At sensible clubs, they talk continuously of succession planning. The best way to enjoy success in the present is to ensure its continuance into the future. When RB Leipzig or Leicester City agree to sell a high-value asset, it is because they know who will fill the void for half the price.
Bayern Munich replaced Hansi Flick with Julian Nagelsmann in the space of 10 days. At these clubs, every player and coach is a mere cog within the machine. If you’re having to rip up the blueprints when one person leaves, you had the wrong drawings in the first place.
It is 67 days since Jose Mourinho was sacked by Tottenham. Various fan-focused social media accounts have ticked off the landmarks – one week, one month, 50 days; each time the replies range on a thin spectrum between angst and anger.
Spurs’ managerial pursuit has been the reverse TV reality competition show: as each act takes to the stage to sing a Westlife power ballad (remember to stand up off the stool for the key change), the judges stand to applaud before the singer trudges away insisting that they have a better offer than being mentored by Cheryl Cole. Who doesn’t?
There is no inherent disadvantage to taking your time. Chelsea have mastered the art of the interim manager and it’s far better to choose Mr Right than Mr Right Now.
Most of Tottenham’s players will not be back in full preseason training until after Euro 2020 and any manager will have a distinct advantage over many of their predecessors: only three of Spurs’ last 12 permanent managers have been appointed during the summer break, a run stretching back to 1994.
There is a vague theory that we are simply seeing too far behind the Tottenham curtain, a hidden camera view inside the sausage factory. Clubs often speak to multiple managers and for various, usually blameless reasons a deal is not struck.
The main difference here is that we have been privy to each step of the process. The list of managers who have reportedly been under consideration: Julen Lopetegui, Paulo Fonseca, Antonio Conte, Gennaro Gattuso.
It hardly presents Tottenham as a totally normal club doing totally normal things with a totally normal strategy. We heard first that they were looking toward Germany for their manager, then that they had appointed an Italian sporting director who might prefer to cherry pick from that market, then saw three Serie A coaches flicker into focus and then disappear like half-formed daydreams.
The current top three in the betting market: Graham Potter (English, experienced, expansive), Nuno Espirito Santo (foreign, pragmatic, reportedly turned down Crystal Palace) and Steven Gerrard (English novice). It doesn’t scream “We have a type”.
But then perhaps this is Tottenham: their type is to not have a type. In the 1990s they lurched from Shreeves to Ardiles to Francis to Gross to Graham to Hoddle. In the 2000s and 2010s: Ramos to Redknapp to Villas Boas to Sherwood to Pochettino to Mourinho. Tottenham – deliberately or otherwise – presented themselves as the anti-logic club that frowned at your succession planning and then bounced from one trampoline to another. There is a warped logic to illogicality if it is by design: this didn’t work, so why not choose something different that might rather than a different version of Plan A?
Unfortunately, that inevitably allowed the cult of the manager to become overwhelming, for better and worse. Tottenham were only ever as good as whoever picked the team. Pochettinio’s landmark achievement was reaching the Champions League final, but the method was arguably more impressive: he knitted together every strand of the club – manager, players, supporters, community – in a manner that very few before him had managed. And when that eventually soured, it meant that Tottenham had no obvious next step other than to lurch again and cross their fingers.
Those strands are now frayed. Tottenham aimed to nurture academy talent but only one of their 17 most-used players last season came through the academy. They built a new stadium to host Champions League football but it has only witnessed four such matches (and Tottenham were outplayed in two of those). They spoke extensively on the importance of their local supporters and then signed up for a European Super League without consulting them.
And so we reach the pessimistic end game for the lurching club. From the outside, Tottenham are a club that don’t appear to know how good they are and what they should realistically aspire to be. European Super Club or European also-ran? The natural home of young English talent or the squad that had the fifth highest average age in the Premier League last season? The selling club that won’t countenance losing their highest-valued asset? If there are good reasons for Tottenham to look towards the stars, you can forgive prospective managers for looking pensively at the gutter. And so the days tick on.
Daniel Storey’s i football column is published in print and online on Friday mornings. You can follow him on Twitter @danielstorey85
More from Daniel Storey
- The Premier League schedule is a mess that could have been avoided
- Giroud is his own worst enemy – too good and too nice for Chelsea to let go
- Project ‘Bigger’ Picture: An alternative vision for the future of English football
- Liverpool have become complacent and Klopp has to find the root cause
- The FA should punish Covid rule-breakers – apologies are not enough
from Football – inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/3vUjVDz
Post a Comment