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Mauricio Pochettino - Sacked

Unfortunately the Wembley situation may cost us 4th or above next year.

I think the other 6 teams will strengthen massively. Everton could be a surprise next year also along with a resurgent Leicester.

Would the players hang around if we dropped out of the top 4 but played in the first season at the new stadium?
Or perhaps it will inspire us to become Champions. Nobody knows.
 
A thousand percent

Everton need a huge overhaul and are just cantering as the best of the rest

United will improve but will still end up this season 10 points or more behind us and 20 ish off top

Arse we will never know...

City need a whole defence

Chelsea will have some comings and going buy will be there or thereabouts again

Pool will not (IMO) rectify their issues as they havent down now for years
Exactly.... How many Everton players would currently get into our first team? Ask the same question for Man Utd? Do the same for Arsenal.

Emirates Marketing Project have several candidates, but are very weak in certain areas. Chelsea are the best team in the country already, they may improve further, but equally bringing in new players could destabilise them. Will they hang on to Costa? To Hazard? How do they replace either/both of them if not? If they don't move then will either/both of them continue to work hard and play as well as they have this season?

Don't worry about how others may or may not strengthen, just consider our own fantastic club.... we have a core of young players all on long contracts, they will get even better next year. We have only a few gaps in the squad, gaps that we could reasonably easily fill this summer by (for example) moving Sissoko on and bringing in Zaha and selling Davies and bringing in Shaw).

Our first team compares favourably with just about any team in the league... We have a few players on the cusp of becoming World class players (our two main centre halves, two first choice wing backs, Eriksen, Ali and Kane). We have the opportunity to improve the squad. Why worry about other teams.... they should all instead be very worried about us.
 
Exactly.... How many Everton players would currently get into our first team? Ask the same question for Man Utd? Do the same for Arsenal.

Emirates Marketing Project have several candidates, but are very weak in certain areas. Chelsea are the best team in the country already, they may improve further, but equally bringing in new players could destabilise them. Will they hang on to Costa? To Hazard? How do they replace either/both of them if not? If they don't move then will either/both of them continue to work hard and play as well as they have this season?

Don't worry about how others may or may not strengthen, just consider our own fantastic club.... we have a core of young players all on long contracts, they will get even better next year. We have only a few gaps in the squad, gaps that we could reasonably easily fill this summer by (for example) moving Sissoko on and bringing in Zaha and selling Davies and bringing in Shaw).

Our first team compares favourably with just about any team in the league... We have a few players on the cusp of becoming World class players (our two main centre halves, two first choice wing backs, Eriksen, Ali and Kane). We have the opportunity to improve the squad. Why worry about other teams.... they should all instead be very worried about us.

Amen. As long as we keep our players, keep them happy and avoid serious injuries, we're already looking mighty good for next season.
 
Kudos to Poch .. he's made a team of fighters .. 19 wins in season, when last did we win 20 games in a season?
 
http://www.standard.co.uk/sport/foo...ory-this-season-we-are-fighting-a3508486.html

"I don't care what people say or what people think of the history of the club. This season we are fighting again. We are in a good way,"

"The most important thing is the badge. When you play for Tottenham it is not about the names, it is about the team. This season we are showing that we are a team.

"It is crazy how the goals came in the last few minutes but we pushed and we created chances to win,"
 
Watch this video. Look how happy he is, he can't fully suppress it.
This game was the testimony of what he has been preaching, about the triumph of strong mentality and developing a steelier will & belief within his players. How gratifying it must be to have seen it play out.
In a strange way, I'm even looking forward to reading that Harry Hotspur's site to see how he contorts himself to try and put a downer on this. He seems to hate talk of belief and faith.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/39510487
 
Watch this video. Look how happy he is, he can't fully suppress it.
This game was the testimony of what he has been preaching, about the triumph of strong mentality and developing a steelier will & belief within his players. How gratifying it must be to have seen it play out.
In a strange way, I'm even looking forward to reading that Harry Hotspur's site to see how he contorts himself to try and put a downer on this. He seems to hate talk of belief and faith.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/39510487
Don't bother man. He's a clown shoe.
 
"I don't care what people say or what people think of the history of the club. This season we are fighting again. We are in a good way,"

"The most important thing is the badge. When you play for Tottenham it is not about the names, it is about the team. This season we are showing that we are a team.

smiling-face-with-heart-shaped-eyes.png
 
Spot on, its been a long time since i have seen a Spurs side who are so united and behind each other to support each other. It's great to see.

Not intentional I know, but we have developed the mentality of a prime Ferguson-Utd side. Last night was about as Fergie-esque as you can get. And we still should've had a 4th!!!!
 
You know, I came across an infographic today that got me thinking - one about Argentinian football coaches and their links to a playing philosophy, which in turn was compared to how that philosophy ranked on a left-wing/right-wing political continuum.

I can't seem to find it now that the thread it was on seems to have disappeared from Reddit, but it basically put Cesar Luis Menotti and Carlos Bilardo at two opposite poles representing the two ends of footballing philosophy.

Menotti was on the left, and his emphasis was on form over function, the style and art of play mattering more than the relentless need to get a result whatever the cost - with his philosophy emphasizing that the tactical focus must be on your own team, not on the opposition, and that the way you win is as important as the fact that you win in the first place. Menotti led Argentina to their first World Cup in 1978.

By contrast, Bilardo was on the right, with his emphasis being on the need to win by any means, win at any cost, and to win by assessing opposition strengths and countering them while limiting your own weaknesses - with his philosophy emphasizing that the tactical focus must be on the opposition and how to counter them at any given time. Bilardo led Argentina to their second World Cup in 1986.

Now, this graph extrapolated their respective ends of footballing philosophy onto a political spectrum - the left, with Menotti, representing the left-wing (ending on the extreme left at communism) and the right, with Bilardo, representing the right-wing (and ending on the extreme right with fascism). In this, it actually draws on Menotti himself, who compared 'safety first' football like Bilardo's to right-wing thought more broadly, in that it espouses a Hobbesian view of life and struggle, to the point where it is the struggle's conclusion that matters alone (iirc, Menotti suggested that such football, like such Hobbesian approaches to government, created 'retards' and 'useful idiots' who went with the system). That contrasts with a left-wing, Rousseau-ian view of human nature, which emphasizes the empathetic nature of man and suggests that there is more meaning to life than struggle (again, as per Menotti).

Anyway, that's ancillary to the point. They put a lot of Argentine coaches on this scale - went from Angel Cappa, who apparently was more tiki-taka obsessed than Menotti and correspondingly won nothing, to Ricardo Caruso Lombardi on the other end, who apparently is the Argentinian Big Sam and has also won nothing. In the middle was Bielsa - who creates a team with a definite form and playing style, but also one that analyzes its opponents and exploits its weaknesses. Bielsa himself has won nothing, but his proteges, Sampaoli towards the more Menotti-side and Simeone towards the Bilardo-side, did win titles.

So, I guess, in a typically long-winded sense, my question would be - where would Poch fit on this scale? Obviously somewhere in the centre alongside Bielsa, but on the left-wing side (emphasizing our style of play over tactically limiting the opposition) or the right wing side (switching it up to counter our adversaries when necessary)?
 
MoPo himself briefly referred to this Menotti-Bilardo dichotomy last year (which I missed) -

http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/mauricio-pochettino-insists-versatile-eric-9469783

"Tottenham's change to a three-man defence produced a 3-0 win over Hull but Pochettino insisted formations were not the key to success.

“I am not categoric in football because you can win with all,” he said.

“One thing is you cannot win if your players don't believe in the way you propose to play. We can see different ways to teams who won big things like World Cups.

"In my short experience, I am very young of course, I can see in Argentina two different ways, completely opposite sides like (Carlos) Bilardo and (Cesar) Menotti, 1978 in Argentina the World Cup and the World Cup in 1986 in Mexico, Argentina won two World Cups. One with Menotti, another with Bilardo, both with opposite sides. Football is not one truth, there are millions.”"


So, he hasn't really clarified if he's one or the other. So where do you guys think he falls on the spectrum?
 
on Pochettino sets his own course. The Pochettino Parabola.

There's really no point trying to compare the situations of our current genius to those faced by managers in different times and circumstances. It's a complex and unique path he's forging, relevant, even influential, to the times he's coaching in. How do you fairly compare him to what has come along in different times and circumstances? You can't. You shouldn't even try.

Like right now, I'm having a top quality listening experience listening to Snarky Puppy's latest jazz album, Culcha Vulcha. There's a point to this, so just read along.

Culcha Vulcha epitomizes the best of modern jazz. Bright, snappy, danceable and highly adoptive of modern technology and electronic instrumentation. Go here to sample:

http://snarkypuppy.com/music

Just scroll down the boxed windows on the right showing each album's content. They very generously allow you to listen to the entire length of whatever tune you click on from the listed albums. These guys usually record live to disc.

Compare the Brazilian vibe of Semente to the Eric Clapton-goes-to-the-International-Space-Station sound of Gemini. Or scroll down further and enjoy the Asian-Euro stadium-anthem melange of Shofukan from 2014's We Like It Here or the Steely Dan-go-to-the-gym funk of Skate U from their 2010 release Tell Your Friends. Ready Wednesday from that album will not disappoint either. Brilliant, diverse technologically accomplished music

Then compare that to 1959's greatest jazz album of all time, Kind of Blue by Miles Davis - 8.5 million views on youtube alone for that album.


Also recorded live and, at the time, considered the go-to album to put on when wanting to make out with the girlfriend. Much more organic and analog and subtle. Especially Jimmy Cobb's sublime percussion. But the best-selling and most critically-acclaimed jazz album of all time. Certain options for making music didn't exist then.

Both artists are totally brilliant in their expressions and both reflect the technology of their times. I wouldn't remotely consider trying to compare audio quality or instrumentation. Miles Davis didn't have synthesizers or digital post-production available back then.

Snarky Puppy don't have John Coltrane or Cannonball Adderley beasting it up Wanyama-Dembele style on tenor sax or Bill King floating Eriksen-like on piano to round out their roster.

You can't compare. You can only enjoy the differences and the diversity of the times. Pochettino is his own man. He will forge his own path, his own destiny.

Pochettino is Pochettino. Like a Porsche, there is no substitute. Nor is there any valid comparison.
 
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Poch is more towards the 'think of your own team not the opposition' end, although definitely more in the centre. Reason I say this - Liverpool away. Every bottom half team stifles Liverpool by dropping deep, it's almost a sure thing. But we played our usual way, gave Mane space and what happened, happened.
 
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