Premier League Preview: Pochettino needs time to make impatient Spurs tick

Tottenham Hotspur’s desire to reach the promised land of the Champions League has been in the works for several years now, and while they have come mightily close on multiple occasions, their lack of stability has seen them break down when it matters most.

In fact, it was under Harry Redknapp, who took Spurs from strength to strength, that they actually made it into the Premier League’s top four during the 2011-12 season. Spurs finished fourth following their 2-0 win over Fulham. Ordinarily, that would’ve been enough, but sixth-placed Chelsea lifted the Champions League trophy in Munich, thereby booking themselves a place in next season’s group stage at the expense of Tottenham.

Since then, Spurs have invested vast amounts of money in to better their squad as they attempt to return to the English top four.

The Gareth Bale (after) effect

It was the talented Welshman who’d been the player that Spurs relied on to get them out of tricky situations and Spurs at times looked ordinary without him. To make themselves less dependent on one player following his blockbuster £85 million move to Real Madrid, Tottenham acted quickly in the transfer market, signing a raft of talented players among whom to distribute Bale’s responsibilities.

In came midfielders Erik Lamela, Paulinho, Etienne Capoue and Christian Eriksen, defender Vlad Chiriches, winger Nacer Chadli and striker Roberto Soldado to add to a squad for incoming boss Andre Villas-Boas to work with.

Unfortunately, this new influx of creative talent had to be integrated in a very short space of time, which meant Tottenham’s team chemistry had to be created on the fly and the new signings failed to play as a cohesive unit.

Results took a turn for the worse and Villas-Boas was sacked in December and replaced by first-team coach and club legend Tim Sherwood. His arrival saw an immediate improvement in results but soon went back to the way they were as Spurs stagnated just outside the Champions League berths for much of the second half of the season. Sherwood was eventually let go once their campaign ended.

Positives

Although Spurs’ season promised much but delivered little, they were only 10 points away from fourth place. They won 21 of their 38 games and while they did lose 11 of their matches, they would know that several of the ‘what-if’ moments that Spurs went through last season would’ve resulted in victory if they had a team that was working cohesively.

All Spurs need in order to get that cohesion is bring in a manager that can enable this team to play to their strengths and sign a world-class striker that is able to feed off the creative talents of players such as Eriksen, Lamela and Moussa Dembele.

Season preparations

Spurs have already installed Mauricio Pochettino as their new manager after his excellent work with Southampton and he has already begun moulding the team in his image. The Argentine’s signings clearly show his intentions of staying at White Hart Lane for the long-term.

He’s signed Sporting Lisbon’s centre-back Eric Dier (21) for just £4 million, a bargain price for a player who is slated to achieve great things in the future and further defensive reinforcements have come in the form of the Swansea duo of left-back Ben Davies, also 21 and Michel Vorm, arguably one of the Welsh club’s standout performers during his time in England and he is sure to push Hugo Lloris for that number one spot.

That being said, while he’s bringing in quality, he’s also trying to jettison those he thinks are not good enough to play at White Hart Lane. Pochettino has been quite public about his attempts to sell players such as Michael Dawson, Younes Kaboul and Kyle Naughton.

Pochettino is trying to build a core of young, quality players around whom he can construct a team that takes Spurs to the next level. He’s realised the importance of not making wholesale changes at once in order to preserve team chemistry and his changes to the Spurs team will be gradual. Dividends on the field will therefore take time.

Predicted Finish: 6th

Squad:

Goalkeepers: Hugo Lloris, Brad Friedel, Michel Vorm

Defenders: Kyle Walker, Ben Davies, Michael Dawson (c), Younes Kaboul, Jan Vertonghen, Danny Rose, Kyle Naughton, Vlad Chiriches, Eric Dier, Ezekiel Fryers, Benoit Assou-Ekotto, Ryan Fredericks

Midfielders: Sandro Raniere, Paulinho, Etienne Capoue, Nabil Bentaleb, Moussa Dembele, Erik Lamela, Christian Eriksen, Lewis Holtby, Ryan Mason, Cristian Ceballos, Aaron Lennon, Andros Townsend, Nacer Chadli, Tom Carroll

Strikers: Emmanuel Adebayor, Roberto Soldado, Jonathan Obika, Harry Kane

Transfers:

In: Michel Vorm, Ben Davies (both Swansea City), Eric Dier (Sporting Clube de Portugal)

Out: Heurelho Gomes (Watford), Laurence Vigouroux, Kevin Stewart (both Liverpool), Jake Livermore (Hull City AFC), Darren McQueen (Ipswich Town), Gylfi Sigurdsson (Swansea City), Iago Falque (Genoa CFC), Grant Hall (Birmingham City, loan), Alex Pritchard (Brentford AFC, loan), Kenneth McEvoy (Peterborough United, loan), Shaquille Coulthurst (Southend United, loan), Jordan Archer (Northampton Town, loan), Cameron Lancaster, Jonathan Miles, Roman Michael-Percil, Giancarlo Galllifuoco, Laste Dombaxe, Liam Priestley, Kane Vincent-Young (all released)