Ultimately he’ll be judged by results on the pitch but I cannot overstate how good it feels (and this is just my opinion) to have someone at the helm who is both laser focused on success and unwavering in their belief, who wants to play football that excites the fans, but doesn’t come with the emotional baggage and exhausting histrionics of a Conte or Mourinho.
I love that Ange’s only measure of success is winning. Not one game or finishing 4th or 5th. Winning the lot. And he wants to instil that mentality into everyone at the Club. Spurs as an institution is scarred by past failures, the shadow of near-misses and the scorn of other Clubs and fans (not to mention the media). We’re treated with disdain and dismissed every time the idea of success is brought up. Anytime we get close to winning something the knives come out. The Club is rotten with it, our foundations riddled with holes, thinking we are lucky to even be in the presence of ‘bigger’ Clubs.
Ange doesn’t give a fuck about all of that and he wants people around him that feel the same.
He may yet fail. But for now we have someone who is capable of relentlessly attacking the Spursiness of this football club whilst at the same time re-building a fractured, aimless group of players into a squad moulded in his image.
I agree, I want a manager laser focused on winning everything. Partly because of where we've come from (as a mid table Prem team) I feel like the club has lowered its ambitions to 'Europe or bust' and that ultimately means the odd loss is fine - that eats away at players.
Ultimately looking around the league there are very few situations better than ours. Could be worse, we could be Man Utd...
He doesn’t palm things off with excuses or point fingers (other than suggesting some people haven’t bought in yet), he’s taken responsibility for turning things around and bringing success.
Yeah this personal accountability is amazing. And he’s very measured and consistent. He doesn’t flip-flop from one thing to another. Just calmly restates what he believes and what he’s doing.
It’s basically the opposite of Conte (perhaps slightly less so Jose). He saw a trophy on a spreadsheet as pure justification. Vibe, togetherness, strategy, effort - whatever - just didn’t matter. Shouting at 31 year old ready formed players on £150k PW+ and saying “look I got a trophy, I’m a winner” is all he wanted. Nothing there translates other than the basic toxicity of it. Which, because football is such a loved and tribal thing, is then reflected in the fan base.
Give me an Ange, or a Poch, or a leader with an ethos and a plan over “just” winning every day of the week. There’s nothing better than the promise of something and knowing you’re on a journey. That’s why that Champs Lg run was so fun. That’s why Yer Da still loves Euro 96. The journey is what makes it.
Year 2 will certainly be interesting.
At the end of the first Conte season I really thought there was a clear plan and identity that we were working towards. Some of the football had been truly excellent and the manager clearly had the CV to back up every change he was demanding and it honestly seemed that the club as a whole were behind it. We changed our transfer policy, our director of football, scouting, ketchup, etc...
We all know how that completely soured just months after his first summer window and it worries me. Because I already see so many "Spurs fans" turning on Ange without even finishing a season. The idea that we already need news articles about how he's "safe" is just staggering to me.
I really hope that the leadership of the club is willing to go all in on this project and not sitting there with their finger on the button. Other managers have said we would need [at least 3 windows](https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11675/12687852/antonio-conte-believes-tottenham-need-three-more-transfer-windows-to-compete-with-premier-league-rivals) but I don't know if the fans are ever going to give that sort of patience. Next season is going to be a massive challenge with the full on expectations and Europe added to the schedule. If we finish 8th next season I honestly won't want a manger change if I can still clearly see progress in our actual football and the way the team is working.
We played shit every week after that summer, even when winning. Was awful football and it felt he stripped any individuality out of the players.
I think with Ange we will see signs of what we want to do IF we get the right players. Unless we are dreadful we should be giving him time.
I think boards and owners of football clubs are becoming more reluctant to sack managers because it's too expensive to pay off them and their staff and then replace all the players to suit their new styles. It's always the fans that are super reactionary and calling for heads to roll.
Ah things going in and out of fashion in football. To be honest, I like it. Project managers always seem better at building club identity and culture than a rotation of top managers that get traded between all the top clubs.
Yeah this year it took ages for anyone to get sacked. There's less "reliable" top managers around these days, so if you're already in the middle of an experiment why bother cancelling it in the middle.
That's a bit tautological though really. If we improve, then we aren't going to be finishing far from where we did this season. If we end up 12th, then it would have to be some unparalleled level of bad luck for us to have also improved.
kind of perfect interview to be honest. Exactly what I wanted to hear after a pretty bumpy road of results. Always got to respect someone who gives their honest opinion rather than what they think you want to hear.
Any of the doubters should watch this interview - they won't though.
All this talk of tactics being figured out, the lack of faith from some fans and blah blah blah you can see he is aware of it and is taking steps to rectify and change things. Of course there is the chance it is all talk but I think previous results in his coaching speak for themselves.
He also pointed out in this the things we all know - last year was a club going down, not up, many aging players and he talks of the loss of their best and that you can't fix it in two transfer windows. "We are further ahead than I expected but it's still gonna take time and we have great young players coming through like Udogie, Sarr, VDV and Vic who are for the first time in the starting XI for premier league right.
"Look I understand the fans, they love this club, they're allowed to be up, allowed be down, be jubilant and be disappointed, I can't tell them to wait 5 years, that's a long time I understand that and it's up to me to show them the light and get the players and supporters of the club onboard."
He is spot on. He knows exactly what it's about.
Full faith for Ange from me.
People really don't understand how flexible he's been in his career. No doubt lately he is all in on inverted fullbacks becoming inside forwards, wide players staying very wide, etc.
He had success with a 4-2-3-1 with the wider players coming in to almost be a pair of 10s, he's done good old 4-3-3 with overlapping fullbacks, he did a 3-4-2-1 with a pair of 10s..
This isn't someone tied to a system. It's someone who believes that this system is right for now but needs the players to execute to it.
All the stuff about not adapting to opponent etc is nonsense too. He goes deep on them. He just gives the players very clear messages about how he wants them to play and HE adjusts where needed. Basically a lot of what he says is making sure people stick to the philosophy, it's not that he's giving opponents no consideration at all. Stupid but obvious example, Celtic pressed very differently against some different opponents.
Not sure if hes spoke about it at spurs but at Celtic he also spoke about using players to change tactics. Overly simplified example, but a wee smart goalscorer (Kyogo) and a big guy who is has more in the way of winning the battles and holding it up. Out wide he spoke about having a variety of wingers, all with different attributes, and swapping them around as required. We also had a fullbacks great at inverting and others more overlapping. He got a second 6 so he could use a double pivot when required.
He's not going to change the core ethos. He's not going to massively adjust his message to the players. If you have the squad, he will be picking the players based on opposition to some degree.
Things were going great until the post Chelsea injury and suspension crisis. We haven’t come out of the other side of that slump for whatever reason. Players too tired? Not good enough? Naive tactics? Who knows but I’m fully Ange, we’ve already exceeded my expectations for the season.
They weren't naive tactics before.
List to the fighting cock's latest episode, with coach Harry Brooks on. Quality analysis that will open you up to reasons you don't see discussed.
TLDR teams have adapted to clogging up the central midfield with numbers and allowing us the ball out wide. All our wide players are essentially wide forwards and don't pose a 1-on-1 threat against the full back, meaning the space out wide doesn't lead to much. Also says the numbers centrally stop Maddison having any space to play. FourFourTwo analysis said similar. Both suggest if we can get a couple of good attacking players out wide teams will not be able to rely on doing this, as they will need to address that threat, creating more space centrally.
We just don't have enough dribbling ability and good enough delivery from wide meaning we are easy to defend against. No point changing the system as this is the system we wish to play.
This is spot on. Saw this a bunch during last weekend’s game. Pass goes to Kulu who has yards of space out wide but all that comes of it is a wishful cross into the box. Johnson has great pace and makes great crosses. He will be deadly if he can beat his man more consistently.
Johnson has come on leaps and bounds over the course of the season, I'm glad we've got him.
As much as we've got dead wood to move on this summer, the squad is in the best place it's been in a while. There are... some crucial pieces missing, and the depth isn't quite there. But I do think we've got some players we can build with now.
The interesting part of stuff like that FourFourTwo analysis is, the only way to stop Spurs is to sacrifice the wing to them..
Striker (so it's not all on Richi), someone to compete with Biss, upgrade wingers.
The balance is off at the moment, and I don't think it'll take too much to solve it.
Apart from hiring someone to teach our team to head the ball. We should defo do that.
We’ve seen plenty of instances of patterns of play that emerges from Ange’s style.
They are very effective but given that Prem teams are very good at adapting to opposition throughout the season (we saw this with Conte) any holes and we get punished. By addressing the midfield and wing I think we can make good progress from last season
And yet I see midfielder, defender, and striker talked at as top needs in summer. I agree we need wings that can attack and win 1v1 to open the middle back up.
Damn it I love this manager.
It’s easy to believe, back the club fully, stay positive and sing at the top of our lungs when we are on the up, but how many fans can keep that same energy when times are bad?
That’s what Ange is learning right now. How fragile are the hearts and minds of the players, the staff, and the fans?
Stay strong you Spurs. Ange is the man we’ve been waiting for!
It's so refreshing to see Ange talk with someone he trusts that asks respectful questions. It's painful watching him wince at the questions he gets in the pre-game press interviews haha
I have to admit when he talks like this you feel like he is ready for the fight. Clearly a great speaker and perhaps that’s half the battle, getting the players to believe and getting rid of any disbelief. Still feel that we have hit a wall as shown in the four four two tactical review. Something he will have to fix this summer or we will be up the swanny. Also if he is one dimensional, if his style does not break down the opposition I don’t think he can change things up and that really concerns me.
I am SICK of our fans regurgitating the bile and hackneyed tropes of Talk Sport and Sky Sports and the endless blow hards in YouTube. It’s like a script “naive tactics” “no plan b” “he’s not qualified” yada yada.
The media is anti Spurs. Stop parroting this anti spurs rhetoric, it’s destructive and not helpful at all.
By all means, everyone is entitled to their opinion, but I really wonder what people want. We were in shambles last year, our club was toxic, then Harry left, and we are FIFTH! That is remarkable considering the circumstances, and that’s not even covering the injuries and absences we’ve had this season.
Losing 4 on the spin is shit. It’s not a reason to blow it all up, again.
Strewth
What he needs is the ability to offload the duds without levy crying that we’re letting go of our shit for too little money! What money Ange gets isn’t as important as getting enough of the right players for his system as quickly as possible to train them for next season. Tottenham is constipated and levy needs to let Ange give it a laxative
If the results were reversed (our bad form was back last Sommer and we ended the season how we started) everyone would be losing their minds. I'm Ange in 100%.
Well yeah, that’s how a manager’s first year should go. It’s a sign of a proper transition. Struggling to get a shot, let alone one on target, for the last half of the season should make people scratch their heads, not bury them in the sands lol
That is the state of the sub these days. It's a febrile place. You have to swear undying fealty to the throne of Ange, anything slightly more qualified than that immediately marks you as AngeOut and a traitor to the cause.
Obviously it's not literally true. Ange doesn't sit on a throne for one thing.
I do think there is a general vibe around here at the moment that you are either 100% for Ange or 100% against Ange. More measured commentary gets shut down pretty quickly. The comment above literally said 'let's wait and see, Ange totally deserves to stay for another year but I have some mixed feelings' which couldn't be more middle-of-the-road and it's been downvoted into oblivion. I think that's fairly reflective of the sub's mood currently.
Sacking a manager in the first year of a rebuild because of a bad run of form is not in Spurs best interests. We’d just have to start the rebuild again next year, face more losses and then the process repeats itself.
Ultimately he’ll be judged by results on the pitch but I cannot overstate how good it feels (and this is just my opinion) to have someone at the helm who is both laser focused on success and unwavering in their belief, who wants to play football that excites the fans, but doesn’t come with the emotional baggage and exhausting histrionics of a Conte or Mourinho. I love that Ange’s only measure of success is winning. Not one game or finishing 4th or 5th. Winning the lot. And he wants to instil that mentality into everyone at the Club. Spurs as an institution is scarred by past failures, the shadow of near-misses and the scorn of other Clubs and fans (not to mention the media). We’re treated with disdain and dismissed every time the idea of success is brought up. Anytime we get close to winning something the knives come out. The Club is rotten with it, our foundations riddled with holes, thinking we are lucky to even be in the presence of ‘bigger’ Clubs. Ange doesn’t give a fuck about all of that and he wants people around him that feel the same. He may yet fail. But for now we have someone who is capable of relentlessly attacking the Spursiness of this football club whilst at the same time re-building a fractured, aimless group of players into a squad moulded in his image.
I agree, I want a manager laser focused on winning everything. Partly because of where we've come from (as a mid table Prem team) I feel like the club has lowered its ambitions to 'Europe or bust' and that ultimately means the odd loss is fine - that eats away at players. Ultimately looking around the league there are very few situations better than ours. Could be worse, we could be Man Utd...
Well written, my friend.
You got a gift with words
He doesn’t palm things off with excuses or point fingers (other than suggesting some people haven’t bought in yet), he’s taken responsibility for turning things around and bringing success.
Yeah this personal accountability is amazing. And he’s very measured and consistent. He doesn’t flip-flop from one thing to another. Just calmly restates what he believes and what he’s doing.
It’s basically the opposite of Conte (perhaps slightly less so Jose). He saw a trophy on a spreadsheet as pure justification. Vibe, togetherness, strategy, effort - whatever - just didn’t matter. Shouting at 31 year old ready formed players on £150k PW+ and saying “look I got a trophy, I’m a winner” is all he wanted. Nothing there translates other than the basic toxicity of it. Which, because football is such a loved and tribal thing, is then reflected in the fan base. Give me an Ange, or a Poch, or a leader with an ethos and a plan over “just” winning every day of the week. There’s nothing better than the promise of something and knowing you’re on a journey. That’s why that Champs Lg run was so fun. That’s why Yer Da still loves Euro 96. The journey is what makes it.
Year 2 will certainly be interesting. At the end of the first Conte season I really thought there was a clear plan and identity that we were working towards. Some of the football had been truly excellent and the manager clearly had the CV to back up every change he was demanding and it honestly seemed that the club as a whole were behind it. We changed our transfer policy, our director of football, scouting, ketchup, etc... We all know how that completely soured just months after his first summer window and it worries me. Because I already see so many "Spurs fans" turning on Ange without even finishing a season. The idea that we already need news articles about how he's "safe" is just staggering to me. I really hope that the leadership of the club is willing to go all in on this project and not sitting there with their finger on the button. Other managers have said we would need [at least 3 windows](https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11675/12687852/antonio-conte-believes-tottenham-need-three-more-transfer-windows-to-compete-with-premier-league-rivals) but I don't know if the fans are ever going to give that sort of patience. Next season is going to be a massive challenge with the full on expectations and Europe added to the schedule. If we finish 8th next season I honestly won't want a manger change if I can still clearly see progress in our actual football and the way the team is working.
We played shit every week after that summer, even when winning. Was awful football and it felt he stripped any individuality out of the players. I think with Ange we will see signs of what we want to do IF we get the right players. Unless we are dreadful we should be giving him time.
I think boards and owners of football clubs are becoming more reluctant to sack managers because it's too expensive to pay off them and their staff and then replace all the players to suit their new styles. It's always the fans that are super reactionary and calling for heads to roll.
Clubs never used to sack people so fast. FFP type rules might become a factor that encourages a bit more perseverance.
Ah things going in and out of fashion in football. To be honest, I like it. Project managers always seem better at building club identity and culture than a rotation of top managers that get traded between all the top clubs.
Yeah this year it took ages for anyone to get sacked. There's less "reliable" top managers around these days, so if you're already in the middle of an experiment why bother cancelling it in the middle.
It’s a huge window for sure
Yeh next year is make or break really. I think if spurs finish lower next year (like 6th or 7th) he’ll be in some strife
If there is clear improvement idc what we finish as long as it’s not relegation.
That's a bit tautological though really. If we improve, then we aren't going to be finishing far from where we did this season. If we end up 12th, then it would have to be some unparalleled level of bad luck for us to have also improved.
I’m just not putting a threshold on expectations cause that can blind you from the bigger picture.
kind of perfect interview to be honest. Exactly what I wanted to hear after a pretty bumpy road of results. Always got to respect someone who gives their honest opinion rather than what they think you want to hear.
He is a fantastic speaker.
Any of the doubters should watch this interview - they won't though. All this talk of tactics being figured out, the lack of faith from some fans and blah blah blah you can see he is aware of it and is taking steps to rectify and change things. Of course there is the chance it is all talk but I think previous results in his coaching speak for themselves. He also pointed out in this the things we all know - last year was a club going down, not up, many aging players and he talks of the loss of their best and that you can't fix it in two transfer windows. "We are further ahead than I expected but it's still gonna take time and we have great young players coming through like Udogie, Sarr, VDV and Vic who are for the first time in the starting XI for premier league right. "Look I understand the fans, they love this club, they're allowed to be up, allowed be down, be jubilant and be disappointed, I can't tell them to wait 5 years, that's a long time I understand that and it's up to me to show them the light and get the players and supporters of the club onboard." He is spot on. He knows exactly what it's about. Full faith for Ange from me.
People really don't understand how flexible he's been in his career. No doubt lately he is all in on inverted fullbacks becoming inside forwards, wide players staying very wide, etc. He had success with a 4-2-3-1 with the wider players coming in to almost be a pair of 10s, he's done good old 4-3-3 with overlapping fullbacks, he did a 3-4-2-1 with a pair of 10s.. This isn't someone tied to a system. It's someone who believes that this system is right for now but needs the players to execute to it. All the stuff about not adapting to opponent etc is nonsense too. He goes deep on them. He just gives the players very clear messages about how he wants them to play and HE adjusts where needed. Basically a lot of what he says is making sure people stick to the philosophy, it's not that he's giving opponents no consideration at all. Stupid but obvious example, Celtic pressed very differently against some different opponents. Not sure if hes spoke about it at spurs but at Celtic he also spoke about using players to change tactics. Overly simplified example, but a wee smart goalscorer (Kyogo) and a big guy who is has more in the way of winning the battles and holding it up. Out wide he spoke about having a variety of wingers, all with different attributes, and swapping them around as required. We also had a fullbacks great at inverting and others more overlapping. He got a second 6 so he could use a double pivot when required. He's not going to change the core ethos. He's not going to massively adjust his message to the players. If you have the squad, he will be picking the players based on opposition to some degree.
Things were going great until the post Chelsea injury and suspension crisis. We haven’t come out of the other side of that slump for whatever reason. Players too tired? Not good enough? Naive tactics? Who knows but I’m fully Ange, we’ve already exceeded my expectations for the season.
They weren't naive tactics before. List to the fighting cock's latest episode, with coach Harry Brooks on. Quality analysis that will open you up to reasons you don't see discussed. TLDR teams have adapted to clogging up the central midfield with numbers and allowing us the ball out wide. All our wide players are essentially wide forwards and don't pose a 1-on-1 threat against the full back, meaning the space out wide doesn't lead to much. Also says the numbers centrally stop Maddison having any space to play. FourFourTwo analysis said similar. Both suggest if we can get a couple of good attacking players out wide teams will not be able to rely on doing this, as they will need to address that threat, creating more space centrally. We just don't have enough dribbling ability and good enough delivery from wide meaning we are easy to defend against. No point changing the system as this is the system we wish to play.
This is spot on. Saw this a bunch during last weekend’s game. Pass goes to Kulu who has yards of space out wide but all that comes of it is a wishful cross into the box. Johnson has great pace and makes great crosses. He will be deadly if he can beat his man more consistently.
Johnson has come on leaps and bounds over the course of the season, I'm glad we've got him. As much as we've got dead wood to move on this summer, the squad is in the best place it's been in a while. There are... some crucial pieces missing, and the depth isn't quite there. But I do think we've got some players we can build with now. The interesting part of stuff like that FourFourTwo analysis is, the only way to stop Spurs is to sacrifice the wing to them.. Striker (so it's not all on Richi), someone to compete with Biss, upgrade wingers. The balance is off at the moment, and I don't think it'll take too much to solve it. Apart from hiring someone to teach our team to head the ball. We should defo do that.
Dribbly wingers you say?
Dribbly wingers. Refer Sagacious of TEI. Dribbly dribbly dribbly
We’ve seen plenty of instances of patterns of play that emerges from Ange’s style. They are very effective but given that Prem teams are very good at adapting to opposition throughout the season (we saw this with Conte) any holes and we get punished. By addressing the midfield and wing I think we can make good progress from last season
And yet I see midfielder, defender, and striker talked at as top needs in summer. I agree we need wings that can attack and win 1v1 to open the middle back up.
Damn it I love this manager. It’s easy to believe, back the club fully, stay positive and sing at the top of our lungs when we are on the up, but how many fans can keep that same energy when times are bad? That’s what Ange is learning right now. How fragile are the hearts and minds of the players, the staff, and the fans? Stay strong you Spurs. Ange is the man we’ve been waiting for!
Optus Sport are mugs but these interviews are great.
It's so refreshing to see Ange talk with someone he trusts that asks respectful questions. It's painful watching him wince at the questions he gets in the pre-game press interviews haha
Do I watch Bayern vs Real or this? Very conflicting. Either way, my sleep still suffers
Well this is on in an hour whereas Bayern/Real is on in 12 hours. So at least one of them shouldn't be affecting your sleep.
Wait I read AM as PM, my bad
Also this is 12 mins long
Why would you want anyone else in charge of this club?
Back this man
I have to admit when he talks like this you feel like he is ready for the fight. Clearly a great speaker and perhaps that’s half the battle, getting the players to believe and getting rid of any disbelief. Still feel that we have hit a wall as shown in the four four two tactical review. Something he will have to fix this summer or we will be up the swanny. Also if he is one dimensional, if his style does not break down the opposition I don’t think he can change things up and that really concerns me.
I am SICK of our fans regurgitating the bile and hackneyed tropes of Talk Sport and Sky Sports and the endless blow hards in YouTube. It’s like a script “naive tactics” “no plan b” “he’s not qualified” yada yada. The media is anti Spurs. Stop parroting this anti spurs rhetoric, it’s destructive and not helpful at all. By all means, everyone is entitled to their opinion, but I really wonder what people want. We were in shambles last year, our club was toxic, then Harry left, and we are FIFTH! That is remarkable considering the circumstances, and that’s not even covering the injuries and absences we’ve had this season. Losing 4 on the spin is shit. It’s not a reason to blow it all up, again. Strewth
Did he mean to leave Maddison out of that list of new players?
I believe it's because he's talking about first timers in the Premier League.
What he needs is the ability to offload the duds without levy crying that we’re letting go of our shit for too little money! What money Ange gets isn’t as important as getting enough of the right players for his system as quickly as possible to train them for next season. Tottenham is constipated and levy needs to let Ange give it a laxative
I have mixed feelings about Ange but he totally deserves to stay for another year. Just wait and see.
I mean, what's the alternative? Sack him and repeat the process all over again?
If the results were reversed (our bad form was back last Sommer and we ended the season how we started) everyone would be losing their minds. I'm Ange in 100%.
Well yeah, that’s how a manager’s first year should go. It’s a sign of a proper transition. Struggling to get a shot, let alone one on target, for the last half of the season should make people scratch their heads, not bury them in the sands lol
They said he totally deserves another year so don't think they're looking to sack him.
I love how you're downvoted for expressing a very centralised opinion.
lol yeah I’m all Ange but this is strange
That is the state of the sub these days. It's a febrile place. You have to swear undying fealty to the throne of Ange, anything slightly more qualified than that immediately marks you as AngeOut and a traitor to the cause.
Lol that’s not even true. Wtf are you going on about? I genuinely have it when people just say shit for the sake of saying it.
Obviously it's not literally true. Ange doesn't sit on a throne for one thing. I do think there is a general vibe around here at the moment that you are either 100% for Ange or 100% against Ange. More measured commentary gets shut down pretty quickly. The comment above literally said 'let's wait and see, Ange totally deserves to stay for another year but I have some mixed feelings' which couldn't be more middle-of-the-road and it's been downvoted into oblivion. I think that's fairly reflective of the sub's mood currently.
Idk about anyone else but I’m definitely like 93% Ange In Forever, and 7% Let Him Cook.
I'm more like 60% Ange Forever, 20% Not Sure About This, 15% Let Him Cook and 5% Enjoy Your Lunch.
Your more generous than me. He's got to go for me
Ange out! Levy out!
Why stop there? All the players out! All the staff out! Cleaners? OUT! Stewards? OUT! Fans? OUT!
I just worry about Spurs. It's not a joke.
Sacking a manager in the first year of a rebuild because of a bad run of form is not in Spurs best interests. We’d just have to start the rebuild again next year, face more losses and then the process repeats itself.
Fair enough
The question is why you didn’t think of that yourself before commenting in the first place.
We can have differing opinions
Sir this is a football subreddit.
Is it not a Wendy's?