Month: November 2019

Guillem Balague reckons Tottenham could be in “trouble and quickly” if chairman Daniel Levy imposes the “same restrictions” on Jose Mourinho as he did with Mauricio Pochettino.

Former Manchester United and Chelsea boss Mourinho has been named as the new Spurs head coach following the sacking of Pochettino on Tuesday.

Mourinho, who won three Premier League titles with Chelsea, had been out of the game since his reign at United ended in bitter fashion last December.

Pochettino, who had to contend with playing home games at Wembley for 18 months, viewed the run to the Champions League final last season as the end of a chapter and warned of a “painful rebuild” this summer.

However, there were reports that Pochettino was disappointed with the club’s backing in the transfer window and Balague believes that Tottenham can’t afford to make the sense mistakes with Mourinho.

Balague told BBC Radio 5 Live: “The timing is a little strange I think. None of Pochettino’s backroom staff saw this coming even in the early afternoon of yesterday.

“It feels like Daniel Levy and Mauricio Pochettino reached the end of the road.

“Mauricio has been warning for two years that the team needed recycling and he wanted the club to make smarter, faster decision in the transfer market. It was not just about the amount of money being spent but how they were approaching the transfer market.

“I think, with the new stadium, Tottenham needed a name to promote the value of the club and Mourinho is certainly that. But I guarantee you if that Levy puts the same restrictions on Mourinho that Pochettino has there will be trouble. And quickly.”

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Mauricio Pochettino ‘sulked his way to the sack’ at Tottenham this season, according to a report.

It was announced on Tuesday evening that he Argentinian has been relieved of his duties at Spurs after five-and-a-half years in charge and on Wednesday morning the club revealed Jose Mourinho would be the new boss.

Tottenham, who were in the Champions League final only six months ago, have endured a tough start to the season and are currently 14th in the Premier League table.

Pochettino was at the helm for 293 games and delivered four successive top-four Premier League finishes, challenging for the title in 2015/16 and 2016/17.

Pochettino, who had to contend with playing home games at Wembley for 18 months, viewed the run to the Champions League final last season as the end of a chapter and warned of a “painful rebuild” this summer.

However, Spurs, whose transfers are controlled by chairman Daniel Levy, were unable to move out a host of players who either wanted to leave or Pochettino wanted rid of and results suffered.

And The Athletic claims that Spurs players became ‘used to saying’ the words “don’t look at the boss” around the training ground in the weeks leading up to Pochettino’s sacking.

After Pochettino’s departure, a source inside the Spurs dressing room told The Athletic: “It was the only decision that made sense.”

Pochettino ‘resolutely refused to resign’ after a ‘week of talks’ with Levy and the club were left with no choice but to sack him.

 

The report adds that Pochettino ‘wanted to quit’ if Spurs had beaten Liverpool in the Champions League final and his relationship with Levy and the players ‘had been deteriorating all year’.

A source close to the club told The Athletic: “Some managers mentally can’t keep going week-in week-out, they hit a brick wall. It looked before the Champions League final that he wanted to get out. As if his heart wasn’t in it any more.”

The loss of support in the dressing room for the 47-year-old this season was the final straw for Levy after his ‘regret’ at not taking action to move Pochettino on in the summer.

The players had become ‘tired’ of Pochettino’s physical demands in training sessions and matches with a dressing room source telling The Athletic: “The old effect of the double sessions had gone, and it was mentally important to regenerate.

“So the moment of the sacking is a bit surprising, but the fuel tank got empty much earlier. At a certain moment, it is just over.”

Another source added: “Pochettino, who is never particularly warm with his players at the training ground, had become even more stand-offish in recent weeks. It had become a ‘don’t look at the boss’ situation.”

The Athletic continued by saying some players were ‘taken aback’ ahead of one match this season when they were given very little ‘tactical instruction,’ leading to defeat.

And Pochettino’s “different agendas” press conference in the aftermath of their League Cup loss to Colchester United on penalties left some squad members ‘aghast’.

 

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Jose Mourinho has been appointed as Tottenham’s new manager following the sacking of Mauricio Pochettino.

Former Chelsea and Manchester United boss Mourinho has signed a contract until the end of the 2022-23 season.

Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy, announcing Mourinho’s arrival, said: “In Jose we have one of the most successful managers in football.

“He has a wealth of experience, can inspire teams and is a great tactician. He has won honours at every club he has coached.

“We believe he will bring energy and belief to the dressing room.”

Mourinho said: “I am excited to be joining a club with such a great heritage and such passionate supporters.

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“The quality in both the squad and the academy excites me. Working with these players is what has attracted me.”

A Spurs statement read: “Jose is one of the world’s most accomplished managers having won 25 senior trophies.

“He is renowned for his tactical prowess and has managed FC Porto, Inter Milan, Chelsea, Real Madrid and Manchester United.

“He has won a domestic title in a record four different countries (Portugal, England, Italy and Spain) and is one of only three managers to have won the UEFA Champions League twice with two clubs, FC Porto in 2004 and Inter Milan in 2010.

“He is also a three-time Premier League Champion with Chelsea (2005, 2006, 2015).”

The 56-year-old Portuguese won three Premier League titles over two spells in charge of Chelsea and returned to England to manage Manchester United in 2016.

He was sacked last December following a poor run of results and has been out of work since, most recently working as a pundit for Sky Sports.

Pochettino was dismissed after five-and-a-half years in charge, less than six months after he took Spurs to the Champions League final, with the club lying 14th in the Premier League table after the opening 12 matches.

Mourinho, who also managed Porto, Real Madrid and Inter Milan, has turned down a number of opportunities to coach abroad, including with clubs in China, Spain and Portugal, since his Old Trafford exit.

His first match in charge will be the London derby away to West Ham on Saturday.

Tottenham star Harry Winks has been likened by Mauricio Pochettino to Andres Iniesta, but his youth coach sees him more in the mould of Zinedine Zidane.

Comparisons with the now Real Madrid boss are high praise but Russell Small – who coached Winks – made the Tottenham star change position and his aspirations for the 23-year-old have come true.

“When he was a little winger he scored lots of goals, but my idea of playing him in the middle was that he would be more involved and use all his skills much more,” Small told the Daily Mail .

Winks has now become a regular in Tottenham’s midfield and scored his first England goal in Saturday’s 4-0 win in Kosovo.

And the midfielder, who looks a shoo-in for Gareth Southgate’s Euro 2020 squad, has never forgotten the words of wisdom given to him as a youngster.

Small continued: “It made my day to hear him say it’s the best advice he’s been given. If it has stuck in his mind for this long, obviously it was a good decision on my part!

“He took it in his stride. It was already there, that natural ability to read the game and be technically good enough to do what we wanted.

“Mauricio Pochettino has called him ‘Little Iniesta’.

“If there was anyone I would compare him to it would be Zinedine Zidane. The way he could see a pass, short or long, he could go past a player and he scored goals.

“He was average height but very slight. He was physical enough and agile enough to use his skills and keep out the way of stronger players. I can’t remember him having a bad game, he was that consistent at that age. There was nothing you asked him to do that he couldn’t do.”

Winks signed a new five-year deal earlier this year which will keep him at Tottenham until 2024.

 

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Renault has admitted that its new exhaust design is pushing the limits of what’s currently allowed in the sport.

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“It’s no secret there is some benefit from the exhaust flows around the rear wing,” the team’s technical director Bob Bell told Autosport.

“We’ve chosen to push our exhaust up as high as you legally can to try to maximise the benefit.

“It’s a small gain,” he acknowledged. “It’s not where it was four or five years ago with blown diffusers by any means. It’s nowhere near there. But it’s still a useful benefit.

“”Different manufacturers have different solutions to that,” he added.

So far, it certainly seems to be worth the effort. The new R.S.18 has already got the thumbs up from the team’s senior driver Nico Hulkenberg.

• Big margins of improvement in store for Sainz and Renault

“I have more speed, grip, driveability – a little of everything,” he told the Kolner Express newspaper during a break from pre-season testing at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.

“We are fine tuning what we have here and then we will be well prepared for battle,” he said. “I would not call ourselves a secret favourite, but we did our homework and fixed our weaknesses.”

Renault have made it clear that their 2018 objective is to finish in fourth place in the constructors championship, ahead of rivals Force India.

“We have to show that we can safely finish among the top four,” Bell told Auto Motor und Sport. “Only then will the company issue the cheques to further upgrade the team.”

Renault is hoping to have at least one of those upgrades – a new aero package – ready in time for the final day of testing in Spain.

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McLaren is apparently undergoing a review of its technical operations following a disappointing start to its 2018 campaign, and CTO Tim Goss is the first victim of the changes according to BBC Sport.

While McLaren is currently positioned fourth in the Constructor’s standings, or ‘best of the rest’ behind F1’s leading trio, the Woking-based outfit’s performance has fallen short of expectations.

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McLaren racing director Eric Boullier recently revealed that the team’s design approach to its 2018 MCL33 had perhaps been too conservative.

McLaren needs to revise its ambitions – Boullier

While the Renault-powered car appears well-balanced overall, its excess amount of drag invariably leaves at the tail end of the field in terms of straight-line speed.

A McLaren spokesman has declined to comment on Goss’ fate, but did reveal that the team is “undergoing a review of its technical operations as part of its programme to return the team to success”.

“This is a proactive, ongoing process that addresses a broad range of factors across the organisation,” he added.

“More details will be given in due course. Until that time there will be no further comment.”

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Lance Stroll delivered a critical view of his race weekend in Australia, but also cast doubts over the level of performance of Williams’ FW41.

From the outset on Sunday, the Canadian was on the back foot, losing a spot at the start before finding himself struggling for pace all afternoon.

Fighting for P13 was the best Stroll could hope for, but ultimately it was also a battle he lost to Sauber’s Charles Leclerc.

Flying sandwich bag likely wiped out Sirotkin’s race!

“We were in the wrong mode on the first lap and that is the reason Ocon got me,” Stroll said.

“We also have none of the extra power we need for the safety car restart which is where I lost the place to Leclerc.

“We are just basically trying to get the car to the end of the race instead of racing. There was a lot going on today with big issues that cost us a lot of race time.”

The frustrated 19-year-old has yet to understand his new FW41 mount, a car which he feels is currently a handful, and which could remain that way until a major upgrade is introduced in Spain.

“You cannot perform with this car, it’s as simple as that,” a despondent Stroll told Le Journal de Montreal newspaper.

“The team made a mistake during practice on Friday and I had to stop the car. We lost precious time. And on Sunday, nothing worked well. Quite the contrary.”

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The scale of the majority surprised everyone I have spoken to here in Athens as it bust the polls. Its definite, unarguable nature is a relief. This was no close-run majority that the other side could claim is illegitimate. Nor was it a mere party vote as many more supported NO than have backed Syriza.

The spine of the NO vote was the young, not pensioners. This is very important as the young are the most naturally pro-European, the most fluent in foreign languages, the most travelled, of the Greeks. If European leaders want the new generation to believe in them this is a huge wake up alert; an expression of generational sentiment that crosses the continent and is not confined to dependents or pensioners of a small state. Europe’s precariat has said NO.

Why did the Greeks do it? I was surprised by the taxi driver who took me into Athens from the Airport yesterday evening. He is not doing badly, tourists provide business, he is paid in cash (I got an electronic receipt). He found the decision difficult, “My head said YES, my heart said NO”. How did he finally vote, I asked. “I went with my heart”. Why? Because, he said, he wanted Greece to pay its debts but he wanted to know for how long, for ten years, for twenty, for a hundred even but he wanted to know when it would end. His English was faltering, he did not speak of debt restructuring, but he had got the point that the now no longer Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis made so clearly (see my article) that a sustainable – a believable – way out of the crisis had to be found.

Courage. This is what I felt most of all. What the European elite see as foolhardiness and the anti-Europeans see as a desire to leave the Euro, is a simple but intelligent judgement: to stand up and pay whatever the price.