Failure is the Spur...

I don't want this to turn into a football blog, but I just can't avoid commenting once more upon the shambles unfolding at Spurs. Jesus Christ! How difficult can it be to manage a football club successfully? Just pick the same eleven players (barring injuries) as your starting line-up each week, that would seem sensible. Oh, and try playing them in their normal positions. The rate Ramos is going on, we'll be seeing Gomes playing wide on the left of midfield by November. If nothing else, such measures might instill a degree of consistency. And another hing - try substituting the players who aren't having impact in a match, not the ones who actually seem to be playing. I could also mention such basics as not selling your best players to rivals, no matter how much money they offer, and actually buying replacements for the players you do sell. However, it is becoming painfully obvious that the present manager doesn't have a clue what he's doing. Nether, for that matter, do the board and chairman who appointed him, or the Sporting Director responsible for our transfer dealings over the past couple of years. Clearly something has to happen, and happen quickly if the club is going to salvage anything from this season.

We're back to my call of a couple of weeks ago - Ramos out! Let's face it - he should never have been appointed, we had a perfectly good manager in the shape of Martin Jol. Ok, I know he was going through a patch of bad results when he was sacked, but he'd delivered us two fifth place finishes, the quarter-finals of the UEFA Cup and an FA Cup semi-final. I think he was entitled to be given a bit of slack. Which brings me, rather neatly, to the incompetence of the board. They sack the best manager we've had in years, someone who'd taken us to heights not seen since the days of the blessed El Tel, and instead saddle us with someone who clearly is completely out of his depth in the Premier League. I remember when he was appointed we heard all about how he had greater tactical acumen than Jol and would lead us to victory against the likes of Arsenal, Liverpool and Man U. Well, apart from that Carling Cup semi, that just hasn't happened, has it? In fact, this tactical genius has failed to get the better of Middlesborough, Sunderland and the mighty Wigan. The underlying problem, of course, is the board's obsession with breaking the hold of the 'Big Four' in the Premiership and qualifying for the Champions' League. Now, if this ambition as based on the desire for footballing glory, I'd have no problem. But it doesn't. It is purely about money. The board is so desperate to wring ever greater profits from the club that they have become convinced that there is some shortcut to success. Consequently, any coach or player who isn't instantly successful is quickly discarded.

Indeed, I'd say that Jol's greatest crime wasn't a poor start to the season, but his insistence that lasting success could only be achieved in the long-term, that it would take Spurs years of developing players and tactics, before they could challenge the 'Big Four'. What he did believe was that the club could and should be the 'best of the rest', and could achieve success and prestige in the interim through cup competitions. But that isn't what the greedy bastards in the board room wanted to hear. So here we are, saddled with a supposedly 'superior' manager, whilst our erstwhile failure of a former coach, Jol, sits atop the Bundesliga with his new club Hamburg. So, is it fair to call for Ramos' head at this stage. Well, the board sure as hell isn't going to resign and the club badly needs someone at the helm who knows what they're doing and, ideally, speak English. They need to move fast, though, if they're to sign a decent replacement. I mean, we've already missed out on the footballing genius of Joe Kinnear. Still, Glenn Hoddle is available. Frankly, right now I'd settle for George Graham. Come to think of it - what's Christian Gross doing nowadays? Of course, two of the best candidates, Jol and El Tel probably wouldn't set foot back at White Hart Lane, having been previously shat upon by the board. Ah well, as I've mentioned before, Kevin Keegan is still available...