What next for Tottenham?

I was far from happy with Mourinho joining at the time, most people were, his best days were definitely behind him and what he has become more and more infamous with is negative football and the massive circus of in-fighting and players being pushed out the door. I was willing to give him a chance though, after the shock of Poch being sacked. He had come in with “promises" of a new style of football he was going to try to adapt to the modern game. After a handful of great attacking performances (and poor defensive errors) maybe he had changed his way – some of the football in the early weeks was brilliant. Mourinho was picking the pieces up from a tough squad and after a few injuries limped to the COVID break which gave the team something they had long needed – a rest. Something our team had really gone without since the summer of 2017 – results and ultimately Europa were the priority after the break and I was more than happy to see Mourinho change his way to achieve European football – which he did.

I was still unhappy with Mourinho though; last summer my prediction for this season was that we will win Europa, possibly top 4 and get to another cup final. I still didn’t want him at Spurs though – football is personal, and I prioritise watching entertaining football and following a project I can get behind. I thought that ultimately the resolution at the end of this season would be Kane getting sold, which would suck. We also can’t blame him, our ambition on the field never matched his quality. Winning the Europa would be brilliant though, but even if we do it – it has been so painful along the way and I think only a Europa + LC/FA Cup will keep Kane.

The season started and we played some really quality football in all competitions; people pointed towards the fact that our team was fitter than others due to the Europa qualifying games – which was true and probably a big part of why we blew away Man Utd and Southampton. Yet the tactics and attacking intent was decent. Then West Ham happened which broke Jose – we fortunately scraped some negative wins against Brighton, West Brom and Burnley and then had a tough run of fixtures. I don’t have an issue with us playing negatively and looking to counter vs the big teams and thought one of Poch’s mistakes was us not doing this enough. We were top of the league, it was great – but very quickly the pieces fell apart.

The result of where we are at today is due to: a burnt out squad caused by the huge number of games; predictable tactics getting found out (Kane drop deep and Hollywood ball to Son); negative tactics costing us against teams and very poor squad management. Jose deserves to the end of the season as it would be pointless to get rid of him now – but we are paying the price for signing a manager on the decline with outdated attacking tactics, outdated fitness requirements from the team and (probably) outdated man management skills.

A new manager is a must for the summer - Hassenhuttl and Naglesmann are being highlighted for the fantastic jobs they have done. Yet I think a high-pressing manager would not be the right man for this squad; players like Kane, Ndombele, Lloris, Alderweireld, Winks and Dier would struggle with this system – even PEH didn’t really suit Hassenhuttl’s system. The priority is a possession based manager, someone who can play to our strengths which is in my opinion, in possession and in attacking quality. Rodgers would be perfect for the job (so would have Tuchel) but he would unlikely want to leave for us so soon. Potter is the one I have wanted for a long time; if you read his back-story it is fascinating; and I honestly believe if he had Son & Kane and had Ryan not played once this season their team would be in the top 4.

Even Poch showed us how difficult it is to be sustainable and a press dominant team – he left as a possession obsessed manager.

There are plenty of options out their who would be great for our squad: Rodgers, Tuchel, Poch (again), Potter, Ten Hag, Fonseca and others that I don’t know about. All I know is, Jose isn’t it.