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05.05.2008

END OF AN ERA

On Sunday, Tottenham Hotspur, as we have known it for the past four seasons will be at an end.  The team, forged in Jol’s image, will never take the field in the competitive match again.  Have we already seen the last appearance of Berbatov, Robinson, King, Lennon, Chimbonda and Lee in Tottenham colours?  Will Dawson and Jenas play their last games against Liverpool?  Possibly, some cases, certainly in others.  Only a handful of men know the answer to those questions, and for the time being, they aren’t saying.

Nevertheless, the side which Jol built (and with the exception of Hutton and Woodgate the other nine players all were either signed by Jol, or in the cases of Keane, Robinson and King, played their best football under him) did win a trophy, albeit with Ramos in charge; the man who has been given the unenviable task of taking Tottenham to the ‘next level,’ namely, breaking the cartel of the Big Four.

So, how does this Tottenham side, as trophy winners, rank against previous silverware winning sides?  After all, a team which wins a pot can’t be a bad one, can they?  Here’s how I see they rank against other previous trophy winning Spurs sides (for the record, I wont include pre-War sides, because I don’t know enough about them).

 

1. 1959 – 1964 (Honours:  1 First Division Championship, 2 FA Cups, 1 Cup Winner’s Cup) The Classic Line Up: Brown, Baker, Henry, Norman, Blanchflower, Mackay, White, Jones, Smith, Greaves/Allen, Dyson.  Manager: Nicholson.

 

I don’t think there would be any Spurs fan in the land who would put another side above this one.  I have chosen those dates for this era because 1959 was the year Mackay arrived, and drove Tottenham to unprecedented success, and 1964 was the year White died, and the team was dismantled.  No-one can doubt the impact that side had on the English game, re-writing records that had seemed to stand in stone. 

Until that point, no side had won the double since the 19^th Century, these being the days were only one or two clubs played in Europe each season, a time when the Cup was still seen as more significant than the league, the fledgling season of the League Cup (and voluntary entry) and at least a dozen clubs fancied their chances of the title.

In 1960/61, Tottenham not only won the double, and the league with games to spare, they played the game with a flourish, unmatched in style until Arsenal’s unbeaten season, when they were finally matched.  Yet the legacy they left, long faded in many memories, is the yardstick to which all subsequent Tottenham sides have been measured, after all isn’t every new striker compared to Greaves, and every midfielder to Mackay and Blanchflower?

Tottenham won the first eleven matches of the start of that season, and to date, no-one has ever equalled that.  The following season saw Tottenham retain the FA Cup, the first time that feat had been achieved for a decade, and only the second time since 1891, reach the European Cup Semi-Finals (where the team were knocked out in distinctly dubious circumstances), and finish third in the table.  They were the first side to chase the treble, and were very unlucky not to have achieved it.

They were the first side to win a European trophy, destroying Atletico Madrid 5-1 in the final, the Spanish side a highly rated one, having finished runner’s up in La Liga that season, and holders of the Cup Winner’s Cup.

If you need further proof that this Tottenham side was the greatest ever to grace the white shirt, then consider the fact that within this era, there is the only Spurs side to win two trophies (proper trophies, not Charity Shields) in one campaign.

 

2. 1949 – 1952 (Honours: 1 First Division Championship, 1 Second Division Championship) The Classic Line Up: Ditchburn, Ramsey, Nicholson, Burgess, McClellan, Walters, Bennett, Baily, Medley, Duquemin, Murphy.  Manager: Rowe.

 

More than simply winning trophies and breaking records, as the Double winners did so breaktakingly, the push and run side created the blueprint of football in which all Tottenham teams must follow.  They played the game in the right way from the off, passing as opposed to dribbling, with the ball on the floor rather than pumped into the clouds, they even beat Newcastle, the Cup winners that season, 7-0.  It was innovative football, the precursor to Total Football, and the brother of the style which was developed by the Hungarians, also advocated by Rowe when he coached there. 

True, there have been other Tottenham teams which have won more honours, yet in the early 1950s, only two were available, being the League and Cup, as European football was still a few years away.  That innovation, that style and swagger are what made this team memorable, and ultimately what has caused all Spurs managers to insist on good football as the platform for their success, so from that perspective alone, we should be truly grateful to them.

 

3. 1980 – 1984 (Honours:  2 FA Cups, 1 UEFA Cup) The Classic Line Up: Clemence, Hughton, Perryman, Roberts, Archibald, Crooks, Hoddle, Ardiles, Galvin, Stevens, Miller.  Manager: Burkinshaw.

 

In the early 80s, Burkinshaw transformed Tottenham from a midtable outfit that played tidy football, the challengers for the title, and cup winners.  The club played in four cup finals in all, losing one, the League Cup to Liverpool in 1982 when the match went into extra time and the team tired as the long season took it’s toll.

In the 1981 final, Tottenham were not even favourites against a rejuvenated Manchester City, yet in a thrilling match, the game was settled by Ricky Villa and Ossie Ardiles, the latter orchestrating the midfield in the match, and the former scoring twice, including that weaving, wonderful goal.

That success was the platform of what was to come, as the team played for five successive season in Europe, enjoying many great European nights.  The 1981/82 season saw Tottenham reach two cup finals, winning one, and finishing fourth, and the first time the team had challenged for the title since 1970/71.  The next season they finished fourth again, just two points from second.

Ultimately, the era was ended at the board drove Burkinshaw out, his final game the UEFA Cup Final at White Hart Lane, where the club famously won its last European trophy on penalties.

 

4. 1970 – 1973 (Honours:  1 UEFA Cup, 2 League Cups) The Classic Line Up:  Jennings, Kinnear, Knowles, Mullery, England, Beal, Gilzean, Perryman, Chivers, Peters, Coates.  Manager: Nicholson.
   
    

This was Nicholson’s second great side, but unlike the previous, this team could not reach the heights which the double winners scaled, falling short in the league in 1970/71 and never getting beyond the Sixth Round in the FA Cup.  That said, 2 League Cups, sandwiching a semi final defeat to Chelsea and 2 appearances in the UEFA Cup final, sandwiching a semi final defeat to Liverpool show just how close the team were to an avalanche of silverware.

And in Knowles and England, Tottenham had two of the great defenders of the early 70s, playing in front of the top keeper of the day in Jennings, World Cup winner Peters and the dynamic forward line of Gilzean and Chivers.  Tottenham had a truly great side back in those days, and were very unlucky not to have won more than they did.

 

5. 1966/1967 (Honours:  1 FA Cup) The Classic Line Up:  Jennings, Kinnear, Knowles, Mullery, England, Mackay, Robertson, Greaves, Gilzean, Venables, Saul.  Manager: Nicholson.

 

The 1967 Cup winners are unique in Tottenham history because they are the only side to be a hybrid; part Double winners, part early 70s sides.  In those days, when managers were given time to build their sides as opposed to nowadays, when managers must achieve immediate success, and at the very top clubs, where unless you win the biggest prizes, namely the Champions League or League Championship, you are seen to have had a poor season.  Even a domestic cup win is now viewed as a bridesmaid victory, hardly worthy of thought.

Every other Tottenham team has been one that is the pinnacle of a period, created in a manager’s image, but this one was an interim side, built as one faded and another was being built.  Aside from setting a precedent of beating Chelsea in cup finals, the side also went close in the league, finishing third.

 

6. 1989 - 1991 (Honours: 1 FA Cup) The Classic Line Up:  Thorstvedt, Edinburgh, Van Den Hauwe, Sedgley, Howells, Mabbutt, Stewart, Gascoigne, Samways, Lineker, Allen.  Manager: Venables.

 

In the 1989/90 season, Tottenham made their last challenge for the title, finishing the season in third place, yet largely, that achievement has been eclipsed by the Cup win in 1991.  That win is the first trophy I can remember Tottenham winning, following as it did the 1990 World Cup, which is the first football tournament I remember (even if my most vivid recollection is of Miller dancing with the corner flag, or as one boy told us at school, that was how you had sex.  To be fair, we were six).

To my mind back then, Gazza was what football was about.  He had power, drive, skill and was slightly crazy, and to a young boy, he all of that summed up a hero.  Regardless of what happened in the final, where he virtually ruined his career, from the 1990 World Cup until the FA Cup Final in 1991, Gazza was one of, if not the, best player in the world.

Of course, most Tottenham fans, will recall the Semi Final win over Arsenal, and certainly, it was the defining moment of the era.  I think it is important to just underline how good Arsenal were at that time, just to prove what a significant victory ours was, in the biggest game between the two clubs for a few years.  In 1987 Arsenal won the League Cup, upsetting Tottenham in the semi final, they won two titles, one in 1989 and the second in 1991 as well.  Graham’s side were certainly dour, but there was no question they were effective.

So to beat that side, which was undoubtedly one of the top teams of the day, in such a manner, for the first time in many years in which the teams could be considered to be at an equal level, is a magnificent achievement.

 

7. 2005 - 2008 (Honours: 1 League Cup) The Classic Line Up:  Robinson, Chimbonda, Hutton, Woodgate, King, Jenas, Lennon, Zokora, Malbranque, Keane, Berbatov.  Managers: Jol & Ramos.

 

For the record, I would have put the 1987 side above this one, and they would be above the 1991 Cup winners too, if they had won any trophy, because the football they played was magnificent.  Yet they, like the 1982 Brazilian team, are doomed to spend history in the annals of failure, because they didn’t win anything, which means they can’t feature in this list.

That said, the current squad is not a bad one, despite the abject league performance they have lumbered through this campaign, and the fact that we might finish below West Ham just compounds matters.  Ultimately one league hopes were put paid by a bad start, partly due to bad luck, largely due to the side being unfit, the undermining of Jol, which wasted a third of the season, and after a brief rejuvenation, a lack of interest after the League Cup win, when UEFA Cup football was assured and the squad doubtless assumed everyone would be satisfied with the salvage job. 

More fool them, because their disinterest looks to be the catalyst for their break-up, and if I was someone like Dawson, who has lost his way this season, I would be concerned about my future.  And the interest of Kevin Keegan, a man with a history of walking away from jobs when they get really difficult and blowing it when pressure is put on him, wouldn’t comfort me.

Nevertheless, let’s take a step back for a moment, and look at things a little more broadly, because this campaign is the culmination of three previous campaigns.  Jol succeeded Santini, the Frenchman unable to work in the continental system which ultimately cost Jol his position, as the Dutchman went about the job which Levy had initially tasked to the triumvirate in tandem with Arnesen. 

Youthful, English players topped the list of targets, and the team was originally shaped around the spine of Robinson, King and Carrick.  The following season, Jenas arrived to add his work-rate next to Carrick’s vision, and a whole season playing the Jol way, in which Robbie Keane was to cement his spot in the side so decisively, saw Tottenham finish in the top five for the first time since 1990.  They could have done even better were it not for food poisoning on the final day.

Nevertheless, hopes were high, and Tottenham followed up their first top five finish in the Premiership with their second, finishing fifth again.  This time though, the team surged up the table, having been eleventh when they travelled to fifth place Everton in February.  A strong finish and excellent campaign in the spring, in which they went out of the League Cup in the semi final, and FA and UEFA Cups in the quarters, losing to the latter two to the two winners, and unlucky not to win any of those ties, having taken the lead in all three ties, and only losing to Seville virtue of an injury crisis which saw Tainio drafted into the backline, hopes were high going into 2007/08.

Obviously, being eight points from fourth, but having the third best form in the league in the final three months, as well as coping playing until the latter stages of every competition, you could be forgiven for the high hopes that were carried within the club and fans.  The media too (although you wont hear them say so now, they all backed us to break the evil cartel in the summer) felt Tottenham would grab a Champions League spot.

But they bottled it, and Jol was sacked as a result of poor form, largely due to what happened in the background, and Ramos came in.  The Spaniard, with a reputation as a winner, basing his footballing philosophy on retaining possession, fitness, attacking football and good tactics, was charged with salvaging the season.  And, largely using Jol’s squad, he did, taking Tottenham to the new Wembley, the third top division side to go there since it was rebuilt, and win the cup, memorably against Chelsea.  Jol’s team in the main, but Ramos’ tactics which got the team there, the Spaniard’s player who scored the winner, and his substitutions which turned the match.

 

8. 1998/1999 (Honours:  1 League Cup)  The Classic Line Up:  Walker, Carr, Edinburgh, Campbell, Vega, Anderton, Freund, Nielsen, Ginola, Ferdinand, Iversen.  Manager:  Graham.

 

I’ll be honest, I don’t rate the 1999 side that highly.  In fact, there have been plenty of seasons in which Tottenham have achieved far less but which the team has been far greater, the 2002 League Cup finalists for starters.  The final was hardly a classic, the goal scored in the dying moments, and the football they played, Ginola apart, was hardly in Tottenham tradition, yet cup winners they remain, and you cant knock them because of it.  Besides, they reached the FA Cup semi final too, and were unlucky not to get through.  And they were the only English team apart from Manchester United to win a trophy, so they can’t have been that bad.

That season, Johan Cruyff proclaimed Ginola the best player in the world, similarly, so did the players and football writers award him as the best player in the Premier League that season, despite Manchester United’s treble triumph.  Yet there were plenty of weaknesses within that side too, Walker and Vega had their critics, as did Anderton and Nielsen.  Iversen never fulfilled his potential, and Ferdinand couldn’t recreate his Newcastle form.

The sale of Ginola, at the end of the following season, pulled out the one cog on which it looked like the team could be built, as Graham went about building another dour side, in the image of his previous Arsenal and Leeds sides.  So yet again, what should have been a springboard to success was eroded because the team was dismantled, rather than built upon.  In this case, the manager, winning a trophy with a collection of players he inherited, wanted a team more befitted of his style, hopefully history wont repeat itself this time, and the side which Ramos builds wont fail to build upon what we have just achieved.

Has Richard got it right about the teams that made the club famous ?  And will history come back to bite us on the bottom ? E-mail us at mehstg@blueyonder.co.uk to let us know your views.

22.04.2008

THE KING OF HARTS

Can you name all the black players who have captained English clubs to silverware?

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No ?  I’ll give you a club, there are three of them.

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The men in question I was seeking, were Sol Campbell, Patrick Vieira and Ledley King.

That’s it, which is incredible when you consider there have been black players in the top flight and lining up for England since the 1970s, but perhaps not so when you realise that there are only a handful of black men ever to manage an English Football League club, of which Ince at MK Dons is the only one that springs instantly to mind.

Of course, two of those black captains lifted trophies at Tottenham, although Vieira is the only one of the trio to lift two different trophies.  And if Campbell captains Portsmouth and wins the FA Cup this season, then he will be the first black captain to lift two different trophies with two different clubs.

I don’t want to dwell any further on any achievement Campbell makes in the game, because the man deserves absolutely none of them, and I’ll leave aside Vieira because he played for the enemy, but notwithstanding, there is no question Ledley King joined in February a very elite band of men in the English game.

It takes desire, commitment, mental strength and self belief to reach the position that Ledley has done, and his position as captain at the club perhaps reveals more about the man than his on pitch persona seems to suggest.  The very fact that Rio Ferdinand is the first black player to captain England, in 2008, tells you just what beliefs and views he could have had to overcome to first become a professional player, and then captain of one of the biggest clubs in England.  Naturally, this all makes Ledley King a role model for black youngsters, showing they can achieve success if they want to. 

Even so, from the interviews I have seen of King, he seems a very shy young man, and one who certainly doesn’t revel in the limelight and almost circus-like attention which seems to follow in the Premier League’s wake, and he probably would feel his rise through the ranks first to the first team, then becoming captain before finally winning the League Cup this season, was part of his job, in the same way you or I would accept a promotion offered by our respective company’s.

Aside from being a black role model, let’s consider Ledley King the player, and the role he has played at Tottenham Hotspur since he made his first team debut.  King became a professional in 1998, making his debut away to Liverpool in 1999.  By 2000, he was playing in midfield, and starting to make a name for himself in that role, even scoring the fastest ever Premier League goal away to Bradford in that year.

He was integral in Tottenham’s FA Cup run in 2001, when the club were beset by injuries, and the following season, when that other black cup-winning captain for Tottenham left to join the enemy, he emerged from his shadow to make his name as the top defender at the club.  And who amongst us doesn’t remember the pictures of a youthful Ledley King sitting on the Cardiff turf after Tottenham had lost the 2002 League Cup final to Blackburn? 

However, that pain was cushion somewhat for Ledley by his first cap for England.  Despite his obvious talent, King has won just eighteen caps for England, which is even more outrageous when you consider that Phil Neville has over fifty (in fact, if Neville has that many, where are my England caps?).

In the following campaign, he suffered a hip injury which put him out for a long period of the season, a campaign in which Tottenham struggled towards the end and shipped a large number of goals.  In 2003, Hoddle was sacked, and King was moved back into midfield by Pleat, who wished to offer his defence more cover.  The move seemed to have some impact, and the team were able to consolidate their Premier League status.

However, once more King showed signs of the form which had already interested a number of Premiership clubs, and Eriksson showed no hesitation in bringing the player into his Euro 2004 squad.  If there were any doubters to his ability, they would have been blown aside after his performance against France in the opening group match, in which he totally marked Thierry Henry, then the best player in the Premier League, and one of the top players in the world, out of the game. 

Compare that to Terry’s shaky performance in the same game next to him, and it is hard to understand the criminal decision which meant the Chelsea man kept his spot at the expense of King.

Back at Spurs, and following Euro 2004, Ledley King finally was given a defensive partner able to bring him on to the sustained level which all Spurs fans were now hoping for.  Naybet joined, and by Christmas King was producing the sustained performance’s his potential had always hinted at.  In January of that season, after Redknapp left for Southampton, he was appointed Club Captain by new manager Martin Jol.

In his first full season as captain, and King almost led Tottenham to the promised land of the Champions League, as the club eventually finished fifth.  After being fourth for so long, it was hard for all of us to accept the manner in which Arsenal usurped us, yet looking back perhaps it is unsurprising as King injured himself at Everton, with a handful of games to go.

That injury more or less blighted his entire campaign the following season, as he played less than half the games, and the defence acted like a colander.  This season, as we know, has been the same, with King not featuring until Boxing Day.

More than simply his longevity at the club, it is his talent which makes King such a great player.  What stands out so much is his pace, yet he is such a great reader of the game, strong tackler and solid in the air.  These days, defenders are more than simply players who are employed to hack the ball away from their goal, and lunge fearlessly into challenges designed to take the man and the ball.

Defence in the modern game requires a great deal of patience, and a sizeable degree of subtly.  With most challenges that would have been deemed acceptable in twenty years ago receiving a caution these days, a defender’s prime asset is not tackling, but the ability to read the ball, make good judgements and position himself well to intercept passes.  Of course, tackling hasn’t left the game wholly, yet the is no question it is slowly being driven out.

King has these assets in abundance.  If you want to see his pace, go to You Tube and look for his last ditch challenge on Robben last season, when he outpaced one of the fastest players in the world or his tackle on Huckerby in Norwich’s last trip to White Hart Lane.  You only have to watch the League Cup final from this season to see all the other aspects of his game, and suddenly his value to club becomes obvious.

So imagine my surprise when I hear Ramos say last week he is considering taking the captaincy from him, and even letting Ledley King go if he can't manage to play every week.  To my mind, Ledley King is the club.  One of the few players in recent seasons to actually emerge from the Tottenham youth setup and establish himself at the club, he is one of us, immersed in Tottenham heritage.  The only man even close, in Tottenhamness, is Robbie Keane.

The media, and I’m sure plenty of fans, will consider the Berbatov saga the more interesting of the summer in terms of our club, yet it isn’t the case at all.  Berbatov is a frighteningly good talent, and I speak as a man who has watched him play live what must be close to fifty times, yet he came to England with an agenda; raise his profile, get into a team capable of winning trophies and playing Champions League football.  And let’s face facts, we aren’t likely to be in the top four next season either, because with the number of players Ramos probably isn’t happy with, I expect a hefty amount of the squad to be changed in the summer, and teams take time to take shape, so we might as well get more money for Berbatov this summer, and spend it on his replacement and bringing in some substance to the midfield.

Besides which, when King has been out of the side, Tottenham laboured to fifth last season and have struggled for consistency this campaign.  Before Berbatov, Tottenham were ninety minutes away from the Champions League.  So to my mind, losing King is a bigger story, because he is Tottenham.  And if he is thrust out of the club this summer, I for one would be distraught.

 

Do you agree with Richard about Ledders ?  Will it change the feel of the club if he does leave ? E-mail us at mehstg@blueyonder.co.uk to let us know your views.

07.04.2008

THE STATE OF PLAY

Are Tottenham the highest maintenance side in the world?  Is there any other side who could capitulate quite so remarkably to Newcastle, ten days after such a stirring comeback against Chelsea?  Add to that that Tottenham tend to labour to breakdown a lot of sides (and if you watch them as often as I have, you will realise how frustratingly true that is, despite all the goals we have scored) and look about as easy to score against Derby County.

Ramos hit the nail on the head last week when he commented that the team seem to perform well against the top sides, but struggle against the lesser sides.  Welcome to Tottenham, Juande, we’ve been doing that more or less every season since the 1960s.

Yet at least Ramos wants to change the culture of the club, turning it into a consistent side.  To do that, however, he will need to change the ethos at Spurs from top to bottom.  Not giving you manager the support or freedom to operate in the transfer market as he wishes instantly spring to mind, but it is deeper than that.  How many youth players break into the first team?  O’Hara and King are the only two, and that is a poor return, especially when you consider just how many youth players break into the Manchester United first team.  And what about the freedom of information surrounding the club?  How often are we aware of Tottenham’s transfer targets and departing players when the windows rear their ugly heads?  What about the fact that everyone in the stadium knew Martin Jol was about to be/had been/ in the process of being sacked during the Getafe match?  Professional, well run, businesses should be able to ensure their employees don’t go blabbing. 

That said, in Ramos we have someone who has already changed the whole face of his previous clubs, bringing unparalleled sustained success to most of his former teams.  Twice promoted from Spain’s second tier, his serious success has been well documented, coming at Sevilla, where he won two UEFA Cups and a Spanish Cup.  When you consider the fact that the two Seville based clubs, Sevilla and Betis, are akin to Newcastle and Sunderland, in that they have huge fanbases yet never seem to win anything, (it is not even uncommon to see them in the second flight, just as Newcastle were in the 1980s and Sunderland very recently) you can see exactly why he was praised so highly in Spain. 

That therefore makes the Tottenham job the biggest of his career to date, and not only must he step up to the challenge, but he must also adapt to the Premier League in the process.  Let us not forget that before Jol, Tottenham hadn’t finished in the top six for fifteen years, and after two successive fifth placed finishes the board decided to eject him.  So if Ramos thinks the Carling Cup win might have given him some breathing space, he has another thing coming. 

Standards are high at Tottenham, and rightly so.  If people ask me what I think Tottenham should be aiming for over the next few seasons, I will say that next year I would be happy to have our fifth place back again, and a proper tilt at all the cups, but from that point onwards I want a Champions League place.  Some might call that arrogant, that Spurs have no place up there because they have never featured in the competition before, and only once played in the European Cup, but there was a time when Liverpool hadn’t either, and besides, ambition means you set yourself challenging targets, doesn’t it ? 

I think the club, in general, shares that ambition.  We supposedly have a better training ground than Real Madrid’s, we are a rich, and financially well run club (probably the best thing ENIC does is the books), we are well supported and are looking to build a new ground, or improve White Hart Lane, we seem to have an improving scouting network and academy system.  Naturally, there is still potential for growth, yet it is moving in the right direction.  That said, the area where Tottenham have fallen down so dramatically this season, is on the pitch, specifically the current first team. 

You could ask any man propping up any bar stall in any pub in the country at the start of this season, and they would have highlighted our defence as the key area that needed improving.  Who did we get?  Darren Bent, a player who seems light years away from the type of forward we need anyway, let alone a defender.  Yes, we bought Bale and Kaboul, yet they didn’t have the experience required to break the top four, and youthful potential can only take you so far.   

When the board took on Jol, the club’s policy was firmly based around buying in the brightest youngsters they could, and form a side that had the potential to one day challenge the established teams.  If was refreshing, it was innovative, and it almost worked.  But this type of policy requires patience, and when the club came so close, as they did in 2005/06, you can forgive a little bit if expectations are raised.  That said, there seemed a decisive policy shift around this point, as the board decided the policy was not only a good one, but would deliver success in a set timeframe.  But when you want to achieve things, you need the knowledge and craft to do so.  I might be able to paint a fence, but when you want to paint a bridge, you hire an experienced contractor.  You get someone in who knows how to do the job, a professional.  It’s the same with players.  You can blood youngster and sign players who are looking to make the step up all you want, but if you want to achieve something you need to have a core of players capable and experienced at playing at that standard.  Tottenham forgot that in the summer, and felt that their policy of buying youthful, talented players would see them safely into the top four. 

Fast forward to January, and it clear wasn’t just Jol who was bemoaning the summer signings, but his successor.  Add to this that Comolli’s job is on the line if Ramos failed, and suddenly the this policy has been put on hold.  Ramos’ decision to bring in four defenders in January was an obvious one.  Woodgate and Hutton certainly look the business and tick the boxes that should have been ticked in the summer.  If you add King to the mix, and he stays fit for the thirty league games next season (please God) then you have the basis for a decent defence.  Bale is hopefully the player Ramos will plump for at left back, because Gilberto already does not look good enough to fill that slot, and is not even able to displace the disinterested Chimbonda. 

What is more key now is the question of who will start the season between the sticks.  I don’t know what happened to Robinson at the World Cup in 2006, but the decent keeper we sent off to Germany came back a shadow, and he has only diminished subsequently.  There are plenty of rumours circulating at the moment which suggest he was offered for sale in January, but there weren’t any takers.   

I don’t believe that in the slightest.  He is still a decent keeper on his day, and an incredible shot stopper.  Plenty of times I have already accepted we have conceded when he makes a point blank save to keep the scores level.  The problem is that two minutes later he stands behind his wall and sticks his arm out as the ball flies into the empty, gaping half of the goal when an opponent gets a free kick. 

He isn’t what we need if we want to break that top four.  We need someone who is going to be comfortable guarding his net for 85 minutes of a match, before springing into action when seriously threatened.  That what Cech does so well, because when Chelsea are exposed he makes so few mistakes that it becomes so hard to break them down. 

I like the look of this Lopez guy, who currently plays for Villarreal.  He looks like he might be the above kind of keeper, who can not only make a save when it counts, but actually dominate his box in the way Robinson fails to.  The problem is his fee, which is £27 million.  However, what a good keeper can guarantee you is ten to fifteen extra points a season, over the average ones.  Confidence at the back radiates through the team, so you could even say that it’s not even the points a keeper has tangibly picked up from match winning saves, but the belief inspired in his team-mates that one or two goals is enough to win that a good keeper brings you. 

I’ve spoken previously about the need to beef up our midfield and get some proper, creative midfielders in the side, especially wide men.  Add to that the need to bring in a forward capable of challenging Keane and Berbatov, yet happy to sit behind them for long periods and offering something different.  This need might require two forwards, probably one youngster and an older player.  When you total that up, and our existing needs at the back, you are looking for seven or eight players for the first team, with the same number going out. 

We have seen previously that a dramatic intake of players disrupts the team, although this summer will be the one that Ramos uses to lay down his foundations for building his side, it is worrying nevertheless.  Clearly, he doesn’t favour the same types of players as Jol, favouring an aggressive, fit, possession based attacking side over a ball playing, technical, possession based attacking side that the Dutchman preferred. 

I am concerned that the one area in which Jol was vastly superior over Ramos, that being team building and spirit, is being eroded by events behind the scenes at White Hart Lane.  Berbatov seems as moody as ever, Chimbonda clearly doesn’t want to be there, half a dozen players are frozen out, and another few are treated badly despite their obvious commitment.  Hauling Keane off, for instance, match after match doesn’t do his confidence any good, and his goals have dried up as a result.  I can appreciate that Ramos wants to be certain about every player at his disposal, and therefore needs to give others game time, in particular Bent, but spirit is a key element to success. 

Chelsea were most effective under Mourinho when they worked as unit, when they seemed machine-like in their actions.  Manchester United have always had that togetherness, generated by Ferguson’s ability to create a siege mentality around his team.  When you consider too, that Arsenal’s season has unravelled since Bendtner and Adebayor decided to have a fight in our penalty box in January, and Gallas’ reaction to the draw at Birmingham, you can see just how important it is. 

It is the thing, arguably the only thing, which Keegan does best, and the reason why his Newcastle side were so high in the table in the past.  He doesn’t worry about tactics, he just sends his players out to play.  It shouldn’t work in the modern Premiership, but in the nineties it saw his team soar to the upper echelons on the table. 

I am, of course, looking at the foundations and worrying about future cracks.  I don’t know if Ramos will worry about this aspect of the team until the summer, when he has assembled the core of his squad.  I hope that is the case, because we have been through the poor man management of Graham with Ginola and Hoddle with Freund to know that in these days of player power, you have to treat them with some degree of kid gloves, even if their petulance doesn’t deserve it 

This summer, therefore, is as important for Tottenham as it is for Ramos.  It is the biggest club he has managed, and one capable, on paper at least, of establishing themselves at the top of the world game.  Don’t believe me?  Well consider that we are the fourth best supported team in the country, eleventh richest in the world, and could have a genuinely world class training ground.  And that’s without playing a minute of Champions League football and after being crap for fifteen years. 

We need him to get this right, because at the moment we are still a magnet for some of the best players in the world, and we need this current league campaign to be a blip rather than a return to the status quo.  In short, in six weeks time, Ramos’ work at Tottenham really begins, and the man cannot be judged as a success or failure until that time.

24.03.2008

ENIGMA
 

‘A riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.’ 
 

Churchill may have said those words about Russia in 1941, yet they could so easily be applied to Jermaine Jenas.  The stand out player in both semi final legs against Arsenal, in which he scored in both games, and one of the best players on the pitch in the Carling Cup Final this year, it is quite clear that Jenas has it within himself to become one of the star players in the Premier League.  But then compare those performances to the one against Chelsea, last week, or in the first leg against PSV.  Okay, so in the latter none of our players exactly performed to their highest ability, but in these types of game the area of the pitch most key to victory is the midfield; control that, and you win the game. 

I’m of the opinion that Ramos will hold on to Jenas next season, and will look for someone physical to line up next to him.  If that is the case, then we need Jenas to not only find consistency, but perform to the same standard as Gerrard, Lampard, Fabregas and Ronaldo.  That is the standard we will need from him if we are to break into the top four, as that position is key to sustained success. 

But, before we go any further, let consider Jenas’ background, because that is key to understanding exactly the type of player we have on our books.  Jenas is twenty-five years old, and has played in the Premier League since 2006.  Tottenham are his third club, having played previously for Nottingham Forest in what is now the Championship (what used to be the First Division and what should be the Second Division), before moving to Newcastle for five million. 

Jenas only played one full season for Forest, in which they lined up with a number of youngsters.  The following season, they reached the play-offs, proof that the team from which Jenas graduated was a good one, although still learning their trade in the season he played for them. 

In his first season at Newcastle, he won the PFA Young Player of the Year Award, scoring six goals in the league.  Yet he couldn’t build on his impressive debut season, and his next two campaigns were disappointing.  After three full seasons at Newcastle, he arrived at Tottenham for seven million.  

When he arrived at Spurs, he was clearly a player low on confidence and Jol did a very good job in rebuilding the player’s morale and self belief over the season.  The result was a vintage season for Jenas, as he hit six goals in thirty league games for the club, as they went to the cusp of Champions League qualification. 

The following season he hit the same number of goals, although only in twenty-five matches, and for the first time you could see the important role he played for the side.  In the previous campaign to the last, his good season had been overshadowed by Carrick’s awesome displays, Lennon’s emergence and Davids’ battling.  But last season, with Carrick gone and Davids in the background, Jenas’ energy became all the more key.  That was underlined to me in the second leg of the Arsenal cup matches, where he was absent and the FA Cup match against Southend, which he dominated. 

Most of the media seem agreed that Jenas is the most improved player since Ramos’ arrival at the club, doubtless due to the fact that Jenas has a reputation as an energetic, box to box midfielder.  The Spaniards much publicised and lauded fitness regime undoubtedly served to improve Jenas, who looked the fittest player in the Jol era as it was. 

These days, he does seem to impose himself for longer on matches, especially against the lesser sides at home, but he still needs to dominate games against the top sides, and away from home there are plenty of Tottenham players who seem to play within themselves.  Nonetheless, Jenas is key to Tottenham hopes. 

About a yet ago, I wrote that Jenas’ return to the side had coincided with a resurgence within Tottenham, and a run of five matches.  I also wrote that to break the top four, you need a goalscoring midfielder.  That hasn’t changed, in fact, Ronaldo has underlined the need all too readily this campaign, but I will add also that whoever plays in the centre needs to impose themselves on matches, and control the games. 

The question begs itself, therefore, considering the length of time Jenas has played in the top flight, and the frequency with which he is called into the England squad, why Jenas isn’t more focal in more matches.  He is a player who gets into goalscoring positions on a surprisingly regular basis; he sets up goals, he can tackle, dribble, beat a man, pass, run, cover, out muscle, and score, but what is most frustrating is his failure to maintain that, and link it all together. 

In his first season at Tottenham, on his return to Newcastle, Jenas had the ball in the box and, faced with an open goal after beating a couple of defenders and with Given nowhere in sight, he blasted the ball into the crowd.  Was that a sign of a lack of composure, or something deeper?  A season later, who can forget the open goal he faced at Anfield when the score was 0-0 and all he had to do was slide the ball into the net, and he touched it wide?  What about this season in Eindhoven, where he was brilliant for 120 minutes, and stepping up for the final spot kick, produced a terrible penalty, without any disguise on the direction, and at a saveable height ? 

You could claim that these events speak of bad luck, you could claim they show a lack of composure, but I think it is something deeper than that.  He doesn’t seem like he has faced any real setbacks in his life to date, and consequently has never had to prove himself in anything.  As a youngster you could imagine that he was head and shoulders better than anyone else at the game, because he is so full of running and so talented with the ball.  That creates complacency, because he has never had to prove his talent. 

At Forest, he made his debut at eighteen, and a year later was at Newcastle, who at the time were one of the clubs vying for a Champions League spot.  Doesn’t seem like he exactly had to fight for his place there either, does it?  When it all comes so easily too you throughout your life, you don’t learn how to fight to get what you want, or overcome a setback.  I’m of the belief that this element of his temperament is what is chiefly responsible for his inability to impose himself on matches. 

And this is where Ramos’ role comes into it, to my mind.  The Spaniard has a reputation for getting players and teams to believe in themselves and not on match the top sides on a match to match basis, but across the whole season.  He had already shown that this season with Tottenham, beating Arsenal and Chelsea and drawing with Manchester United and Chelsea in the league at White Hart Lane.  In Spain, he won two UEFA Cups and the Spanish Cup in two years with Seville, a club similar to Newcastle or Sunderland in England. 

So he has a track record in getting the best out of players, and a reputation for winning trophies.  That is good news for us, because if he can get Jenas firing and performing at the level he has shown in brief flashes, then we might well be able to match the big four over the course of a league season for the first time in three seasons. 

To my mind, there is still one piece of the puzzle missing.  Not only must Ramos train the right mentality and temperament into Jenas, he must also find someone to play alongside him who can compliment him.  Jenas is a slight player, and sometimes it seems as though he has been bullied out of games, and fades in the fiercest arenas.  Having a Dave Mackay style battler next to him will free him up to play his game, and perhaps give him the confidence to produce consistent high level performances.  And if Ramos and Tottenham are serious about reaching the highest level, then they must crack the code of the enigma that is Jermaine Jenas.

 

Do you think Richard is right ?  E-mail us at mehstg@blueyonder.co.uk to let us know your views.

10.03.2008

BRAVE NEW WORLD

The 1932 novel by Aldous Huxley of the above name concerns itself with John, a savage from Malpais, a land which was outside of the ‘civilised’ world of the future.  In the book, John was the son of a woman from the world outside the compound, who had been abandoned there.   John was an outcast from the tribe which his mother attached herself too, as he was deemed not one of them and denied the chance to participate in the various rite of passage which all the young boys of the tribe were put through.

Only when Bernard, a psychologist, goes to the reservation and discovers John, does he bring him and his mother back to the civilised world.  John had dreamed of such a place since his childhood, taught him stories of the world she had come from and given him a glorious ideal of the world outside the reservation to which he had been born.

Yet John, on entering this new world, discovers he hates it, and finds their values and beliefs totally alien to his own.  John was rejected by the society to which he was born, and unable to fathom the one which he had joined.  And there are times, when considering modern day European football, that I sometimes feel like John the savage; because the label on the can I opened does not tell the whole truth.

I’ll leave aside the two things I despise most about the current incarnation of the UEFA Cup, those being the ludicrously unfair group stage, where you play two teams at home and two away, and the fact that the Champions League losers get to drop into the competition, a fact which thoroughly devalues it, because the thing most evident to me on Thursday was that PSV arrived to nullify us and win, the way you would approach an away match in the league.

In the 1950s and 60s, when European football was a new and all European campaigns were adventures into the unknown, excitement in these games was expected.  The game in those days was vastly different from today anyway; all teams felt it was their responsibility to entertain, and every team went out to win every match they played. 

I am far too young to have been present in those early European adventures for Tottenham, yet I’m told of memorable matches against Dukla Prague and Benfica in our solitary European Cup season, and of the wondrous manner in which we played in the following season’s Cup Winner’s Cup, culminating with the 5-1 demolition of Atletico Madrid in the final.  Tottenham became the first British Club to win a European trophy in that season, and ever since they have been synonymous with European football.

A few more European campaigns followed in the 60s, yet it wasn’t until 1971 that Tottenham first played in the UEFA Cup, the inaugural season of that competition, and won the competition.  The following season, they lost to Liverpool in the semi finals, and in 1973/74, they lost to Feyenoord in the final.  Between 1981 and 1985, Tottenham also qualified for European competition.  In 1981/82, and 1982/83 they were in the Cup Winner’s Cup, in 1983/84 and 1984/85 they were in the UEFA Cup, winning the competition in the first of those seasons.

But following that, there was the Heysel tragedy, and English clubs were banned from European competition for five seasons.  When the ban was lifted, Tottenham appeared in the Cup Winner’s Cup in 1991/92, but they were a shadow of what they once had been.  Financial difficulties meant the club had sold off their top players, and had begun to slip into mid-table, where we were destined to languish for the next twelve years.  Despite that, two brief European campaigns were still embarked upon; the Intertoto cup in 1995/96, and the UEFA Cup in 1999/2000.

And that was about it.  And while we Tottenham fans sat outside of European competition for such a long period of time, effectively since 1985 because the three campaigns in the interim were so brief, the game in Europe change absolutely.  In the old days, Europe was a reward for a successful domestic campaign.  It wasn’t guaranteed or expected, it was special.  Straight forward, two-legged, knockout matches went from start to finish, and fans would flock to the games to see if their side, made up almost exclusively of British players, would line up against foreign players and teams that had never been heard of.  In some cases, players such as Johan Cruyff and Beckenbauer would arrive at British grounds, players who would have only been seen on television sets in the World Cup, and never in the flesh.

Yet familiarity breeds contempt, and European football is a world away from those days now.  Manchester United have enjoyed consecutive Champion’s League seasons since 1996, and Arsenal since 1999.  Clubs now are guaranteed a number of money spinning fixtures in a group stage before the competition enters its serious phase post Christmas, and all matches are on television.

PSV are one such club who are typical of this new type of European club.  They seem to appear in the Champions League every season, and in more recent campaigns have reached the quarter and semi finals of that competition.  No longer holding its special-ness for PSV, and with the easy access to football from across the world and the very nature of football, which sees the top players invariably end up with the bigger clubs in the biggest leagues, PSV would have found no surprises when they faced Tottenham, and we would have had little when they lined up against us.

They came with a game plan, to nullify our attacks, pack the midfield and deny us space and time to threaten.  They set themselves up to be cagey, to hit us on the break and suck us in deep, to deny us the ball for long periods, and chase the game, and to pounce on mistakes.  That’s exactly how they play when they go to the Ajax ArenA or De Kuip.  And, as lacklustre as I think we were, I’m not going to take away anything from their performance.

But, as someone pointed out to me in the week before the game, in the modern European game, its not about what you do at home, but what you do away that counts.  Arsenal avoided conceding at home against AC Milan, and once they nullified the Italians and Fabregas’ speculative long shot went in, they were through.  Likewise, last season AC drew 2-2 with Bayern Munich in the San Siro and won in Germany by two goals in the return.

Liverpool beat Barcelona in the last sixteen in the Nou Camp and PSV in the Phillips Stadium, yet they lost to the Spaniards at Anfield and only beat a well beaten PSV 1-0 in the second leg.  So too, did Chelsea knockout Valencia in Spain last season.

And this is not a recent development either, only impacting Europe in the last two seasons, because Bayer Leverkusen were ruthlessly attacking the first leg of their Champions League semi final in 2002 against Manchester United, ensuring they left the north-west with a 2-2 draw.  In the home match, they were cagey and tight, and did enough to progress.

Away goals are what counts nowadays, and with that in mind we should be pleased that PSV were only able to pick up one.  They don’t get any further chance to get an away goal in the tie, whereas we do.  Equally, the tie is not dead, and the Dutch team will know that.  As Gilberto so dreadfully showed on Thursday, it only takes one mistake to change the face of a game, and in Holland it that chance falls to us first and is taken, it will wholly change the face of the tie.

The Dutch fans would urge their team on, as the home side, they would attack, leaving space to exploit at the back, and if Berbatov, Keane, Lennon and Malbranque are playing as we all know they can, it could provide a second.  And then PSV need two, and in Europe, that’s a mountain to collectively overcome.  We have nothing to lose in this tie, whereas PSV might be tempted to hold onto what they have.  And, as with everything, to the brave go the spoils.  Its time for Tottenham to stand up, and yet again, be counted.