Tottenham Hotspur: Creating Mauricio Pochettino's 2015 Summer Blueprint
If the first season of Mauricio Pochettino's tenure at Tottenham Hotspur has been periodically entertaining and successful, the intention for the sophomore showing is for it to be more cohesively satisfying from start to finish.
Attempts to get to that point will begin in earnest in the summer, the planning of which will be among the more important work the head coach will do during his time at the north London club. It is Pochettino's opportunity to set his team up to prove Tottenham's best performances in 2014-15 were not just occasional highs but signs of greater things to come.
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The exact specifics of any planning or blueprint for next season cannot be confirmed before Sunday's away game at Everton. A final day that, as confirmed on the Premier League's official website, has several permutations in regard to how entry into the Europa League might affect Spurs' preparations for next season.
Should Spurs remain in sixth place, they will enter in the third qualifying round of the competition next season. With the first leg scheduled for July 30, that would require Tottenham to change their current plans to play in the Major League Soccer All-Star game a day earlier.
If they finish sixth and Arsenal beat Aston Villa in the FA Cup final, Spurs would start next season's Europa League in the group stage. That is also the case if they move above Liverpool into fifth. Drop to seventh, and should the Gunners win the FA Cup, their participation would begin in the third qualifying round.
The MLS All-Star game, as well as the upcoming post-season fixtures in Australia and Malaysia, is Pochettino's concession to Tottenham's commercial concerns. Otherwise, football is the priority.
"It's important because we're trying to avoid going on tour during preseason," he confirmed in March, per ESPN FC. "It's never proper for the team at the beginning of the season to go to Asia or America. ... It is better to spend time doing commercial business at the end of the season."
Should they qualify, an earlier start to the Europa League would mean a potentially busier August, with four matches to be negotiated in order to reach the group stage—the 2015-16 Premier League season begins the weekend of August 8.
Ultimately, if embraced in a positive fashion, these fixtures could serve the same function as an extra couple of pre-season fixtures—a chance to test the team's early form and make tweaks in a more challenging but not too demanding environment, barring a rotten draw in the playoff round.
On Sky Sports' Goals on Sunday, retiring Tottenham goalkeeper Brad Friedel described the progress thus far under Pochettino as "excellent."
"There's a lot of things behind the scenes that he's doing and has done and needed to do so that the players and the club in itself can get the style of football to how he wants it," Friedel said as part of a fascinating insight to the club under the Argentinian's management.
That style at it's best—think the home wins over Southampton, Chelsea and Arsenal—is relentless, aggressive and facilitated by quick movement of the ball. Ideally, Pochettino would have all available time with his squad this summer to work on his next steps for this taking hold. The reality is he will make of it what he can.
In his all-access account of Spurs' 1971-72 season, The Glory Game, Hunter Davies wrote of the importance of pre-season ahead of a year "that till Christmas at least they would be playing almost every Wednesday, in one sort of Cup tournament or another, League matches every Sunday." Change the dates, days and certain terminology, and you have general demands on time that remain the same. Davies went on:
"Once such a season begins, and such a season is now normal for any top team in the English First Division, there is rarely any time for tactical training. If, for example, a set-piece is going wrong, they seldom have a chance to go back to square one and correct it. It has to be dropped. The best they can do in the season between games is practice ball skills and get the injured fit.
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The summer is vital for building fitness. Davies' descriptions of then-manager Bill Nicholson's punishing regime bear a striking resemblance to accounts of Pochettino's, such as this from the Telegraph's Jonathan Liew. It is also when seeds of ideas are planted in players' minds, then nurtured to grow before nature takes over.
As noted, Pochettino will be without some of his players early on. These could include Erik Lamela—named in Argentina's preliminary Copa America squad—and the England under-21 quartet provisionally selected for the European Championship, as well as USMNT's DeAndre Yedlin, who recently confirmed his intention to be at this summer's Gold Cup to Bleacher Report's Alex Dimond. It is a blow not to have any of them as the boss shapes his side for next season.
Particularly so Alex Pritchard who, after successful loan spells with Swindon Town and Brentford, leads the next crop of academy products looking to follow the likes of Harry Kane and Ryan Mason into the first team.
Looking like he possesses talent capable of making a contribution, the attacking midfielder's absence will mean he is not able to immediately stake his own claim while providing the kind of stiff competition wanted in pre-season—Yedlin at least has five months of working with his new manager, while Tom Carroll has been playing in the Premier League with Swansea City.
Indeed, the biggest part of Pochettino's planning this summer will be the integration—or reintegration in the cases of Pritchard and other loanees—of the players he hopes will take the team forward.
"He's going to have to decide which of those ones he wants out the door and how many, if any he is gonna wanna bring in," Friedel said in the aforementioned Goals on Sunday interview. "I'm sure of this, once he has everyone that he wants, you will see more consistent level of performances."
It is a precarious balancing act, moving on out-of-favour players such as Etienne Capoue and Younes Kaboul while bringing in replacements they will hope are better. Be they young players such as Pritchard or signings such as Dele Alli. Friedel is optimistic, but his soon-to-be ex-boss intends to be smart about things.
"You need to be right and to take the right decision," he said of transfers in his press conference prior to playing Manchester City. "It's not only if you pay money you are sure you can achieve something."
Prior to the visit to Southampton, Pochettino also emphasised the same caution with promoting young players, underlining the need to "analyse" those on the verge of the first team. "But we need to be careful with that," he warned. "It’s not because Harry Kane or Mason or [Nabil] Bentaleb are good this season and now we need to put all academy players in the first team."
Nonetheless, the plan transfers-wise is for things to be in place as soon as possible: "If you punch before the opponent promises to punch, I think you have the half job done."
For other academy hopefuls such as Shaquile Coulthirst, Ryan Fredericks, Milos Veljkovic and Grant Ward, as well as 2014-15 debutants Joshua Onomah and Harry Winks, there will likely be scope to make an impression. Mason is a good example of someone who made the most of absences for the first friendlies played last year.
With all these situations at the front and back end of pre-season making it so Tottenham are not working entirely by their own schedule, maximising time is key.
The lack of a major overseas tour means the first few weeks are entirely Pochettino's. Beyond fitness tests and training, the specifics of what he can do depend on how much of the squad is in place for the players' return in early July. If a sooner than desired start to the Europa League is unavoidable, though, he would prefer not to end up in a similar situation to the one Harry Redknapp went through in 2011.
The playoff games with Hearts were easily negotiated, but Spurs were still confirming their squad when their Premier League campaign began. After their actual opening fixture against Everton was postponed, they were comfortably beat by Manchester United and Manchester City. Only when the future of Luka Modric was settled and new arrivals Emmanuel Adebayor and Scott Parker signed did things feel properly in place.
The signs the Tottenham head coach can make his methods go even further next season are promising. The talent is there, and he seemingly has chairman Daniel Levy's backing to further imprint his own philosophy.
"He wants everyone to feel as a family and feel as one," testified the veteran Friedel of his last boss in football. "And it's hard work, but when you feel part of the family, then it's very enjoyable work."
One way or another, summer 2015 marks the point when we begin to find out how well Pochettino's tough-love approach really suits Tottenham Hotspur.
Quotes obtained firsthand unless otherwise stated.
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