In would have expected Kosovo to keep it a bit tighter, although I think that while England were deserved winners the scoreline is a bit flattering.
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The 2019-2020 Football Thread
- Thread starter Lord Blackadder
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He bears responsibility for the current run of bad form. I feel like he's kind of downed tools. BUT that frustration on Poch's part is directly related to Levy's decision to underinvest in the squad in comparison to direct rivals. Levy's approach to building the team will always leave Spurs at a disadvantage compared to their direct rivals, and vulnerable to being supplanted by clubs like Leicester.
Arsenal would be a better team under Poch...
Very surprised at that, myself.
I did think that he would walk - sooner or later - as his frustration was becoming ever more pronounced.
Moreover, having reached the Champion's League Final last year (with an under-resourced team), in the absence of resources, purchases and investment, I'm not sure where else he could have gone with Spurs.
Besides, I think that he had taken the team as far as they could go, and did very well to achieve that.
Agreed, and well said and well argued.
And yes, I would like to see Arsenal show a little vision and ambition and - perhaps - make an offer to/for Pochettino.
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And to think that once upon a distant time, Hungary were the best team on the planet.
Thought someone would say that.
But, the romance of the history of football is sometimes irresistible.
That Hungarian team should have won the World Cup in 1954, but were defeated by the country then known as West Germany.
Indeed, after the Hungarian Uprising in 1956 - most of the team were abroad at the time and many of them stayed put declining to return to Hungary, becoming the core and backbone (having been gifted Spanish citizenship by General Franco who was keen to make both a political point - re communism - and a footballing point - re Barcelona) the great Real Madrid team of the 1960s.
Neither do I.
Under him, Spurs have done better than at any time since their Double winning team of 1961, managing to finish in the top four (and thus, quality for the Champions League, reaching the final last year) for the past four consecutive years.
As Gary Lineker - a former Spurs player among many other things - remarked on Twitter tonight: "...He (Pochettino) helped the club to punch massively above their weight for years. Good luck with finding a better replacement...."
That is what the Guardian are reporting.
However, a few weeks ago, I had a momentary tremor of terror that The Special One would end up at Highbury - (er, sorry, cough showing my age again), I meant, of course, The Emirates, but thankfully, that does not seem very likely.
Personally, I'd very happily welcome Pochettino - I think he would be brilliant at Arsenal, but (as was discussed with Decent Brother this evening); if they had a titter of wit - which they don't - they would give consideration to appointing him.
Actually, I think it perfectly possible that he will end up at Manchester United; it would not surprise me at all to see OGS thrown under the proverbial bus.
It appears that Spurs were busy arranging the succession even before they fired Pochettino; The Special One has been appointed manager of Spurs, and, one doesn't need to be an especially gifted clairvoyant to be able to forecast that this will end in tears and grief, and acrimony, and recrimination.
Personally, I'd love to see Pochettino appointed to Arsenal, though I very much doubt that will come to pass.
He was an excellent manager, producing a change in attitude and outlook at Spurs, promoting fast attractive football, encouraging the development of players, and was a superb coach and one under whom players thrived and grew as players, and as men and with increasing confidence in their abilities on the field - the warm and emotional tributes from some of the team last night tell their own tale.
And he did all this on a meagre budget - by Premiership standards, in the middle of an expensive and unsettling stadium move.
Under Pochettino, Spurs finished in the top four - thus, qualifying for the Champion's League - for four consecutive years, finished as Premiership runners-up to Chelsea in 2017, were at times the best team in the country, furnished several internationals to the England side (and other teams), and reached the final of the Champion's League last year.
That is no mean achievement, and is by far the most successful period in the team's history since Spurs won the Double in 1961.
While it was almost inevitable that he was made the fall-guy for a recent run of dismal results, the fact that no resources had been made available for a few years to develop the team (and buy players) - and the move to the new stadium was always going to be costly - I still think that Pochettino massively overachieved with Spurs, and was treated shabbily by the club.
Personally, I'd love to see Pochettino appointed to Arsenal, though I very much doubt that will come to pass.
He was an excellent manager, producing a change in attitude and outlook at Spurs, promoting fast attractive football, encouraging the development of players, and was a superb coach and one under whom players thrived and grew as players, and as men and with increasing confidence in their abilities on the field - the warm and emotional tributes from some of the team last night tell their own tale.
And he did all this on a meagre budget - by Premiership standards, in the middle of an expensive and unsettling stadium move.
Under Pochettino, Spurs finished in the top four - thus, qualifying for the Champion's League - for four consecutive years, finished as Premiership runners-up to Chelsea in 2017, were at times the best team in the country, furnished several internationals to the England side (and other teams), and reached the final of the Champion's League last year.
That is no mean achievement, and is by far the most successful period in the team's history since Spurs won the Double in 1961.
While it was almost inevitable that he was made the fall-guy for a recent run of dismal results, the fact that no resources had been made available for a few years to develop the team (and buy players) - and the move to the new stadium was always going to be costly - I still think that Pochettino massively overachieved with Spurs, and was treated shabbily by the club.
Mourinho. Here we go again.
This will shake up the league a bit. He will make Spurs hard to beat.
This will shake up the league a bit. He will make Spurs hard to beat.
He’s just going to complain and then when he gets sacked say that he wasn’t given any money to buy players, which he will probably be correct about this time. I don’t see how he will bring anything positive in the longterm to Spurs.
Yes, he will make Spurs hard to beat, and unattractive to look at.
Moreover, it is almost inevitable that he will depart in a cloud of poisonous negativity.
And - equally - and what will be a striking contrast to Pochettino - players will not grow, or develop, or improve while playing under him. They will shrink, and become shadows of their former selves.
Agreed.
It's a disaster from a Spurs supporter perspective. Poch won nothing at the club, but he made them a better team and was committed beyond the short term. Mourinho may make them better in the short term, and he might even win something with them. But he will not hang around, and when he goes, as Scepticalscribe pointed out, he will leave the place burning down. Mourinho's successor will be at the club within two calendar years, and that person's first task will be picking up the shattered pieces. I'll wager that at that time people will look back at the Poch era and wish Levy had been more generous.
Also, they are going to become an ugly, defensive, counterattacking team. And that is the interesting part. Because the league already contains one pretty brilliant counterattacking team: Leicester. I doubt Mourinho can make Spurs better at it than Leicester.
Also, they are going to become an ugly, defensive, counterattacking team. And that is the interesting part. Because the league already contains one pretty brilliant counterattacking team: Leicester. I doubt Mourinho can make Spurs better at it than Leicester.
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All of my Spurs friends are going to know how I felt. Good luck my friends!
Yes, all of those Spurs players busily running down their contracts - the ones who haven't bothered showing up for Pochettino this season - will suddenly discover within themselves a whole new hitherto unknown passion, and dynamism and motivation on the pitch starting from this coming Saturday.
I like Pocchettino; I like his idealism, decency and his loyalty - there were attempts to poach him from Spurs, where the resources available to him would have been greater - and I like the fact that players grew, and thrived and blossomed both as people and as players under his tutelage and mentorship and coaching. And I like the style of football that Spurs were playing under him.
All that will change.
Spurs massively over-achieved under him, and while they may indeed acquire some silverware under The Special One, it will be in a niggardly and nasty way, and players won't grow, won't develop, won't thrive, and the end, as always with Mourinho, will be ugly and full of mutual recrimination.
I hear there is a major issue at the club though. Some kind of issue to do with players fighting over girlfriends or something.
I think that has shown on the pitch.
Oh dear.
Someone (or someones) having a fling with/or relationship with/or an affair with someone else's parter/wife/girlfriend?
Sigh.
Well, under The Special One the atmosphere, if anything, will become ever more perfervid.