In solidarity with my beleaguered football team, today’s piece is rambling, incoherent and smacks of desperation.
Sunday’s performance against Everton was a new low but then again, that statement applies to every match we play these days. How low can you go? Spurs’ response to the mess we’re in is to become more disjointed, not less. Players lose connection with each other. Mistakes proliferate. There’s no steadying hand, few moments of peace as we can’t keep the ball or stay tight at the back to absorb pressure. It’s constant, respite coming only when the opposition choose to take a breather. We’re in heaps of trouble and nobody knows what to do.
That’s the team. Re-read the last paragraph, and think how it applies to the board’s stewardship of the club. Fits like a glove. I didn’t intend to write it so. If only I had been so clever, but I’m bothered and bewildered too, trying to write above the inner voices that are bellowing, ‘not again, how could it come to this?’.
But there it is. I mean, I know the answer. This is the outcome of two decades of misguided leadership from the board. A lack of direction and consistency, where as I’ve repeatedly written before, it is beyond the chairman’s ability and understanding to align the three forces that fuse to create a successful football club – the manager/coach, recruitment and finance. Still, we’ll always have the Spurs dog of the day. Something we can all get behind.
Not going to go over that in detail again. Suffice to say that we have a chairman who wants a seat at the top table but is at pains not to upset his hosts by unseemly behaviour, such as winning trophies. He instructs his managers to aim for the top four without providing the resources to take that additional step towards a title challenge, or for that matter squad depth to take a proper tilt at winning a cup too. He rewards his players with a watch, provided by a sponsor naturally, for reaching a final, not winning it. He wants to take part in a European super league, just to be there. For the money.
Anyway. Look elsewhere for coherent thoughts about what to do now. My head is as jumbled and confused as Dragusin on Sunday. So here are some things. You will have others.
I would not dismiss Ange at this point. The prospect of another caretaker has no appeal. I can’t see how a coach appointed in the short-term could change significantly with this squad and this injury list. I don’t see what else he can do with the back four, and if that sounds hopeless, then that reflects how I feel. There are longer term issues about training, and let’s be honest, fans have absolutely no idea whether training has had an adverse impact on the players’ health. We can see, however, that the lack of squad depth shows we were inadequately prepared for this busy season.
One thing we can dismiss is the narrative pundits, the real ‘football men’, have constructed around Spurs. We’re not the only side to play a high line by any means. Ange does have a plan B, and a C, D and E. He’s adjusted tactics, notably the positioning of the full-backs, a better pressing game and we’re willing to go long these days too. What we still can’t do is adequately tie up the midfield for any extended periods. Players we rely on in that area like Sarr, Biss and Bentacur, cannot keep the ball for long enough, which is a major plank in our defensive construction. Players are prone to errors when the pressure is on and lose the ball at crucial moments. Plus they are knackered. We can demand more effort but there’s a physical limit that many have reached. The press has worked well, again it’s key to our defensive shape this season, but they run out of steam.
What we don’t have is a plan F, where everybody’s back, low block, backs to the wall lads eh! That’s the classic response when teams come under pressure as we are. We simply don’t do that well, for long enough. Coaching? We don’t have the players for it, not with that mindset.
Plus of course Ange came up with a plan G on Sunday, three at the back. This worries me, not just because it was a disaster but because it shows he’s rattled. We could not have possibly trained with that formation for any length of time. Gray is excellent but still only young. Frankly it smacked of desperation. And if that message gets through to the players, we’re sunk. Remember these players didn’t sign up for a battle at the bottom of the table. That’s not what they’re here for.
Levy has to take decisive action in this window, not mess around negotiating some cunning loan with an option to buy to protect the club and save a future fee. Rumours suggest we are looking at defenders and forwards. Nothing yet. Any chance of a defensive-minded midfielder who can pass the ball a bit? There’s no time to waste.
And by action, I mean buy players. The action he usually takes in situations like these is to sack the manager. Will he or won’t he? His previous form suggests he will, regardless of whether or not he has a replacement lined up. I wonder, though, if this time circumstances may be different. Certainly the word from “well-placed” journalists is that he has no immediate plans to do so, and I’m assuming this comes from something deliberately fed to them by the club, because that’s how these things work.
So has anything changed? After those decades of failure I mentioned, to be fair we do have a plan and Ange is integral to that. Attacking football and player investment, especially in younger players but not exclusively, supported by a developed and much-needed club infrastructure in recruitment and a head of operations to run the club day to day. And what are these people saying to the board? Levy tends not to respond to outside interference, but he may be listening to these people he has employed to advise him. We don’t know, but at the very least this is a different element to the process.
There’s also another, new element to the Spurs story, a prevailing view that the structural, long-term problems evident at Spurs are down to him. Many supporters, including me, have long held this view, but there have been several big pieces in the papers that have been extremely critical of the board’s performance. Levy says he takes no notice of criticism, and if that takes the form of personal abuse, I don’t blame him at all, but this is different, a far greater focus on him, and it must have an effect.
Finally, Ange remains fairly popular amongst the fanbase, albeit it may represent clinging on to forlorn hope rather than wholehearted support. Dangerous to generalise, but certainly his name is sung at games, although I gather things got nasty post-match at the away end on Sunday when he and the players came over. No songs towards the end for his three predecessors, though.
Sunday will be the test. Home game, we have 75% possession when Vardy slots his second, three down after also conceding from a set-piece. It could turn ugly.
So I predict we’ll mess around at the bottom of the table for a while, with some respite when our players return but not much. I’ve written about the short-term, but this could have a serious harmful impact on our medium and longer term plans, just when we have something in place, which is much more worrying.
Here’s a perfectly plausible scenario. We finish mid-table and don’t win a cup. We look to build in the summer, after all team building takes several windows and we have some cracking young players, but without European football we’re less attractive to classy, quality players in a competitive market. Plus the board will be even more reluctant to pay high wages because income will fall, so recruitment is tough.
Then, it could be hard to keep our best players. Romero and Kulusevski certainly will be in demand, VdV maybe. Also, this season has exposed the deficiencies of some players we do have. Recruitment at this point in the cycle should be about upgrading, whereas we need to replace some relatively recent signings who were supposed to be part of that development. Dragusin and Werner aren’t up to it, and we’ll have to wait to see how close players out on loan, notably Donley, Vuscovic, Devine, Dorrington and Phillips, can get to the first team.
Plausible therefore that all the progress we’ve made goes out the window and we’re team building again for the 23rd successive transitional season. There may be trouble ahead.
TOTTENHAM ON MY MIND 
The quality of the recruitment has been so poor for so long. The money spent on N’Dombele and Sanchez makes me weep and in spite of the promises around data Dragusin looks poor. The fan base celebrated beating Bayern to the signature but perhaps it would have better if we hadn’t. It would be encouraging to see just some of the alleged character that is allegedly now prioritised.
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I would not replace Ange either at this point. The time to replace him was when at the start of what he knew was going to be a bigger, harder fought season than the previous one due to our participation in Europe, he came out publicly and said he was streamlining the squad.
I read that and instantly screamed, “what happens when we lose VDV and Romero? Our season would be over!” although, I believe Ange merely put a brave spin on the fact we, (Levy/ENIC) had no intention of strengthening the squad!
I have thrown my season ticket back, and will not give the club another penny until the wage structure changes, meaning we can attract better players and ultimately win something. This farce has gone on for far too long. I can barely even stomach watching the games on TV any more!
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During and after Sunday’s game I was firmly Ange must go. He seems increasingly flustered and out of his depth. However, I am less sure after a couple of days because there is surely no-one of quality who would join now and an interim appointment feels impractical. Truth is none of us knows what is happening behind the scenes. We must hope the players still believe in him and that somehow a reinforcement or two will arrive to bolster the squad. Presumably injured players will return but, even so, our form was incredibly patchy anyway. The start to last season was promising, though even then we got quite lucky (Sheff Utd/L’pool). Second half of the season was poor and again we often ‘got away with it’, constantly fighting back from going behind. That form has continued, leading to the conclusion that AP’s tactics and ideas don’t work in a League where all teams are, at the very least, hugely competitive and well organised. And yet we are capable of turning it on and fighting – Utd, City, L’pool in cup – but why only occasionally and against perceived decent sides (though not all)? It is so frustrating….and I have been a supporter since my first match in 1966, which we lost 1-0 home to Villa!!
Which brings me on to Levy. I don’t like him much, though like the rest of us don’t know him personally. It is a mystery that he has created an incredible infrastructure but then fails to support the football adequately. My view is that he doesn’t have a clue about sport and should stay well away from football matters, leaving it to those who are steeped in the game. I guess the argument is that he controls the purse strings. Fair enough up to a point but, if reports are believed, he has been closely involved with transfers and that has simply led to us missing out on quality and not even trying to strengthen when we had a fine side (under Poch in particular). With the latest management structure it seemed as if he was taking several steps back but still we are failing to bring in the players, both in the summer and now. Until ENIC sell up it feels quite pointless to expect much to change and frankly they will simply ignore criticism levelled at them.
In summary I am disappointed and worried about the club’s future. I will be forever loyal though and hope that one way or another we will see some Glory again……
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Levy does leave footballing matters to others. The problem is his appointments to those positions have been demonstrably poor or wrong for the club. The only appointments I think he got indisputably right was Poch, and latterly Paratici…who’s a tax crook despite his attempts to justify the unjustifiable.
We can all have a go at Levy over percentages of revenue invested back into the squad, and the fact that he places profit over people (like most Premiership clubs), but this notion that somehow Levy is personally at fault for the actual football, scouting, training, physio etc is misplaced. It’s hugely convenient for managers that fail at Spurs to play into that narrative. They take on the role fully aware of budgets, plans and expectations.
Levy doesn’t appointment the manager in isolation after a quick read of ITKs and NewsNow. The shortlist is put together by experts. Footballing experts. The appointment is made by Levy in consultation with other key movers within ENIC and the club’s structure.
I don’t pretend to know what’s wrong with our appointment process, or why successive managers fail to deliver. It’s not simply under investment. Other clubs have done far more with far less, in terms of their size vs their achievement. Our expectations as fans outstrip the fundamental financial realities of the way Tottenham’s run though.
I’d like ENIC to sell because I think our financial culture needs a reset. I’d like to see profitability achieved partly through our achievements on the pitch, rather than just pints pulled on match day, Beyonce doing her thing, or Americans fannying about in crash helmets. Still, the thing is sometimes it’s better the devil you know. United and Chelsea have been financially gutted by their owners. At this point I’d take that gamble.
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In support of Radu.
Until his arrival he had never played in a high-line defense before.
He’s been asked to play in front of 4 different keepers.
He’s playing alongside an 18 year old who has never played at centre-back before.
He’s constantly exposed by our wing-backs being out of position.
Give the guy a break for god’s sake!
HIbberni.
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this 100% agree …can`t believe this guy gets so much stick when Porro gets off relatively scot-free, one of the worst defensive right backs in the league, I`d like to see a stat of how many goals we concede from attacks and crosses coming from his side
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I agree about Radu. I don’t believe he thought for one moment that if he got his chance, he’d be playing with kids or others out of their normal positions, game after game. I’m sure he envisaged playing (and growing) alongside VDV or Romero, or similar, with strong support from the flanks, midfield and goalkeeper. With Ange’s continued emphasis on attack also, Radu and the others around him, some good kids too, could be harmed irrefutably in their development as this mess continues.
I’m all for the attacking DNA of Spurs. It’s carried us to Glory on many occasions since 1961, even when we failed spectacularly striving for it, but in this day and age we need far more top players in each position (with excellent cover) to make things work. For a while, we could taste Glory under Ange, until the Chelsea implosion at the Lane in late 2023. But, the odd game apart, we’ve been horribly exposed since.
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to play a high line with three at the back you need defenders with pace, none of the back three as selected against Everton posses pace, in football your tactics and selection should always be decided by the players you have available
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These are dark days. Levy’s business model does not include winning and hasn’t done for 23 years!. We need to unite the global fanbase to turn against Levy. Until this non winning chairman stands aside we are nothing. The best that can happen is that we get relegated. He might sell then.
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One of the things that mystifies me about Spurs fans is how they can keep talking about not spending money without ever telling us how much we actually have to spend. If you aren’t spending money you don’t have that’s called keeping the club solvent so it’s a fairly important piece of information.
To me we are in a grinder, the players who are actually fit are being worn down by too many matches. There’s no way out until we get some players back. Changing the manager would change nothing, we’d still have the same injury list.
Two things occur to me about recruitment. One is maybe we need to focus less on skill and more on mental strength. The other is, given some people’s bodies stand up to punishment better than others, we need to pay more attention to player’s injury records.
The funny thing is although top four is long gone we are still in 3 cup competitions. So maybe the priorities have changed.
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this is the problem with levys obession with bargains/value. you might get a skilful, mentally strong player – but he is injury prone. or hes stong and he is skilful but he’s mentall weak etc etc. Maddison and Bissouma are classic examples of this. a vast majority of players we buy arent for any particular system or strategy, they are just the most attractive bargain for levy at the time. he loves to think hes pulled one over on someone. even vdv we prob actually got on the cheap cos of his dodgy hammys i dunno. that could just be bad luck.
also fwiw i think Ange is proving himself to be a complete charlatan, unable to motivate the players and tactically very 1 dimensional. And the worst thing for me is that he doesnt even seem to be a good coach – teams with worse players than us have made a better fist of playing from the back
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Our cockerels are coming home to roost. Now we see the result of this cl*sterf*ck of incompetent club stewardship, wretched transfer activities, another unsuitable manager, and players unwilling to give their 100% because they know they can’t or won’t be dropped. I can’t add anything to the diary of despair above other than why didn’t the board act earlier? Talk about sleepwalking to disaster (in football terms). My final thoughts are that we shouldn’t be too hard on Dragusin or the defence. Postecoglou’s pitiful game management results in the defence being unprotected by midfield. Whoever is in the defence would be vulnerable when left so bereft of support. And although Son has provided wonderful service, any other player would have been dropped long before now given his feeble and unproductive outings in the past couple of months. The club has got itself into an exquisitely difficult position regarding the next manager. Levy, Lange, Caplehorn and Postecoglou have been sleepwalking to the end of the gangplank and have created this crisis by themselves. You can only feel sorry for Postecoglou: he’s clearly not fit for purpose, he’s been undressed by a brutal injury problem, and the board is leaving him to twist in the wind while it steps back from bringing in the promised new players to help him through this desperate time. It’s the board we should be angry at.
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A Check On Reality.
We have 23 (over 21) players registered for this season with the EPL of which 9 are homegown & 14 are non-homegrown (source EPL website).
We have added Kinski who was 21 before the start of this season.
Correct me if I’m wrong but that leaves one space available in the squad.
Postegoglou has his squad of internationals, he’s made his bed, now he has to lie in It!
There are still four foreign players out on loan who will have to be sold at some point.
Then there’s the Profitabilty & Sustainabilty rules to hurdle over. We last made a profit in 2019.
In Alan’s previous post I pointed the finger firmly at DL & the Board’s failures in football matters but the current injury situation, which is the crux of the club’s problems, is not of DL’s making and I believe has come at a time where there is little room for him to manoeuvre.
HIbberni
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Since I always consider the worst case scenario in life (in anticipation of dealing with it), I’ve wondered about Spurs in that situation. In most of our time, Burkinshaw was the last manager to help us win multiple Cups. The General, who came to visit LA Spurs, a few years ago, was great. But, for those with short memories, he took us down after his first season, and we didn’t sack him. He got us promoted back to D-1, the next year, albeit, by the skin of teeth. But then he went to Argentina, met Ossie, who said he’d come if he could bring his pal, Ricky. They came, we added them to Hoddle and the likes, and we won more cups than we have in the last 30 odd years. Point is, even worst case scenarios can be turned around. We often can’t control what happens to us, but we can control how we react and respond. COYS!
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It’s so frustrating to read about other clubs rumoured to be in for certain players, yet Spurs, who are so in need of new resources, seem largely inactive.
Ange is without doubt a sincere bloke and the current continual list of injured players has gone on for ages.
Levy and co are more interested in running a tight financial ship and making a profit than winning trophies. All extremely depressing and it’s hard to believe the philosophy of our club’s board will ever change. We need to be bought out, but Levy is unlikely to sanction anything than a minimal stake deal with any interested party. So we go on and on failing to change and now we’re not even in the world of illusion of being close anymore. Miserable time to be a Spurs fan and it’s hard to watch. I’ve been a fan for over 60 years, so I have seen even worse times, but even when we were relegated there was some hope of new things on the horizon with Hoddle wowing us every week and then after getting back to the first division 1 year later the blue touchpaper was lit by the innovative signings of the 2 Argentines. Different times I know, but at present we are supposedly the 9th richest club in the world, but we’re scratching around for scraps off the top table.
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Looks like we are heading into a potential relegation battle. Some of us older fans have been here before.
Tough times ahead with so many injuries. Keep supporting the team, the manager and the club and we will get through it.
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Indeed. we will, as we did in Burkinshaw’s first couple of years. Many won’t know we got relegated to Division 2 in the last 70s but came back stronger.—what doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger. Cheers, mate.
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Another reality check.
Taking a trip down memory lane is all very well but comparing football in the late 70’s to the football of today is a bit of a stretch. Take a look more closely at that 77/78 season in the 2nd division and you will see that 4 players played every match, Hoddle & Taylor missed only one match each, Holmes 4 & Naylor 5.
So what makes anyone think that relegation this season, with our injurious basterds, will ultimately pave the way to glory is beyond me.
Hibberni.
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More moans about not spending without any information on what we have to spend. “I haven’t a clue about our finances but we should be spending more” really doesn’t make any sense. Incidentally there seems to be some confusion about what the annual losses mean. Basically every year we write down the value of the stadium by £250m (normal accounting). This doesn’t mean any money leaves the club nor does it affect our spending limits under football’s financial rules. But it does affect the profit and loss account. Hence the loss.
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https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.com/sport/football/articles/cwy3de1qyw4o.amp
Totally agree about the ignorance around financial realities.
The perception that ENIC doesn’t spend or invest properly in the side has always puzzled me. Levy’s criticised for having rational limits to what we do, but fans seem to want us to spend like Chelsea, City, United, or Liverpool. All of those clubs by any normal standards are now built on financial straw, hollowed out by debt or propped up by state sportswashing projects like City and Newcastle who have no shame.
People bang on about Levy liking a bargain…when really it’s about finding good value for the club – a decent player for a price that’s not bloated. Isn’t that a positive? Of course we have a really poor record on getting those players. Solanke was overpriced but he’s doing a good job, so it’s a good buy. Ndombele seemed to offer value, in terms of his potential, and was a terrible buy. Point is both players were equivalent expensive. Value’s not easy to determine, but we have to try for it surely? It’s not cheap. It’s rational.
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The crux of our situation.
Must read article below
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6077551/2025/01/23/tottenham-injury-crisis/?source=twitteruk&utm_campaign=twitterfc&utm_medium=social
Hibberni
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Apologies if you are unable to access the above link.
Here’s, I hope, one that is accessible.
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6077551/2025/01/23/tottenham-injury-crisis/
What struck me the most in this story was the following extract…
‘Since the end of last season Tottenham’s medical and sports science departments have undergone significant change. It all started when Geoff Scott left his position as head of medicine and sports science in the summer. It ended a 20-year association with Spurs for Scott who became their head physio in 2004 after leaving Fulham. He worked under 11 different managers including Pochettino, Jose Mourinho, Antonio Conte and Postecoglou.
Scott left Spurs after clashing with Postecoglou. Sources with knowledge of the situation, who asked to remain anonymous to protect relationships, say that the pair fell out over how to manage the first-team squad’s workload and the recovery of injured players. However, the club insists that Scott’s departure did not involve Postecoglou and was instead a result of the review and restructure of the department.’
Hibberni.
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Solanke has become the latest casualty, out for 6 weeks. I struggle to see how changing the manager would make our injuries magically clear up. What is probably required is a review of how we handle players fitness, maybe by an outside expert. It’s difficult to know what is just bad luck and what is bad practice, but we clearly need to figure it out.
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‘However, the club insists that Scott’s departure did not involve Postecoglou and was instead a result of the review and restructure of the department.’
Why you would not listen to the advice of a trusted & long-serving professional (Geoff Scott) who has guided the well-being of your players through 11 managers beggars belief.
Well, here is that supposed restructure…
https://ce0812li.webitrent.com/ce0812li_webrecruitment/wrd/run/etrec179gf.open?wvid=9447152BOp
There are 3 sport’s science jobs posted.
Nothing like ‘closing the stable door after the horse has bolted’.
If this is an attempt to accelerate player recovery times in order to satisfy the Postegoclou madness then I despair of DL and his Board.
On va voir.
Hibberni.
P.S. another 6 pointer coming up.
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Leicester & some ‘Maybes’
There’s no doubt in my mind that what we need in this window is an experienced box to box MF to fill the one remaining place available in the squad.
Maybe, if Timo departs to the MLS or we cut short his loan then another space will open up.
Maybe, we can then alternate this excruciating, altogether predictable crawl along the touchlines in an effort to reach the opposition box with an attack originating from the middle of the park!
Maybe, then we can see someone arriving in said box rather than having to watch our ‘flat’ front players swapping anecdotes with the opposition defense while they await a cross!
Hibberni.
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