Paulo Fonseca

[KaKa]

 

It's so unfortunate we are so fearful thanks to the position Bruce has left us in, because it might ultimately mean we do play it safer and really miss out on the opportunity to do something far more interesting, whether that be with Fonseca or someone similar.

 

I just don't understand why so many would take Bielsa but then be nervous about someone with similar attacking principles?

 

 

[Wandy]

Just now, Manxst said:

Compared to Bruce, the guy will be a Simeone/Mourinho/Capello hybrid. Bruce didn’t know how to get a team to do ANYthing other than “go play”. If a manager brings ANY tactics, I certainly won’t be complaining. 

 

Me neither.. I just worry that he has no idea how much good coaching has been drilled out of this squad of players. Fulham were a great team to watch last season, very attack-minded and look where it got them. On the flipside I guess we do have the January big spend coming that they didnt.

[Wandy]

2 minutes ago, Tsunami said:

I remember that Man U v Roma game. Man U weren’t great, Roma were an absolute shambles. The thought of a bloke who dressed as Zorro for a press conference doesn’t exactly fill me with confidence that he can get organise our group of players into a difficult side to score against.

It’ll be very interesting to see how he approaches things; gotta say I’m nervous.

 

4 wins in 24 against the top Italian teams too....

[Ikon]

Fulham lacked a goalscorer. 

[thomas]

3 minutes ago, The Prophet said:

Its about evolution though, with the players at his disposal we can't be expecting too much. Staying up this season would be a start.

I think staying up will happen easily once someone half competent is at the helm. 

 

The weird media narrative about maybe needing someone with experience in relegation survival dogfights ignores that it's not really on the players that we are where we are. They're capable of mid table and comfortably avoiding relegation. We've just had an imbecile in charge who rode his luck with the organization of the man he replaced 

[Manxst]

1 minute ago, Wandy said:

 

Me neither.. I just worry that he has no idea how much good coaching has been drilled out of this squad of players. Fulham were a great team to watch last season, very attack-minded and look where it got them. On the flipside I guess we do have the January big spend coming that they didnt.

It’s been stated that he gave the interviewers/consortium ideas on how he would approach our upcoming games. That alone suggests that he’s done his homework on the squad and players pros/cons. If good coaching has been drilled out of them, it can damn we’ll be drilled back as well. Let’s take whoever comes in, and treat it as a positive no matter who it is and what their ideas are. 

[Wandy]

Just now, Manxst said:

It’s been stated that he gave the interviewers/consortium ideas on how he would approach our upcoming games. That alone suggests that he’s done his homework on the squad and players pros/cons. If good coaching has been drilled out of them, it can damn we’ll be drilled back as well. Let’s take whoever comes in, and treat it as a positive no matter who it is and what their ideas are. 

 

He has got to hit the ground running though. We won't have the time to adapt his philosophy with this squad. I hope the owners are making it clear to him just how mediocre this bunch are, and the job that he's going to have in front of him.

[Ikon]

Also, Roma didn't even have a top 6 team on paper when he was there. Plus lots of other stuff going on off the pitch. 

[KaKa]

It's all so terribly ironic that just this evening Mourinho's Roma have received a 6-1 beating from a team called Bodo Glimt.

 

 

Edited October 21, 2021 by KaKa

[Tsunami]

We’re a team that is used to having around 35% possession even against poor opposition, we’re not drilled in keeping possession or how to manage when we lose possession (we normally boot it away in the hope that it gets to ASM and set up again ready for the next wave). When we do counter attack at the minute if we lose possession with a stray pass our ability to reshape is extremely poor. 
 

Whoever comes in is going to have a long slog if they try and change the current philosophy from the get go. There has to be a pragmatic approach, a step at a time and that has to start with sorting the defence out and how we protect that defence.

[Manxst]

1 minute ago, Wandy said:

 

He has got to hit the ground running though. We won't have the time to adapt his philosophy with this squad. I hope the owners are making it clear to him just how mediocre this bunch are, and the job that he's going to have in front of him.

The stats show us bottom of the league for various (nearly all) things. We’re 19th. The owners have publicly stated they’re worried about relegation. Any manager looking to come in will know all of this, AND have it emphasised to him that we are in danger of relegation at the present time and how important it will be to avoid it. I don’t think there will be any ambiguity or confusion regarding the task ahead. 

[Ikon]

Bruce couldn't coach us to attack or defend. So I'm content with one of the two for the time being. We have some poor players, but also some good ones. The good o es can become better and so can the poor ones too. 

[nbthree3]

Find this incredible 

 

[KaKa]

1 minute ago, Tsunami said:

We’re a team that is used to having around 35% possession even against poor opposition, we’re not drilled in keeping possession or how to manage when we lose possession (we normally boot it away in the hope that it gets to ASM and set up again ready for the next wave). When we do counter attack at the minute if we lose possession with a stray pass our ability to reshape is extremely poor. 
 

Whoever comes in is going to have a long slog if they try and change the current philosophy from the get go. There has to be a pragmatic approach, a step at a time and that has to start with sorting the defence out and how we protect that defence.

 

We're currently a team that completely cedes possession of the ball and sits deep and yet we have not been able to win a game.

 

We desperately need to start using the ball better to take pressure off of our defence. Doesn't mean we're trying to be Man City or Barcelona of old, but we absolutely need to get someone in that can improve that area of our game. It's going to be a big part of us getting better.

 

Against mid table to bottom dwelling teams I would fancy our chances of getting a result with better use of the ball and Wilson, ASM and Willock in the side, who can all take chances.

[Wandy]

If we were mid table and comfortable I'd say this was a dream appointment as the guy seems to tick a lot of boxes. But the next two months could be brutal for us and we are going to need steel, resolve and a "fuck you" attitude to all of these cunts who are going to put an extra shift in to try and relegate us, before we even think about playing stylish football. That's my only concern.

[Optimistic Nut]

10 minutes ago, Wandy said:

 

He has got to hit the ground running though. We won't have the time to adapt his philosophy with this squad. I hope the owners are making it clear to him just how mediocre this bunch are, and the job that he's going to have in front of him.

He’s got 30 games. 

[Chapo]

I’m all in. Let me have your arse babies Fonseca lad. 

[UncleBingo]

I'm in, bring him home.

[Optimistic Nut]

As long as we’re not cut adrift by the end of the January window we’ll be absolutely fine. Excited by this appointment.

[STM]

The sheer beauty of the man will get fans onside. Imagine him strutting down the touchline at SJP, turning the likes of Murphy, Manquillo, Lewis and Longstaff into passable Premier league players because he took the time to coach them.

 

Jeez he might even get some use out of Joelinton.

[joeyt]

He'd clean up in the Bigg Market

[Dr Venkman]

The reports about how much he'll be getting paid strike me as a little odd, not entirely sure who would be interested in leaking that. Hopefully nothing in it.

[Shays Given Tim Flowers]

Can he sign Totti 

[Mike]

1 hour ago, KaKa said:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2021/09/23/paulo-fonseca-interview-spurs-move-torpedoed-desire-defensive/

 

Paulo Fonseca interview: My Spurs move was torpedoed by a desire for defensive football

 

Exclusive: Fonseca outlines how close he was to joining Tottenham until Fabio Paratici was appointed as managing director

 

Paulo Fonseca has revealed he started pre-season plans at Tottenham before his move was torpedoed by managing director Fabio Paratici's demands for more defensive football.

In a wide-ranging interview with Telegraph Sport, Fonseca outlined how close he was to joining Spurs, saying “the agreement was done”, but that the move collapsed due to Paratici wanting a less attack-minded coach.

 

Nuno Espirito Santo was eventually appointed as Jose Mourinho's successor, with the former Wolves head coach having already been subjected to criticism by supporters for a perceived negative style.

 

Fonseca insists his attacking instincts - shaped by his time with Shakhtar Donetsk and AS Roma - would have chimed with Tottenham's motto of 'To Dare Is To Do', but admits his move was doomed as soon as Paratici was appointed. 

 

“The agreement was done. We were planning the pre-season and Tottenham wanted an offensive coach. It wasn’t announced but we planned pre-season players. But things changed when the new managing director arrived and we didn’t agree with some ideas and he preferred another coach,” Fonseca said, speaking from his home in Kiev, Ukraine.

“I have some principles. I wanted to be coach of the great teams but I want the right project and a club where the people believe in my ideas, my way to play, and this didn’t happen with the managing director.

“It’s what the chairman and the sporting director (Steve Hitchen) asked for. To build a team who can play attractive and offensive football and I was ready for that. I cannot be a different way. All my teams will have these intentions. In Rome or Shakhtar in the Champions League against the biggest teams, I’m not sending out my teams to defend near their own box.”

Fonseca, 48, has stuck to his attacking principles from when he started as a coach in the Portuguese lower divisions before working his way up and making his name at Paços Ferreira where he reached the Champions League and gave a debut to a slight 17-year-old called Diogo Jota.

Others who have improved under his guidance included Willy Boly, then Fred when the pair worked together at Shakhtar Donetsk.

By the time Fonseca arrived at Roma, Henrikh Mkhitaryan saw a comparison to Thomas Tuchel, who he worked with at Borussia Dortmund. “He is similar,” Mkhitaryan said of Fonseca, “he tries to put the players in the right position, to give them the freedom to enjoy the way they play.” The improvement of players under Fonseca is underpinned by his attacking football.

“All players want to have the ball,” he said. “They want to dominate. They want to participate. They don’t want to run to recover the ball. They don’t want to run without the ball and defend. The best way to defend is to have the ball.

“We have an obligation with supporters to create a spectacle, a good show. That is the obligation of the coach. I want to win every game but just winning is not enough for me. I have to be offensive and dominate the games and have an offensive midfield and show courage in the game. These are things which will die with me.

“It happened so many times when I got home after winning a game and my wife asked ‘why are you unhappy?’ And it is because I didn’t win the way I wanted to. It is not enough. I have to create a good show for the people who pay the tickets and love football. At least I try. I cannot be a coach in another way.”

 

What is likely to have appealed to Spurs chairman Daniel Levy was Fonseca’s diplomacy at Roma. He worked during a period of uncertainty at the club when the Friedkin Group secured a takeover and he worked without a technical director for a large part of his time in the Italian capital, getting the club to the semi-finals of the Europa League last season.

“It cannot be the coach creating the problems. The coach solves the problems and I believe when you defend the club with your heart, things become easier. It is a question of principles of life. When I am at a club I have to defend them with all my heart and think first about the club and players before myself,” he said.

During the time of the semi-final defeat to Manchester United, Roma had approached Mourinho to take over at the end of the season.

“In some countries maybe it is not normal but it is normal in places like Germany for an announcement six or eight months before when they are working with other clubs. I already knew Tiago Pinto was appointing Jose Mourinho. It was a clear process for me. Jose had a great attitude with me. He called me and spoke and there was no problem,” he said.

When it is suggested to Fonseca that a phone call would have been a chance for Mourinho to recommend the Spurs job, he breaks into laughter. They did not speak about Spurs but it was clear they were suited. Even in that United defeat, they had continued to attack and at 7-4 on aggregate sensed nerves in Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s team. Eventually it ended 8-5.

He has been close to coming to England before. In 2018 he spoke with Everton when they eventually signed Marco Silva. At the time Fonseca had a contract with Shakhtar. West Ham United were also interested.

“I honestly believe this will happen one day and is one of my ambitions to coach in England one day,” he said. “I haven’t done it yet so cannot say my way of coaching is perfect for England. But there is more open teams, teams trying to win, of course more intensity but also space to develop my game.”

 

 

Another really interesting article on Fonseca. Highlighted some key bits in there. This would be really intriguing. Hope we get him over the line.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ok, I'm in. Fuck yes.

[SUPERTOON]