Mourinho needs more magic than illusion

Spurs are transitioning in terms of their mental state and are seeking to be less expansive and expressive than the previous five years and, let’s be honest, the previous one hundred years. We are a club that has done it one way all of our generations. And it’s been flawed, aside from the odd occasion we puncture the decade with a cup final win. Based on that, if we get nothing in 2021, the rest of the decade is going to be a long haul.

We have lacked the endeavour and discipline and astuteness to truly battle with the elites. Money buys all of those things, which we’ve not done in the way others have perfected. Under Poch, we played a new style of football. It wasn’t traditional Spurs and revisionists would have you believe all of the football under Mauricio was wonderful. It wasn’t (I’m not referring to the last 18 months by the way). He instilled a work ethic we did not have before. A spiteful, togetherness, a band of brothers.

I look over at Poch right now, 4-1 away winners against Barcelona and think that perhaps my next Betfair Promo Code is used on his fanciful team, or do I stick with my faith and look ahead to Tottenham’s immediate future in the Europa?

There’s still work to do. Plenty of it.

I think we always tried to play, always looked to press and swarm but it didn’t always work and that left us in positions of vulnerability where opposing sides could take advantage and punish us for the loss of focus and concentration. Poch will hopefully come away from PSG with new traits and new experiences to forge his future ambitions. In the mean time, we have been mended (in the midst of it) by someone with all the experience football has to offer. A coach that has won it all and is now challenged with taking a club of the ilk he has never managed before. Without the war chest. A broken squad that needs repairing, that has to be reinvented. Except reinvention isn’t the path to our redemption.

I’ve said many times in the past six months that Jose isn’t fixing the problem Poch left behind. He’s not reinventing it. He’s creating something new and inviting those brave enough to enter its realm of possibilities. Sure, it’s pragmatic and calculated and perhaps lacks that daring is doing ethic. We are not risk takers, we treat every game in the same way even if Mou adapts for specific opponents. It’s shrewd and not very sexy. But it elevates the desire to avoid losing at the cost of being desperate to win.

We are obviously not winning that many games right now, domestically, but this is because of the mental burn out and the desire to find redemption with more free flowing football. Beating West Ham would do wonders for the confidence, but alas, how tragic is having to beat West Ham to do wonders for your confidence?

Pochettino, he’s magic, you know…so said the song. Right now though, Mourinho needs more magic than illusion.