I sat there last week and watched a poor Spurs grab a draw with Villa. They acted as if they had won when they equalised, but they drew. This is not good enough. At the start of the season Levy said ‘I want 4th this year Martin’, Martin said ‘Give me financial backing and I will give it to you’. Levy then went to the bank and withdrew £40,000,000 and gave it to Jol in 3 black suitcases, then said ‘There, now I want a good season’. In simpler terms, Levy wants 4th and Jol was given backing, however has failed to deliver so far.

Ramos was offered the job and Levy was left red faced when the media found out. Jol knows Ramos was offered the job, but my question is, why is he still here? If my manager offered my job to another person behind my back, I would say ‘Feck off you twat, I’m walking!’. The board and the manager need to have a good level of trust, and at the moment, this is non existent at Spurs. They have the best strike force in the league, they just need confidence. Bent, Defoe, Berbatov and Keane are perfect for each other; they are a match made in heaven, but players without confidence is the equivalent of eating cereal without milk.

Spurs saw another disappointing weekend draw to a close as they let in a last minute header against Liverpool. Things aren’t clicking for Spurs, and when things aren’t clicking in football life gets tough. Football can be a cruel game, and for Martin, it is very cruel.

So when will Jol go? Soon. Soon enough? Nope. Fact is, Levy can’t sack Jol because at the moment no manager would want to come to Spurs. Klinsmann would, but is he the right man? Would he know what to do? Probably not. Germany was a big experience, but not enough. He needs club experience first. Would Ramos be good? No. He might have turned Sevilla into a good UEFA cup team but prior to Sevilla he has been sacked/walked out more than the amount of goals Spurs have let in from set pieces this season, and believe me that is a lot. The media have made the most of their 2 year UEFA cup runs and made him out to be something spectacular. Ramos will either be amazing, or crap. I have not decided yet.

Would Scolari come? Maybe. He wants a job in England and Spurs could be that club. The media hate him because they were the reason he turned down the national team job, but if he took Spurs into the top 4 he could change that.

The question is, can Spurs break into the top 4 with anyone or are they a team that will always fall at the last hurdle? A good team needs quality throughout the ranks, at youth level, reserves and first team. A good team needs good back room staff because people behind the scenes are as important as those on the pitch. Spurs may need to keep battling away to getting 4th place for another 5 years or so, however once they break into the top 4, they will be bloody good. The problem is, Spurs are trying to break into the top 4 at a time where the top 4 are strengthening, therefore they are in a predicament. Either two things will happen, Spurs will keep strengthening and others will as well thus they won’t break into the group, or Spurs will keep strengthening and eventually they will break in the top 4. I think the first.

Chelsea broke into the top two when other teams were not strengthening, thus they made life easier for themselves. If they strengthened now, their impact would not have been so big, if much at all. But, one thing Spurs need is a consistent manager. It’s no good Spurs trying to break in the top 4 and sacking their manager for not delivering, they need to get behind their manager. Jol is the right man to take them into the top 4, he just needs time. Arsenal have had 1 manager in 11 years, Spurs have had a ridiculous amount in that time.

 However, Levy is the man who can call the shots and at the moment he is doing it all wrong. Spurs will not break into the top 4 this season or next season, the earliest they will do so is 2011, and that is a long way away. If you don’t think I’m right, then that’s fine, but come 2011 you’ll see I’m right, that’s for certain.

Meanwhile, Khan outclassed his opponent the other night. Khan was quick, powerful and classy. He needs to up the level of his opponents, fighting someone like Thaxton would be good but the chances of Amir losing would be a lot, Frank Warren knows this and will not let him fight Thaxton. Frank is a stubborn bastard, just like Wenger, but Wenger has class and wit, he reminds me of Oscar Wilde. Frank is just a bastard with no class or wit, he reminds me of the tramp I see every morning on the way to the bus. I think that’s enough for now.

Ramin

Posted on October 8th, 2007 | 7 Comments »
Filed under: article, tottenham

When fans of the English Premier League refer to the ‘top four’, they are generally talking about Manchester United, Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal. However with the influx of the new TV money there appears to be a tide of contenders threatening to break the dominance of the big four.Ever since Rafa Benitez joined and started reshaping a Liverpool side that often failed to deceive into genuine contenders for honours and Roman Abromovich came in and gave Mourinho so much money to spend that they could afford to buy £21 million bench players like Shaun Wright Phillips, the top four places in the league table have generally been filled by those teams each season. Finishing in one of the top four places gains qualification for the Champions League- the two top automatically enter the group stages while the teams that finish third and fourth play a two legged tie against often substandard European opponents.

The last time the stranglehold on the top four was broken was by a spirited Everton side in 2004/05, who finished three points ahead of a Liverpool team distracted by the Champions League - but the Toffees then failed to advance in either the Champions League or the UEFA Cup, losing to Villareal and then getting thrashed by Dinamo Bucharesti. Liverpool still qualified for the Champions League the next season by virtue of them picking up the trophy and being allowed back in by UEFA. Other than Everton, the closest a side has come spoiling the party was the Tottenham Hotspur team of 2005/06, who led a struggling Arsenal side for large parts of the season before succumbing on the last day of the season to West Ham United and thus gifting Arsenal their place in the Champions League qualifiers. While most do not think that another team will break into the top four very soon, with the amount of big spending and the types of players being brought into the Premier League, anything is possible. Here, I will take a look at the four teams that I feel are the most capable of doing so.

Read more »

Posted on September 12th, 2007 | 2 Comments »
Filed under: Newcastle, football, soccer, top four, tottenham

A collection of able, but not brilliant players, boardroom disharmony and extravagant spending in the transfer market has long since been a feature of Tottenham Hotspur as a football club. The debate about whether they could break into the top four has been going on for a long time- perhaps originating after they led an injury-hit Arsenal side for large parts of the 2005/06 season before succumbing on the last day to finish fifth. Since then, they have never really looked like taking away that coveted fourth place from their hated rivals. While most expected them to push on last season, again challenging heavily for a top four finish, Spurs fell off the pace, finishing eight points behind their north London rivals Arsenal compared to just a single point difference the year prior.

Despite spending more than £40 million pounds this time round in the transfer market, Tottenham have still not looked any closer than last year to breaking into the top four with their shaky start to the Premiership season. After conceding a last minute winner to a Sunderland side that had just come up from the Championship, Martin Jol’s team then went on to be comprehensively thrashed by an Everton side at White Hart Lane. In fact, reports in the media hinted that the win over Derby County was the only thing that had kept Martin Jol his job with Tottenham. Although some would think that the recent win could be the start of a change in fortunes, it appears that the Tottenham board think differently. After publicly announcing that Jol would be staying at the club, they were left with egg on their faces after Juande Ramos revealed they had approached him with “a dizzying offer”. Hardly the best news if you’re Martin Jol, considering you were lied to and then the board went behind your back looking for replacements.

When you take a look at the Spurs team, it is hard to see how they can finish ahead of the likes of Chelsea, Manchester United, Liverpool or Arsenal. While Tottenham’s first choice backline looks stable on paper, their replacements are not up to scratch- shown in some of the shambolic defending we have witnessed this season. Quite a few fans have doubts about goalkeeper Paul Robinson, while players such as Ricardo Rocha, Anthony Gardner and Assou-Ekotto have repeatedly shown they cannot defend. In midfield, even though they have solid defensive players with Zokora as first choice and Huddlestone as backup, they have problems in both the attacking midfield slot and on the wings. Aaron Lennon is the only player they have that can play well out wide, and with the rest only capable of sporadic good performances. As for attacking central midfielders, Jermaine Jenas and Danny Murphy have been inconsistent at best, while promising players like Taarabt and Boateng will take some time to get used to top flight football. Up front is the only area of the pitch where Tottenham fans will agree they have players just as good as the top four, but is it a case of having too much wealth? Berbatov showed his anger when he was subbed off against Sunderland, and one wonders how Jol is going to keep four strikers that would start at most clubs content.

While only deluded fans of the club itself could believe that Tottenham Hotspur Football Club will be able to break into the top four, I feel the most probable way for them is down rather than up- with the likes of Manchester City, Everton and Newcastle all playing better than the north London side.

Posted on August 25th, 2007 | No Comments »
Filed under: football, top four, tottenham