Definitely Still Not a Football Blog
I've said it before and I'll say it again: this is not a football blog. That said, on certain rare occasions I find myself moved to comment on the goings on at Tottenham Hotspur. Now, I'm not making any claims here to be a die hard Spurs fan. I don't have a season ticket, I don't spend rainy Saturday afternoons standing on the terraces cheering the Lilywhites on against the likes of QPR or Wolves. But I have been an armchair supporter for more years than I care to remember. Now, at Spurs, we like to pride ourselves that we play with a style and flair (the 'Spurs way') which is rare in English football. No long ball game for us, no crunching tackles and physicality, just an elegant passing game. Which is fair enough, but I've noticed that in recent times this pursuit of elegant football has become equated, in the minds of many fans, with having a continental coach. No English manager, they say, can possibly inspire the team to play the 'Spurs way'. I can't help bu feel that this has been fuelled by the success of supposedly sophisticated Frenchman Arsene Wenger over at Arsenal.
Consequently, we end up with the kind of snobbery on the part of fans toward managers who don't fit this mould: just look at the venom directed toward Harry Redknapp by certain sections of the fanbase during his tenure and their rejoicing when he was sacked. How awful, eh? Having some obviously working class wheeler dealer running our club! But far more significantly, our chairman seems to be gripped by this same delusion. He seems obsessed with the idea that Champions League success can only be achieved by having a continental manager - hence the replacement of 'Arry with Andre Villas-Boas. An interesting appointment bearing in mind that 'Arry had delivered two fourth and a fifth place league finishes over the past three seasons, whereas Villas-Boas had been sacked by Chelsea after barely half a season. Indeed, the unpalatable reality for both Chairman Levy and those fans who crave the continental touch, is that our most successful managers, not just in terms of trophies and league finishes, but also stylish and entertaining football, haven't been European maestros - Bill Nicholson, past his glory days but still winning trophies in the early seventies, no-nonsense Yorkshireman Keith Burkinshaw with back-to-back FA Cups and a UEFA Cup in the 1980s, Terry Venables (another wheeler dealer) with an FA Cup in the 1990s, Martin Jol with two fifth place finishes in the 2000s and most recently, 'Arry, with Champions League qualification. (OK, I know Martin Jol is Dutch, but he doesn't come over as a sophisticated continental manager so much as a thug).
In fact, some our worst runs have been under supposed continental geniuses: Christian Gross, Jaques Santini and Juande Ramos. Indeed, it was the failure of the latter that forced Levy to bring in 'Arry to bail us out. Which he did. spectacularly. But the problem was, no matter how successful 'Arry was, it was clear that Levy simply saw him as a stop-gap until the next continental footballing genius turned up to bedazzle the chairman with his talk of tactics and squad rotation. Martin Jol found himself in much the same situation, having been forced to step up to the plate after Santini did a runner. So, here we are again, with yet another continental footballing genius at the helm and another disappointing start following an underwhelming transfer window, in which we seemed to sell better players than we brought in. Already some fans are calling for Villas-Boas' head. I'm not so sure it's entirely his fault, despite his attempts to impose a 'system' on the team which had already failed during his time at Chelsea. In large part the problem is still Levy and those fans who clamour for these foreign managers, yet seem to think that simply appointing one will solve all our problems. The fact is that you also need to provide them with the players they need, but this is where Levy has been lacking over the past many seasons, with an erratic performance in the transfer market. But that's another post entirely...
Consequently, we end up with the kind of snobbery on the part of fans toward managers who don't fit this mould: just look at the venom directed toward Harry Redknapp by certain sections of the fanbase during his tenure and their rejoicing when he was sacked. How awful, eh? Having some obviously working class wheeler dealer running our club! But far more significantly, our chairman seems to be gripped by this same delusion. He seems obsessed with the idea that Champions League success can only be achieved by having a continental manager - hence the replacement of 'Arry with Andre Villas-Boas. An interesting appointment bearing in mind that 'Arry had delivered two fourth and a fifth place league finishes over the past three seasons, whereas Villas-Boas had been sacked by Chelsea after barely half a season. Indeed, the unpalatable reality for both Chairman Levy and those fans who crave the continental touch, is that our most successful managers, not just in terms of trophies and league finishes, but also stylish and entertaining football, haven't been European maestros - Bill Nicholson, past his glory days but still winning trophies in the early seventies, no-nonsense Yorkshireman Keith Burkinshaw with back-to-back FA Cups and a UEFA Cup in the 1980s, Terry Venables (another wheeler dealer) with an FA Cup in the 1990s, Martin Jol with two fifth place finishes in the 2000s and most recently, 'Arry, with Champions League qualification. (OK, I know Martin Jol is Dutch, but he doesn't come over as a sophisticated continental manager so much as a thug).
In fact, some our worst runs have been under supposed continental geniuses: Christian Gross, Jaques Santini and Juande Ramos. Indeed, it was the failure of the latter that forced Levy to bring in 'Arry to bail us out. Which he did. spectacularly. But the problem was, no matter how successful 'Arry was, it was clear that Levy simply saw him as a stop-gap until the next continental footballing genius turned up to bedazzle the chairman with his talk of tactics and squad rotation. Martin Jol found himself in much the same situation, having been forced to step up to the plate after Santini did a runner. So, here we are again, with yet another continental footballing genius at the helm and another disappointing start following an underwhelming transfer window, in which we seemed to sell better players than we brought in. Already some fans are calling for Villas-Boas' head. I'm not so sure it's entirely his fault, despite his attempts to impose a 'system' on the team which had already failed during his time at Chelsea. In large part the problem is still Levy and those fans who clamour for these foreign managers, yet seem to think that simply appointing one will solve all our problems. The fact is that you also need to provide them with the players they need, but this is where Levy has been lacking over the past many seasons, with an erratic performance in the transfer market. But that's another post entirely...
posted by Doc Sleaze at
8:44 pm
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