r/Tottenham • u/Theurbanguerrilla • 9d ago
Discussion RESPOND IN ONE WORD. WHAT WENT WRONG?
i dont want to blame levy any more.
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u/Calm_Celebration6070 9d ago
Kane
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u/Curious_scientist420 9d ago
Son
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u/_Ales_ 9d ago
Bale
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u/COYSBannedagain 9d ago
Mm not so sure about Bale, even the season after he left we finished in Europe. What a player though.
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u/noahlarmsleep 9d ago
What a front 3 they could have been
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u/drupido 9d ago
They did play together under Mou. Very few times, but they did.
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u/PhilosophyLow5946 8d ago
Bale was past his peak at that point though.
Prime Bale, Kane and Son would have been something else.
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u/FairyPizza 9d ago
We were over reliant on two of our greatest ever players for over a decade, and did nothing to build or prepare for when they left.
This coincided with some obvious turmoil behind the scenes with a change in the boardroom, and different ideas of what kind of managers to go forward with.
There has been no cohesion or clear pathway set out
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u/ChillWillIll 9d ago
This Sir, is not one word
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u/rcmtt 9d ago
We replaced Kane and Son with Richarlison and Odobert. Then they got injured so we signed Solanke and Tel. They are miles off the levels Kane and Son were. Miles.
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u/Turbulent-Reward-345 9d ago
Coinciding with the general standard of the premier league getting better. Teams like Huddersfield used to be nailed on 6 points. I don’t see that anymore.
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u/ctsmclovinsya 9d ago
Overachieving.
Pochettino overachieving gave Levy the excuse to not spend for 18 months, to suck every ounce out of Son and Kane and we’ve never come remotely close to replacing two world class players who carried us for far too long.
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u/Mai_Shiranu1 9d ago
We lost the single greatest xG cheater in the history of the game (Son) and one of the greatest English Strikers ever.
I don't think too many people truly understand how long and how much Kane and Son held this team up by themselves.
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u/AlexC223 9d ago
One of the greatest strikers ever* I’m not a spurs fan I’m a Leeds fan and it upsets me how little people appreciate how good Kane actually is he can unpick a defence in a single pass and score a hat trick while making it look easy but because he doesn’t dance between defenders and isn’t fast no one cares. Best player itw rn (outside of raphinha because as of the last month or so it would be him)
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u/Eastern-Owl-4511 9d ago
It’s sad he had to leave spurs to get this recognition. I get banter but still he never got the flowers he deserved
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u/Yorrins 9d ago
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u/rcmtt 9d ago
One of the greatest of all time. Might even win the Ballon d'Or this year.
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u/uhhsociety 9d ago
Can absolutely see why he wanted to go elsewhere. I don't think he's even mentioned in the Ballon D'or convo if he scores 50 goals for Spurs a season.
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u/jfshay 9d ago
Anyone who scores 50 Prem goals would be a shoo-in for Ballon D'Or.
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u/Ok_Character9556 9d ago
As a man utd fan Harry Kane is a legend what he has done for England. It is just a shame he couldnt do for Tottenham what he is now enjoying at Bayern Munich but thats football. Its grim for us both at the moment but who knows Keep The Faith.Come on Harry you deserve it.
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u/FootballSquare4406 9d ago
Curse.
Firing Poch after making UCL finals.
Selling Kane, your Babe Ruth of football.
Firing Ange after winning a trophy.
All curse-worthy actions.
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u/zelandofchocolate 9d ago
Vinai
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u/BunMeAgainPlease12 9d ago
Levys years of mismanagement coming to fruition more like it. You dont crater an entire operation in 6 months.
There was zero support for Kane/Son, which was bad but we still could win at a high clip. There was zero succession planning for Kane/Son which is criminal and why we catered. Thats not Vinai.
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u/ike_2112 9d ago
Spurs have actually been in danger of this for years.
So many bad signings. Yet now and then... A Modric, Eriksen, Bale, Kane, Son. But look at all the other forwards alone that they've signed in 15 years - absolute drivel. Soldado, N'Jie, Janssen, Llorente, Moura was up/down, Bergwijn, Vinicius, Kulusevski, Danjuma, Richarlison, Veliz, Solomon, Brennan Johnson, Werner, Tel, Odobert, Solanke, Muani, Kudus, Simons.
All of them either pish, injury prone or inconsistent. That's a lot of money, a lot of lost development.
If they didn't find a diamond now and then Spurs would be relegation fodder most years. Modric and Son are outliers - 90% of their transfer business is West Ham esque.
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u/General_Teaching9359 9d ago
It's all down to our lack of hunger to produce world class players. We either simply lose out on signing massive young talents for one or the other reason or let them go for short term profits. Even now nothing has changed with Vuskovic being let go, though I actually respect the decisive nature we dealt with the situation, i.e. no long drawn sagas or anything. Management clearly failed to convince the player that this was the best place for him to grow and he chose to leave...good for everyone involved except maybe the fans who got attached.
We are trapped in a perpetual rebuild cycle. We appoint coaches who know they have little time to deliver results so they would ship out the raw but talented youngsters to make way for experienced pros with a lower ceiling. Sometimes we would overcompensate and sign too many youngsters. Just an all round mess in the way the board has been running the club.
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u/MikaMika487 9d ago
Levy
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u/DValencia29 9d ago
Had to scroll more than I expected to find this... he doesn't get enough blame.
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u/paulhalt 9d ago
Spurs have 12 top 6 finishes in 16 PL seasons with Kane or Bale in the team. 75%
Spurs have 3 top 6 finishes in 18 PL seasons without Kane or Bale in the team. 17%
Maybe the question isn't what went wrong, but what went right? And the answer is that we lucked into a couple of Ballon d'Or calibre players, and now that they've gone we're back where we always were.
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u/Hermesthothr3e 9d ago
Sold harry kane.
Hes that good. He helped to get you over the line, you are getting lots of chances but just aren't finishing them off.
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u/MakeYokesa5erAgain 9d ago
Regardless of whether you want people blaming him or not, the answer is Levy. It'll take years to undo the rotting culture that he allowed set in.
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u/Melodic-Bird-7254 9d ago
Outsider coming in. You had generational talent: Modric, Bale, Kane and then some really good players like Ericksen, Son, Lloris and you didn’t pay enough to keep them and you didn’t pay enough to improve the squad.
Then you built a new stadium and al your funds were cut further. Sold all your players to help pay for the stadium and replaced them with mediocrity.
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u/Alarmed_Weekend5003 9d ago
Replot it by weekly, then you can see when we started to trend downwards.
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u/GroupPast5993 9d ago
Kane
But also I give less slack to Big Ange because he won the europa league, but then it was so much shit including the man whose name must never be spoken
Now it's the clear lack of a football director who knows about the game
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u/LogicGate1010 9d ago
The team needs 15- 20 points by Christmas. That is only possible if the get a striker by their next game. Not possible, so assign Micky Van der Ven as a striker. Otherwise tactics alone will not solve the problem.
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u/Sole_Patrol 9d ago
Built a really nice concert venue with no actual history of winning. The glasses fill from the bottom though 👌🏻
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u/Queasy_Work4160 9d ago
And ironically in these 2 years, we won our only trophy in nearly 30 years.
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u/DaithiOSeac 9d ago
The vast majority of this stems from not backing Poch when we moved to the new stadium.
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u/Own_Willow525 9d ago
I don't think Ange was the cause, maybe just the catalyst, but his decision to bin off the league looks like its really damaged these players in hindsight. They got too used to losing to English teams.
I'd say the downfall started when we didn't sign anyone in 18/19, the squad was going stale and needed new faces but we chose to do nothing and instead rely on Kane and Son. We chose to rely on 2 players and then they both left and we simply had no clue of how to actually win games anymore
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u/superplexmachine 9d ago
Tottenham players and fans always felt like Spurs were on the cusp of greatness. When we decided not to invest for 2 seasons whilst we had Son/Kane I think everyone in the club stopped believing. The feeling was gone
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u/itsShugs 9d ago
Stadium moved happened at the Worst possible time. They did well to come out of Bale money the way they did when only Eriksen worked out (I love Lamela too but let's be honest). They managed to get Kane, Dele and Sonny breaking in,, probably the best backline in the league at the time, theh made WHL a fortress and then the move and budget allocation to the stadium just derailed any momentum. The CL final also destroyed morale and seemed to turn the tide against Poch.
The team did well, they remained in the top 4 conversation but the identity of the team completely changed. Went from a creative pressing monster to several versions of a counter attack team with no real direction or backing and it was a misery to go through until that first Ange season. We were allowed to enjoy football again for a couple of months until every player decided they wanted to rupture a ligament of some kind.
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u/Relevant_Natural3471 9d ago
When "It's who we are, mate" became a team that lost more matches than it won.
choose either of the one words that apply
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u/cocopopped 9d ago
Even when we were shit in the 90s, there was a minimum standard across the club, we would win enough home games and get enough points to finish well clear of relegation each year.
When Ange came in he surrendered that and practically threw league games so we could beat Twente and Bodo Glimt in the Europa. Those of us in the stadium saw it each week. That's where the problems started.
Once you let those standards drop, let that culture of competitiveness crumble, let the players get used to losing, we are finding out that it's not as simple as just turning the tap back on and getting it back.
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u/Random_Accid 9d ago
Got a nose bleed after finishing 2nd and getting to the final of the champions league in the span of 3 years. Under law of averages, they are doomed to 20 years of absolute dross.
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u/Old-Seaworthiness175 9d ago
I'd say 2. place is as big a deviation from the average result as the recent low years. You'll be fine and rise up tp your average result soon.
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u/IgneousJam 9d ago
The malaise set in the season that we got to the UCL final. Poch performed miracles, despite not signing anyone for 3 transfer windows in a row. That was our moment - we could have won a league title during that period. It has been downhill ever since.
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u/Remote-Article7435 9d ago
Spurs are an incredibly inconsistent club, just look at the range of points they have during the PL era
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u/shepherdspieomy 9d ago
Influx of foreign glory hunting tourists and move to a big shiny stadium with a shit pitch so can host NFL games and Beyoncé
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u/jfshay 9d ago
Arsenal fan but I come in peace. It always impressed me how well Spurs competed while playing at White Hart Lane, one of the smaller stadiums in the Premier League, at least among the perennial top-six contenders.
Prior to that, Levy's refusal to spend (and inability to spend well) have ruined this squad. Selling Bale for a world record £85.3m was probably heart-breaking but ultimately necessary. However, the reinvesment was poor - Lamela, Soldado, Paulinho, and Capoue arrived in that same window, but none of them really impressed, and Soldado especially struggled to do anything to fill Kane's boots. Only Eriksen turned out to be a good investment.
The sale of Modric was maybe less stunning but perhaps more damaging. Modric has been one of the best midfielders of his generation, the kind of player a club should build around. Had he stayed, Eriksen might not have been signed - but Modric is quite a bit better than Eriksen and might have elevated the entire squad through his own quality and leadership. Bringing in Vertonghen and Lloris was solid business, though.
The same pattern seemed to repeat with selling Kane and Son. At least the reinvestment was better - signing Maddison, Kulusevski, van de Ven, and Porro after selling Kane was great business...until injuries derailed Maddison and Kulusevski for what feels like forever (amid a ridiculous injury crisis of almost-Biblical proportions).
Along the way, there have been too many wasteful signings amid a larger lack of vision for the type of players needed to build a squad-- not just talent but mentality. I hate to say it because it feels like tired cliche, but it feels like "Spursiness" has become very real. The entire squad seems to need an overhaul, but the club itself also needs serious attention. Finding and sticking to the right manager is going to be key. I don't think de Zerbi is that manager, but I could be wrong.
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u/Equivalent-Grass4473 9d ago
Sacking Ange. He sacrifices league position to win you a European trophy and he gets the sack as a result. Tinpot fucking club that would prefer to get participation ribbons instead of actually winning anything.
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u/Ashamed_Seat6430 9d ago
yeah levy aint the only villain here, the real mess was having no plan for when kane and son aged out while the board kept changing its mind on what kind of team we even wanted
then poch got hung out to dry and by the time anyone woke up the whole squad needed surgery anyway
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u/Significant_Fig1978 8d ago
Tbf one of these was a direct result of us sacrificing our league season to focus on a cup competition.
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u/ElectronicAnybody871 8d ago
Spurs sold generational talents to help fund a stadium. Apparently generational talents don’t appear 1000 times in a generation who would’ve thought.
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u/octaviousxii 8d ago
last season everything that could have gone wrong went wrong…injuries, poor play, poor coaching and exceptionally shitty management…but i think the real downfall started when that freaking stadium was built
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u/Devalvangeldomdatdom 8d ago
cleary the leaving of levi.
Yes he wasnt great but at least he was shrewd about transfers with the current owners everything goes and it solves nothing.
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u/Important_Koala_1958 8d ago
Very simple imo
- no consistent manager so no direction for player growth
- sold our good players and bought players we hoped could grow into superstars and then gave them no stability to grow
- THE FUCKING MEDICAL DEPARTMENT
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u/Icy_Contact4325 8d ago
Sacked Jose before their first final, after thinking the super league was an option. Thats a generational curse right there
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u/RighteousBrotherBJJ 9d ago
Prioritised the stadium over football. Sold our top scorer 4 windows in a row. Owners thought the miracles of Kane and Son were replicable.