Baseline81 wrote:Baphomet wrote:No idea. But pretty clear Ange has to go, and should've been sacked in December. One of the worst managers I've seen at this level and yet another blight on Levy's record.
In complete agreement, however, I'm shocked to hear so many still in support of him. Levy's just as culpable, though. And much of the emotion is directed his way, but he's not leaving (for better or worse). The one lever to pull, besides moving players, is changing the manager.
Levy is certainly at fault for a lot of things: the managerial recruitment has been incredibly poor during his tenure, with the exceptions of Pochettino and Redknapp, to a lesser extent. Conte and Mourinho are, or were in the latter case, excellent coaches, but quite poor fits at a club like Spurs due to their Chelsea connections and club culture. You could also argue that he didn't loosen the purse strings when he should have, when Spurs were on the cusp of achieving something under Pochettino, going an entire summer without reinforcing the squad.
Despite not liking the appointment I was happy to support Ange in his first season at the club because we had such a strong start and had built a little bit of credit up in the bank for that, as well as losing a talismanic figure like Kane, but the truth is we have been atrocious for well over a year now as teams adjusted to our style of play. Amateurish doesn't even begin to describe some of the things I've seen since then.
Take yesterday for example, we moved to a back 3 literally minutes before kick-off despite warming up with a back 4. He had Archie Gray bombing up the pitch, as a CB, and the wingbacks were sitting at the top of the pitch. Subsequently, we were leaving 30 yard gaps in between the lines, and got pumped by 3 goals in the first half by an Everton team that hadn't scored in 9 of their last 11 outings. Some, including Levy and the board, are presumably giving him leeway due to the club's current injury crisis, but the fact is that we were sitting in 10th before any major injuries. And you could argue that his ridiculous methods are contributing to that, egregiously bringing back Romero and Van de Ven prematurely vs. Chelsea, reinjuring both and extending their setbacks by months.
Put simply, this buffoon's methods and tactical ineptitude are dragging us into a relegation battle. Those still supporting him are showing typical cult-like behaviour in doubling down, refusing to look at the evidence and admitting they were wrong. What I'm hoping for is a new manager that can help galvanise the squad and show some coaching and tactical nous, getting the most out of our current players without being married to a sophomoric philosophy, akin to what Emery did at Villa after taking over from the floundering Gerrard. We're still in every competition, there is still time to turn this season around but the door is rapidly closing.
