happened with Santini, Ramos*, and AVB, and sending us back to square one.

... though, according to my own musings, I should probably welcome these setbacks, as that's when Levy brings in more practical, 'get on with what we've got' managers. so, in conclusion, don't mind me ... i'm just babbling.


*granted, Ramos didn't have to force his way out ... results meant he could get the sack and the whole contract.

 

i always take my own presumptions about players and their disputes with a grain of salt, but i can't think of a more clear cut situation regarding a player's attitude. when he came out and said that he had told AVB and the entire locker room that he disagreed with the way the manager was doing things, and that it wouldn't work, i really don't know what choice the gaffer has but to isolate him. has Pochettino been too harsh in his treatment of the likes of Kaboul and Lennon? maybe. maybe not. but if he's responded to Poch the same way that he responded to AVB, i have a really difficult time having sympathy for him.

i don't wish him ill, or anything, but i certainly wished him away ... and i'm pleased for today's news.

 

i'd say there's a slight difference between "telling them that ‘life is good’ whenever he passed them by" and 'responding when asked'. he definitely comes off douchey there, even if you give him the benefit of the doubt.

then again, i was at Grimsby Town friday night with a friend of mine (he's Sheffield Wednesday) whose nephew plays for Town (comped VIP tickets with access to the players' lounge *). he [the nephew] just moved up from a southern club in the off season, not because he'd not been offered enough or due to dissatisfaction with his team, but because his family was up north and for other personal reasons. there was no bad blood between him and the club on the way out. but no sooner was he out the door, then things began being said about him forcing his way out, etc., that he felt came from the club [for reasons undisclosed], but that were utterly fabricated. it didn't come off as bitter, or anything, but that it's just how it works.

in other words, as we all know, clubs try very carefully to control their images and how they are perceived - particularly by fans. it doesn't take much thought to see the logic in such situations - and definitely in a case like Adebayor's. so i'm inclined (and always have been, but now even more than before) to take almost everything i hear about a moved on player with a grain of salt.


*if you know what Blundell Park is like, you'll know why that's funny.

 

Disagree, according to the article. Ade showed a tremendous amount of hubris. Lennon, even being frozen out, still dealt with his situation as best he could. Ade was trying to make a mockery of it all, suggesting that he was okay with a situation that clearly he was not. At this level, more is expected of players than what Ade showed. His attitude is worthy of the lower leagues, maybe even pub league level.

 

Fully agree, and in the back of my mind there was how Levy treated Ade v. Lennon. But that bit about what Ade said, and that he was unwilling to work with the youth is really what has me. The hateMail can't be wrong 100% of the time.