Thread by @BainsXIII

Not seen this has been discussed as a factor in how down #THFC feel as an institution and fan base: the entire Club was (inarguably) consistently upwardly mobile and improving from 2005-2019, but having finished second and reached a Champions League final room to grow is minimal.

If anything, that came sooner than anticipated and accelerated expectation…but every decision since has been terrible. Pochettino sacking a seismic disaster and three terrible coaching appointments since. Club had a direction for 14 years and now doesn’t. ‘Win stuff’ is vague.

During that 14 year run of growth fan sentiment was a net positive because there was progress. There was more room for progress. Room for progress is much less now (the distance to the top much smaller) so each decision more important and each failure more easily frustrating.

Bottom line: #THFC are not a ‘win now’ Club and can’t pretend to be. Strategy and identity has to be more intelligent than that. Size ≠ success, post-Ferguson Man Utd perfect example of that. We can’t spend the most, but we can spend more smartly with singular vision of play.

Ownership and board rightly being scrutinised for decision making now that focus of Club is narrowing. Business decisions: great. Footballing decisions: terrible. It’s clear what needs to change. Lack of ideology, vision, strategy and nous has created confusion and uncertainty.

Player trading and spending hasn’t even been disastrous, but without an overarching vision there’s no point to it. To use Pochettino’s house analogy: Club has loads of furniture that might not work together. Nice individual pieces, no overall interior design being satisfied.

This isn’t a new point, but is now one I agree with: Levy/ENIC should continue running and growing the business. They should divorce themselves from the football and allow someone to implement a strategy and ethos that will breed consistent winning football in the long term.

Squad, style and outlook shouldn’t change with each coach, which will change more regularly given the modern game. That’s the sign of a poor Club lacking identity. Tottenham don’t have the funds to outspend idiocy - the longer they fail to learn and accept that the worse we get.

Final points: Club is still miles ahead of where it used to be and the situation isn’t without hope. Board just have to be honest with themselves and, to a point, swallow pride. It serves them well to do so, because the better they play on the pitch the more money they make too.

Also: complete waste of time comparing Tottenham with other Clubs, real false equivalency. No other side in England have grown from regular bottom half team to Champions League regular. Plenty have failed trying. These growing pains are unique and should be discussed as such.

TLDR: Club has got to a position where failure to seal the deal no longer has the safety net of being side focussed on overall growth. Not rich enough to be dumb. Not smart enough to be cheap. Not successful enough to afford to not win. Platform is built, now time to use it #COYS