Learning from Winston Churchill

Verified Winston Churchill Quotes

1.  Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.
2.  Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference.
3.  To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often.
4.  A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.
5.  Never, never, never give up.
6.  Every day you may make progress. Every step may be fruitful. Yet there will stretch out before you an ever-lengthening, ever-ascending, ever-improving path. You know you will never get to the end of the journey. But this, so far from discouraging, only adds to the joy and glory of the climb.
7.  If we open a quarrel between the past and the present, we shall find that we have lost the future.
8.  To build may have to be the slow and laborious task of years. To destroy can be the thoughtless act of a single day.
9.  For myself I am an optimist - it does not seem to be much use being anything else.

No success has ever been achieved without first experiencing failure while a negative attitude will never win anything. When players and fans grasp that we'll improve so selling the players who don't grasp that improves the squad as a whole as you taking out the mentally weak elements. You need to replace them with talented players who are mentally strong and mentally positive.

We can learn about players by listening to what they say and not by just accepting whatever spin suits a particular journalists paper. Listen for the message behind his words, is it negative, is it positive. Do that over time and it will help you build a picture. Kevin Wimmer, for instance, seems to have a positive outlook, he is all about excitement, can't wait to start, enjoying being here and so on. He is saying the right things and has to then back that up with performances, you still need the talent to go with the right approach.

Can Érik Lamela turn it around, can he develop the attitude we need him to have if he is to fulfil his potential? He has had adversity, success comes with how you deal with adversity, whether it spurs you on to improve or go into your shell and hide.

If I were to go through our squad I'd say Andros Townsend has the mental basis to build on but doesn't use it in the way he should and a sports psychologist needs to find out what truly motivated Mousa Dembélé to unlock his full talent. Roberto Soldado could certainly benefit from some sessions to build his confidence during games when the pressure is off in training he bangs them in but when he steps into the pressure cooker he wilts. Townsend, Lamela, Dembélé and Soldado are the four for me who need mental work.

Vlad Chiriches I expect to leave along with Emmanuel Adebayor and Aaron Lennon so I haven't included them and I haven't seen enough of Tom Carroll in a Spurs shirt to draw any conclusions. The rest at this stage appear to have the right positive approach, although that is not to say they wouldn't benefit from some specialist help.

The recruitment so far appears to have addressed the mentality issue we have tripped over again and again. That has to continue with the remaining signings, now is not the time to undo the hard work by bringing in another Adebayor. Mario Suarez is still on the radar for defensive midfield and Diego Simeone appears to want players with the right attitude as well so one would hope Suarez has it. Fernando Llorente certainly displays it at Juventus with the help he gives others so he would be a welcome addition as well.

Who will we get, time will tell, but the recruitment thus far tell me they will be the right sort when we do get them.

Further Tottenham Reading
Former gold pros explained what Spurs need
Is Scudamore inciting violence?
New stadium to help Spurs game

---