Spurs identity left with Dawson

I got roundly abused when I suggested Tottenham were losing their identity and needed to retain Michael Dawson as a figurehead, much in the same way Liverpool have Steven Gerrard or Chelsea have John Terry.

Spurs identity left with Dawson


What we have now is a bunch of money mercenaries with no feeling for the club with the result that they don't care how the club does, they are only interested in themselves. You can see it now with the style of football Pochettino wants to play, the players clearly don't want to lay it.

Whether that is too much effort for them, whether they are incapable, although by all accounts they do it on the training pitch, who knows. It seems like they don't want to put themselves out, they have a style they want to play and the manager must adapt to them rather than the other way around.

Les Ferdinand has had a long association with the club, apart from his coaching he was a player for 6 years. His comments will no doubt get roundly dismissed simply for him for being a part of the Tim Sherwood's regime who could see the loss of identity happening.

"You feel for Pochettino because it seems Tottenham for a long time are trying to change their identity and they have done that now. 
"They have done it at the expense of the football club, they have changed their identity behind the scenes and they have changed their identity on the football pitch as they haven't got one. 
"No one knows what they do and how they are doing, what style they are playing and what they are doing at the moment. 
"Pochettino has come in and inherited players that perhaps he wouldn't have chosen himself but they were there and he has had to work with them and hopefully he will be given the time. 
"There is unrest there at the moment because results are not going the way they want but he's come in and needs to change what he is doing and get his own players and once he has done that then you can judge him. 
"It's difficult to judge him on the strength of what he has come in to."

If fans are honest with themselves instead of the pretence some seem adopt, then they'll appreciate what he is saying is true. Tottenham have lost their identity, as I wrote about Dawson, who is going to take over the mantle of Mr Tottenham.

Every club has to have an identity and means some stalwarts, not just a conveyor belt of players looking for a wage packet and a stepping stone to a bigger club. If a club has no identity there is nothing to follow, no cause to be a part of, no bond to tug the heartstrings and keep a player at a club.

Now all we have is a vision, a project from each manager, well to achieve a vision everyone has to believe in it and you won't sell a vision to players, it's too long term for them, they need short term goals. Tottenham were hoping to build a team to challenge for a Champions League spot and stay together while the stadium was built. Unfortunately a few duds have scuppered that and the rest see that it won't be achieved so their productivity, their motivation goes downhill too.

Once you have sold your identity, sold your sole, you can't buy it back, you are stuck having to pay mercenaries with no feel for the club or it's fans. We are stuck now with the fake kissing of the badge brigade, a meaningless public relations exercise to con fans into thinking a player has a feeling for the club instead of a feeling for his wage packet.

Thankfully we don't see too much of it at Tottenham but that's the world we now have to inhabit. Fake feeling from fake players.