Pochettino rebuilding, 18 players gone

Mauricio Pochettino arrived at Spurs on 27 May 2014 and since then 18 first team squad players have departed the club.

1. Michael Dawson
2. Kyle Naughton
3. Benjamin Stambouli
4. Paulinho
5. Sandro
6. Younes Kaboul
7. Lewis Holtby
8. Brad Friedel
9. Cristian Ceballos
10. Etienne Capoue
11. Heurelho Gomes
12. Jake Livermore
13. Gylfi Sigurdsson
14. Iago Falque
15. Zeki Fryers
16. Jonathan Obika
17. Benoit Assou-Ekotto
18. Jermain Defoe

In addition there have been other departures, Jordan Archer, Bongani Khumalo, Alexander McQueen, Cameron Lancaster, Lawrence Vigouroux, Kevin Stewart, Darren McQueen, Giancarlo Gallifuoco, Roman Michael-Percil, Souleymane Coulibaly, Jack Munns and Jonathan Miles.

The first team squad has been added to by some players with potential and some players expected to produce now. Fazio was expected to have a better season than he did and Alderweireld should form a strong partnership with Vertonghen next season. Davies and Trippier  have proved themselves at Premier League level so it seems the defence is being strengthened both with the immediate and future in mind.

Below is a list of first team squad players who have arrived since Mauricio Pochettino joined the club.

1. Ben Davies
2. Michel Vorm
3. Eric Dier
4. DeAndre Yedlin
5. Federico Fazio
6. Dele Alli
7. Kevin Wimmer
8. Kieran Trippier
9. Toby Alderweireld
10. Benjamin Stambouli (now departed)

Often criticised by Spurs fans Franco Baldini had thus far had an excellent summer having been charged with offloading the high earning, underperforming and egotistical players.
egotistical players causing issues off the pitch and undermining the manager

Some coaches have to have players bought for them and they'll develop a team from the creme de la creme, quite frankly any manager who can handle egos should be able to achieve success if the club is wealthy, what it doesn't tell you is how good a coach they are when they don't have money backing them.

Can they build by improving players, by producing a conveyor belt of academy talent? Can they create a team spirit that sees the team as a unit perform better than it's individual parts would suggest. Finding a coach who has those qualities is for any club with a restricted budget essential and if that manager can also handle egos then you have an exceptional coach on your hands.

I have said many times as a coach you look for the route cause of a problem and address that. The route cause may not be visible to the fans and there is certainly a lot that goes on behind the scenes at Tottenham.

Coming to Spurs Pochettino had to understand and accept the constraints he is working under, such as not having an endless pit of money. He needs an eye on the future with a stadium being built and an understanding of how any future transfer budget will be affected. He needed to have a strategy on the playing side that matched the strategy the club vision has both on and off the field.

Obviously the two were in accord or he wouldn't have been appointed and he has perhaps been backed by Daniel Levy more than any other manager in his reign. It has been clear from the start he was here for the long term, that he had been tasked with building the club toward and beyond having a stadium built.

He has assessed the players both for ability to adapt to a set system and their attitude. He has looked to incorporate positive egos within the squad and remove the negative egos ones. You go into hospital to have cancerous cells removed for recovery to take place, for a football squad who are together every day the same theory applies. Those who tried to undermine his authority have either left or are training with the Development squad.

He has put a set system in place and has set about reshaping the squad to suit that system with an emphasis on youth. Harry Kane, Nabil Bentaleb and Ryan Mason became automatic choices keeping purchases out of the team while Danny Rose and Nacer Chadli had arguably the best campaign of their careers. Add to them Alex Pritchard, who it is suggested in good enough for the Premier League now and Dele Alli, who is amazing the players in training and you have the basis of a squad for the future.

Kevin Wimmer has been acquired as we expect him to develop into a high-class centre-back and Eric Dier has the same potential. Kieran Trippier demonstrated last season he could play at Premier League level with figures that compared with the best. Toby Alderweireld was a significant signing as he is good enough to play in a top four team, as is Jan Vertonghen, who was on Barcelona's shopping list last summer. They give the centre of defence a more solid look.

The issue in front of them is being addressed, Nabil Bentaleb can't play every game and is clearly highly thought of by others clubs, top teams both at home and abroad were hoping to sign him. While he needs help we also need one player with a greater physical presence also, the latest news is that Moussa Sissoko is interesting us.

Former Tottenham director of football Damien Comolli who spent 3 years at White Hart Lane before he was sacked spoke to talkSPORT and feels Spurs are now making progress.

“I think they have found their team and I think they have found their starting eleven – A lot of credit to Mauricio for bringing the young players through and putting a lot of faith in the likes of Dier, Rose, Mason, Bentaleb and Harry Kane obviously, Andros. Apart from Dier, they are all kids from the academy from when I was there – They have stabilised the team.”

Assess, stabilise, rebuild. That's what's taking place. It doesn't take long to assess players, especially when they have the wrong attitude, so removing them from the equation and saying 'ok you guys are the core for the future' is standard coaching practice. There will be ups and downs, but that is all part of a learning process so sticking with the youngsters as they meet the difficulties they met last season strengthens them for the future.

Situations will now be new to them, they can start to draw on experience, however slim, to help them handle future pressure. Once you have experienced something once it becomes easier nest time around as you knowledge of what to expect and you learn from how you dealt with it.

Pochettino is now building and building for a future, looking for year on year development so it is going to be an interesting season to what size step we take.

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