Well, it’s turned into a semi-interesting week for fans of Tottenham Hotspur – but not in a way many of us would’ve liked it to be.
Following Sunday’s late breaking European Super League nonsense, on Monday morning Spurs took an unexpected step and decided to sack manager Jose Mourinho. Now maybe I’m too cynical for my own good, but this smacks of changing the narrative and trying to drive headlines as nobody can be in any doubt about how badly the ESL has been received, not just at club level, but across the wider footballing world.
European Super League
Love It
Disgraceful Move
There is absolutely only one driver to this – greed and money – and having previously misjudged the mood when it came to Covid and furlough, Daniel Levy, the board and our owner have again monumentally misjudged fans in their chase for what I can only see as a criminal and cartel like ‘closed shop’ competition that gives all those involved a clear unfair advantage over fellow domestic sides – which in turn, ruins the credibility of that leagues competitive nature.
Not a merit based advantage that we currently have, but an advantage wholly gained by a handout for involvement and nothing more.
Fans are hoping to return to a more normal life after Covid, and Spurs pull this stunt now and to me, simply sack Mourinho as a public relations move to deflect attention. It’s contemptible and disgusting behaviour in no way demonstrating what our club should stand for.
We play Southampton this Wednesday evening, I’m not so sure how much I care now.
Not to mention there are still two other teams who can better our points tally.
If anyone writes a book about the ESL fiasco I’d suggest ‘Much Ado About Nothing’ as the title? It ended as suddenly as it started and was virtually over before it began. Gotta love football!
Bugger …. someone’s already taken my title! : – )
Geof…..the Daily Mail borrowed a title for their back page this morning as well:
‘They think it’s all over…….it is now!’
Spurs have 3 million fans in the UK and over 160 million worldwide. You can see where all the clubs priorities lay. The ESL would have been perfect for them in a digital world. The term “Legacy fans” fits all in this ideology of how the fat cats at top clubs view where the money is, foreign fans from Asia and the States just wanting to watch mega matches. The problem was, they probably wasn’t expecting a backlash from foreign fans either. Glad its in the bin, for now!
TQ …. Two matches to watch tonight. Spurs should win at home (?). It will be interesting to see the line-up and how recent events have affected the players.
The City v Chelsea WSL game will probably decide the title. Both teams are playing brilliant football at the moment so it should be a very entertaining game. A Kerr hat-trick would be nice!
Hi Geof…….yes it’s a pity they have the same kick-off time. 🙁
I should be able to watch the full WSL match on BT Sport at a later time, it’s either that or run two screens and try to follow both at the same time!
TQ …. I’d find two screens confusing, one’s bad enough! I’m not staying up for either game so I’ll watch both when I wake up tomorrow.
By the way, Stan, the reason that there are more consequences when we drop points is that we’ve dropped more points. Now’s the time to stop dropping points. If we put on a run of gaining three points per match, then when the other teams drop points they will start to notice the consequences. Life’s pretty simple in some ways.
If we had dropped just HALF of those points that we did from winning positions we would now be fairly comfortable in 3rd place.
TK …. That was a pointless comment, mate! : – )
Awful results in the PL, FA Cup and EL. Giving away leads, almost on a weekly basis, from playing boring, stale and negative, overly defensive football. Ostracising several players. Publicly laying into players. No tactical cohesion or clear cut game plans.Chopping and changing our backline from game to game. Poor man-management, poor game management… Poor Poor Poor! And then yet more… poor!
This is why Jose had to go…
If anyone went on strike it was Jose. But no one went on strike. Not him nor the players.
Jose lost the plot. And when a manager has little to offer other than meaningless or spiteful words and with his frequent player jibes. And when the team don’t seem to know what the hell they are doing because of no real tactical awareness. And when the players have lost confidence. Lost direction and are losing matches. The manager loses his job!
We all knew he’d be fired, sooner than later. It’s no bleeding revelation! Some of us were adamant he’d be fired before long, before he even came to Spurs. And for the exact same reasons that I’ve just pointed to in this post. This crap was inevitable!
Jose had to go… And now he’s gone!
Hip, hip, hooray! Hallelujah! Thank Hod!
Come on Ryan Mason!
Up the Spurs!
It is being reported that Levy felt he had to sack Jose as he feared up to 10 players wanting to leave in the summer…..including Kane….. if he stayed another season.
If you guys have the time, please watch this. Ryan Mason on Sky, discussing Jose (after a Man U match) and his negative effect on Luke Shaw, the team and players in general… And more
Ryan speaks intelligently and fairly imo…… He and Mathew Upson tell us just what it can be like from a players perspective and how a man like Jose and his public destruction of Shaw or whoever, can negatively effect not only a young players confidence, but also the spirit and confidence of the team in general……..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RM090noZvnU&t=3s
It all makes perfect sense to me…………..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RM090noZvnU&t=3s
I’ve already just posted this link (but it didn’t show up first time). Of Ryan Mason talking about Jose’s treatment of Luke Shaw. An d more…
Please watch if you have the time, fellow VS’ers.
Given the speed with which all 6 English clubs have withdrawn from the league you have to ask whether it was ever intended to go ahead ? Its quite possible it was only ever designed to put pressure on the premier league and/or EUEFA and some agreement has been made behind the scenes.
As far as Mourinho goes his departure was probably inevitable but unlike most people on this site I understand it solves nothing. History suggests whoever comes in next won’t succeed either and we’ll keep on being the club that can’t win trophies.
jod….100% with you there, for me it was designed to put pressure on the “we are untouchable, nobody to answer to, bloated fat pigs Club” aka UEFA.
I also believe it showed just what we have in Sky….nothing but utter bullshitting hypocrits and making sure our bread is buttered on the right correctly.
As for JM, best thing Levy could do, what it does solve is a result…a happier squad, whether we win something or not.
What I am sick of is this “not winning trophies” brought in by Sky and the media, we as any other club do not have the god given right to win these things, the main requirement to be a “regular Trophy winner” is CASH/DOUGH/BIG BUCKS its as simple as that, ok you are going to get the odd one out, it happens. COYS
Jod – thank god for your remarkable insights because it is clear that everyone on this site thought that all our problems would be solved as soon as we fired Mourinho. Thank you for your superior knowledge and thank you for enlightening us.
What a fine mess we are in at the moment. No stadium income (I think it will be a while before there is full capacity in the stadium), no Champions League income for another year, a £637m stadium debt, a £175m Bank of England debt, no naming rights for the stadium – was Levy waiting for the ESL to get this done – no manager and players almost certainly wanting out.
I have no idea who our next manager will be but with the current state of the club I don’t think it will be anyone from anywhere near the top of Daniel Levy’s list. It’s all gone a bit pear shaped for the master business man that is Daniel Levy. Unfortunately Mr Levy is accountable to no one so this cycle will inevitable this cycle will continue.
On the bright side, at least we are now rid of one of the worst managers we have ever had. COYS
And breathe…………after a rather crazy 48 hours with many talking points maybe we can get back to talking about the next couple of games, it is definitely going to be interesting to see how the players respond under our temporary manager.
Hi TQ.
There’s not much doubt in my mind that the players will respond positively. And they will show us just how good they can be as a team…
I’m not expecting miracles and magic. Just better football. Positive, front-foot football.
As a club two things have gone against us, the Pandemic, and worse DL making the mistake of appointing JM, he has now gone and am confident DL will get us through this crises.
As others am looking forward to watching a happier team/squad playing football as its meant to be…win or lose.
A win tonight for a starter v Scum of the South.
And another win on Sunday v MC, thus a Trophy winner lol! COYS
Morning HT.
Yes….I can’t see anything other than a positive reaction, let’s face it…. it couldn’t have got any more negative than it was!
Reports suggest that Levy feared up to 10 players would ask to leave in the summer, including Kane and Dele, if Mourinho had stayed, the fact that he has now gone will no doubt have lightened the mood with a bit of positivity returning.
Gossip columns have Jose linked to the Celtic job this morning……..God help them! :- )
I’m not sure it was only two mistakes PY.
I think our first mistake was actually the complete mistiming of our stadium re build, not because of the Covid crisis, but, it came just as we were becoming a top 3 force and I believe that had we not moved to Wembley at that time I honestly think we would’ve taken the league that year instead of Chelsea.
The lack of player recruitment at this time, the sacking of Poch, the recruitment of JM, the new stadium, COVID,. The decision to join this Super League.
“Much Ado About Nothing” or “A Series of Unfortunate Events”.
Agreed getting rid of JM is not the answer just as he wasn’t all the problem.
But as TQ says let’s all breathe, including our management, take time to actually look at where we’re going, I disagree re getting the manager we want, as whilst the invite to the “Super League” in its self shows our standing in world football, in some ways it’s actually a rather (perverse) compliment.
We have shown that we can be there or there abouts in the league and the European circuit.
We are in many ways the sleeping giant.
I think we would be a lure for many managers and players wanting a new adventure.
For me the rest of the season I’ll sit back and hopefully see the return of some old faces playing football on the front foot, being entertaining win, lose, or draw.
COYS.
I agree with most of that.
However, I just don’t know how fulfilling “football on the front foot, being entertaining win, lose, or draw” can be in the long run.
As much as I enjoyed the football under MP for a while, at some point I became disillusioned by it, feeling it was all style, no substance.
JM was very much an attempt to go for the complete opposite of MP, hoping that it would deliver trophies.
I am just worried that we would now have a knee jerk reaction on the back of JM’s stay, and turn the dial too far back the other way (ie Nagelsmann – great football, 0 trophies).
I just long for a coach who can develop a positive football identity most of the time, yet be pragmatic in certain cases, when the situation calls for it.
Just read the papers and Sarri to be approached, seriously
123….uncle Tom Cobley and all are being mentioned in the press, there is even speculation that Southgate is being considered because of his relationship with Kane and the hope it would persuade him to stay.