Tottenham’s 5-0 punishment at home to Liverpool last weekend rightly drew critics to the fore calling for Andre Villas-Boas’ head. The boss who has spent almost all of Gareth Bale’s €100m transfer fee has managed the staggering heights of seventh in the Premier League this season and we looked woeful on Sunday.
Indeed, Spurs do appear pretty shoddy when they’re not on their game – as performances against Liverpool and at Manchester City in late November demonstrate. This is why it was the correct decision to sack him on Monday.
It’s not that Spurs fans don’t like AVB. He seems an affable person but winners aren’t good guys – just look at Jose Mourinho and Sir Alex Ferguson – and when you lose the dressing room, as Villas Boas did, you must be willing to kick some boots around (as Ferguson did!).
Villas-Boas’ inability to change things, especially in our forward line, where Roberto Soldado was often left with 20 yards of space between the next white shirt on Sunday, showed a lack of conviction in his squad past the first XI.
We needed this change before a rut forms but we do not need a complete overhaul. Evidence from the live football commentary suggests that plenty of Premier League clubs envy the strength of our squad and with a little bit of preparation and calm the new boss should pick up where we left off before the City defeat.
Who that will be no one is sure for certain, but it appears Spurs will bounce back from his loss and fans of the football betting are already backing them to get winsover the Christmas period.
Let’s look at the form. Before the Liverpool game on Sunday, Spurs had a W4 D1 record and had bounced back from their 6-0 drubbing at the Etihad. We’d successfully navigated into the Europa League knockout stages and we earned tricky away wins against Sunderland and Fulham.
In fact, the formbook shows that when we lose, we usually go on a good run of consecutive wins. After the Arsenal defeat we won four of five games – the same of which can be said following our 3-0 loss against West Ham.
What the new manager has, therefore, is a team used to bouncing back and that could prove the difference against the Hammers on Wednesday and in Southampton this weekend.
Levy has made 7 permanent appointments since 2001. 6 have been sacked, one walked. All have had relationship difficulties. He has appointed 4 dofs, 2 sacked, one walked.
There is no reason to suppose he will do better this time. Put your money on the new coach leaving in October 2015, if Levy appoints. Really, Levy should go.
I agree AVB didn’t spend the100 million,it was Baldini and Levy between them.We probably will never know how many of them were wanted by the manager or whether it was discussed how to integrate all of them into the team.
It’s strange if they were on AVB against his will and yet reports suggest Baldini was AVB’s only supporter at the end.
Obviously all the fans want CL football again,but this obsession with instant success will just mean the next manager having the same problems.I think the new man will at least be forgiven if we start playing with real flair again,even if we miss out on 4th.place.Then properly prepare for the following season having address the problem positions and cover.