Klinsmann revealed why Spurs had to change

Back in November, while he was over here for the USA game against Columbia in November, Jurgen Klinsmann spoke of the lessons he learnt in the countries he played in and under the managers he played.

Klinsmann shows why Spurs have to change


The approach Arsene Wenger adopted is a lesson to Tottenham fans. He looked at a player long-term and when Monaco made the semi-finals of the UEFA Champions League he left out Youri Djorkaeff saying 'he has to learn to live the right life off the field.'

Immediately my mind swings to Saido Berahino witnessed inhaling nitrous oxide last season and this season being arrested on a drink driving charge when stopped doing 110mph (177 km hour).

Wenger told Klinsmann, ‘You’ve got to guide these guys,’ Klinsmann was at the time almost 30. The senior players in any club play a very important role, the young learn from their approach, both on and off the field.

Let me immediately throw in the name of Emmanuel Adebayor, he had a bust up with Harry Kane, then cites voodoo. Is that the sort of example a senior professional should be showing youngsters? He doesn't even display the right attitude on the field, can you see Adebayor trying to score a fourth goal against Chelsea because I can't, he'd have been in midfield passing the ball around to play keep ball.

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Pochettino has told Daniel Levy that Adebayor is a negative influence on the young players and Tottenham are a young player club, the senior players have to be carefully selected to be of the right mental character. There has been talk of Rafael van der Vaart once again whose hamstrings may not be able to survive Pochettino training sessions but his mental approach would certainly be better than that of Adebayor.

Having the right environment to learn and continually improve is something I've spoken a lot about because the culture at Tottenham, both within the club and fans, has to change, and is changing. We have a head coach who believes the same, Tim Sherwood believed the same, he just used a different method to try and achieve it.

The clear out that will take place at Spurs will be as much to do with getting rid of the wrong mental characters as it will be getting rid of the players not performing. Each club has a way of doing things, a culture and at Tottenham it is not a winning culture so that has to be cultivated.

If you want to change results, in terms of trophies, then you have to change what you are doing now, which has been unsuccessful, to achieve different results. That means embracing the right mentality, the mentality of winners, then you can bred that throughout the club for sustained long-term success. It's not luck that Arsenal go on end of season runs to continually grab a Champions League slot from us, it's a club culture, a mentality of success.

You can't breed that with bad apples, players who can't be bothered or players who are happy as they are, regardless of their ability. Pochettino has embarked on changing Tottenham in the manner Daniel Levy wants him to, he is taking stick from fans who, to be frank, don't understand the change that is required off the field for on the field success.

I make no secret of the fact that having done my own research into Pochettino and the situations at his former clubs to draw my own conclusions, rather than borrow them from a newspaper, that I then nailed my colours to his mask.

Turbulent times were expected as re-educating a club and it's fan base is no easy task, it can't be achieved overnight. The players must jive their lives as supreme elite athletes and appreciate that their body is the tool of their trade, but more than that they and fans have to appreciate that their brain is the ultimate, it controls the tool.

We are on the right track, we have the right man at the helm to take us forward.