As Antonio Conte unloaded throughout what proved to be his remaining press convention as Tottenham head coach, it was clear he considers Tottenham Hotspur a damaged membership.
The gamers, the tradition, the dearth of successful mentality — nothing was off limits as Conte voiced complaints he stated he had been concealing for months.
Whether you agreed with a lot of what got here out of his mouth or not, it’s clear there are large points on the north London membership that want resolving.
The Athletic breaks down a few of Conte’s claims and appears at what wants to vary if Tottenham are to finish their latest cycle of increase and bust…
Rein in ‘player power’
One of probably the most revealing moments in Conte’s notorious St Mary’s rant was his insistence that, at Tottenham, the gamers are a protected species. When it was prompt to Conte that his contractual scenario was not serving to the membership, he hit the roof, saying this was simply one other instance of gamers being supplied with “alibis” and “excuses” to spare them from blame.
He clearly thinks Spurs’ previous couple of managers have been undermined by a strong dressing room and should imagine he’s about to go the identical approach. “I have seen the managers that Tottenham had,” he stated. “You risk disrupting the figure of the manager, to protect the other situation [the players], in every moment.”
So is that true? Is this a membership the place the gamers wield a lot energy that even a number of the most embellished managers within the recreation can not get a grip on the scenario?
In half, sure.
Clearly, Jose Mourinho, Nuno Espirito Santo and now Conte have discovered that they haven’t been capable of win over the squad for an extended sufficient interval to result in any kind of sustained success. Both Mourinho and Conte achieved quite a lot of ‘buy-in’ at first, however it quickly light. They discovered they might not command the gamers’ enthusiasm for lengthy. And as these within the squad received fed up, performances and outcomes declined and the supervisor paid for it.
This appears according to not less than one definition of ‘player power’. The squad should know by now that if they don’t like a supervisor or his strategies then it is going to be him, not them, that pays together with his job. You would possibly say that is terrible, or that that is simply how trendy soccer works, however it’s a part of the dynamic at Spurs.
But then why have Tottenham received themselves right into a place the place they’ve a semi-permanent set of gamers, who know throw their weight round, with a revolving door of big-name however short-term managers?
You have to take a look at the technique of the membership.
The approach you fight participant energy is by backing your supervisor. Power is a zero-sum recreation, in spite of everything. And should you again the supervisor to determine who among the many taking part in employees comes and goes, then he has the ability relatively than the dressing room.
If Tottenham had backed Mauricio Pochettino to eliminate the gamers he didn’t need, he would have had the higher hand over the squad. But by conserving these gamers in place, Tottenham successfully handed Pochettino’s energy over to the dressing room. And with each sacking since, this dynamic has solely intensified.
It now feels as if it is going to be very tough to reverse the method of the previous 4 or 5 years and seize that energy again from the dressing room. The solely solution to do it could be to nominate a brand new, long-term supervisor and provides him the authority to eliminate the gamers he doesn’t need. Something which looks like a good distance away proper now.
Jack Pitt-Brooke
Put the main focus again on growing gamers
Sticking with the topic of Tottenham’s gamers, Conte final weekend accused his squad of being “selfish” and basically stated they lacked motivation and accountability and have been allowed to really feel too comfy.
Many individuals listening agreed with him and pointed to the membership’s frequent turnover in his job as proof of how the gamers persistently underperform. Conte even appeared to be suggesting the squad is unmanageable and pointed to the struggles of his predecessors, in addition to his personal.
If you imagine this to be true, then the one answer is to completely overhaul that squad — which, as prompt above, may be very unlikely.
Fortunately, the repair is to be discovered find the correct head coach.
The gamers have underperformed at varied factors and should take a portion of duty for the present mess, however give them a boss who actually believes in them and is dedicated to bettering them and I’m assured issues will look very completely different.
Remember that earlier than Pochettino’s arrival, there was little or no fanfare round gamers resembling Jan Vertonghen, Kyle Walker and Danny Rose. Or look over at Liverpool underneath Jurgen Klopp. Players together with Andrew Robertson and Georginio Wijnaldum have been relegated from the Premier League with different golf equipment just a few years earlier than successful the title and Champions League with Klopp as their supervisor.
With only a few exceptions, if yow will discover the correct chemistry between elite gamers and their supervisor/head coach, the outcomes will observe.
Conte, regardless of being elite in some points, had little or no curiosity in growing Tottenham’s youthful gamers and, given he was solely on a short-term contract, had been way more attracted by signing established gamers who may ship for him immediately.
But look across the squad and do you actually see a gaggle of unmanageable gamers? Harry Kane, Oliver Skipp, Eric Dier, Ben Davies… these are hardly troublesome characters or ones usually described as “selfish”. And can one actually say World Cup winners Hugo Lloris and Cristian Romero are missing in psychological power?
Overhauling the squad would possibly sound like an answer, however it’s superb how the identical gamers can enhance with the correct supervisor.
Get that appointment proper and the best way the gamers are seen will solely change. Just as Tim Sherwood’s dilettantes grew to become diligent underneath Pochettino, or relegated duo Robertson and Wijnaldum become “mentality monsters” for Klopp.
As one of many slogans of Bill Clinton’s 1992 US presidential marketing campaign virtually put it: “It’s the head coach, stupid.”
Charlie Eccleshare
Which is it: ‘Win now’ or Tottenham DNA?
So, with a view to assist the gamers shed a number of the labels they’ve been given, what kind of a supervisor ought to Tottenham go for subsequent?
This has been the central query Spurs have confronted for the previous few years and it doesn’t really feel proper now as if they’ve been getting the reply proper.
Broadly talking, the membership’s technique since 2019 has been to desert the gradual construct of the Pochettino years and as a substitute go for high-profile, short-term managers.
Style of play, younger gamers, all of that has gone out of the window. The plan has been to attempt to win as rapidly as doable. And the hope was that by appointing a supervisor who had received earlier than, their ‘winning mentality’ would rub off on the gamers. This was the logic of Mourinho, then after the Nuno stop-gap, once more with Conte. But three and a half years after firing Pochettino, all Spurs have to indicate for it’s reaching the 2020-21 Carabao Cup remaining and ending fourth final season.
Mourinho solely lasted 17 months within the job and Conte solely 16. These latest years have been a interval of instability, not helped by appointing managers who act as if Tottenham is a step down for them and will not be dedicated for the lengthy haul. Signing Conte to a short-term, 18-month contract after which permitting him to run it down this season has confirmed to be an enormous mistake.
Maybe these appointments have been a real try and benefit from the height years of Kane and Son Heung-min, two of Spurs’ finest gamers of the fashionable period. But the fact now’s that Kane has one 12 months left on his contract and Son would possibly properly be previous his finest having turned 30 final summer time.
And what makes Spurs’ strategic pivot so tough to abdomen for a lot of of their followers is having been informed throughout it that, in truth, the membership was doing the precise reverse.
Chairman Daniel Levy promised in May 2021 — a month earlier than he appointed Nuno — that Tottenham would return to their DNA, which he outlined as “free-flowing, attacking and entertaining football” in addition to taking part in younger gamers. That was what Spurs followers needed, however virtually two years on they’ve seen treasured little of it.
So the query stays whether or not the membership will now go for one more big-name supervisor, within the hope whoever it’s can do what Mourinho and Conte have didn’t do, or lastly chunk the bullet on the long-term rebuild the membership wants. Many followers would favor the latter plan, even when it means some teething issues over the primary 12 months as a brand new fashion of play is launched.
But Tottenham have spent a lot time, vitality and cash on this coverage it doesn’t really feel as if they’re about to vary tack.
Maybe the reply we’ll get this week shall be one more big-name supervisor, with Spurs hoping he’s the one whose stardust will stick on this Teflon squad.
Jack Pitt-Brooke
Refine the recruitment technique
Getting your recruitment proper is key to the success of any membership and that is an space Tottenham have gone to nice lengths to revamp over the previous few years.
Fabio Paratici was introduced in from Juventus in the course of the summer time of 2021 to modernise the operation and final summer time noticed the arrivals of Gretar Steinsson, Andy Scoulding and Leonardo Gabbanini into senior roles following director of technical efficiency Steve Hitchen’s departure.
Paratici has had his critics since taking up, however his report with transfers at Spurs has usually been good. Romero, Dejan Kulusevski and Rodrigo Bentancur have been the standout purchases, whereas others resembling Pedro Porro and Pape Matar Sarr look promising. Paratici has additionally carried out what most Tottenham supporters have needed and centered on signing youthful gamers, because the membership appears to be like to construct for the long run and transfer away from the Pochettino period.
But that is the place Spurs have run into difficulties.
It doesn’t work having a director of soccer with one technique and a head coach with a totally completely different one.
Take the contrasting strategy to signing left wing-backs final summer time: Paratici introduced in Destiny Udogie (aged 19 on the time and instantly returned to promoting membership Udinese on mortgage), whereas Conte’s desire was to be reunited with the then 33-year-old Ivan Perisic.
Over on the opposite flank, there was the signing of proper wing-back Djed Spence (a participant of the same age and profile to Udogie), who was dismissed by Conte as a “club signing” and loaned out in January having barely performed. We noticed one thing related that very same month when Arnaut Danjuma got here in on mortgage, just for Conte to offer him a complete of 11 Premier League minutes since after which say, “I am sorry for him.”
This is just not how a membership’s recruitment operation ought to work.
It’s OK for there to be differing opinions amongst those that make choices over transfers and it’s OK to herald a spread of various gamers — one may even argue the Udogie and Perisic purchases have been concurrently securing Spurs’ current and future at that place. But that solely actually works if it’s a deliberate technique. As it’s, such a disconnect between head coach and managing director of soccer is counterproductive and has led Spurs to conditions with each Conte and Mourinho the place the supervisor has been introduced with gamers he doesn’t need.
That’s when you find yourself with “club signings” resembling Spence, or in Mourinho’s case, ones like Gareth Bale’s return on mortgage (referred to on the time as “Daniel’s deal”), who he didn’t really need and ended up ostracising for lengthy durations.
If Spurs are to progress they should discover a approach of aligning the pondering of their head coach and director of soccer. And equally, it solely is smart to recruit a “win-now” supervisor if you will then signal “win-now” gamers. This has been a elementary disconnect in the course of the Mourinho and Conte eras and gave rise to the concept that Tottenham have been attempting to be Chelsea however on a budget.
Having a strategic imaginative and prescient after which sticking to it’s elementary if Spurs are to outsmart their rivals, virtually all of whom spend greater than them on each gamers and their wages.
Charlie Eccleshare
Do extra to quell ‘profit over glory’ claims
The concept that Tottenham prioritise income over sporting success is a central argument of the ‘ENIC Out’ brigade.
Is it a good one? That possible is determined by your perspective. On one hand, Spurs have spent tons of of thousands and thousands of kilos prior to now few years on transfers and final summer time backed their head coach in a approach that they had by no means carried out beforehand. It’s exhausting to say a membership don’t spend money on the taking part in aspect once they have spent £60million ($73.4m right this moment) on a participant in Richarlison who isn’t even an automated starter.
On the opposite hand, proprietor ENIC’s critics say Spurs have stood nonetheless as a result of they’ve handed up alternatives to signal gamers who would have taken them to the following stage — most pertinently in the course of the Pochettino years when the hierarchy prioritised the stadium rebuild on the expense of additives at a time when the staff have been coming agonisingly near successful the most important prizes.
This was the place the argument over ENIC crystallised — the sense that infrastructure, resembling constructing an elite coaching floor after which stadium, was extra vital than trophy success on the pitch.
Those who’re pro-ENIC would argue that the 2 go hand in hand and that the Tottenham homeowners have given them a a lot better likelihood of successful issues sooner or later by laying down these very strong foundations. Remember as properly that Spurs have been in a comparable place to Everton, bobbing round in mid-table, earlier than they began to make these sorts of investments. Now take a look at the place the 2 golf equipment are.
Nowadays we see the profits-over-glory argument play out when Spurs are seen as prioritising occasions that maximise stadium income — this summer time’s collection of Beyonce and Lady Gaga concert events being seen by some as probably the most egregious.
A private view is that individuals would care loads much less about these sorts of enterprises if outcomes have been higher on the pitch. But when Spurs are frequently failing to win issues, it turns into simpler to say that it’s partly all the way down to warped priorities at board stage. Do these industrial ventures actually have an effect on the taking part in aspect? It’s tough to say definitively, however most impartial observers near the scenario level to the very fact there’s a fairly clear delineation between the employees who concentrate on these types of issues and people who take care of the soccer ones.
What doesn’t assistance is when public statements such because the one by Levy at first of final season seem to position undue emphasis on the industrial and even the non-profit neighborhood aspect. Referring to “boxing, NFL, rugby and concerts” within the second paragraph of his chairman’s message welcoming the followers again en masse after over a 12 months of behind-closed-doors video games as a result of COVID-19 pandemic and speaking so little concerning the precise soccer was seen by Levy’s critics as hanging the fallacious tone.
On the pitch, the income vs glory debate performs out in the case of prioritisation of the cup competitions versus trying to qualify for the profitable and status-heavy Champions League with a trophyless top-four end.
This got here to a head at first of this month when Conte rested quite a lot of his first-choice gamers for the FA Cup last-16 tie away to Championship aspect Sheffield United to maintain them recent for a Premier League recreation three days later towards Wolverhampton Wanderers. Many Spurs followers have been massively pissed off by this, questioning why a membership who haven’t received a trophy since February 2008 felt they might deprioritise the FA Cup on this approach.
There’s no simple reply right here about what a membership resembling Tottenham’s precedence ought to be, however the Sheffield United debacle served for example once more the division between a lot of their supporters and the membership’s decision-makers (on this case, the top coach). This was much more pronounced as a result of the membership’s Champions League run this season had been so missing in pleasure and was then compounded by the dreadfully limp last-16 exit to AC Milan per week on from the Bramall Lane defeat.
Why, the argument went, ought to Spurs prioritise qualifying for the Champions League in the event that they’re going to strategy the competitors so tamely as soon as they’re taking part in in it?
Again, there aren’t any simple options to how a membership with out an infinite price range approaches juggling a number of competitions, however there must be a better consciousness of simply how a lot successful one of many cups (and even critically trying to take action) would go in the direction of dampening down the profits-over-glory strategies.
Charlie Eccleshare
Realign all parts of the membership
Football golf equipment want unity to work. They are made up of 4 disparate elements: the supervisor, the gamers, the board and the followers. In any actually profitable membership, all 4 of those shall be pulling in the identical path, with broadly related expectations and objectives. People in soccer name this ‘alignment’.
This is what Spurs had within the peak years of the Pochettino period. He had a transparent thought of how he needed his Spurs aspect to carry out: aggressive, urgent soccer with younger, hungry gamers. The dressing room purchased into it, so did the group, and it match with the strategic objectives of the board, too. It was the happiest and finest time in Tottenham’s trendy historical past.
Since then, although, the elements have all moved in numerous instructions. The board have appointed short-term managers who’ve, as talked about above, briefly received over the squad however not for lengthy. The fashion of soccer these managers have served up has hardly ever gone down properly with the group. And the general impression has been a membership with its 4 disparate elements all pulling in numerous instructions.
Tottenham may change into a strong drive once more, however provided that they rebuild that sense of unity that they had however threw away.
That has to begin on the prime of the membership, with a transparent imaginative and prescient of what they need to be and the place they need to go. Then they should appoint a head coach to suit that imaginative and prescient. If that coach can persuade the gamers to purchase into his soccer, the group will observe. They don’t want on the spot outcomes, and even on the spot enchancment, they simply want a way there’s an thought in place they’ll imagine in.
This sounds theoretical however additionally it is true in apply: Spurs may end fourth and even third this season and but few of their followers may have loved it. They would take the 2014-15 season — Pochettino’s first, once they got here fifth, six factors off the highest 4, however confirmed clear indicators of progress and a growing taking part in fashion — over this one any time.
That would possibly sound like a good distance away from right here however issues can flip round rapidly.
Just take a look at Manchester United, who’re of their first season underneath Erik ten Hag. In a matter of months, he has instituted a method of play, sidelined gamers who don’t imagine in it, and now has full buy-in from the dressing room and the group. Or look down the street. Arsenal backed a younger supervisor with a transparent thought, allowed him to select the gamers he needed, and now discover themselves with that electrical sense of complete unity throughout the entire enterprise.
It is a disgrace the 4 years because the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium opened have coincided with a reasonably depressing interval for the staff on the pitch. The stadium has been a game-changer for the membership financially however the crowds that fill it may make an enormous distinction on the pitch, too.
They simply should be introduced with one thing they’ll imagine in.
Jack Pitt-Brooke
(Top picture: Tottenham Hotspur FC by way of Getty Images)
