The blueprint still requires ink

An excellent read from David Conn via the Guardian here about the problems facing Daniel Levy in terms of how the club can sustain competitiveness at the very top level based on our current financial model. Or rather the quest that presents itself and how it may continue to remain answered even after we appoint a new manager.

Once more it's worth regurgitating the ugly truth that it was because of how Redknapp behaved and the apparent non-relationship he had with Levy that saw him lose his job. Judging by comments made by Levy and Redknapp post-'sacking' the official line is that Harry was let go because the club want to go in a different direction. Isn't this just PR, an avoidance and agreement to side step making public the real issues at hand? Or am I just basing that on the deafening silence from the club whilst Redknapp talked contracts to Sky Sports? Seems obvious to me but it's just an opinion.

Redknapp was a success compared to the past. The past in this instance is the Sky Sports era of football where we spent over a decade turning up for a yearly party at the wrong address. You could attempt to argue with the squad at hand it was expected in the time Harry spent at Spurs to achieve top four challenges - which he did. Even if that wasn't the intention when he joined. It soon become apparent that if the squad played like men instead of lost little boys they could aspire to so much more. So regardless of his flaws and lack of tactical shrewdness, he has left a steady foundation for the next man to build on. Perhaps the next man will be backed by Levy in the transfer market. You would hope they will see eye to eye and spend money on areas that need mending and upgrading. Forwards, midfield and the defence. Not too much then to concern themselves with.

Beyond Redknapp, Conn does hit the nail on the head in suggesting we need to be able to go toe to toe with the teams above us and to do so we need to be equipped, tooled up so that we stand a chance of us being the ones left standing when the fighting is done and dusted. Other clubs, the richer clubs might not always spend as much as you expect them to but they knock us out when comparing wage structures. As we all know, money talks and in this modern game it can talk players into remaining or signing regardless of whether Champions League is part of the package. I'm not completely comfortable with it but the wage you offer a player is a far more powerful tool than being able to sign the player in the first place. City might be able to out bid any competitor (both in transfer and wages) but not everyone can sign for City. It creates tiers in football in terms of which clubs can go after certain players. The Hazard transfer was interesting because apparently we could afford his fee but his wages? The only tears here are the ones falling down our cheekbones.

Ironically, Redknapp's legacy (aside from the stability we've found with our league form) finds our expectations for the club to see us compete at the very top of the Prem. There's no particular model or blueprint that has been implemented by coach or chairman. We know how good we can be, we know we can be even better and we know what we need to be able to get there. It's up to the chairman to unequivocally back the next man placed into the hot seat. I never got the impression Redknapp had that reassurance. Probably because he wanted to do things his own way. He took it a touch too far in the end, a one man band playing a tune that nobody else at the club was singing along to. There was disassociation, again this can be placed down to Redknapp and his selective detachment and loyalty to himself.

A very good manager, say someone equal to Redknapp, will probably achieve what Redknapp achieved. That sounds obvious but the point is with the players at our disposal, we won't degrade in any major way unless 3-4 key players walked away from the club. Which is highly improbable. So as long as the next man in gently and carefully begins to mould the team into the vision he has for them, there shouldn't be a major impact on our expectations or form. Granted the pressure (not just from the media) will be a problem for obvious reasons (how dare we sack their favourite son). But equally the pressure from us, the supporters. The much maligned Redknapp has actually set the bar very high as many amongst us expect us to achieve what we failed to do this season: 3rd place or better. Even in his failure there's an echo of glory.

We're going to need to retain our feet firmly on the ground and appreciate that one season in football is hardly comparable to the one that follows it. Still, the attitude has to be focused on bettering this season regardless. How else do retain a sense of progressive positive motion and emotion to see the club elevated further forwards?

To actually achieve more we have to be completely ruthless in our ambitions. There is no need for a five year plan as per previous years. Scouting and youth development should be part and parcel of a clubs set up. Which it is at Spurs. Although the scouting element is not something I quite understand since Comolli left. What we do need is to maximise our potential based on our current stature and aim not just for the season ahead but for the team to grow and evolve organically as to avoid any transitional periods. It's a continuation, not damage limitation or gutting. This job should not be one that is made difficult by the circumstance of the team itself. We just need to manage these expectactions with a little caution and not too much arrognance and entitlement.

To achieve that the chairman and manager have to be completely on the same page with short term transfer policies to get us challenging now and with long term projection. Even without a manager, signing a player of Jan Vertonghen's quality is the perfect illustration of this. As opposed to the moneyball quick win 'for the present day' strategy that Redknapp had with his signings (although kudos for Parker and yes, Redknapp's method can work if money isn't going to be spent). A blueprint for the future will be birthed from such a harmonious relationship.

Easier said than done. We still don't know what Levy is planning on doing in terms of the structure that will be set up to support the new manager/coach. Rumours suggest the return of the director of football position. Although arguably its never gone away. Levy has acted as one since Comolli was sacked, working with Redknapp or attempting to do so. We assume money wasn't spent because they couldn't agree on targets. If there was something else at play in terms of working to a budget outlined by Levy then Harry did work miracles to see us compete with the clubs above us that dwarf our budget in comparison.

The big boy revenue wont be there until the stadium is built and that could still be five years away if not longer. So until then we have to sustain our stature as a 'top five' club season in season out which means perhaps the short term tactic Redknapp embraced - working from one to the next - is the only way to do with the caveat that we sign players we can then sell on for profit (a classic Levy tactic, one that we'll probably see with Luka to La Liga).

Modric will go this summer. Bale might go next summer. We've always been able to attract players that are then sought after so perhaps this is the only financial model that will work to sustain our challenge. It's high risk because we're going to have to be up there challenging to attract the players in. It's harsh, it's not something I like to tag us with, but you can understand how Spurs act like a stepping stone, a gateway for players that want to showcase before they move on. I'm certain the link up with Internacional was based on this thinking, as we'll probably see with Sandro at some point in the future with him moving on to Italy.

Sometimes high risk can pay off. A club like Spurs in the CL every season would mean the club can start to throw heavyweight punches back at the bigger boys standing over us. Having no monopoly is a good thing but it also opens up a far more competitive league meaning we might have to share the privilege of wanting to get back in it. I for one would want to see Sandro see out his career at Spurs as a legend. It's going to take some doing.

Are we punching above our weight? In financial terms, yes. In footballing, there isn't that much difference at this moment in time between 4th and 3rd. We have to adopt and strength to remain level pegging. It's risky like I mentioned but there is no other way until we have a 60k (or just below) stadium.

To finish, here's Conn's opening paragraph from his article:

There are two ways to ask the same question about the Tottenham Hotspur chairman Daniel Levy, the club's owner, Joe Lewis, and the three directors who sanctioned this week's sacking of Harry Redknapp. Do they have delusions of grandeur if fourth place in the Premier League is considered not good enough? Or, to put it more bluntly: what more do they want?

This isn't about Levy and the directors having delusions of grandeur. We don't have any other option at the moment than to build on the team finally sustaining consistency in the league. The key is the football played. Another season of Champions League will elevate us further in terms of accountancy. I'll settle for that and a piece of silverware. No one said this would be easy. Retaining Harry would simply give us more of the same and there's nothing wrong with that. Had Harry behaved, had we perhaps got into the CL. If anyone, Levy included, wants to validate sacking Redknapp purely for footballing reasons then perhaps the risk is in the belief that the right top class appointment would give us the very same thing but with the potential to go that little bit further and as I stated, there's very little between 4th and 3rd.

We can't stagnate, regardless of whether the statistics sneer back at us.

Religion of the deluded?

With thanks to Spanish Spur for bringing this article to my attention over at the Guardian. Martin Kettle, the author of said article, cites Liverpool's current financial plight as a means to place football into perspective. No sympathy in fact for something birthed from the 90s in terms of this explosion of football we have practically drowned in during the past couple of decades. He's critical of the monster that has grown in our quaint English garden and shrugs at one of it's falling limbs.

Read it, worth a look. Found this paragraph of interest, and just taking it out of the context of the actual article itself, wonder what you might think of it's sentiments.

Football is a game. Football is entertainment. Yes, it's a really good game. Yes, it's exciting entertainment. Yes, it is hugely enjoyable – or can be – to follow your own team through thick and thin. But that's all. Football is not more than that. It's not the reason we exist. It's not a way of life. It's not even a religion, except inasmuch as it is a comforting delusion. Football doesn't prove anything at all about anything. It certainly does not validate the worth of the disturbingly large number of people, still almost all male, who appear to think that it does. Great footballers are nothing more than great footballers.

He states that you follow your team through thick and and thin - but that's all you do. There is nothing more to it. Just how do you quantify this in terms of emotional attachment? Okay so let's say someone in your family is ill or you have a newborn baby, it's going to take priority. In comparison, there is no comparison. But surely life is made up of building blocks, each as important as the next when handled separately. Why would you compare each block? You well do if say you have to choose between two things, but usually it's just a compromise (I guess this is very subjective).

I have felt physically sick to the depths of my gut when we've lost certain games. I've felt equally sick (if I look back to my teenage years) and one or two girlfriend related heart-breaks. Both incomparable, both with equal measures of impact on my life. Although I got over the females and moved on, but some football results will never be forgotten.

Football not a religion? In this world we (I) live in, you spend most of it filling it up with stuff to get you through one day to the next. TV, music, sex, travel, work (sadly) and hundreds of other activities - some of a necessity others of interest.

It's not the reason I exist, but it's f**king good way to spend some part of my life obsessing over. It doesn't need me to tag it with philosophical reasoning about it's tribal elements or any other form of justification. It's not a way of life, but it's part of our way of life. But it's a huge part of my life, and it runs in the blood, so perhaps there is part of me holding back, not admitting that it's far more important than I wish to believe.

So yeah, just a musing or two here. Agree, disagree? Are we (all of us no matter the club of our choice) just deluding ourselves with one hell of an epic waste of time?

Discuss it amongst yourselves if you want.

Believe

Interesting article over at the Guardian that's worth a couple of minutes of your time regarding Daniel Levy and the Champions League. Click here to read it and then browse your way back to this blog.

Okay, so on the one hand you can say well done Levy for being pragmatic. There will never be any potential for us to do a Leeds United. We need to be less speculative based on the ground redevelopment (no more £15M Bentleys parked up in the garage), but still improve our squad depth with each passing season.

On the other hand, you wonder whether bigger risks should be taken/should have been taken. Because sometimes they just work (Cantona anyone?). But then this is an ambiguous and multi-layered discussion. What is classed as a risk - calculated or otherwise? I'd say appointing Harry - and look at how that worked out for us. van der Vaart? Risk? I'd say so. But one that you wouldn't shrug at because of his quality.

In relative terms to immediate ambitions, yes it would have been grand for us to sign a world class striker in the last transfer window, but if the players are neither available or affordable - there is no a lot we can do. Harry did try for Bellamy (love him or hate him). It's not like we blanked out the area that is so desperate for that next level addition. Cautious is the word of the moment.

I do however find what he's (Levy) saying tinged with apologetic undertones. Now don't get on my case, I'm not being critical. He's the chairman, thinks of the football, but runs the club like a well oiled business machine. I've said it already. He's being pragmatic. Look over the road to the swamp, with their controlled debt, and note how they are managing the fact they don't have a lot of disposal cash available to them (although Wenger hardly ever spends on the same level as many other clubs). The point is, they have one eye on the present and the other on the future, and are not looking to sacrifice either (Wenger's are permanently shut, but that's neither here or there).

It's a balancing act. It's what we need to do - it's what Levy is doing. But because we sit looking upwards, there is just as much pressure for a team wanting to get there as there is for a team that's already there holding on for dear life. It might not work out for them. Mainly because of clubs like ourselves and City and others who have something tangible to aim for which is not beyond the realms of impossibility. But it's up to us to make that effort.

I do get it, finishing top 4 is no easy task and there is no shame with losing out and we might find that the next 2-4 years consists of some clubs (hopefully us) sharing CL football. As long as we are competitive and go into the season challenging and looking to improve and keep up and obviously over-take (that has to be the next step once we find the right level of upper tier consistency).

Then again...

The EPL might never have another monopoly. The new order might be 6-8 clubs going for 4 positions, year in year out. It would make it a far more even playing field. But this is just theory. No one can be certain of progression or implosion. It's also a risk in itself to just be content with steady progress, without that special in-house ethic of giving it something extra and unexpected. Because if you don't, you'll never know.

We can just accept the EPL is going to yo-yo for the foreseeable future, or we can give ourselves lofty ambitions, dream, and then make those dreams a reality. Again.

Champions League is not the be all or end all. For a start, it's not the bread and butter. But the more you get of it, the more likely you get to consolidate your position up there in the domestic heavens. Which means you can start dreaming of that one thing that is currently beyond the reach of almost all but two.

The crux of it is simple. If you strip all this away, you, me, us, expectancy, past, present, future, the dynamics of football, hierarchy, money...we should be left with this and only this:

"It is better to fail aiming high than to succeed aiming low. And we of Spurs have set our sights very high, so high in fact that even failure will have in it an echo of glory."

- Bill Nicholson

There is no point sitting in the corner, legs pulled up to stomach, rocking backwards and forwards staring into space, scared and worried about the what ifs. What if we lose? What if we get thrashed? What if we're not good enough? Dry them.

Stand up, stand tall, sing your heart out till your gums bleed and then sing some more.

It's only a group game, right? It's not a Cup final, yeah? Let's not giddy, k? Keep those feet firmly on the ground. Yeah, well, no. Hearts on our sleeves. It's the only way.

Players, fans, everyone associated with the club from newborn babies dressed up in colours who don't yet have a clue about the emotional upheaval their fathers suffer to the OAP's who remember push and run and the original glory nights...embrace history, embrace expectancy. Give it a warm hug, say your hellos...then clothesline the sonofab*tch.

To dare is to f***ing do. Let's get this show on the road.

Believe. COYS.