Why MP Will Be Gone By Xmas

Two games in and only one point to show, not a good enough return for me. Imagine a loss or a draw away to Leicester on Saturday and the pressure really starts to mount. MP has had three months to put his ‘stamp’ on the team and get in players to compliment this pressing style he loves so much.

Many themes have re-emerged from last season including costly individual errors, cracking under pressure, being over powered in midfield, lack of leadership and not having enough fire power up front. After our 30 minute cave in v Stoke every manager of ‘supposedly’ weaker opposition will be urging their team to have a go at us and we’ll go over like a granny on ice skates.

I’m pretty sure any Spurs fan who knows his stuff would not have tried to close out the game by taking off our talisman and biggest threat with 30 mins left on the clock. We basically invited them to have a real go and to their credit they obliged and had the momentum to go on and win it in the end. To bring on Lamela was like going down to 10 men, the guy is a waste of a shirt, I’m not sure how many more times we need to see him fall over and give away needless fouls. Aaron Lennon is still a Spurs player as far as I know but MP has fallen out with him (great impact player who tracks back and would certainly offer more than Lamela off the bench).

Now, correct me if I’m wrong but MP knew Kane was off for the under 21s BEFORE the end of the season. So why, 3 months on, are we still light on in the striker department? The reason why is that MP is not strong enough to influence Daniel Levy and would much rather toe the company line of ‘we don’t need any more strikers’ roughly translated to ‘we don’t want to splash out again’. Of late his stance has changed because he’s realised first hand what many Spurs fans have been saying ALL transfer window long that it’s not only high risk relying on Kane it’s also unfair on the guy.

We have signed this chap Clinton N’Jie but if this is the sum total of 3 months scouting then I am worried. There is every chance this guy could be another average N’Joe, especially when taking into account the customary 2 years to acclimatise to the Prem. The Berahino deal will rumble on right till the end when Low Ball Levy ups his offer from £15, 000, 000 to £15,000,001 expecting WBA to cave in. Regardless, the business should have been done earlier for both deals if these were the initial targets so they could be properly integrated. I also don’t believe that Berahino has the right mentality for us but at this stage in the window I’d take him out of desperation. For him to succeed at Spurs we have to be playing 4-4-2 otherwise he just won’t get the service (something MP won’t do).

The issue of central midfield has still not been addressed. I think it was plain to see last season that whilst Bentaleb and Mason have potential they are not ready to anchor the Spurs midfield. Now we are reduced to playing players out of position which could have been avoided if there was some kind of initial strategy or plan. We lack leadership on the park and having a goalkeeper as captain (as good as Hugo is) is clearly not working. How come other teams seem to find these midfield generals so easily yet we struggle (again it comes down to poor scouting and lack of planning).

I’ve not seen anything from MP to suggest he’s going to take us forward and any talk from him around us challenging for 4th spot is just naive. Yes we run around a bit more these days but if this doesn’t translate to points on the board then he is nothing more than a fitness coach to me. I look at the passion and desire of other managers, the win at all costs mentality, the fire in the belly and all I see is Levy’s pocket dog Pooch. There is no plan B, no tactical awareness, just the predictable rigid system with no width or pace he plays week in week out which is very easy to combat. He is quite clearly out of his depth and a couple of bad results away from the Spurs faithful turning on him.

Having been a fan for 35 plus years I want us to do well as much as the next man. We’ve had all summer to address our weaknesses and to make improvements but it’s only now that Pooch is realising what the every day fan has been saying all summer long.

Sadly for him I think it’s going to be too little too late.

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