Musings From the Sofa

So, its one of those days when I find myself sat on the sofa, contemplating the state of my life.  I have a lot of those these days.  Since I jacked in my job from Hell the one thing I have plenty of is time.  The problem, as I've mentioned before, is that when you have lots of time on your hands, your motivation suddenly ebbs away - there is no sense of urgency to do anything as everything can be put off infinitely.  I keep thinking that I should do something about finding a new job, not just to generate some more cash, but to get me out of the house for a couple of days a week.  But then again, I tell myself, I'm still good financially with no worries there for the foreseeable future, plus, it is Summer and, despite the variable weather, I'm enjoying myself.  Despite a lack of motivation, I have a tremendous sense of freedom now that I'm no longer at anyone's beck and call.  Actually, I'm apparently up for a temporary teaching job, via an agency, at the moment.  I hate to say it, but it isn't filling me with enthusiasm.  The prospect of spending a couple of weeks teaching secondary school kids for a couple of weeks right at the end of the school year just doesn't appeal.  Plus, it is at least forty minutes drive away.  The trouble is that I feel that if I was to reject the chance to even be considered for it, then the agency wouldn't think I was serious about finding work and might not put me forward for stuff I might be interested in.  I'm confident, however, that there will be far better qualified, experienced and local candidates for this particular job.

I have to confess, though, that this situation has left me questioning whether I really do want to finally use my teaching qualification and pursue jobs in education.  I mean, looked at rationally, it seems the logical and obvious thing to do.  But I just don't know.  Having had so much time to think about stuff since I walked away from the previous situation, I'm increasingly asking myself whether teaching is the right move to make, whether it will actually give me any more satisfaction than what has gone before.  In truth, there's a large part of me that yearns to do something more creative - if I could only find a way to make proper money from any of my online activities, then I'd be blissfully happy.  This situation is clearly going to require a lot more thought.  But getting back to my evening on the sofa, I found myself not watching the England match on the grounds that not only is international football frequently boring as everyone tries to play safe defensive tactics, hoping to score on the counter, but that every time I do watch a crucial match, they lose.  So I did that thing of watching something else, but frequently flicking back to the match to check how many England were losing by.  It worked, as they beat Germany two nil.  But, we can never be allowed to enjoy anything for long, as I then saw online reports that Spurs were imminently going to sign Nuno Espirito Santo as their new manager.  For fuck's sake!  After the recent radio silence, I thought that was dead and buried.  Perhaps the 'No to Nuno' hashtage didn't make it clear enough, maybe we should have tweeted 'Fuck off Nuno, we don't want you here'.

To be perfectly clear, I have nothing against the man personally, but appointing him head coach would scream, not just desperation, but a total lack of ambition.  I know tat he's supposedly a nice guy, but that doesn't make him the right manager for Spurs, let alone a good manager.  Not only does he specialise in the same kind of defensive game that Mourinho failed to make work at Spurs, but, in truth, he is, at best, an average manager.  There's a reason he's available: despite considerable levels of investment in players, he still couldn't place Wolves any higher than seventh.  His previous managerial stints, outside of England, have yielded similarly mediocre results.  He simply isn't good enough if the club's ambitions truly are to get back in the Champions' League.  Moreover, just why would we want to employ someone who has already been passed on both by Everton and Crystal Palace (who both finished below us) for their managerial vacancies?  They've instead opted for Rafa Benitez and Patrick Viera, respectively, which speaks volumes.  I was really hoping that those reports that Nuno was about to sign with Fenerbache were true - the Turkish league is probably about his level and he'd thrive there.  But no, the Spurs stories have suddenly resurfaced.  God help us all!  I mean, what is Levy playing at?  He promises us an offensively minded manager, then signs Nuno?  

I know that many Spurs fans, beaten down by the long managerial search, are now resigned to Nuno as being the best we're likely to get and that at least we'll finally have a manager.  But that's just ridiculous - I'd rather the search be prolonged than appoint the wrong man (again).  'But at least he's not Martinez!' many of them cry. Well, Belgium boss Roberto Martinez, with his dodgy defensive record, would be far from my first choice, but at least he plays attacking football and, at both club and international record, proven himself a more successful manager than Nuno.  I'd take him over Nuno any day.  I hate to say this as a Spurs fan, but if Nuno is appointed then, frankly, the best thing that could happen would be to lose the first half dozen matches badly, forcing the board to sack him and appoint the 2021 equivalent of Harry Redknapp (who rescued us from the disaster of Juande Ramos).  It's a sad state of affairs when I find myself thinking along such lines.