Is it Klopp trap?


The press are having a whale of a time with another manager saga at our expense.

Is it Klopp trap?


It's the season at Spurs once again to dream up names and add them to a press linked list. This list can then be wheeled out when they need a story and we'll see the usual rubbish 'Spurs have been linked with' stories. A press linking is not an actual link of course merely supposition.Let's have a look at the supposition list.

Before we do remember the identik of the type of manager Levy wants. Proven top quality to minimise risk, to play Spurs football attaining Champions League qualification as initial criteria and building future long term success through a production line of young talent.

All indications from Old Trafford are that David Moyes is staying. Fake stories of a meeting between Joel Glazer and Louis Van Gaal have been shown to be just that with Manchester United making strenuously denials to the Press Association and the like of Sir Bobby Charlton indicating Moyes will be the manager next season.

With that story dead, the press have had to conjure up another fake story to continue to be able to have drama and intrigue over a Tottenham appointment. Step forward the next fake story, this time involving Arsenal. The FA Cup finalists have no intention of parting company with Arsene Wenger, why would they, he has proven himself to be the third best manager in the Premier League over time behind Sir Alex Ferguson and Jose Mourinho.

When you have such quality you do not part company for a guy 2 years younger. Arsenal are showing every sign of being prepared to buy big and obtain a proven top class striker, who unlike us they will pass to. The Louis Van Gaal to Arsenal talk lacks any sort of credibility. The only link is that both managers like to play football, that's it.

Van Gaal is happy to work with youngsters and build success that can be passed to a younger man long term. That younger man was to be Tim Sherwood but he ruled himself out by saying he will not be a number 2. Thus I believe we have already pencilled in a second choice for a couple of years time, Frank de Boer at Ajax. The 43 year-old is under contract until 2017 but I have no doubt long term plans will have been discussed briefly when we initially approached him.

Louis Van Gaal to pave the way for Frank de Boer, both Dutch, both Ajax, both successful, both work with youth, both play the same system. That would make a logical long term plan. We all know Louis Van Gaal is the man Daniel Levy wants.

Second on our list was Cesare Prandelli the Italian manger. He had been sounded out about taking over if Van Gaal wasn't coming but he has now signed a 2 year extension to his Italian contract so can be crossed off.

And so to the press linking list. We have a group of under preforming foreign players who have struggled because they can't speak English. Answer bring in a foreign manager who can't speak English. Daniel Levy is no idiot, there is absolutely no way he is going to appoint a manager who can't speak the language.

For a start he and the board will want to be able to communicate with him directly and not through an interpreter to make sure any message is understood. Can you see Daniel Levy allowing the slightest possibility of his messages not being fully understood by a manager because I can't.

Mauricio Pochettino is on a media list, he will not be on Daniel Levy's list I am sure. The Argentines criteria is turning Southampton into a reasonable mid table team that have defensive problems is admirable. They play football and we want to play football so it's an obvious link to suggest. He has only been managing since 2009 and has never won anything, he doesn't have the proven ability to create a Champions League side, he would be another gamble.

Levy has met Louis Van Gaal and spoke to Cesare Prandelli, who will now be managing Italy for the next 2 years. Suffice to say he has courted and is looking for a top class manager with proven ability to put a lasting structure in place not a manager with potential. Mauricio Pochettino does not fit that identikit.

Michael Laudrup has been mentioned. Why? Has he been a rip roaring success at Swansea? No he had them playing the attractive passing football the Brendan Rogers put in place and shipped goals.

He won the League Cup and has won Danish trophies since he took up management in 2000. Laudrup started building at Getafe but left after a year for Spartak Moscow who sacked him 7 months later. He went to Mallorca in July 2010 and resigned in September 2011. Then Swansea.

Laudrup has no record of creating anything lasting, no record of creating Champions League sides and no record of any achievement in major leagues. The only thing he has going for him is tha
t he creates a side who plays attractive football. Sorry but our criteria is way bigger than that.

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Next we have Rafa Benetez who has only recently joined Napoli and whilst he would like to return to the Premier League one day that day is not now. He is first building Napoli to challenge for the Italian title and has made no indication at all that he is going to drop them in it and is willing to jump ship. There has been no indication from Napoli they are unhappy with him or that they are not prepared to buy players. The only tenuous link is that i'd like to return to the Premier League one day quote.

He would probably be a very fine manager for us having managed both Liverpool and Chelsea but the timing is wrong. Hi fits our identikit and has Premier League football.

Tottenham are keeping a close eye on the situation of Laurent Blanc at PSG claim the Evening Standard as they try to piece together their own imaginary list. Again there is no indication from anywhere at all that that is the case. It is merely an assumption that that is what we would do so I expect we'll see more stories to give that one a run.

He doesn't fit the identik manager we are after either, he is very inexperienced in club management terms having only managed Bordeaux from 2007 until 2010 and PSG this season. He finished second and then won the French league before moving onto manage France. Now he has all the money he wants at PSG. Despite being a name, he has only managed at club level in France for less than 3 seasons so would be a gamble.

Daniel Levy is trying to minimise the size of gamble we take on the next manager by employing the very best possible. Whilst undoubtedly very good he does not have a long enough track record. He has only won one French title and one French cup. He is currently living off that success.


Next up is Jurgen Klopp who has transformed Dortmund. He has been managing since 2001 after retiring. He played for Mainz and took over as boss until he resigned in 2007-08 being unable to secure them promotion. Klopp took over Borussia Dortmund in May 2008 winning the German Cup in his first season, defeating Bayern Munich. He finished 6th in the League, then 5th then won 2 titles. He has also taken them to a Champions League final.


Is it Klopp trap?


Clearly he has something as a manager but is under contract until 2018. He certainly looks a stronger candidate than Laurent Blanc having produced the goods as it were in a stronger league and more frequently. He has the added ingredient of taking his club to the Champions League final and getting them out of very tough groups. We know ourselves that he can motivate sides having played them ourselves.

On a potential list of candidates he is an obvious choice, whether he wants to manage in England or even outside Germany is unanswered. He is good with the press and always been accessible to the English media when teams have met, yet there is no indication of interest. He would be a gamble but perhaps less of a gamble than other suggestions.

Roberto Mancini is at Galatasaray and wants to leave by all accounts to return to Italy and Inter Milan. The Galatasaray fans want him sacked. He did win the Premier League title with Manchester City in 2012 with all the money he could want. Prior to that he had turned Inter into the dominant force in Italian football.

He took over for the 2004/05 season and won the first domestic trophy for the club since 1989. After winning the Cup he then won 3 league titles on the trot and retained the Italian cup for a second year. That success was not replicated in the Champions League however and he was sacked in 2008.

His sides are all about not conceding, winning 1-0 you could say is his ideal so whilst a successful manager he playing style does not fit the Tottenham style, a stated aim of Daniel Levy. A potential candidate but he would be sitting on the subs bench as it were, one of a potential number who can't make the first team.

Luciano Spalletti has won a couple of Italian cups as well as 2 titles and a Cup in Russia with Zenit St Petersburg. He would be the size of gamble Levy is not willing to take. One for a press linking list only.

We had better mention Jurgen Klinsmann the USA boss. You would have thought being a Tottenham boy the press would have more of this but he signed a new contract in December taking him until 1918 with the US. These days contracts mean very little but the compensation figure would not be one Daniel Levy would entertain and he does not have the track record we are looking for.

Louis Van Gaal to take over with Ronald de Boer as his long term successor would be the ideal scenario. First step the Dutch national boss so hopefully we will hear he sis signed, sealed and delivered next week. If not then before the end of the first week in May when his players arrive and he will have to concentrate on the World Cup.