Tottenham Hotspur FC 2013/14

[VR46]

Got a little thing called the World Cup to entertain us first. Well for 90 minutes of the first England game then we'll realise we have no chance

[Mr M0by]

Not long home from the match, is Tim still the manager? :/ I suppose they wouldn't announce anything until after Ledley's testimonial tomorrow so I shouldn't start panicking just yet!

[EJG1980]

Had a great time at the Ledley King testimonial last night, sell out crowd, lots of silly stuff, loads of fun.

The likes of Davids, Berbatov, Ginola, Holtby, Freund, Taricco, Eriksen and Adebayor were clearly enjoying themselves and playing up for the crowd, it was great fun. Superb moment when Howard Webb intercepted the ball, played a few passes with the legends team and was then hacked down by Holtby. Webb then gets up, calls Holtby over and pushes him down

Pantomime booing of the current side when the legends didn't have the ball, deliberate foul on King so he could get a penalty and score the first goal, too many great little moments to remember them all. We even got to see the old Anderton to Sheringham corner routine! No goal though, Sandro blocked it, he must have been watching the old VHS season review tapes and was wise to it.

Oh and there was a penalty shoot out at half time between a team of MPs (no idea why MPs!) and team with players from the 1984 UEFA Cup final shoot out win plus Martin Chivers (taking a penalty in a suit and football boots, with an umbrella) Ledley King and his little son.

Just a top notch night in every way. The highlights will be available to watch for free on Spurs TV on the web site at some point today.

[VR46]

Sounds like a top evening and a great night to remember for him. Good stuff.

[EJG1980]

Tim Sherwood has left Spurs.

Based purely on results he can consider himself a bit unlucky to lose the job, he was averaged around 1.9 points per game in the league during his stint, which is very good, albeit from a small sample size.

I agree with him being let go though as stats never tell the whole story. If you look at the actual performances we were often playing poorly even in matches we won (away at Stoke for example, we were outplayed by ten men and lucky to hold on to the win) and I never got a sense of any plan from him as to how he wanted the team to play. Equally if he'd got worse results but you could see him implementing a style of play for the long term, I'd have backed him to stay.

I could be completely wrong but I don't think he's the right man for the job long term, right now.

I think it's possibly a bit too soon for him and he needs a few more years experience under his belt. He's been quite heavily linked with the West Brom job so I'll be happy if he gets a job like that and does well.

Anyway, more summer excitement for Spurs fans!

[VR46]

Can never say life is boring as a Spurs fan!

Bit of a Manager merry-go-round in the PL this summer me thinks.

Hope he goes to West Brom and does well like you say. 1.9 points a game is a decent record, would equate to 72pts over a season.

[EJG1980]

I hope we get an appointment asap so the new man can get the entire summer to plan for next season.

I've already seen a tweet today saying "Frank de Boer has not travelled with Ajax for their Indonesian tour. Is he Spurs bound?" (which I'm sure won't take long to morph into "Exclusive: FDB snubs tour for Spurs talks!!!!!" in no time at all) and I'm not sure I could take reading stuff like that every day for too long.

The three clear favourites and only ones there have been any gossip about are Frank de Boer, Mauricio Pochettino and Rafa Benitez.

FDB has the name value players will respect, Ajax philosophy and playing style, but yet to be tested outside of Holland (although Ajax hadn't won the title for seven years before he led them to four in a row).

Pochettino has Southampton playing great football, has shown his methods can work in the PL, and it'd be exciting to see what he could do with the greater resources at Spurs. Wouldn't have the "aura" of an FDB though and untested at a big club.

Benitez is a proven winner at big clubs with a big haul of trophies. I think he's the most likely to come in and be able to get results straight away. He'd probably play the least exciting football of the three and has a reputation for "playing to avoid losing" but I do think that's overstated quite a bit.

All have their pros and cons but I'd be perfectly happy with any one of them. It'll probably be some shocking choice from left field that nobody has mentioned now!

[VR46]

Got to think of when you try and sign stars over the summer too, their first question will be who's the Manager there?

Tim who? just wouldn't have cut it to anyone outside the PL.

[sj33]

Didn't Sherwood have a better win record than the best 5 or so Spurs managers?

[EJG1980]

Got to think of when you try and sign stars over the summer too, their first question will be who's the Manager there?

Tim who? just wouldn't have cut it to anyone outside the PL.

I agree with you when it comes to big star signings, I think the manager will make the difference for a lot of players. Say a player who was only considering moves to clubs in the Champions League, but then saw we'd appointed Big Name Manager X and decided that it showed that we were on the up and made it worth coming here.

I'm not sure it has as much of an effect on players for whom moving to Spurs would be a step up from their current club, though.

I remember that the Jan Vertonghen transfer was started when Harry was in charge but by the time the transfer was completed AVB had become the manager. He was asked if it was strange to be courted by one manager and then signed by a different one. He said that it made zero difference to him who the manager was because he was signing for Spurs, not the manager, and it was the size, reputation and expectations of the club that were important to him, not who happened to be in charge.

[EJG1980]

Didn't Sherwood have a better win record than the best 5 or so Spurs managers?

He also has a better win record in the Premier League than Arsene Wenger and Rafa Benitez, but I doubt many top clubs would appoint him ahead of either of those two if all three were available.

The majority of the good results came in the first couple of months (new manager bounce?) and it dropped away further into the season (his first ten matches gained 2.3 points per game, the final twelve yielded a more modest 1.5 points per game).

As I said in my earlier post, based purely on his overall results, he can feel unlucky to have lost the job. You can't just judge if a man is right for a club on stats alone though.

In a lot of those wins we played poorly and were fairly fortunate to get the victory and (in my opinion) there was little evidence of Sherwood shaping the team in any distinct kind of way.

I think a change is best for both club and manager, and his time at Spurs means he's got a good chance of landing a decent PL job. If he becomes a great success then he can stick two fingers up at us and fair play to him, but I agree with Levy this time and don't think he's the right man for Spurs. Time will tell.

[EJG1980]

Holtby vs Webb

[VR46]

Pochettino is incoming by the looks of things

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/27579306

[EJG1980]

Looks like it's going that way, barring any last minute twists. It's being reported virtually everywhere now.

It's an appointment I'd be very happy with. Levy mentioned in his end of season letter that one of his prime concerns was for Spurs to play attractive and exciting football again, which Pochettino should definitely bring going by the way he got Southampton playing. I'm genuinely excited to see what he can do with the squad and resources he'll have at Spurs.

I hope we can wrap up the deal asap so he can have a nice long summer to plan for next season (and all the reports indicate there shouldn't be too long to wait).

[EJG1980]

The Club is delighted to announce the appointment of Mauricio Pochettino as our new Head Coach on a five-year contract.



Mauricio joins us from Southampton where he guided them to their highest-ever Premier League finish of eighth place last season.

During his 18 months at St Mary's, Mauricio also oversaw the progress of home-grown stars such as Luke Shaw, Adam Lallana, James Ward-Prowse and Calum Chambers.

Mauricio built his coaching reputation in Spain with RCD Espanyol, winning admirers across Europe for his high pressing attacking brand of football as well as for prioritising the development of young players from the side's youth setup before his departure in November, 2012 after almost four years in charge.

Mauricio enjoyed a highly successful playing career, making his debut in 1988 with Argentinian side Newell's Old Boys at the age of 16 and winning the Argentine Primera Divisi?n with them in 1991. Two spells at Espanyol followed from 1994, sandwiched between time with Paris Saint-Germain and Bordeaux. He won two Copa del Rey titles with Espanyol and also earned 20 international caps with Argentina.

Commenting on the appointment Chairman Daniel Levy said:

"In Mauricio I believe we have a Head Coach who, with his high energy, attacking football, will embrace the style of play we associate with our Club. He has a proven ability to develop each player as an individual, whilst building great team spirit and a winning mentality.

"We have a talented squad that Mauricio is excited to be coaching next season."

Speaking on his appointment, Mauricio Pochettino said:

"This is a Club with tremendous history and prestige and I am honoured to have been given this opportunity to be its Head Coach.
"There is an abundance of top-class talent at the Club and I am looking forward to starting work with the squad.

"Tottenham Hotspur has a huge following across the world and I have great admiration for the passion the fans show for this team. We are determined to give the supporters the kind of attacking football and success that we are all looking to achieve."

Mauricio is joined by Jes?s P?rez (Assistant Head Coach), Miguel D'Agostino (First Team Coach) and Toni Jim?nez (Goalkeeper Coach) with whom he previously worked at both Southampton and Espanyol.