What The Managers Say Part 9
It's an opportunity.
The Mandarin characters for crisis (wei ji) mean ‘danger’ (or ‘risk’), and ‘opportunity’.
The positive, successful leader will ask ‘Where is the opportunity in this?’
The negative unsuccessful person will simply look at the negativity.
Brexit is a prime example of that, Brexiteers see opportunity, Remainers see negativity.
Take this transfer window and our negative fans looking for daily excuses to knock the club.
It's the same thing.
Put things in context, look at the bigger picture, look at the long term picture, the long term trend, look for the positives and it is easy to be content with the world and happy.
It helps if you block the negatives out of your life of course, the less you allow them to drag you down the happier life you'll lead.
"It takes an above average person to master the art of contentment." Epictetus
Spurs Twitter folk hasn't learnt that yet have they.
We should have achieved more than we have with the players we have had, I don't think anyone denies that, we should have won a trophy over the last few years but we had mentality missing from th jigsaw.
As a qualified coach, it frustrates me haven't addressed it in the obvious way we won't go over again.
It frustrates me that we are bringing in far better mentalities to add to some of the good ones we have but aren't addressing the poor mentalities in the way we could.
Our alternative is to buy and sell, an expensive way to change personnel or more importantly the output from the personnel, in other words, points, wins, trophies.
If you are playing with 6 players with a winning mentality and 5 players who are simply trying to give their best, then anxieties and fear are going to creep into the minds of the 5 and they are going to make mistakes.
That is where you will lose a game and those mistakes could be mentally preventable.
"Whatever your context and challenge as a football manager, the one thing we all have to do to be successful is to win. So we have to get that winning mentality in our teams."Walter Smith
That was Walter Smith's career philosophy at Rangers, Everton, Scotland, instil a winning mentality, everything, everything stemmed form that.
He improved things everywhere he went.
Why then, does football not do everything it can to build players with a winning mentality instead of accidentally bump into them?
Why can't we take a Dele Alli and have a psychologist instil it in him, given that it isn't that difficult or time consuming or expensive?
We need to get into the modern world.
Can you build a ship while simultaneously sailing it?
Can you build an aircraft while simultaneously flying it?
No, of course you can't, they are incompatible, yet that is what Mourinho or any new manager is asked to do when going into a new club.
You are to get points and win trophies while you fix the problems we have and build a winning vessel.
Isn't that going to take time?
Yes, but negative fans don't give a manager time, some of our lunatic fringe wanted Mourinho sacked within weeks, while others still want to destroy the club that's being built.
Improvement goes with a timescale, events like a pandemic may hit that timetable,but that doesn't stop the work to improve towards the objectives.
By the end of this window, Mourinho can look at his squad and measure how much improvement he feels there has been.
The initial element of his reign was crisis response.
Turn things around and stabilize while slowly starting to instil the good things that will effect a positive change when mastered.
He has had to strike a balance between the immediate needs (keeping the ship afloat, keeping the aircraft flying) with long-term requirements to build something successful (Building a ship to sail the seas for years, building a plane to fly for years).
You don't instantly jump from one to the other as the negative fan.
He will have had to assess the mindset of each player and throw out some old mindsets, those reluctant to change, those that are negative, like Rose.
There are undercurrents at clubs that the fan doesn't see, unless a player makes it obvious through his performance, of players who feel it would be best if they moved on when things aren't going well.
That gets reflected in results, we have had it at Spurs and some of those mindsets have had to be turned around.
The best way to do that is get results, it makes it more difficult for payers to leave.
Look at Lamela, he doesn't want to leave, he wants to be a part of what is being built, wants to work for the manager,no wonder Mourinho likes him, it's the club who have said you may have to sacrifice him for other targets.
You bring in new mindsets and you can see the importance of this with the arrivals of Højbjerg and Hart to add to the likes of Kane and Lloris.
Complaining, blaming, getting angry, arguing, dropping heads, making unforced errors are all disruptive elements often caused by a feeling of injustice (Rose).
Unless that is tackled that player will never be onboard and will try and drag others down to his level to agree with him and be miserable themselves.
Again something you see on Twitter all the time.
"When success is elusive, players start to consider that that’s normal and that they can’t rise above it. It was important to instil in them the belief that those days are over and there’s going to be a total change."Graeme Souness
That's what mauricio Pochettino tried to instil but couldn't get past that last hurdle, the players didn't believe it at the final test where we created very little in the Final.
Mourinho with his success, his persona, his aura, call it what you will has to tackle that mental change.
Players are listening to someone who has been there and done it as opposed to someone who hasn't, but knows the theory.
Sounds tough, well sorry, winning is a tough business, a winning mindset is tough.
Daniel Levy had to take the tough decision to sack Pochettino and bring in a high-profile manager that was a statement to everybody that he was serious, he did not expect the team to stay where it was.
It was a symbolic action.
A statement of things are going to change around here.
Bringing in the mindsets of Højbjerg and Hart was again a message from Mourinho that we are shifting, that this is the direction so you had better adjust or you'll be out.
That new vitality can't be underestimated, the players feel it, the staff feel it and it enthuses them, pushing them to new levels and greater enjoyment.
Everybody knows they must rise to the challenge, a positive response, not a negative response.
Daniel Levy doesn't have to say anything, his appointment of Mourinho says it all as does their approach to this transfer market.
"The most important thing was achieving a lift in the whole club – a lift in everyone who played, everyone who supported and everyone who wanted to come into the new thing we were building."David Platt
I don't think Spurs supporters have cottoned onto the fact they have to change, they have to support the club and not hold it back.
They have to create a positive vibe surrounding the club so the media pick up on it and the whole atmosphere surrounding the Tottenham Hotspur name is positive, filled with energy, belief, hope.
Unfortunately even the players saying much the same thing on All or Nothing isn't going to change the mentality of some agenda driven diehard negative fans.
Supporters are needed to help the side towards success.
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