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Next Manager Thread (2026 Edition)

Who Is Up Next?

  • Alonso

    Votes: 24 26.1%

  • Xavi

    Votes: 3 3.3%

  • Poch

    Votes: 47 51.1%

  • Mckenna

    Votes: 1 1.1%

  • Other

    Votes: 17 18.5%
  • Total voters
    92
Alonso
Nagelsmann

If those aren't gettable Poch is very much one of the better candidates left imo.

Not too concerned about what he did or didn't do at PSG. We need someone good for our circumstances, Poch has shown that.

On the other hand there are concerns for me at least a out him potentially being behind the curve now, not having the edge that made him magic the first time around here. But most realistic targets will have concerns around them. And we shouldn't underestimate vibes and feel good factor.

But as others have pointed out, needs to be part of a structure that works.
 
Muttley said:
Personally, I think it would have been more than a down year. The age profile of the first team made the squad vulnerable, we had bought bad replacements for key departures like Walker and we had some tough injuries dilemmas with guys like Rose, Wanyama, Dier, Dembele, Winks and especially Dele who never recovered from his soft tissue hammy injuries. Our new signing Gio was another fragile guy and we all had high hopes for him and Ndombele at the time. We of course then went into COVID times as well.

My challenge at the time was Poch had compromised his beliefs and pandered to players. He should have just put us into his favoured 4-2-3-1 system and he should have been tougher on guys like Sonny who wasn't giving us anything defensively. He should have been stricter with a guy like Sissoko who was just playing with his heart and not using his brain. He should have demanded more consistency from Moura. There were problems all over the place and Poch was just trying to mould some sort of hybrid formation that I don't really feel he believed in. He had also played with such high intensity for so many seasons and that took his toll.

Philosophically, I agree with you about him riding it out though. It couldn't have been worse than what we saw unfold.
Click to expand...

I get wary of this conversation, because people want a side to prove right. For me his time was affected by

- Circumstances, i.e. Stadium build plus money pinch that came with that (unavoidable) plus more than season playing with no home (Wembley) all had huge impact.
- Ageing squad and/or players that simply mentally need a change/refresh themselves
- Still no clear strategy on how/who the club was going to buy to support the team in long run, Ndombele & Lo Celso were appeasement buys purely for Poch.

I could mention issues he had as a manager but not necessary, the biggest issue I saw was
- Poch is extremely emotional, it's why he feels that connection with the club, it's also why (from the outside) it looked like he was completely burnt out. If you have ever worked with someone who has burnt out in a workplace, it is an extremely difficult thing to "turn around" while staying in that job (I've never seen it happen and have seen a lot of corporate burnout including ones that led to people choosing different careers)
- The team was in a death spiral, things needed to be shaken up to get us out of that.

Summary, despite all the opinions in contrary, I have never seen how Poch would have been able to stay on and turn it around (the "he earned the chance" conversation), and believing he would have is ignoring a lot of things (players still wanted out even after he left, e.g. Eriksen, Toby)

And I think he remains the one manager the club actually regrets firing (which tells you something re the chances of him turning it around at the time)
 
Raziel said:
I get wary of this conversation, because people want a side to prove right. For me his time was affected by

- Circumstances, i.e. Stadium build plus money pinch that came with that (unavoidable) plus more than season playing with no home (Wembley) all had huge impact.
- Ageing squad and/or players that simply mentally need a change/refresh themselves
- Still no clear strategy on how/who the club was going to buy to support the team in long run, Ndombele & Lo Celso were appeasement buys purely for Poch.

I could mention issues he had as a manager but not necessary, the biggest issue I saw was
- Poch is extremely emotional, it's why he feels that connection with the club, it's also why (from the outside) it looked like he was completely burnt out. If you have ever worked with someone who has burnt out in a workplace, it is an extremely difficult thing to "turn around" while staying in that job (I've never seen it happen and have seen a lot of corporate burnout including ones that led to people choosing different careers)
- The team was in a death spiral, things needed to be shaken up to get us out of that.

Summary, despite all the opinions in contrary, I have never seen how Poch would have been able to stay on and turn it around (the "he earned the chance" conversation), and believing he would have is ignoring a lot of things (players still wanted out even after he left, e.g. Eriksen, Toby)

And I think he remains the one manager the club actually regrets firing (which tells you something re the chances of him turning it around at the time)
Click to expand...
Fully agreed. Obviously impossible to really know from the outside, but he looked spent.

For a long time thought we needed to move on from at least the majority of the players here before he could come back. We've done that and mostly moved on from most of the board, the chairman, directors, medical staff, recruitment team and more.

Think the timing could be good. And our situation, assuming we don't get relegated, not that dissimilar to when he first came in - just with more money to spend and a permanent home.
 
At the end of the day his work at Chelsea shows that the man can do a job in this league. The only thing I hope that he has learned is recruitment should be way way better, his signings off lo celso, and ndombele still leave a sour taste.

However when he was in charge, the NLD was a game I looked forward to, going up against any one in the league was a proper match … not inconsistent like the managers that have come in after him. I didn’t hold my breath under Ange or Frank. Conte and Mourinho still got us across the line against big teams at times.
 
SissokoWasGood (BoL) said:
I hear you, all fair points. It might have been two down years rather than one. So my question is, are we starting the rebuild in 2019, or 2020, if we keep Poch on in this alternate history? Or are we starting it in 2018 like he asked?

If we’re starting it in 2020, I agree, it’s hard because there’s a lot of work to do, a lot of churn required to move players out and get new ones in. If we listened to him in 2018 though, I think the down period would have been a lot less in length. And a lot less severe. But we needed to trust in him to execute on that plan.

As it was, if I put myself in Poch’s shoes, he’s turned down Real Madrid, he’s made his case that the squad needs a rebuild. Not only has he not been listened to, but we’ve signed nobody. So what to do? You’re going to honor your contract. You see a squad that won’t run as hard anymore. And is a little older. You see a group of players who probably have more individual motivation now, and are less willing to buy into a team at all costs mentality. So I can totally see why he tried to play a system that recognised where the squad was at the time. He was making the best of the situation he found himself in. But it wasn’t ideal for him or the club. So in the reality of what happened in November 2019, I can see why the decision was taken to let him go. But I wish we listened to him a year earlier and didn’t put him in that position. I wish we actually started the rebuild so that we maintained our culture, and so he didn’t feel like he had to come up with some half way house to satisfy the dynamics of a squad that had just changed a lot as they grew.
Click to expand...

Yep, more fair points.

What people forget here is that Levy inevitably got his multi-year forecasting horribly wrong as far bask as 16/17. When you go back and look at the 2 years worth of absolutely huge profit in that key period, the story gets uglier. HMRC were happy for Levy's kind contributions though !!!

For me the real decline started the summer of 2017. Same old Spurs in that summer. The transfer window loaded up with quantity, not a couple of quality signings that would make the difference. Zero net spending (again) only to finally release £25m for a 25 year old in the Jan window. As if that makes you a team that can go from 2nd to 1st in the league. It took me about 10 mins of watching Moura to know that much. It was a minor miracle with some help from the football gods that got us to the CL final in 2019.

Anyway, I am intrigued what Poch could do in this new cashflow model we have in 2026. He's had 7 years more experience since we were together last. He would have a different budget than before. There is also another subtle piece whereby Poch had to also work with a dearth of academy talents. He got Winksy through and was given Dele, but the best of the rest was probably KWP and Onomah. This time around we would give him more resources to work with in both departments. He would have a deep squad this time around as opposed to a great 11.
 
Raziel said:
I get wary of this conversation, because people want a side to prove right. For me his time was affected by

- Circumstances, i.e. Stadium build plus money pinch that came with that (unavoidable) plus more than season playing with no home (Wembley) all had huge impact.
- Ageing squad and/or players that simply mentally need a change/refresh themselves
- Still no clear strategy on how/who the club was going to buy to support the team in long run, Ndombele & Lo Celso were appeasement buys purely for Poch.

I could mention issues he had as a manager but not necessary, the biggest issue I saw was
- Poch is extremely emotional, it's why he feels that connection with the club, it's also why (from the outside) it looked like he was completely burnt out. If you have ever worked with someone who has burnt out in a workplace, it is an extremely difficult thing to "turn around" while staying in that job (I've never seen it happen and have seen a lot of corporate burnout including ones that led to people choosing different careers)
- The team was in a death spiral, things needed to be shaken up to get us out of that.

Summary, despite all the opinions in contrary, I have never seen how Poch would have been able to stay on and turn it around (the "he earned the chance" conversation), and believing he would have is ignoring a lot of things (players still wanted out even after he left, e.g. Eriksen, Toby)

And I think he remains the one manager the club actually regrets firing (which tells you something re the chances of him turning it around at the time)
Click to expand...

Yeah the burnout is a great call. I've both experienced it and witnessed it in the corporate world. It's not a quick fix even though you can drop back into a different role in the corporate world where you recharge and get ready for the next adventure. You can't obviously find a lateral role for a PL manager in the same organisation.

I guess we should also remember that the burnout wasn't just the manager. We had burnout through the playing squad.
 
Muttley said:
Yep, more fair points.

What people forget here is that Levy inevitably got his multi-year forecasting horribly wrong as far bask as 16/17. When you go back and look at the 2 years worth of absolutely huge profit in that key period, the story gets uglier. HMRC were happy for Levy's kind contributions though !!!

For me the real decline started the summer of 2017. Same old Spurs in that summer. The transfer window loaded up with quantity, not a couple of quality signings that would make the difference. Zero net spending (again) only to finally release £25m for a 25 year old in the Jan window. As if that makes you a team that can go from 2nd to 1st in the league. It took me about 10 mins of watching Moura to know that much. It was a minor miracle with some help from the football gods that got us to the CL final in 2019.

Anyway, I am intrigued what Poch could do in this new cashflow model we have in 2026. He's had 7 years more experience since we were together last. He would have a different budget than before. There is also another subtle piece whereby Poch had to also work with a dearth of academy talents. He got Winksy through and was given Dele, but the best of the rest was probably KWP and Onomah. This time around we would give him more resources to work with in both departments. He would have a deep squad this time around as opposed to a great 11.
Click to expand...

Yeah I agree with you on the timeline. It’s a shame that the club didn’t think ‘wow, we’ve got an opportunity here to push on’ but I’ve always appreciated that clubs don’t really work like that. Owners have a certain amount of money they’re willing to invest and that’s that. Maybe more romantic owners would have decided to push the boat out then.

It’s a shame that Poch was so successful during a time when finances were so restricted due to the stadium. I also think that it was not exactly like he was demanding big money for signings, rather trust to sell big players when he wanted to in order that he could reinvest that money in a smart way. He always seemed bought into the idea that Spurs needed to be cleverer but for some reason they just didn’t heed him on this.

I’m excited with what he could do with our squad, provided we stay up. There’s so much for him there to work with and even players like Gallagher which we know he loves.
 
Raziel said:
I get wary of this conversation, because people want a side to prove right. For me his time was affected by

- Circumstances, i.e. Stadium build plus money pinch that came with that (unavoidable) plus more than season playing with no home (Wembley) all had huge impact.
- Ageing squad and/or players that simply mentally need a change/refresh themselves
- Still no clear strategy on how/who the club was going to buy to support the team in long run, Ndombele & Lo Celso were appeasement buys purely for Poch.

I could mention issues he had as a manager but not necessary, the biggest issue I saw was
- Poch is extremely emotional, it's why he feels that connection with the club, it's also why (from the outside) it looked like he was completely burnt out. If you have ever worked with someone who has burnt out in a workplace, it is an extremely difficult thing to "turn around" while staying in that job (I've never seen it happen and have seen a lot of corporate burnout including ones that led to people choosing different careers)
- The team was in a death spiral, things needed to be shaken up to get us out of that.

Summary, despite all the opinions in contrary, I have never seen how Poch would have been able to stay on and turn it around (the "he earned the chance" conversation), and believing he would have is ignoring a lot of things (players still wanted out even after he left, e.g. Eriksen, Toby)

And I think he remains the one manager the club actually regrets firing (which tells you something re the chances of him turning it around at the time)
Click to expand...

The question is whether he has checked out because that’s always what would happen to him after 5 years or was it because the club fell away from challenging. 15/16 & 16/17 we we in the title race. 17/18 we finished 3rd but were miles off Emirates Marketing Project who got 100pts. 18/19 the same story and the UCL run was out of nowhere.

Reality is Poch coming back will work if he is backed. I know some have written if Vinai and the Lewis family already but I’m going to give them at least a summer window before I make my mind up.
 
Mikey10 said:
www.nytimes.com

John Heitinga leaves Tottenham assistant coach role after appointment of Igor Tudor

Fellow assistant coaches Justin Cochrane and Chris Haslam have also left the club following the sacking of Thomas Frank.
www.nytimes.com www.nytimes.com
Click to expand...
I think clearing out all the coaches (even those not tied to Frank) either shows:

1) Poch is already calling the shots for July
2) ENIC want to save every penny on wages
3) The leadership is really clueless and they genuinely expected Frank to survive, right up until he didn't

Possibly all 3
 
Gutter Boy said:
I think clearing out all the coaches (even those not tied to Frank) either shows:

1) Poch is already calling the shots for July
2) ENIC want to save every penny on wages
3) The leadership is really clueless and they genuinely expected Frank to survive, right up until he didn't

Possibly all 3
Click to expand...

I think it’s 3. They genuinely thought that Heitinga was filling a critical role in the coaching staff and would give Frank a boost. They were doing everything to support him. In some ways admirable. But clearly crazy.

I wonder who on the board now is actually talking to the players? I’ve definitely felt at times that it was ‘too easy’ for the players to tell Levy a manager wasn’t working and have them removed, but it feels like we’ve swung completely the opposite way? There is no way Frank would have lasted as long if there was more of a pulse on what the players are actually thinking too? I get wanting to move away from player power but still…
 
SissokoWasGood (BoL) said:
I think it’s 3. They genuinely thought that Heitinga was filling a critical role in the coaching staff and would give Frank a boost. They were doing everything to support him. In some ways admirable. But clearly crazy.

I wonder who on the board now is actually talking to the players? I’ve definitely felt at times that it was ‘too easy’ for the players to tell Levy a manager wasn’t working and have them removed, but it feels like we’ve swung completely the opposite way? There is no way Frank would have lasted as long if there was more of a pulse on what the players are actually thinking too? I get wanting to move away from player power but still…
Click to expand...
Im fairly sure Poch didnt let players talk to Levy or any board member, aside from contract renewals. It was in his book. The Rose and Ndombele stuff was Mourinho era
 
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