Weird fitness bloke blames Poch for Spurs collapse

Matt Stead

Twitter egg Raymond Verheijen has criticised Tottenham and blamed the club for their Premier League collapse.

Tottenham were considered to be in a two-horse race for the title against Leicester for much of the latter half of the season, but failed to win any of their final four games, culminating in a 5-1 defeat to relegated Newcastle on the final day.

Bitter north London rivals Arsenal leapfrogged Mauricio Pochettino’s side as a result, as Tottenham spurned the opportunity to finish above the Gunners for the first time in 21 years.

Fitness coach Verheijen believes the club suffered a late-season burnout due to Pochettino’s fitness regimes.

Quoting a Daily Telegraph article in which it was reported that an ‘inquest’ will be held into Tottenham’s form in the latter months, Verheijen questioned the suggestion that ‘Spurs are insistent that questions or criticisms regarding Pochettino’s hard-work approach are baseless’.

“Baseless? Really?” replied Verheijen on Twitter.

“Typical for the football world. Before Tottenham analyse this season’s process, they already draw conclusions and ignore possible mistakes.

“First of all, Spurs’ end of season collapse was already predicted in early March based on pattern recognition,” said Verheijen, before linking to the following article.

“Spurs’ 16 points in last 11 games of season is a typical pattern for a Pochettino team. It happened at Southampton and in his first season with Spurs.

“However, Spurs have already decided that this has nothing to do with the training regime. So it will probably happen again next season.

“This is why even the best managers in football keep making the same mistakes. They are not critical enough towards themselves and prefer denial.”

Verheijen then quoted a number of lines from the article, including:

‘A source told Telegraph Sport that some members of Pochettino’s squad had been “knackered” for weeks.’

‘Over the course of the games against West Brom, Chelsea, Southampton and Newcastle, Tottenham conceded six goals in the last 20 minutes.’

‘Pochettino’s team threw away leads against West Bromwich Albion, Chelsea and Southampton before being humiliated by 10-man Newcastle.’