SPURS 1 SUNDERLAND 2

To all the moist Spurs fans that got their knickers wet in pre-season.....dry them. Saturdays home defeat against Sunderland illustrated that as much as we can stand back and slag off the players, the management have to take responsibility. Why over complicate matters with 4-5-1 formations (leaving Bent stranded, again) and players out of positions (Bale, Zokora, Bentley...)?

We have failed in our summer preparations to start the season with a bang, and have managed to replicate the start of last season with two lacklustre ordinary average performances.

Do we need time to gel? A little, but not something as drastic as two straight defeats. It's avoidable. The quality is there. It’s just not being maximised. It’s mostly all down to the tactics and the manager. Ramos has to motivate and instruct, and on this showing the belief is lacking and the structure is weak. Play the players in the most comfortable position available for them, let them get to grips with their new team mates by using a basic 4-4-2 (just play dos Santos upfront with Bent - again, not ideal but we have nobody else).

The Berbatov situation is now farcical. Wasn’t even in the squad because his mind wasn’t right. There is no shadow of a doubt he will leave, and that has never changed – regardless of Levy and his complaints. So if he isn’t going to play, he is not only redundant but he’s also (as the club have said countless times) a negative influence. Send him on his way, get him as far away as possible because there’s no repair for this breakdown.

I’m going to sound like a broken record, but how on earth have we managed to find ourselves in this type of situation? Again? If you profiled Spurs as a club, regardless of the year or chairman or players or coaching staff – we always take backwards steps when walking forwards is the easiest option.

Keane. Gone.
Berbatov. Going.
Bent. The only recognised striker in our squad (because we don’t actually rate our ‘kids’ to give them a chance preferring to delude everyone they need a loan spell before making it to our first time).

With two defeats out of three (make it three in three after next Sunday), we have no firepower. Maybe Bent won’t be left on his own now that two games have proven the system does not work. Even a poorish Spurs side with an unbalance midfield can rape the oppositions defence. We did that countless times last year with Berba and Keano. I’m not saying it’s an easy thing to replace both, but we have had a shedload of time to do so, and although I understand that the club ‘knows best’ and might be working their little cotton socks off behind the scenes to bring in two quality players – surely we could have sorted it before the season kicked off? Six points gone, with a serious chunk of creative spark and shots on goal disappearing with it.

But it's only two games. Well, three if you include the tonking Chelsea will dish us next weekend. Bottom of the Prem, here we come. Only way is up, yeah?

Considering how easy it is for us to buy attack minded players, I refuse to believe that we were also incapable of bringing in a fucking for fucks sake defensive fucking midfielder. Just because Arsenal have a shit midfield doesn’t mean we can get away with it too. Broken record time again, we need a sodding DM yesterday. Not sure what Jenas is meant to be. And no, I’m not going to do the easy thing and blast the lad like the easy target he is. He shouldn’t be vice-captain, and it's not his fault he is. He has problems with his own self-confidence, so how on earth is he meant to inspire the rest of our lot? He was one of our better players on Saturday. But he isn't the leader this club needs so badly.

It’s all really quite simplistic. We get drowned in all the hype (self-made by us and the tabloids) when in reality unfulfilled potential equates to not being very good. That's Jenas and Spurs.

If we had Berba and Keane upfront, we probably would have won both games, simply due to the chances we would have created. Sure, it would have possibly masked the weakness of a DM-free midfield and a defence that needs a recognised RB and another CB to cover our Rolls Royce with a puncture. But the world-class Berbatov and the energetic Irish cartwheel would have been the inspiration to the rest of the team. Goals breed confidence.

But there is no Keane or Berbatov. And Ramos and Poyet are getting it all wrong with the fancy stuff. If this is a damage limitation exercise till the 4 (we live in eternal hope) new signings are brought in – then we are getting it wrong, epically.

Five wins in the calendar year of 2008 speaks volumes about how bad we have been since that Carling Cup final. Spurs have to wipe off the bitterness surrounding Berbatov and move the fuck forward.