Spurs are playing with fire
English Premier League club Tottenham are likey to be burnt in this lurch for a short-term managerial fix, writes Matt Dickinson.
THERE was me wondering a little while back if Gareth Southgate might end up as the next manager of Tottenham Hotspur, given an intimate knowledge of young England players, a developing front-foot style, the type of modern, progressive leader who could work with a testing chairman, not against him.
Do not count on me for any predictions any time soon, given Jose Mourinho is pretty much the polar opposite; a bit like Hogwarts weighing up a move to appoint Harry Potter as the new head of magic and then plumping instead for Voldemort to take charge.
And so the Dark Lord – He Who Must Not Be Named to many Spurs fans when he was a loathed enemy at Chelsea – arrives in north London, and perhaps we should not be surprised at how this turned out given the tendency of clubs, and countries, to oscillate wildly in search of some magic missing ingredient.
It is not so hard to imagine Daniel Levy, the Tottenham chairman, in his office, seeing the club’s momentum of the last few years dissipate, the balance sheets getting tricky with Spurs 11 points off the Champions League places and saying: ‘‘Find me a winner!’’ For the long-term, Daniel? ‘‘I don’t care. Just get me back to the top four!’’
The desire for a galvaniser, a firestarter, with Spurs down at 14th in the league, makes some sense but Levy must have mulled over whether he really does need all that comes through the door with Mourinho, which is enough baggage to fill that vast new stadium on the Tottenham High Road. Everything about Mourinho suggests Levy will be burnt one day.
Yes, there is clearly a case to be made that the Portuguese peacock will do something for Spurs that Mauricio Pochettino never could in winning a trophy. In attracting a manager with so many honours (as Mourinho never tires of reminding us), Spurs could be said to have pulled off a coup.
It is just not one that I would be celebrating if I were a season ticket holder. Mourinho, 56, could win the FA Cup this season, and walk around waggling fingers in the air in the latest show of personal aggrandisement, and I still would not have gone for him.
This comes down less to examining win rates in the top flight, or measuring silverware, than putting yourself as owner of a club and wondering if Mourinho is really the man you want to be looking down on from the chairman’s seat as the most highprofile representative.
Wouldn’t you be thinking that there must be brilliant, bright, dynamic, positive coach out there – the next Pochettino – to work with and learn from about building a squad and a club, developing outstanding young players, thinking for the future even if we all know that the long-term for many clubs is next week?
Wouldn’t you factor in what you think your club stands for? And, lest we forget, in the case of Spurs, the motto is audere est facere – to dare is to do. That seems as unlikely a motto for Mourinho as ‘‘it’s not about me’’.
Even when he was riding high as Chelsea manager and branding Arsene Wenger, his rival at Arsenal, a serial loser, I remember arguing to a group of fans that I would prefer to appoint the Frenchman if I were a club owner. Expecting to be shouted down, it was intriguing to see the audience split.
All those medals had not blinded many to what has become increasingly clear, that Mourinho comes for his own glorification, by any means, and he regards it as your good fortune if you get to share in it.
Of course he is one of the brightest minds when it comes to tactics and pragmatic organisation, and Spurs need a reboot. The hungry, pressing side that Pochettino had coached superbly for five years and guided to this year’s Champions League final had lost its intensity.
Spurs are capable of so much more than their form so we can be sure of a quick upswing, perhaps a return to the Champions League spots this season, which is what Levy will be banking on. There will be improvement but it is when his team starts to fall short of expectations, and Mourinho needs someone to blame, when it all goes horribly, acrimoniously wrong. And that is dangerous at a club such as Spurs, where it remains a sizeable jump to be competing for the biggest prizes.
Perhaps Spurs fans do not want to look that far ahead, or back. They may convince themselves that it was a different Mourinho who accused young stars at Manchester United including Marcus Rashford, Anthony Martial and Jesse Lingard of lacking ‘‘character’’ and ‘‘personality’’, wrecking their confidence.
They may dismiss it as a previous Mourinho who wilfully alienated himself from United’s world-class Paul Pogba, who found out via the media that he was being stripped of the vice-captaincy.
Perhaps he will be less brooding closer to his family n London, not staying in a hotel suite as he did throughout his 30 months at United. Maybe a new backroom team, including Joao Sacramento from Lille to assist with the coaching, will refresh him.
Certainly the case for change at Spurs makes sense. Pochettino has built a justified reputation as one of the world’s leading coaches but few managers, including very successful ones, are able to keep revitalising a squad. Even Jurgen Klopp was struggling to refresh Borussia Dortmund, and himself, by the time he left.
Pochettino had seemed to wear himself out even before the season started. Much of this was not of his making given the number of senior players
in the 12th round — before settling for a draw that he still disputes.
The 2-metre-tall English gypsy held the heavyweight title after beating Wladimir Klitschko in 2015 before a downward spiral into drugs, drinking and mental health issues forced him out of the sport for nearly three years. He has yet to lose as a professional and, even if Wilder loses to Ortiz, could seek a big fight against Joshua or Ruiz.
‘‘It doesn’t make any difference to me, out of every negative there will be a positive,’’ Fury said. ‘‘The one thing good about boxing is there’s never going to be a shortage of boxers. You fight who’s available, that’s what you do.’’
Right now, that’s just what the current crop at the top of the heavyweight pile is doing. The fights are all attractive, all dangerous, and, hopefully, all exciting.
It is, said Wilder, an ‘‘amazing time for boxing and boxing fans.’’
For once it’s not simply boxing hyperbole.
AP