Elements of Sir Alex Ferguson in Pochettino
Becoming a successful club doesn't happen by accident, it has to be planned before it can be implemented with tweaks and adjustments, or complete shifts along the way.
Becoming a successful football team is no different that creating a successful business, indeed you can't have a successful team without a successful business side to any club, one will simply kill the other, ask Leeds United, ask Portsmouth, ask Liverpool, even Manchester United. Sir Alex Ferguson had to build success there from the ground up much in the same way as Pochettino is attempting to do at Tottenham.
Sir Alex had to build Manchester United both on and off the field, he had to change a culture, instil a mentality, devise a system, build a squad. The club was a mess when he took over, he didn't build success by simply going out and spending money, that came after he had built the foundations. he had to create success before he could go out and spend to maintain success.
As we have seen it is easy to throw away money if every aspect of the club off the field is not performing as it should. Our scouting and player assessment simply wasn't good enough, for instance, we wasted the Bale windfall.
You have to create an environment for success before success will arrive while you still have money mercenaries and bad apples they are pulling a club away from success, thankfully we have had arguably the best purge of players in recent times. We have replaced them with a squad who gel, a young hungry squad eager for success, much the same as Sir Alex did at Manchester United when he got rid of 9 players.
"People who work together will win, whether it be against complex football defenses, or the problems of modern society."– Vince Lombardi
For those of you unaware of who Vince Lombardi is here is a link to his Wikipedia page, in short he is a winner, both on and off the field in sport and in business.
Of course, it is important to have the right personnel in any organisation or football team, but with financial constraints it is even more important to have the right structure in place for them to improve and fulfil their potential. You can look at several Spurs players and raise questions, the high profile being Mousa Dembele and Erik Lamela.
Has either fulfilled their potential? No. They are both quality players, both have a great amount of skill, but are they the best they can be? No. Both have shown the seeds of improvement this season, both have demonstrated the right mental approach and a part of that will be because they are in a happy atmosphere where improvement is expected, not hoped for.
To build the foundations of a side we have to accept that some players will leave, that some player we will develop and before we can benefit from their impact they will seek pastures new. Players come player go it is a fact of life in football, crying over spilt milk achieves nothing.
We are not suddenly just going to have a winning team. Success is determined by the personnel within an organisation. To begin we have to use players to take us as far as they have the capability to do and while they are doing that add to the quality as we climb higher.
The top players are not going to come to Tottenham yet, there is nothing here for them except the project we are embarked upon. The Premier League is simply too competitive, there are easier options in Spain, Italy and Germany for players to have a chance of winning something or to qualify for the UEFA Champions League. We have to build the club first to attract them and we have to do that without them and against them. We have to be better than we should be through teamwork and through improving the players we have beyond expectations.
The three key people at Tottenham are Daniel Levy, Mauricio Pochettino and Higo Lloris. They are the influencers within the club, they are the ones who shape the personality and character of the staff and players around them. They are the ones who show others the path. In Mauricio Pochettino we have a head coach who is building a club, not just a team. It feels like we have the right head coach in place now where it didn't before. He has already begun the change in mentality within the club and especially within his immediate circle, the players.
Success is a culture built over time, the off the field staff have to have an 'excellence' approach otherwise it won't matter what happens on the field, it will all fall apart. Our next appointment needs to be the right one, it is arguable whether we have had a successful Director of Football yet.
"The way a team plays as a whole determines its success. You may have the greatest bunch of individual stars in the world, but if they don't play together, the club won't be worth a dime.” – Babe Ruth
Babe Ruth is arguably the most famous baseball player ever and the point he makes is that everyone has to buy into what is being asked if they don't it is impossible to win. Teamwork and team spirit is everything, bad eggs have to be removed. You will only get buy-in if you are genuine and know your stuff. Pochettino has very clearly been working with players who buy-in to what he is doing if they don't they will inhibit success.
The building is clear to see, it's following a standard pattern, the same pattern Sir Alex Ferguson used.
Further Tottenham Reading
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