From looking relegation certainties just 2 weeks ago we are now narrowly second only to Aston Villa to finish fifth. What makes it all the more remarkable is that Harry has done it with exactly the same players, albeit making two crucial changes (bringing in Huddlestone and playing Ledley in the important games rather than the unimportant ones). Who knows at this rate (with Essou-Akotta banned) we might even see Bale play in a winning team.
And on another high note I stumbled across a fantastic Garth Crooks interview with Ricky Villa:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dn9nTbIliZE
Monday, November 10, 2008
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Not so arrogant now
Arsenal 4 Spurs 4
Fabrecunt said before the game that the Arsenal Ladies team would be able to get a draw against Spurs and it appears he was proven right.
Bentley's goal with an interesting commentary
Phil Thompson on Sky Sports News (note Charlie Nicholas's reaction to Lennon's goal)
Sky's fanzone coverage
Fabrecunt said before the game that the Arsenal Ladies team would be able to get a draw against Spurs and it appears he was proven right.
Bentley's goal with an interesting commentary
Phil Thompson on Sky Sports News (note Charlie Nicholas's reaction to Lennon's goal)
Sky's fanzone coverage
Sunday, October 26, 2008
What a turn around
So my prediction about Redkanpp came true - even to the detail of Levy conceding there is no future for the Director of Football role (amazing what lengths Levy will go to in order not to be exposed at the AGM). It was the right move for our situation and it showed in today's performance. Huddlestone was a big plus.
Friday, October 24, 2008
Thinking back to 2 September
I'd just like to point out to the many people who thought I was a crazy irrational pessimist when I stated on Sept 2 that the previous day (transfer deadline day) was the blackest day in Spurs history.
give up a 5 million pound job is he? Every indication since 2 Sept is that Ramos is demotivated, going through the motions and, yes taking the piss with his team selections to make a point to his employers. It's not a conspiracy theory I am proposing. I am describing the rational actions of any person in this surrealistic position.
Let me remind you why I said that:
At the start of the day Berbatov was still a Spurs player and it was beginning to look like Levy was having the balls to stand up to Man U and refuse to sell him. Even the most pessimistic Spurs fan was convinced that if he was sold then we were getting in TWO world class strikers as replacements for him and Keane (in fact since Defoe had never been replaced and since Pav was really a replacement for Bent this would still have left us a striker short). Personally I was assuming we would end the day with Berba, Arshevin and Miluto all with us.
Then there is the issue of midfield; there were lots of rumous about our attempts to get a quality hard man and we had every right to believe we would end up with someone like Veloso. Not even the pessimists in their worst dreams could imagine that our unbalanced midfield would be left unenhanced. Finally, although Corluka signed the previous evening everybody was assuming that we would buy some proper cover for King in central defence.
Since Spurs were, apparently, negotiating on exactly those kind of deals we all assumed would be finalised, I assume that Ramos was making exactly the same kind of assumptions as all fans. In other words he expected to have available a proper, balanced squad of players. Moreover, Ramos had already made public his concern that the new players apparently coming/going had not been finalised weeks earlier. So he was already making it clear that, even asuming he got
all the transfers he now expected, it was going to be a problem to make things gel quickly enough because of the Board's prolonged negotiations.
We all know what happened to these assumptions (and it's important to note these were assumptions not dreams). Further, Levy's capitulation to ManU at the last minute and the final despicable insult of taking Frazier Campbell on loan announced to the whole footballing world that Spurs no longer had any serious interest in being a force in the premiership. At that moment Ramos surely felt as disgusted and betrayed as the rest of us. As I discussed with you off-list Wouter I could not work or even sleep for two days because I was so distraught
at the implications of 1 Sept. It was absolutely obvious to me that we were heading for disaster. You thought I was crazy. 7 weeks on how many fans now can genuinely argue that 1 Sept was not exactly as I described it: the worst day in the history of THFC. The day that started with us having realistic expectations of a top quality season and future and ended with us being the laughing stock of the football world with the certainty of a tough fight against relegation and our
very survival.
give up a 5 million pound job is he? Every indication since 2 Sept is that Ramos is demotivated, going through the motions and, yes taking the piss with his team selections to make a point to his employers. It's not a conspiracy theory I am proposing. I am describing the rational actions of any person in this surrealistic position.
Monday, October 20, 2008
Redknapp?
I have a feeling Harry Redknapp is going to end up as manager.
I believe that he is the one and only realistic option
available to save us from relegation. As much as I hate the idea of
sacking Ramos, I feel that he is not going to be able to get us out of
this for a number of reasons, one of which is his unquestioning
acceptance of the power of Levi and Comolli over transfers. Ramos was
dealt the most hideous hand due to Levy's catastrophic transfer
bungling. In my view Ramos' only major error has been to perceive the
EUFA and League cups as taking precedence over the league. The fact
that he has played King in every cup game but only 2 league games is
so asonishing that I even suspect this may have been influenced by
Levi and an unwritten to demand to make the final stages of these
competitions at all cost. Had King played in the league instead of the
cups we would NOT be in the position we are now.
was the distance from his home and family. He is absolutely burning
inside that he has never had the opportunity to manage a 'big' team
and he considers Spurs in that category. Throw in also the financial
uncertainty at Portsmouth, and I can see this one flying. But of
course it needs Levi either to admit that he has got it all wrong or
to resign.
I believe that he is the one and only realistic option
available to save us from relegation. As much as I hate the idea of
sacking Ramos, I feel that he is not going to be able to get us out of
this for a number of reasons, one of which is his unquestioning
acceptance of the power of Levi and Comolli over transfers. Ramos was
dealt the most hideous hand due to Levy's catastrophic transfer
bungling. In my view Ramos' only major error has been to perceive the
EUFA and League cups as taking precedence over the league. The fact
that he has played King in every cup game but only 2 league games is
so asonishing that I even suspect this may have been influenced by
Levi and an unwritten to demand to make the final stages of these
competitions at all cost. Had King played in the league instead of the
cups we would NOT be in the position we are now.
Nevertheless, everything now must be focused on survival in the
premiership, and there is too great a probability that Ramos does not
have the skills for that kind of fight. If the Board had the guts to
appoint Redknapp then there is no doubt it would be on Redknapp's
terms, which would mean the end of DOF and Levy's own interference.
Harry would have the nous to get us within distance of the other teams
at the bottom by Xmas and then bring in the players needed for the
remaining fight.
was the distance from his home and family. He is absolutely burning
inside that he has never had the opportunity to manage a 'big' team
and he considers Spurs in that category. Throw in also the financial
uncertainty at Portsmouth, and I can see this one flying. But of
course it needs Levi either to admit that he has got it all wrong or
to resign.
Friday, October 10, 2008
Gerry Francis: the worst manager in Spurs’ history
Every so often I find that Spurs fans need to be reminded why Gerry Francis was the worst manager in our history. I wrote the article below on 9 Jan 2002
Although Alan Sugar rightly takes much of the blame for Spurs’ slide into mediocrity between 1995 to 2001, the monumental role of Gerry Francis in this decline should never be underestimated. We are, in fact, still suffering from his legacy. Francis was not just the worse manager in Spurs’ history, but probably (based on his time at Spurs) the worse manager in the history of the top division.
To support my view, let’s first look at the players he bought, sold and missed (restricting all discussions to major transfers, above 0.5 million). Francis inherited a team with a number of truly top class players, but he sold all of them: Klinsmann, Popescu, Barmby, Sheringham - the first 3 were all sold within his first 7 months. He also sold Dumitrescu – and, although this is widely assumed to be his one sensible transfer, it was not obvious that such a talent could not have blossomed under a proper manager.
But if his sales were bad then his purchases were nothing short of disastrous. From memory only I have listed GF's major signings and given my own subjective rating in terms of: unqualified success; moderate success; failure; total unmitigated disaster. They are:
In case anyone disgrees with my assessment that almost all were total unmitigated disasters just compare the price paid for the failures with the price we either got for selling them or would get if we sold them today (25 million pound cost for a return of 1.5 million I reckon). I challenge anybody to provide any example of any manager in the history of football who conducted a worse sequence of transfers. GF actually signed Vega, Scales, and Iversen within a couple of days of eachother at the end of 1996 for a lot of money and I distinctly remember him crowing about how this proved he could attract the "world's very best" players to the club. While there were plenty of suckers who fell completely for this nonsense anybody with any knowledge knew that Scales was a waste of time, while Vega's incompetence was there for all to see on his first appearance. For me those signings - which GF regarded at the time as the high point of his career - merely confirmed his footballing ignorance.
But it doesn't just stop there. Look at some of the players who were offered to GF that he turned down:
(There is even the unconfirmed story that Zidane and Djaorkaef were offered to GF as a pair in the summer of 95 for less than half a million and that GF said they weren’t good enough for the premiership).
Then there is the issue of Francis’s playing style. It was the worst ever seen at WHL. During a period of several matches in early 1997 he played EIGHT defenders. I remember Jason Dozzell saying that GF was obsessed with stopping the 'other team' and never concentrated on how Spurs could impose themselves on a game. This was also the same impression GF gave to several players who refused to join Spurs after meeting him.
Finally, we have to consider his record of achievement. It still bugs me that there are lots of people who think GF did 'pretty well' (saying crap like 'steadying a sinking ship left by Ardiles), while MOST people automatically assume he was better than Gross and Ardiles. This is nonsense. When he ‘rescued us’ from Ardiles in November 1994 we had, in fact, played 12 league matches of which 5 were won, 5 lost and 2 drawn. Moroever, this had included some of the most exhilarating football seen by Spurs in a generation. When GF left us over 3 years later we were just one point off the bottom of the table nearly half-way into the season. In the previous (1996-97) season we ‘achieved’:the following
But the most damning statistic of all is his record against 'good' teams. Here is his record against teams who finished in the top six either in the season the match was played or the previous season:
Played 43 Won 3 Drawn 19 Lost 21
(The 3 victories were Arsenal in Nov 95, Man U in Jan 96 and Villa in Sept 96).
GF's current stewardship of Bristol Rovers accurately sums up his level of managerial skill.
Although Alan Sugar rightly takes much of the blame for Spurs’ slide into mediocrity between 1995 to 2001, the monumental role of Gerry Francis in this decline should never be underestimated. We are, in fact, still suffering from his legacy. Francis was not just the worse manager in Spurs’ history, but probably (based on his time at Spurs) the worse manager in the history of the top division.
To support my view, let’s first look at the players he bought, sold and missed (restricting all discussions to major transfers, above 0.5 million). Francis inherited a team with a number of truly top class players, but he sold all of them: Klinsmann, Popescu, Barmby, Sheringham - the first 3 were all sold within his first 7 months. He also sold Dumitrescu – and, although this is widely assumed to be his one sensible transfer, it was not obvious that such a talent could not have blossomed under a proper manager.
But if his sales were bad then his purchases were nothing short of disastrous. From memory only I have listed GF's major signings and given my own subjective rating in terms of: unqualified success; moderate success; failure; total unmitigated disaster. They are:
- Armstrong - total unmitigated disaster
- Fox - total unmitigated disaster
- Sinton - total unmitigated disaster
- Scales - total unmitigated disaster
- Vega - total unmitigated disaster
- Iversen - failure
- Dominguez - failure
- Neilsen - total unmitigated disaster
- Ferdinand - total unmitigated disaster until the current season under Hoddle
- Ginola - success
In case anyone disgrees with my assessment that almost all were total unmitigated disasters just compare the price paid for the failures with the price we either got for selling them or would get if we sold them today (25 million pound cost for a return of 1.5 million I reckon). I challenge anybody to provide any example of any manager in the history of football who conducted a worse sequence of transfers. GF actually signed Vega, Scales, and Iversen within a couple of days of eachother at the end of 1996 for a lot of money and I distinctly remember him crowing about how this proved he could attract the "world's very best" players to the club. While there were plenty of suckers who fell completely for this nonsense anybody with any knowledge knew that Scales was a waste of time, while Vega's incompetence was there for all to see on his first appearance. For me those signings - which GF regarded at the time as the high point of his career - merely confirmed his footballing ignorance.
But it doesn't just stop there. Look at some of the players who were offered to GF that he turned down:
- Petit - apparently GF watched him on 6 separate occasions but couldn't make up his mind. When he finally invited him to transfer talks Petit was so unimpressed that he caught a taxi to Highbury and the rest is history.
- Juninho - was available at the same time and for the same money as Fox. GF preferred Fox.
- Berkovic - was offered to Spurs for free in the summer of 96 - GF said he wasn't good enough for the premiership. GF then semi-reluctantly tried to buy him for £1.5million a year later but lost out to West Ham after obsessively talking about defending and 'tracking back' (Berkovic is quoted as saying he thought that he was a joke)
- Gullit - was offered to Spurs in the summer of 95 when GF famously said 'what could I possibly use him for'
- Bergkamp - was offered to Spurs in the summer of 95 - GF said he was too great a risk.
(There is even the unconfirmed story that Zidane and Djaorkaef were offered to GF as a pair in the summer of 95 for less than half a million and that GF said they weren’t good enough for the premiership).
Then there is the issue of Francis’s playing style. It was the worst ever seen at WHL. During a period of several matches in early 1997 he played EIGHT defenders. I remember Jason Dozzell saying that GF was obsessed with stopping the 'other team' and never concentrated on how Spurs could impose themselves on a game. This was also the same impression GF gave to several players who refused to join Spurs after meeting him.
Finally, we have to consider his record of achievement. It still bugs me that there are lots of people who think GF did 'pretty well' (saying crap like 'steadying a sinking ship left by Ardiles), while MOST people automatically assume he was better than Gross and Ardiles. This is nonsense. When he ‘rescued us’ from Ardiles in November 1994 we had, in fact, played 12 league matches of which 5 were won, 5 lost and 2 drawn. Moroever, this had included some of the most exhilarating football seen by Spurs in a generation. When GF left us over 3 years later we were just one point off the bottom of the table nearly half-way into the season. In the previous (1996-97) season we ‘achieved’:the following
- lost 18 times - the highest number of defeats in the premiership (equal with Sunderland who were relegated)'
- our highest ever defeat in a cup competition (6-1 at Bolton)
- our worst ever premiership defeat (7-1 at Newcastle).
- lowest ever number of goals at WHL in a season - just 19 in 19 matches
But the most damning statistic of all is his record against 'good' teams. Here is his record against teams who finished in the top six either in the season the match was played or the previous season:
Played 43 Won 3 Drawn 19 Lost 21
(The 3 victories were Arsenal in Nov 95, Man U in Jan 96 and Villa in Sept 96).
GF's current stewardship of Bristol Rovers accurately sums up his level of managerial skill.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
