Poisoned Chalice?

Article by Mike Davis

So in the space of just four days we have had Hiddink, De Boer, Pochettino and now Laudrup distance themselves from taking the reins at the Lane. In addition Brendan Rogers has come out and said how delighted he is that he picked Liverpool over Spurs. We’ll let that one simmer for now and see if he is still so smug once his one man team buggers off after the World Cup!

The question I am asking at the moment is are Spurs now seen as a poisoned chalice for many managers? During the period of Daniel Levy’s tenure at White Hart Lane we have had a change of manager on average every eighteen months! OK some of the dismissals were justified but others were a little disappointing, I still feel that Martin Jol was treated really badly and you can say what you like about Harry but 4th, 5th and 4th in three seasons, plus a style of football that even non-Spurs fans begrudgingly admitted was pretty good to watch, made his dismissal somewhat mystifying.

The constant in all this upheaval has been Levy himself. He has a notorious reputation for being a tough negotiator but he also seems to have the knack of falling out with managers. Once you get on the wrong side of him it would appear your time is pretty much up. It seems to me that in Levy’s mind at least, the best person to manage the club is actually him!

I don’t think Tim Sherwood and Sir Les are the answer, but equally well I am not one of those who think that it would be great to see Glenn Hoddle back in charge. Unless he has changed dramatically, Hoddle’s lack of man management skills would potentially cause rifts and tension within the squad. I have already gone on record as saying that I do not want Capello either, to me he is just an Italian George Graham and the ultra-defensive football his teams tend to play would be a horrific prospect.

I have to hold my hands up and say that I don’t really know who I would like to see at the helm. If you put me on the spot I would have suggested Laudrup and possibly Hiddink, but as I have already mentioned, they appear to have ruled themselves out.

This season which started with some optimism is beginning to look like it might become a bit of a nightmare. We need to regroup very quickly or the top four will be totally beyond us, as it is I think it is going to be a pretty tall order. We blew our chance to reach the Capital One Cup semis, our FA Cup tie against Arsenal will be anything but a walk in the park and we might only have the Europa League to look forward to come February.

We also have the January transfer window looming and this also throws up an interesting situation. If as is seeming increasingly likely, we do not have a new manager, do we spend money on players, assuming of course anyone wants to come to a club when they don’t know who’s in charge? I still think we could do with another striker but I also think that we should recall both Assou Ekotto and Carroll from their loan deals, especially BAE as I am fed up of watching Naughton and Rose, both of whom are just not good enough.

This season is far from over and there are lots of matches to be played and we are still in three competitions. However we need some stability and quickly and the players need to stand up and be counted. I have not lost my belief that this is a very talented squad but it is time for them to show it.

As a Spurs supporter of close to 50 years standing, I’m used to seeing us shoot ourselves in the foot, it is almost our default setting, but it doesn’t make it any less frustrating to watch it happening again.

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