I don’t really pretend to know who’ll be next, or best for us. What I do know is that I’ve spent the last season (and maybe some of the one before) turning up, slowly losing the effort to hope that we’d compete in any way in any game.
Sport is about hope: about winning the match in front of you; about - maybe - David beating Goliath this time. What we’ve been subjected to is the slow eradication of that so that I no longer care when Saturday (or Sunday) comes because that hope had gone. When we won the Europa I celebrated, obviously, but with more of a ‘wow’ that came, and then passed. It was like watching somebody else’s team as it was so mis-representative of what this last 18 months has actually been like.
In short, I don’t care who the next coach is, but I want to find myself hoping again - feeling the anticipation of the hours, even days, beforehand. Yes, trophies. But, yes, also to every game, every single one where I can feel that ‘what-will-happen’ thrill again.
And that starts with competence: a foundation of basic footballing principles. We have a core of very good young players, we need a few experienced heads now and we need someone who knows their stuff. We don’t need the new flavour of the month, we need someone who aligns with our club - Levy’s not gonna’ change, so someone who can build on a foundation of decent young players with a few declining stars to provide experience and footballing nous. We no longer have to be a selling club for our big names as we were in the ‘90s / ‘00s so can hold onto that spine. But, to make that spine work for us, we need a coach, not a ‘hands-off’ manager like Ange, Conte or Mourinho used to putting the best players in the league together on the pitch.
I don’t watch many other teams so don’t know who the answer is, but it makes sense they’ll come from a team that’s punched above their weight as we need a coach who will get young players competing against established players. The plan can no longer be for next season because of this years’ league shitshow , it’s for the one after that or the season after: I see why Frank appeals - will he be able to manage with the bigger expectations? Spurs are the team that other teams set up to counter, not the team doing the countering, so there’s that for him to navigate - always a challenge from a coach moving from the lower teams in the table to what should be nearer the top. The style of other leagues is quite different, and the expectation of every team being able to compete - especially defensively - against any other team is a challenge for coaches coming from abroad as they’re often 2/3 team leagues with others that make up the numbers.
Mason’s gone; Cullen’s gone; Ange has gone; Munn is likely to go; clearing out the medical team…this appointment has to be right…it won’t be perfect, but only those as the very top of the club really know what they’re hoping for.
Sport is about hope: about winning the match in front of you; about - maybe - David beating Goliath this time. What we’ve been subjected to is the slow eradication of that so that I no longer care when Saturday (or Sunday) comes because that hope had gone. When we won the Europa I celebrated, obviously, but with more of a ‘wow’ that came, and then passed. It was like watching somebody else’s team as it was so mis-representative of what this last 18 months has actually been like.
In short, I don’t care who the next coach is, but I want to find myself hoping again - feeling the anticipation of the hours, even days, beforehand. Yes, trophies. But, yes, also to every game, every single one where I can feel that ‘what-will-happen’ thrill again.
And that starts with competence: a foundation of basic footballing principles. We have a core of very good young players, we need a few experienced heads now and we need someone who knows their stuff. We don’t need the new flavour of the month, we need someone who aligns with our club - Levy’s not gonna’ change, so someone who can build on a foundation of decent young players with a few declining stars to provide experience and footballing nous. We no longer have to be a selling club for our big names as we were in the ‘90s / ‘00s so can hold onto that spine. But, to make that spine work for us, we need a coach, not a ‘hands-off’ manager like Ange, Conte or Mourinho used to putting the best players in the league together on the pitch.
I don’t watch many other teams so don’t know who the answer is, but it makes sense they’ll come from a team that’s punched above their weight as we need a coach who will get young players competing against established players. The plan can no longer be for next season because of this years’ league shitshow , it’s for the one after that or the season after: I see why Frank appeals - will he be able to manage with the bigger expectations? Spurs are the team that other teams set up to counter, not the team doing the countering, so there’s that for him to navigate - always a challenge from a coach moving from the lower teams in the table to what should be nearer the top. The style of other leagues is quite different, and the expectation of every team being able to compete - especially defensively - against any other team is a challenge for coaches coming from abroad as they’re often 2/3 team leagues with others that make up the numbers.
Mason’s gone; Cullen’s gone; Ange has gone; Munn is likely to go; clearing out the medical team…this appointment has to be right…it won’t be perfect, but only those as the very top of the club really know what they’re hoping for.
