So Close Spurs, So Close

Logging onto social media at the end of a match is always entertaining, especially when your club isn't playing! I checked various timelines roughly 5 minutes after Edin Dzeko won the game for Manchester City against Spurs.

Pressure already

The general consensus was that Villas-Boas was the wrong man for the job and that his tactics had cost Spurs the game.. There were several calls for a return of the popularity 'cult of Harry' to the Lane. It made me think about how Spurs, a fine club with a rich history, littered with trophies, have (over the last 25 years) been the ultimate 'almost' club. Almost, in that they almost get the decisions right.

Quashie - Crap

Spurs were right to dispense with Harry if they seriously harboured ambitions of winning major trophies. Harry gets players motivated, and knows a good player when he sees one, but tactically he is weak. He generally has one plan and sticks with it. Spurs fell away badly last year and Harry did nothing to change this.  At Portsmouth and West Ham he never nailed the away from home tactics and at Southampton he did nothing to change a rapidly declining squad, (well apart from singing Nigel Quashie which obviously helped massively!). Harry will generally improve a squad, but I have severe doubts that he would ever be able to consistently come up with the tactics needed to win the Premier League. The Cup semi final defeats to Chelsea and Portsmouth suggested that when the big games come, Harry gets it wrong. As a Spurs fan said to me, "When Plan A works it is brilliant, but there is no Plan B."

Having made what must have been a fairly difficult decision to get rid of a popular and relatively successful manager, Daniel Levy was smart enough to know what Spurs needed. A manager with a deep tactical understanding of the game. Seemingly they have been suckered by AVB's talk.


There is a difference between being tactically astute and having tactics for the sake of it. AVB gives the impression to me of a man who needs to prove how much he understands the game. "I know, we are 1-0 down to Wigan. Martinez will be expecting me to throw an extra striker on, so what I'll do is take Defoe off, then I will have completely out thought him..." All this comes down to the fact that AVB has had too much, too soon. One successful season at Porto does not make a brilliant manager. Any of us would be able to finish in the top 3 of the Portuguese league with 7 or 8 Brazilians in the team! Call me old fashioned but I like to see a manager serve an apprenticeship. At the age of 35 you shouldn't have managed 3 massive clubs.
You should be at a small club learning your trade.

Ossie - It should have been perfect

It's not the first time Spurs have so nearly got it right. After Alan Sugar and Terry Venables fell out, appointing Ossie Ardiles and buying a load of attacking players should have been brilliant, but someone forgot to ask Ossie if he understood anything about defending.

In 1997, Spurs decided that they needed a European coach. I maintain to this day that this was absolutely the right decision. If, in 1997, they had appointed the right man, Spurs could have made the massive leap forward that Arsenal did. Instead of going for someone with experience in a major European league though, they went for Christian Gross. Undoubtably a good manager, but without the necessary weight of achievement behind him to gain respect from big name players.

Then there was Juande Ramos............

Villas-Boas seems like a decent bloke, and I hope he is given some time to prove himself. It was not his fault that Modric had his heart set on Madrid or that Scott Parker has been injured. The problem is that he is already seen as a man who makes baffling decisions. Supporters are already on his back. It seems to me  that this has all the makings of another great 'So close to perfect' moment for Spurs.