posted Oct 17, 2008

Problem at Spurs? Forwards. Bent, Giovani, Pavlyuchenko, no cohesion, not even laying together. Solution? Bent and Pav need to play together regularly. If there's a need for Giovanni, have him behind those two in a 3-4-3 or 4-3-3.

A defensive central midfielder. Choices? Huddlestone, Zokora, Jenas, behind Modric. Neither of them have established themselves in such a role. I dont rate any of them. Solution? Bring in a new DCM. Who? Look around.

Right wing. Whose is it - Bentley's or Lennon's? If Bentley, then he isnt playing well enough, his displays have been sporadic. Needs strengthening up. If Lennon's, where does Bentley play (and not behind a lone striker)? Solution? Bentley on the right wing, Lennon on the left.

Defence. King? Reliability fitness wise is none. Woodgate is good, Dawson needs to sharpen up or get out. Solution? Bring in a new central defender alongside Woodgate.

Strength in the team is lacking severely, while they may be useful going forward at times, they are vulnerable at the back all the more. Hutton is yet to return and Bale is good at LB, when those two can keep out the treatment room it would be a blessing.

A decent keeper in Gomes, provided his defence barricade themselves sternly instead of being so static.

Modric and a CDM between Bentley and Lennon, whose speed they should be exploiting. Lennon hasnt looked content at being subbed. Give him a run, bring him back to his England level.

Downside of this is Jamie O'Hara. I like this guy, has a tasty left foot shot on him and is tenacious going forward. there is no room for him to start but he is valuable as an option after 50 or 60mins.

If Heskey is pondering leaving Wigan, then Spurs should be interested.

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posted Oct 17, 2008

Lennon extremely overrated !!!!

We will be fine come Jan/Feb. We should know never to buy a Russian just look at Rebrov and also Smertin was not a huge success. Can you name a successful Russian in England ??

We should have spent huge money on replacing King as we need someone of his immense quality every game (preferably someone with 2 good knees).

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posted Oct 17, 2008

rebrov is ukrainian not russian

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posted Oct 17, 2008

Kanchelskis

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posted Oct 17, 2008

jol was and always will be too good for spurs. the way he was stabbed in the back, over that fate-full summer; the bad-mouthing, when he left, about all that fitness lark when ramos free-rode jol's team to a carling cup (are they losing now because ramos' toxic brews have finally kicked in); comilli's crappy signings that were forced on him. i, for one, am glad that he is doing well at hamburg and is not closing the gap to us at arsenal.

spurs had a top manager in jol, who provided slow and steady progess but when the new flavour of the month spurs went back to their newcastle-ish ways by getting rid of the best thing to happen to them.

well done levy, you've taken the cash and appointed a second rate director of football; you've gone from a strike-force of 3 '20-goal-a-season' strikers, to none; you've sold off your british back-bone; and you've lost a top quality dutch manager. maybe you'll get lucky and get your own crappy reality show like your predecessor.

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posted Oct 17, 2008

Tottenham arent as good as they think they are,
they have never had the team good enough to get to the champions league, but martin jol made it look promising.

now they've sacked the best manager, sold the best players and brought in a bunch of players from all corners of europe in some new weird combination, a manager who barely speaks english,
and they are surprised things have got worse?

hope they get relegated, cos im a newcastle fan, and like to see teams doing worse than us.

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posted Oct 18, 2008

I managed to catch the Martin Jol interview on Radio 5 whilst driving home last night, and was instantly reminded of why this dignified and gentle giant of a man was (and still is) held with so much affection by us Spurs fans. I share the common consensus of opinion that he was the greatest manager we have had in years, and it angers me when people suggest that his performance in the season during which he was sacked was below par. Hang on, wasn't this the manager who had just discovered that his replacement was being actively sought? How would you feel if you learned that your boss was actively searching for YOUR replacement?

Being fortunate enough to go to the Carling Cup Final, I too indulged in the rare (in modern times at least) euphoria of a major Spurs triumph. And yet, even then, I was aware that Ramos had coasted on the vehicle of Jol's hard work.

I find it difficult to like Ramos. Sure, I can see he has a great CV, and has enjoyed much success, and given time he may emulate the same here. And yet, much of his behaviour leaves me uncomfortable. He doesn't seem to spend time engaging with the players; indeed, it seems as if the players that were off-loaded in the summer were shut out from his consciousness as soon as he joined. Leaving most of the talking to Poyet seems like an unforgivable neglect of duty, particularly with the press (Capello and/or Scolari as a comparison anyone?). And as Big Martin Jol pointed out, Ramos' initial criticism of how Jol had allegedly neglected the player's diets seems very much below the belt and entirely unprofessional, although I do wonder if there was some truth there, since we did seem to leak very late goals, suggesting a lack of edge in fitness...and things are so much better now, eh?

Anyway, I could bang on about this for ages, but to summarise, I think the issues seem painfully obvious:

* We've sold a world-class strikeforce...you could argue that Berba and Keane had to go once attracted by the big boys, but surely Defoe was there to be kept? No strikeforce=no goals

* Bent may come good, but it appears he has a lack of confidence. Ramos said he couldn't play Bent and Pav together, yet Pav was purchased with Bent on board. Does this tell Bent that he wasn't a part of the long term plans? Is that a way to inspire confidence in a striker?

* We've dumped our core midfield. Sure, Malbranque and Tainio weren't the most attractive purveyors of football, but they didn't half get the job done and play their socks off. Why ditch a nucleus of players that can read each other and graft in that way?

* Our manager can barely speak English. Would you take a job in a foreign country and shy away from the language?

* We have no leader. King is a true legend when he plays and the difference is phenomenal, but when he was absent, Keane did an incredible job replacing him. Where is this leadership now? Who is pushing these new boys into the hard working team culture? Um...?

* When are the Spurs board going to look beyond their obsession of squeezing money out of player sales? The sale of Berbatov was so long and protracted that most of us were begging for him to go in the end. How much this has unsettled the team is immeasureable

* Team rotation - why don't we have a core team that feature week in, week out, with permanent spaces being fought for? We need these overpaid lads to start earning their right to play, and we need a team who know their position and function like the back of their hand, as well as the position and functions of their team mates

* In fairness to Ramos, it appears that he has a team on his hands that he wouldn't have picked (Comolli took care of that), and now feels the beating of the stick on his back as encouragement to make things work. Maybe that "dizzying offer" the board made him before joining doesn't seem so appealling now.

I genuinely hope that Ramos has toiled more than he knew how during the international break, creating a team that is as tight and professional as his and their wages should dictate.

Incredibly, many of my Arsenal mates have gone beyond the ribbing stage now and have an almost pitying look about them when we discuss the situation. It's hard to disagree with them when you read something like "lean_go" has written; the treatment of Jol was indeed disgraceful, and a club that was once well-liked by most neutrals (Arsenal fans are of course excepted!) is now increasingly viewed with disdain. N3W9222 speaks sense too on most points, though Newcastle are also in danger of losing the neutral vote (they've always been a team that most of us have enjoyed watching with their attacking nature...rather like people used to enjoy watching the flowing Spurs game).

I just can't help but think that impatience, greed, and reprehensible behaviour by the Tottenham board has spawned an ugly monster that they are ill-equipped to control. It seems that most people feel this is their just desserts.

If it was all about the board, I'd like Spurs to get the drop (a very real prospect it seems!). Yet we, the fans, show eternal loyalty, and spend our money, and spend long days defending our team against the smug and the arrogant. Ramos, Comolli, and Levy may not deserve respite from the quagmire we've found ourselves in, but for the fans it is already long overdue. As Martin stated, Spurs fans are the best in the Premier League, and their unflagging loyalty deserves better than this rotten debacle.

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posted Oct 18, 2008

No team can sell 6-7 players and buy the same amount and expect to be an instant success - no matter who they are! Just look at the Top Four, those managers buy one or two to supplement what they already have, they don't make a clean sweep. That is a no-brainer! If Spurs knew they were going to change the team so much, then they needed to accept the consequences.

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posted Oct 19, 2008

As a Spurs fan for over 40 years I say this. Serve them damn well right for sacking Martin Jol.He did well for them and is a very decent, self effacing guy who deserved better. A spell in the Championship will liven them up.

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posted Oct 23, 2008

I know it's slightly off the discussion,but I always like to mention the manner in which Martin Jol dealt with the amazing decision to not award Spurs a goal at OT when the ball was at least a yard over the line.I recall that decision cost Spurs the match.Almost every other manager would have gone beserk but Jol came on TV and gave a very calm and measured interview.I liked him from that moment and I really believe he has been lost to the premiership ever since.

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