Poch Sacked - Whats next for the North London side

Tonight Tottenham shocked the footballing world by sacking their most successful manager in recent history. The job Pochettino did with Tottenham was brilliant, he exceeded all expectations with a limited budget and took Spurs to heights they would never of expected to be at when the Spaniard was appointed. Last year they reached the Champions League final, narrowly losing out to one of the best Liverpool sides the Premier league has seen, this kind of loss can effect a team deeply and it must certainly be a factor in their recent downhill spiral. Even though this has been a terrible start to the season for Spurs, no one expected them to sack Pochettino in such fashion, we are a third way through the season and it is hard to see how his successor will eclipse his achievements with the club.

If we look at the managers who could be in line to replace Pochettino, the front runner seems to be Jose Mourinho who has been out of a job since he was sacked by Manchester United after their 3-1 loss to Liverpool at Anfield. The Portuguese manager dubbed as "the special one" in his younger days would certainly not be my first choice for the job, his ideals are outdated, he would demand a large transfer budget, in which Spurs are unlikely to provide with their philosophy more likened to bringing through youth and talent then buying already made players, which is more Mourinho's style. When you look at how Pochettino came into the job, starting at the Saint's before moving to the north London club after a successful spell at Southampton, I think an ideal candidate to replicate this journey would be to appoint Eddie Howe of Bournemouth; the young English manager has established a good side with Bournemouth and is all about bringing through young players and playing progressive attacking football, this very much fits the bill with Tottenham's philosophy and ethos of late. This being said I do believe they are taking a huge risk sacking Pochettino at this time of the season, they have had a horrible start and can only imagine it will get worse without a firm head at the helm. Furthermore, the trouble with players wanting to leave the club in the summer and rumours of players being unhappy not to leave doesn't help the situation at hand and could be fatal for the club in the coming transfer windows. Many players could be cherry picked in the summer, with a number of players reaching peak years of their career and wanting to win trophies before their career ends, a event that doesn't seem to come about now if they stay at Tottenham.

Carragher came out recently saying that he believes this group of players has come to the end of their cycle at the club and have run their course, and its hard to disagree with the former Liverpool legend, getting to the heights of the champions league final to only winning 3 games out of 12 so far this season. These next few days could be crucial for the North London side, appointing the right manager could turn their season around, but they want to avoid any short term fixes, what made Pochettino so successful was that he had a project, a long term plan which hasn't quite worked out but was the right idea. If they want to continue their recent success they need to think long term and appoint a young, hungry manager who has new ideas and can bring a new energy to this club.