Spurs improvement - The game is afoot Watson

Spurs improvement - The game is afoot Watson


Gary Neville is probably the best pundit of TV and he can see change is afoot at Tottenham. The former England and Manchester United right-back played at the very top of the game and knows what it takes to win, not just football matches, but trophies including 8 Premier League titles and 2 UEFA Champions League trophies.

He has always felt Tottenham were a soft touch, play entertaining, skillful football, but would always cave in and concede. Now though he is seeing the changes taking place at Spurs that most of is fans can see. Pochettino has clearly been the right man chosen by Daniel Levy and his board, installing as he is the right culture at Spurs.

The club needed changing, it needed a winning mentality brought into the club, it was tried with Andre Villas-Boas and failed, Mauricio Pochettino though has clearly made a significant difference already.

From a porous defence, we now have the joint best defence in the Premier League and the hardest working team. we have outrun our opponents in 40 of the 45 Premier League games under Pochettino/

"When he went into that club he will not have enjoyed what he saw. I think what he's had to do in the last 12 to 18 months is knock the house down and try to rebuild it again. If you look at what he's done, he's transformed the team and definitely got a better bunch of lads.


"With Tottenham, the average age is 23 which is the youngest in the league and he's not just transforming a team there, he's transforming a culture. It's a culture of being a bit flimsy. You'd never say they were the hardest-working team in the league. You'd say they're a bit weak and he's trying to transform that.
"It looks to me like Daniel Levy is approaching things a bit differently. He's rid himself of Franco Baldini and he's going with Pochettino and his backroom staff.
"They're going with a more balanced approach and there are certainly signs now that Pochettino is having an effect. I don't think he's got the best team in the world and I don't think they'll finish in the top four. But you just have to look at the work ethic in winning the ball back."
Tottenham have been going a bit under the radar because of the young age of the team, nobody expects us to achieve anything, not even a section of our fans, some of whom have already given up and calling for change. The win against Manchester City and not just a win, but a thumping should have made people think again. 
One win doesn't make a season, but our own fans were suggesting a two and four-goal thrashing, complaining we were resting players for a game we would lose. Three points in the Premier League was always going to be more important than a League Cup tie whoever the opponents were. Last season we battered Arsenal at White Hart Lane and on Thursday what was primarily a second team battered an Arsenal side that was a former first-team.
I said before the game we have a squad, we have to use the squad and we have ti trust the players. Fazio had a bad game, well Toby Alderweireld gave away a penalty against Stoke City which transformed the game and cost us points, should he have never played again? Jan Vertonghen has had a bad game, should he not play again, both have been brilliant generally at the heart of the joint best defence in the league. 
People do tend to overreact when they need to look at the bigger picture. Take trophies, teams with money win trophies in all league in Europe now, if you do not manage a team with money you have little chance of winning something as a manager. According to the logic of our 'designer label' fans, those who believe in names only, that means all those managers are useless including Pochettino.
The most important ingredient is not what you have won with money, but finding the right man, for the right job, at the right time, in the right club. If those elements come together then you can build success.
You begin by assessing what you have firsthand, not simply rely on other people's opinions, instill a method of how you want to play and a club ethic, such as how you train, how you behave, how you think, then you can weed out those you don't think fit your vision and bring in those who do. They then need time to develop, to fully understand a system before everything will totally come together.
We are not at the end of a process, we are still near the beginning, we have only just transformed the squad into the image Pochettino wants. The game against Man City shows that when played right these tactics work, this system works. This should be a season for all fans just to sit back and enjoy watching the club develop on the road to where we want to be.
There are many Sherlock Holmes quotes that can be applied to the current changes taking place at Tottenham, l'll settle on 'the game is afoot', it sums everything up nicely.

Click the links for further Tottenham Reading
The Significance of Dele Alli
VIDEO: DeAndre Yedlin vs Man City
VIDEO: Oduwa Inter view for Rangers TV