What The Managers Say - Part 8
That way maintaining success would not be a constant financial battle.
To achieve that is difficult, far more difficult than just obtaining fleeting success.
We know to grow on the field we must first grow off the field and the building of the new stadium and NFL tie-up were two ways of achieving this before the pandemic put a stop to that.
I don't think people have realised the pandemic has come at the worst possible time for Tottenham with increased bills, a higher wage budget than we have had before but now with a big chunk of income taken away.
Thus we have to weather a storm, a storm that is worse for us than it is for others.
Our two leaders have taken a pragmatic approach, looked hard at players at the end of their contracts or with only a year left to buy talent that is under their true value.
Sir Alex Ferguson and Manchester United rebuilt on the back of the youth academy with the likes of David Beckham, Gary and Phil Neville, Nicky Butt, Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes.
It can clearly, therefore, be done but again, does that last, can a conveyor belt really be created.
In theory it can, put the best in your get the best out but who are the best, the most skilful or those with a better mind?
There needs to be pervading all the way through the academy, subtle mental training.
Youngsters need to be taught how to think, to achieve maximum success and that then carried all the way through to the first team.
Those that don't make it you are already giving a head start to in life through that training.
We live in a short term world with short term thinking where it takes long term thinking to build anything.
You look at our 90 minute fan, their sole thinking is short term and they cling to the past to suggest long term thinking isn't working, yet, at points, they go straight back to short term thinking, ignoring the long term plan.
One trophy vs lots of trophies.
Many fans can't see beyond the one, many can't see beyond one transfer window or one season.
The club can't look like that,it has to have an eye on it, but there is a bigger picture, the next dew years and a long term path beyond that.
Each season fits within a long term sustained success vision which takes sound financial management and resource management, not fan type, now now now management.
Sir Alex Ferguson always used a four or five year cycle, he planned ahead, he didn't just buy for that season.
Again, that is at odds with the 90 minute fan.
Instant results are not easy to achieve when you are building for the future.
A new manager needs a season to get his ideas across and get his team understanding how to play them in match situations rather than the training ground.
Their couldn't be a more damning example of dumb instant thinking than that.
It took absolutely no account of the time it takes to change and a manager has to work with that added pressure, his own fans wanting him to fail and these people call themselves supporters!
They don't know the meaning of the word.
The All or Nothing documentary series should be teaching these social media sorts how they support isn't support, it's destructive, it's against the players, it's against the club, it's for the opposition.
Few will learn the lessons, few have the capacity.
Few understand negativity breeds failure their actions would suggest and then they complain when they get exactly what they have been working towards, nothing.
Why not try to help build success, which only positivity does?
"The problem with human beings is that when they get older and they are playing at a club like this, how many challenges can they accept without being successful?"Sir Alex Ferguson
That is something Mourinho has to assess at Tottenham.
When a player can no longer get himself up for the next challenge it is time for change so time to move on.
It doesn't matter at what age that happens, when it happens and the mind has gone, it's very tough to get it back.
This is the first real window Mourinho has had to mould the squad, the winter window has a different more stop gap rescue role and a pandemic has taken cash away from it.
He is having, as he does any window, to sell to prospective purchases, the club challenge and the players challenge.
If a player buys into both and they do dovetail then he is someone to consider buying,if not then you move on, regardless of who he is.
Sir Alex built Manchester United on the academy, on youth, bringing youth through.
A team of players who are all between 27 and 31 are all going to need replacing in a few years and that situation could destroy a club financially.
Under Financial Fair Play a club with an £89m player trading deficit is a sign a club is in financial difficulty and isn't being run sustainably.
You can't just use players and receive nothing for them when you chuck them out while spending tens of millions on replacing each and every one, it isn't financially feasible.
If you have youth coming through it eases that financial pressure cooker.
I suppose I had better add in for the 90 minute fan that an owner can not buy players or just give money to a club these days.
"Building up young players to the necessary level of self-belief and skill is a job for our academy when they arrive. They are rebuilding their character."If they can rebuild a player’s character to the level that he can handle me, then he’s got a chance."That’s a fact, because when they got to me they would have to be men.’Sir Alex Ferguson
That's revealing for some, build their self-belief and character, skill is a given basically, you'll build that anyways bt to build that without mentally building and you have an inferior product.
"We’ve no time for a weak person in the first team a player would not only be dealing with me, he is dealing with 76,000 people expecting them to win each week – and that’s a different issue altogether."So the rebuilding of a character that’s strong in terms of handling a crowd and the senior players in the dressing room: big stars, expectations, media, all these things – it’s not done in the wind."It’s a building process, and the academy people are good at that."Sir Alex Ferguson
Unless you have the mental side covered, you'll always be second best and to be frank, the players we have bought in have been mentally questionable.
Erik Lamela was at first, Tanguy Ndombélé, Danny Rose, Christian Eriksen disappeared in the real big games, whereas harry Kane and Harry Winks from the academy have a different mindset.
It's great that we bring youth through with the right mindset but why do we make so many mistakes in the transfer market in this area?
For me, it's a doddle to fix with psychologists assessing a £20m-30m-40m etc player before we buy them.
If a psychologist could have picked up Ndombélé mental flaw, which I'm sure they could, then do you think we would have spent the money we did, knowing as Mauricio Pochettino said, that we couldn't get it wrong if we were to spend that money.
So why wasn't every avenue covered?
Or dod Pochettino see the flaw and believe he could resolve it?
Mourinho has dossiers on every player we are interested in, Sir Alex had encyclopedic knowledge of players strengths and weaknesses.
Knowledge for great managers is key so why deprive ourselves of valuable knowledge.
Making better informed decisions is common sense.
If we are to rely on a manager then that element has to be a part of his assessment team somewhere.
Perhaps with the mentality of player Mourinho has brought in, that element is missing to a degree from Pochettino's team?
Is that the element that separates the two, the acceptance of the importance of mentality?
Sir Alex puts the foundations of success at Manchester United down to the system that produces youth players and the business success off the pitch.
Everything stems from there, the business has to pay the bills, the academy churns out mentally strong players.
If you sat and listened to Brendan Rodgers talk about his days coaching the youth groups at Reading you might start to see some of the values that are disappearing from society i this "entitled" world.
"It starts with the youngster who can’t tie his laces at the very beginning, making him feel important, secure in the environment, allowing him to play with freedom."I worked on interpersonal skills in relation to the young players: shaking hands, little simple things, please and thank you, not simply expecting things, reiterating hard work, making them work."It was important to operate on their level, getting myself feeling how they feel, building rapport, building trust."Once they could trust me, I could incorporate core values: collectiveness, unity, pride. It was a commitment to nurturing."Brendan Rodgers
Please and thank-you, not expecting things, shaking hands, all signs of instilling the respect into them that is missing from so many parents today, so what chance have their children got with role model fathers hurling foul mouthed abuse on social media.
Some of these people should be castrated so they can't spawn more monsters.
The only hope those children have is if they meet someone else and are inspired by them instead, like a teacher otherwise the apple will, not fall far from the tree.
This responsibility role these people shirk also falls to the senior players on the pitch.
It is their role to help the youngsters, work with them, encourage them, advise them, support them.
Key to this is the senior player being a part of the club, not just a Premier League player in it for himself.
His role is to be a part of what the club is trying to achieve, short and long term and help transmi that to the youngster, again everyone going on a journey.
So many journeys.
Mourinho's task at Spurs is threefold
1. Infuse Tottenham with the right character
This is everything, this is the mindset, the winning mentality, the standards you are aspiring to.
Mourinho is a winner.
Tottenham have to develop that mindset as a club, we are winners, so have fans, then we will be.
Create it before you achieve it.
Then it's just a question of repeat it and as you are set up for it and know how to achieve it, it becomes easier to do it again.
Then you can get on a roll, but you won't do that without creating the right mindset first.
Fans can help but the 90 minute fan doesn't want to, their ego (because that's all social media is, pandering to like me ego's) is more important than Spurs success.
Kevin Keegan recalls Bill Shankly reminding them of the importance of the supporters.
"You are privileged to play for these people. Everything you do here, you do it for them."Bill Shankly
Can you say that of some of the players today?
They want the adulation of the fans, but do you think they "feel privileged" to be playing for the fans or are they just playing for their own importance?
Everyone has to buy into the mentality Mourinho has, those who don't you move out and bring in those who do.
If we have that culture we'll produce winners, not just players.
2. Establish enduring values ans vision
Let me tell you the story of the Busby Babes to explain this.
The British players don't need telling but what about new signings from Brazil and other countries, what do they know about it?
Man U therefore show them videos of the team, setting the scene, then the disaster and Sir Bobby Charlton speaking to them.
It gives them a potted history of how they have come to be where they are but highlights the tragedy and thus importance of creating success for the fans.
That is a driving force, it helps them feel a part of something.
Exactly what has to be instilled in each knew signings, being a part of something, recreating history, recreating the glory years.
I don't think we have had that at Spurs with some of our signings, it's more about them.
As we go to an ever more self-entitled selfish world,bringing the payers back to being a part of something, of having the right values and respect, only enhances the football that's produced.
3. Build Something Bigger Than Yourself
The task for Mourinho is not just to build a team to win trophies whil he is there but to build a legacy too.
To build a club culture, a structure for success where you just need to slip a new manager into when he goes and success continues on.
That too is Daniel Levy's job and he has put the infrastructure in place for it. Noe he needs a manager to do the dame on the playing side.
Pochettino was tasked with it, now Mourinho.
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