The freedom thing is so interesting. It’s the sort of freedom I wish they were able to give Poch. But they’ve given it to RDZ, and again I like the strategic bet around it.
I really liked Jack Pitt-Brooke’s article on this a couple of days ago. That Spurs have gambled on an idea. And I’ve been saying very similar things. We need (the players especially) need something to buy into. Especially at Tottenham, especially not having the most money. We have to be bought in to something more. We had it with Poch and we had it with Ange and I think we’ll have it with RDZ, and that’s a good thing.
So giving him this freedom I think gives him the best possible chance of his idea being fully realised. It means the buck is going to have to stop with him, he’ll be more accountable and can’t place blame elsewhere, but he’ll also feel more committed. And that is what’s great about him sticking with us even if we go down. We are truly a big club, because no other relegated team outside the other big 6 could take a long view like that.
So I’m fairly happy with the decisions that have been made over the last week. I think moving away from ‘club signings’ that Levy deems good value to actually trusting in someone that really knows football and backing his vision is a good thing. Lange also is clearly not someone who drives an overall talent strategy for a club. He may well be a good head of scouting effectively but not someone the board should be trusting in. De Zerbi in terms of football knowledge and ideas probably is. And as long as we actually back him, I think we’ll be ok long term.
Two questions will be: do we actually back him? He can’t demand City level players or wages, but with our looser wage structure my hope is that our backing of him is good enough.
And does his personality combust too soon to realise the long term value we wanted to get out of him? I hope not. Hard to know.