Former Tottenham midfielder and assistant manager Gus Poyet says Spurs need to ‘change everything’ and ‘focus on the sports side again’ in order to move to the next level.
Tottenham made the swift appointment of Jose Mourinho less than 24 hours after sacking Mauricio Pochettino in November less than six months after guiding Spurs to their first ever Champions League final.
But Spurs’ freefall domestically started well before the 2019-20 season. Of Pochettino’s final 26 Premier League matches, Tottenham accrued just 31 points.
Since Mourinho’s appointment, Spurs have moved up the table. But with the Premier League having been halted by the coronavirus pandemic, they occupy eighth spot, seven points off the top four with only nine matches remaining.
Poyet, however, has offered his support to Mourinho and says that no manager can transform a club’s fortune that quickly.
Instead, he cites the forthcoming transfer window as a key moment for his former club.
"I think it is the end of an era, the end of a process," Poyet told Goal. "At certain places, you can manage the process in a way by slowly changing. Sir Alex Ferguson was the master of that. He was always one step ahead of allowing important players to leave and then replace them.
"There are other places where you hang onto a team until the end and then you feel like you have to change everything. I think Tottenham is in that place at the moment. This defends every manager in the world, not only Jose Mourinho.
And Poyet believes that, having built a state-of-the-art stadium and training ground, it’s time for Spurs to focus on investment in the playing squad.
"They had their finances and a clear plan under Pochettino to build a training ground and stadium, taking them to another level. Somehow they still did well without too many changes in their squad.
"The strategy took them to a higher level but now they need to focus on the sports side again. I wouldn't be too critical. That's football that you need to tweak it after a while."
