Tottenham: How victory against Red Star proved it’s time for Mauricio Pochettino to cut loose Spurs’ deadwood
Christian Eriksen, Toby Alderweireld and Danny Rose were all left out as the club secured their first victory in almost a month
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Your support makes all the difference.You’d wonder, when Mauricio Pochettino sought out Sir Alex Ferguson for that famous meeting between the two back in 2016, whether the Manchester United great gave him that key piece of advice he once gave to Dave Brailsford.
The story goes that the Team Sky supremo sat beside Ferguson at a dinner and asked him for his “secret to constant success and longevity”.
In response to such wordiness, Ferguson was gloriously blunt. “Get rid of the c***s.”
If he did say it to Pochettino, it has surely been on the Argentine’s mind a lot over the past few months.
It should be clarified that, before anyone thinks a publication like The Independent is describing anyone as a “c**t”, this is entirely in the context of Ferguson’s use of the word. That effectively means “anyone that is causing you problems”. And that applied to everyone from players he previously adored like Roy Keane, to those he instantly had an issue with. It was essentially anyone sapping from the team’s focus, and his authority.
Which brings us to Spurs, and far greater themes than the line-up for one easy win against a side as poor as Red Star Belgrade. One of the undercurrents of their season, and something that Pochettino has often overly discussed has been the issue of “full commitment”.
That has raised questions over those who want out but can’t yet leave, and those who Spurs want out but can’t yet sell. And it makes it all the more conspicuous that this win - no matter how easy - came when Pochettino left out players from both camps.
Christian Eriksen and Toby Alderweireld are both next year out of contract, so the former was left out of the team and the latter left out of the squad, along with Danny Rose, who the club have long wanted to move on.
And, whether it’s connected or not, it did see Spurs finally move their season on. They got their first victory in almost a month, with the team that ended this 5-0 thrashing looking young… and fresh. That is what is really relevant here.
One of the key arguments in Spurs’ entire season has been whether this core of players are just mentally exhausted by Pochettino’s approach; whether it’s all gone “stale”.
Some sources have even maintained that it’s just got to that point where it’s “lost”, where that crucial chemistry between the team and the managers has evaporated. They say it is not that it reflects badly on anyone, or that it is anyone’s fault, it’s just one of those natural football forces. It was similarly something else Ferguson regularly brought up, warning that the most you could achieve with any core group of players was a four-year cycle.
The truism in such situations is that you can’t wholesale change the squad, no matter how much you want, so are left with no choice but to change the manager. Spurs, however, don’t necessarily need that to be true. This is where holding their nerve may be more valuable than ever, even if it requires patience.
Pochettino, after all, is still one of the finest managers in Europe. One spell of form doesn’t change that. His ideas remain as modern as ever, his personality remains as sharp as ever. That alone is one big reason to keep him, although there is another.
There is the fact that, as difficult as it has been for Pochettino to undertake the overhaul he has wanted over the last two years, it is very quickly going to get much easier. Three absolutely core players in Eriksen, Aldrweireld and Jan Vertonghen see their contract expire next year alone. If you’re definitely going to see that extent of change, why also change the manager.
There is a strong argument Daniel Levy should not panic here. It’s not like he needs to be told that, even if it does seem he needs to realise there is a value in just getting rid of a player beyond your price being met. Some of Pochettino’s overhaul would have already been done had Levy shown a touch more flex there. Ferguson was similarly ruthless in this regard. And that’s why the line-up against Red Star might be more important than the badly-needed win.
Was this a first step to definitively changing the dynamic of the team; to taking that hard short-term step for the greater long-term good?
The XI against Liverpool will tell us a lot more, not least as to whether Ferguson told Pochettino that story.
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