Ralf Rangnick is known as “The Professor” because of his demeanour and his rimless spectacles. He got this nickname will he was working for Ulm in 1998, back then he was an unknown quantity and his tactics and methods were questioned because they were 15 years ahead of its time. After Ulm, he would go on to manage various German clubs such as Stuttgart, Hoffenheim, Schalke and Hannover over the next decade. He was the mastermind behind Gegen-Pressing which is now the default way to play for every top clubs around the world. Every club Rangnick has gone to the left a mark at the club, at Stuttgart he won the UEFA Intertoto Cup, at Hannover he lead to a promotion to Bundesliga, at Hoffenheim they went from the third tier of German football to the Bundesliga under him, at Schalke he won the DFB Pokal in 2011 along with a run to the semis of Champions League. After that he became the Technical Director for the Redbull organization, during his time there the valuation of the three clubs (Leipzig, Salzburg and New York) sky-rocketed from 120 million to 1.2 billion euros. RB Leipzig a club that was founded in 2009 and was competing in the fifth tier of German football rose through the divisions under him and they were promoted to the Bundesliga in 2016. The next season was even better in the 2016/17 campaign (their first in Bundesliga) they finished second and qualified for the Champions League, that’s just 8 years from fifth-tier football to the pinnacle of club football that is just staggering.
His coaching philosophy is really simple, as soon as his team losses the ball they press as a team and try to get the ball back as high up the pitch as possible so that there is less distance between the goal and the ball. If that sound familiar then yes you are correct this style of play is called gegen-pressing or counter-pressing adopted by a lot of top coaches such as Klopp, Tuchel and Hansi Flick. He founded philosophies that are widely prominent in today’s game.
As for Spurs, they are in seventh place destined for a place in UEFA Conference Cup with the players seeming to forget what it’s like to play as a team and above that the team’s talisman Harry Kane looking to leave for greener pastures, it’s safe to say that are miles off from winning the title and that the current cycle which started when Pochettino was appointed has come to a grinding halt. Spurs need to refresh and restart with a different project (either with Kane or without him that remains to be seen). The managers on the shortlist are kind of underwhelming to say the least, Graham Potter is one exciting option but he is inexperienced for the task at hand, Roberto Martinez has impressed with Belgium but he underperformed both at Wigan and Everton and Erik ten Hag is likely to stay at Ajax.
Ralf Rangnick is perfect for Spurs as he plays attractive, free-flowing brand of football and has a knack for scouting and developing young players and above everything else the players need to be coached again on how to play as a team, how to play in unison and not depend on individual moments of magic and who’s better to do that than “The Professor” himself. For the duration of the 2020/21 season, Spurs have depended on Kane and Son for the goals, they both contributed 62% of Tottenham’s entire goal output this season. Imagine if clubs like Hoffenheim and RB Leipzig could climb through the football pyramid in record time with limited funds an facilities under him, then what could happen if Ralf is given sufficient funds and state of the art facilities at a club?
It’s high time now at Spurs for people to do jobs that they are good at and at Tottenham that’s not the case. For six years all the footballing decisions are taken by Levy and those decisions have been horrendous like the sacking of Poch and the hiring of Jose. It’s time for Levy to leave the footballing decision to someone much more competent than he is and focus on the business side of thing because that’s where he is good at and leave the footballing decisions to Ralf Rangnick, that way the club would be better run and prosper on and off the pitch. Ralf could prove to be a messiah for a lot of reeling Spurs fans and lead their beloved Tottenham towards a bright and joyous future with trophies galore.
The Football Bull 