And a lazy argument. The two clubs had vastly different resources. Poch has a track record for improving young players - something we are desparately in need of right now.
I have a quick argument:
Van Gaal and Mourinho BOTH have a long history of improving existing resources in their club, so this argument is flat. Also, Tottenham is not a broke club, they have a net spend of £67m in 2019 and ALSO tried to do the Dybala deal at £60-70m~. Yes they are not us or Manchester City, but they do have funds to buy talent and players.
But my grief with the Pochettino love is this:
Both LvG and Jose Mourinho have vastly better track records as managers for their respective clubs. Jose Mourinho has won trophies everywhere he went. LvG developed Thomas Müller at Bayern when they had a struggling season opener just to name one example. Jose Mourinho is the one that brought in Mikel Obi, Mario Balotelli, Jesé, Alvaro Morata, Nacho, Fabinho, Diego Llorente, Varane, Traoré, Ruben Loftus-Cheek to name just a handful. To say that any of these managers don't improve young players is just factually incorrect and does a disservice to the discussion if it's not brought up when its pointed out in favor of Pochettino.
I mean, our current manager does have a track record of improving young players as well. Literally. OGS worked with Ben Foster, Rafael, Mame Biram Diouf, Gabriel Obertan and Paul Pogba at the Reserves during his first coaching spell at the club. Most noteably recently he's had his part in helping develop Erling Braut Haaland in Molde.
And super recent history: Mason Greenwood, Brandon Williams, Angel Gomes (injured), Tuanzebe and Daniel James who's all had fantastic impacts the many or few times they've played. Remember Daniel James was a signing no one or very few thought would have an impact, and he's been one of our more noticeable players all season. Brandon Williams has been man of the match BOTH times he's played. Saying that OGS is not developing the youngsters is just such an unfathomable lie I don't even know where to begin. We routinely play the youngest team in any given EPL round, but we don't have focus on youngsters?
We let in fewer goals than last season. In fact we have one of the best defenses in the league this season.
Pochettino more than almost any manager, struggles hard against top6 opposition. This table from the BBC underlines this:
https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/onesport/cps/624/cpsprodpb/136A5/production/_109752597_big_six.png - His great track record comes from stability against "lesser" opposition. And to be completely fair, he DOES deserve credit and accolades for that. He is not by any metric a bad manager. But he has completely lost the team. Something is rotten at Tottenham, and he is the leader. Or was. Tottenham has lost 18 games in 2019. That is more than anyone else. Tottenham is literally the team that loses the most in Britain in this year.
So what's the takeaway here? Do you blame the players because they aren't motivated? Or do you do what the caf does to our own team and blame the manager for every single thing that goes wrong? Like, I don't understand the double standard here.
Pochettino inherited a squad that included Hugo Lloris, Kyle Walker, Danny Rose, Jan Vertonghen, Christian Eriksen, Mousa Dembele and Harry Kane. Harry Kane has been a MONSTER over the last few seasons. Pochettinos team would be nowhere near the top6 if Harry had not been there. Harry Kane scored 169 league goals under Pochettino. Second on that list? Son - with 75. Kane is so far and above anyone that if you remove him from the equation, Tottenham is Bornemouth.
So why not Poch? Well. He's not won anything. Ever. Yes he has taken his team to the Champions Leauge. But we just employed managers who have done that routinely. Managers who won trophies and developed young players into superstars in their respective club. Tottenham has a much better squad on paper than MUFC does right now, I'll happily admit that. Especially with their recent transfer window. But fact remains that the 3 players we bought ourselves have all been fantastic. It'd be silly not to consider letting the current mangager work another window, and another.
After Martial returned, our form has quite frankly vastly improved. We're scoring goals again. And enough with this bullsh*t about beating the great "bla bla club". Norwich battered Manchester City, Brighton beat Tottenham 3-0, Chelsea lost to Liverpool, Liverpool were lucky to walk away with a point at Old Trafford (we beat Chelsea 4-0). Fact of the matter remains that we've had a comfortable time with the top6 sides under the current manager. Right now I'm quite happy to continue on the current path for a few select reasons.
1) I absolutely HATE discontinuity - It's the worst thing in the world. Discontinuity breeds insecurity and unrest. For a club like Manchester United, who enjoyed 26 managers for it's 127 year long history. Sir Alex led the club 27 years. Imagine that, we have fans that at the point of his retirement had grown into adults and never known any other manager at the club. That is why there is a statue of the man outside Old Trafford. The sheer example of the kind of tenacity Alex Ferguson put into the club is what we should strive for. It's part of this clubs entire goddamn identity. We do not change managers like other Chelsea fire their's every other Sunday.
We are in the middle of a identity rebuild. The board, the staff, everyone acknowledges that what we have done the past 7 years has not worked. So we are trying something else, to rebuild a new Class of 92. Of course it won't ever be like that, but the principle is there. We make superstars. The process takes time, sorry to say but that's the reality of the situation. Like Ed Woodward said: "We will not be distracted by short term setbacks". What matters is the progress. I am MORE than happy to write off this season if it means the kids are ready to compete next season. More than happy to.
2) Hiring a manager who was JUST fired from a rival team who we have a better record than.. what type of ambition is that? Or better yet, what kind of signal does that send to the world? Tottenham has a win percentage of 37% in all competitions in 2019. I'm sorry, but no top6 team in England is going to hire him until he proves himself again. MUFC have invested heavily into OGS and will continue to do so as long as there is improvement. And improvement there is.
3) OGS has for all his hatred from fans who don't have patience, the 4th best win% of any MUFC manager, behind Sir Alex, Mourinho, and the great Ernest Mangnall, edging out Van Gaal. And obviously a much better record than Poch in 2019. A full year almost.
4) Player management. OGS's player management is from all that we currently know EXCELLENT. Even Lukaku who left the club on bad terms recently in an interview said that "Solskjær had his eternal respect for allowing him to go". Reports from the training ground about players being unhappy about the training stems from a comment from one of the Spaniards who didn't like all the running to prepare them for the season. This was said during preseason, nothing after. Rumblings from Tottenham mention that both Jan Vertonghen and Toby Alderweireld are unhappy with the mangers treatment. Christian Eriksen is relegated to the bench after refusing to sign a new contract. Who knows what actually goes on behind the scenes,but I'm fairly sure that a 27 year old Eriksen is not happy about being benched, contributing to his impressive loss of form. On top of that several media outlets have mentioned player discontent with the managers negativity in the media. (If anyone wonders why OGS is so positive all the time, this is why, as if the obvious needed saying).
5) We are seeing player improvement across the board. Marcus Rashford was relied upon to be our guy this season. His career best scoring is 13 on the season in ALL competitions before this season. He currently sits at 9, less than 1/3 into the season. Mason Greenwood just turned 18 and is due his first EPL goal. He's scored in Europe and shown that he's good enough to play first team games with the club. Brandon Williams is our new Leftback, i've seen enough to be convinced he can be that guy. Angel Gomes is a crazy exciting player, James Garner keeps getting involvements, AWB is a developing player, same with Daniel James who's had an immediate impact in the Premier League. Even Fred has shown glimpses of greatness recently, can he sustain it? Tuanzebe looks to edge out Lindelöf soon. We got so many crazy exciting EPL ready and progressing players.
Fact of the matter is that we are in a process that is in its infancy. The board has no reason to interrupt it, the players have not shown any indication that they want to interrupt it, and quite frankly why do we want to bring in a manager who has never won anything, who was just fired from his club for completely losing the team, in the first place? We might as well hire Jose Mourinho again then, he's a better manager than Pochettino is in every aspect of the game.
