A Unique Opportunity for Spurs

By: Daryl | October 23rd, 2008

Times are tough at Tottenham Hotspur. When you’re bottom of the Premier League with two points from eight games, and a national newspaper is publishing 25 jokes about your team (some of which are better than others) it’s definitely time to worry.

Most clubs in this situation would sack the manager. And the vultures are already circling Juande Ramos in expectation of a kill.

And in some ways a firing makes sense. It’s the quick fix that can break the tension and – sometimes – turn results around. But Spurs have done that before (many many times) and look where it’s led them: To the bottom of the Prem. So maybe it’s time for a change of approach.

I know it looks bad for Ramos. And maybe replacing him would bring about results in the short term. But not in the long term. Ramos himself is evidence of that.

It was only last season that the pressure was on to get rid of Martin Jol. And now just a year later, Jol is sitting on top of the Bundesliga with Hamburg and getting rid of him looks like a huge mistake. It just seemed like part of the cycle of football at the time: things get bad, managers get sacked. And the fact that Jol was initially a caretaker manager made it easier to get rid of him.

But Ramos was very much the man Spurs wanted, as Martin Jol well knows. So here’s hoping Spurs break the vicious cirlce of hire-fire-repeat and stand by their man until things turn around. For the good of Spurs and for the good of football in general. Because if one team can prove that faith in a beleaguered manager works out better than a hasty firing, then other teams might follow.

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Category: English Premier League

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Rik

"Most clubs in this situation would sack the manager. And the vultures are already circling Juande Ramos in expectation of a kill."

Didn't take long did it?! Feel a little sorry for Ramos, not sure why, but you can't really argue with the sacking when you look at the table. With Redknapp there now, they won't be bottom come Christmas!
diana

Bentley was dropped ahead of the match at Udinese. According to what I read, it was due to something he said in an interview he did ahead of the match.
Chris

Karma's a bitch, ain't it? ;)
James

I just wanted to know since Ramos arrived in England has he gotten an English tutor?

I just remember Capello getting one and many foreign managers, I just wanted to know if he got one or not.
Later Ramos

I don't understand, what "big guns" does he have to rest against the minnows? Giovanni? David Bentley? Luka Modric? Dare I say, Pavlyuchenko? Four "big guns" with an amazing 5 goals amongst them. Face it, no one on his team can score. They simple don't know how to play together, and the loss of the team's important players (in my opinion, especially Robbie Keane) is really starting to take its toll. His board made the incredibly intelligent move of selling their last two "big guns" to big four teams, which will obviously was a trick to help them crack the top of the table. Not to mention, they sold the current second top scorer in the league.

But what am I talking about? As an Gunner, this season is off to an amazing start. If we don't win a thing, at least I can laugh at Sp*rs getting relegated.
Spurs est 1882*

Jaunde will turn this around, I have faith, and I think the board do too. The problem has come because of his lack of understanding of the importance of beating the little teams. In La Liga you could rest your big guns against the minnows, in the PL you cant.

If we had won the first 3, lost the next 8, and then won again people would not say anything. Right now its just a bad situation made worse by timing.
James

I don't think the lack of success is surprising considering how many players were sold. Patience in football is truly a remarkable thing that's seldomly seen, but when it is... great things happen.

I support UNAM, a mexican team. I remember some years ago they won the league back to back and then they had a terrible downturn because of sold players. Slowly but surely the team has been rebuilt and they even were finalists some time ago.
Mat

I used to watch Sevilla a lot couple of years back and so what's happening at Spurs astonishes me to a certain extent.. I always thought that a good manager would be good in any league... maybe he just needs time to adjust to the English way of playing..more direct than the Spanish..but if anyone has watched Sevilla over the years, its fair to say that they were one of the most direct teams to play in the Liga....
One of the biggest problems might be his grasp of English..its really hard to convey your message through an interpretor I think....it dilutes its importance... another factor is the chairman and the sporting director.. they knew that they were loosing Berba...but how could they have let Keane slip through..and when they did not have any replacements...Roman Pavlyuchenko was good only in the Euros.. you can't expect him to do the business week in..week out..
but Ramos should be given more time..I agree...
Adam

Couldn't agree more. I remember a few seasons back David Moyes struggling at Everton - they stuck by him and are a stable team competing regularly in Europe now. The Spurs board wanted Ramos, and he doesn't become rubbish overnight, so they have to stick with him.