Tuesday, October 21, 2008 at 9:45AM 'Only one club in Premier League history has avoided relegation after taking two or fewer points from their first eight matches: Southampton in the 1998-99 season'
Ok. That obviously didn't work.
Monday, October 20, 2008 at 10:34PM Stating the bloody obvious
I blame Robbie Keane who relegated Coventry and Leeds with each of his departures from both clubs. I blame the Director of Football system that has seen manager after manager undermined. I blame the tabloids, broadsheets, Gillette Soccer Saturday, radio presenters, Sky pundits who all predicted Spurs would finish 5th. I blame Ramos for not elevating the team after the Carling Cup. I blame, fuck it, everyone and everything. The way the wind blows. The raindrops that fall from the sky. My alarm going off on a Monday morning. ITV comedy. Hagar the Horrible. It's all fallen into place perfectly, conspiring to anchor us to the bottom of the Premiership. After years of laughing at West Ham's yo-yoing between the top flight and the league just below it, how the ironic jeers and laughter will hurt when they aim their giddy abuse at us.
What makes it even sweeter for them and even more horrific for us is that there is no Tevez in the Spurs side. And thus far, lady luck has also been non-existent. We can only hope for a goal that never was and a resulting three points, much like the Hammers got up at Blackburn to give us a glint of hope. But at the moment, such a joyful moment seems a million miles away in a far far away land where Spurs fans are dressed like arch angels singing Glory Glory from a hymn sheet, whilst the team swagger around the WHL pitch scoring goals for fun.
'Stick me in centre-mid'Wigan was the 'must win match'. We drew it. Then it was Hull. We lost. And then it was Stoke. And we lost again. In that other alternative reality where Bentley is decent, Berbatov was sold at the beginning of the summer and a replacement bought a couple of weeks later along with a defensive midfielder and a tricky creative forward - we are sitting in the top 5 smiling, upbeat and confident. At least somewhere in the multi-verse, there are Spurs fans proud and loud.
In our shaky moments in the past, we've had poor starts but nothing this spectacularly bad. We haven't just started poorly, we've started catastrophically poorly. But anyone who looked beyond the thrashing of Roma in pre-season and Darren Bents prolific friendly form and reminded themselves of the utter lack of cohesion since the Carling Cup final would have seen a team in steady melt-down. Our form has been good enough to take us down all year long. In fact, since our two 5th place finishes, our form has all but gone - other than in patches and some 'big'. The Carling Cup run appears to be nothing more than a blip that blinded us from what was actually going on with Premiership form.
This season sees us at 8 games. Out of a possible 24 points, we've notched up 2. Chelsea are the only 'decent' team we've played. Our fixture list was meant to be quite easy until we played Arsenal (A), Liverpool (H) and Man City (A). All these games coming up after next Sundays mega-game at the Lane against Bolton.
Nothing at the moment suggests we have what it takes to drag ourselves out of the bottom three. From one game to the next, whether it be Poyet saying our performance is unacceptable or Ramos via Poyet saying our performance is unacceptable or Darren Bent (club spokesman) saying our performance is unacceptable - nothing changes come the next game. Apart from the soundbites.
Hull, Wigan, WBA, Stoke etc, all have a bit of fight and spirit. Hull are excelling at the moment. Stoke are awful and will probably go down with us, but they still beat us and grabbed all three points. So it's not a given that all the promoted teams will go down, like most other seasons. Not only have we decided this is the season we will struggle epically, but this is also the season that every other team around is strong, determined and 'together'. Shit hitting fan - is an understatement. We are in the deepest possible trouble we've ever been in, since the 70's at least.
I've been critical of the players, and still am. I don't quite see the required urgency and guts and full-blooded 'die for the shirt' siege mentality that's required. Do the players and management think its ok because 'we are Spurs' and 'teams like us never go down' so 'things will change soon'? What happened with being the kings of your own destiny? Then again, maybe the players are not at fault. Playing at 200% might be out of their reach due to the fact that the team is so painfully mish-mashed and out of sorts.
Any club in the Prem would struggle if:
- They have no leader on the pitch
- They lost both of their main forwards who created and scored most of the goals in previous seasons
- Have no defensive midfielder
- Have no midfield that chase down the opposition players/ball
- Play a right-winger on the left-wing
- Have no true left-winger
- Have one main striker who thus far has failed to settle due to playing a bit part since being signed a season ago
- Sold their other striker who is on top form for his new club because he was not required (argue until you're blue in the face, but Defoe rightly would not sign a new contract because we couldn't promise him first team football)
- Spurs believed foolishly that Berbatov would not leave and didn't stop to think that Keane might be subject to a move away, even though we have a 'we don't sell our important players' policy
- Bought a player who has already played 5 months of a season, looks unfit and needs time to settle
- Bought a midfielder who needs time to settle and stick him in a midfield who are not on the same wave length than him
- Sell 3 'decent' squad players who would give competition and options for first team selection
Spurs systematically went about unweaving the tapestry of progression by trying to replace missing jigsaw pieces with termites. It's such a perfect dismantlement of the squad with superfluous replacements drafted in left, right and centre that someone would think it was done on purpose because surely you can't get it this wrong? Agent Comolli and Levy have masterminded one of the greatest clusterfucks of all time. This summer, make no mistake about it, was a unmitigated disaster. Far too much emphasis on the business side of the club, chasing down every last million from Utd for Berbatov.
Levy getting caught up in transfer dealing politics and hypocrisy. Comolli panic buying. And the club generally carrying on like the whole of last season (Jol undermined/sacked, Ramos in, no change in league form) had not happened. On the subject of Martin Jol, he was never destined to succeed because of the exaggerated impatient ambitions of the chairman, Kemsley and Comolli. The Trinity decided that replacing Jol with Ramos would take us to the next level. Error of judgement? Did Jol deserve another season and therefore the FULL backing of Comolli and co? They obviously felt he had to be replaced, and why not with a manager of Ramos quality? And yet look how things have turned out. Hindsight; can't put a price on it.
So why did everyone think we would do well this season? Did they think because Ramos could start fresh, from the opening game of the season that suddenly all things would fall into place? The very fact that the chairman and DoF failed to see the massive cracks in the foundations proves they're just as disillusioned as the most excitable Barcelona shirt wearing Spurs fans.
Look at the team, the squad we have at the moment. It's basic maths. Last year we conceded a hell of a lot of goals, mainly due to having a poor midfield that supported no-one defensively. Thanks to Berbatov and Keane we scored a shed-load too. Take those two away, improve the defence a little, and we have a team that doesn't concede as many but can't score goals. A team that can't score, by virtue of not being offensive enough will pile on the pressure for the defence - who are still not supported by the slow, sideways playing midfield. It's a formula for failure. Epic epic failure.
To compound matters ever more, we hoof the ball up to Bent. Hoof it. No style, no system. For 20/30 minutes or so against Stoke we played the ball around quite well and created chances. But it was still lacklustre. Inept. It's like an 9 inch dick, limp and flaccid, in the Playboy mansion. Viagra left at home. Utterly fucking useless.
Ramos, 10 wins in 36 (stats might be off, but just browse the BBC if you want to cry into your keyboard) has tragically shown us very little. He maybe strict. He might have sorted out the diet, got us fit. But like many clubs who get themselves into a low-confidence situation, sometimes no amount of tinkering can get you out. So you need to let go of the manager. As drastic as it may seem, as much as you might wish for some consistency for once - a completely new man at the helm might wake the players up. Yes, the same players who can't quite perform one week might do brilliantly the next for a new manager. Then again, it might take a bit of time (much like it took Jol when he took over from Santini). So if we do get rid of Ramos, will the next man in be able to afford 5 more games without a win? Well? So do we get rid of Ramos? Teams stay up or go down based on decisions like this.
The bigger question is whether the current crop of misfits have it in them at all. King, 'our leader', is nothing more than a part-time player. He will never be 100% fit. And the club knew this last year, and probably the year before. We should have looked to bring in a genuine replacement. We haven't. Woodgate is beginning to suffer because of the dross playing around him. Bale, with zero Prem wins under his belt, looks average since returning from his injury. Did he recently sign an extension to his contract? No Man Utd move for you on this form Gareth. I hope the injury he has recovered from hasn't taken away his mojo. As for Zokora. He's an athlete, but not a footballer.
Doncaster away. 'ave it.And Jenas? Since he was a teenager he's been told he's a class player. He'll be something special. But he has never shown belief in the hype surrounding him. He has the qualities, physically, but mentality shows very little to suggest he will ever be anywhere near world-class. He struggles to be anything near top 8 class most weeks. Having him as vice-captain tells you everything you need to know about our predicament and status.
Bentley has been non-existent. Played out of position, he should still roll his sleeves up and give it a go regardless. But then is David a 'roll the sleeves up' type of player? Lennon has been the one bright spark (even if that spark consists of running really really fast). Gio is a luxury who is a little out of his depth and considering the form of his team mates, it's asking a lot of the youngster to carry the weight of expectation in his shoulders. Frazier Campbell on loan is the icing on the cake. And you know it is. A Utd kid as one of our main three strikers. Classic.
And back to Levy and Comolli. Judge me, he said (Daniel), on the players that are sold. That was his response a while back relating to a statement about Spurs being a selling club. Which we quite blatantly are. But if you do have to sell, then bloody well replace the outgoing players with incoming quality.
Levy, Kemsley and DC went after Ramos, for the big step up in class (citing a 'world class' manager was required now rather than later). Whatever was happening behind the scenes (Jol/Berbatov/Comolli etc) the club - the people in charge - have mismanaged us to the brink of the Championship. Did we really have the right to move on from Jol so quickly?
Now Levy is pondering on the severance fee he will have to dish out to Ramos if he is forced to sack him. And if he does that, he'll have to sack Comolli (as Levy has told us all Ramos is Comolli's choice). Not that ridding the club of DC will do anything drastic to our on the pitch performances. With no more patsys left, Levy - accountable for all decisions - will then logically need to scrap the DoF position and draft in a chief scout to help the newly appointed 'manager'. And who would be the saviour? Would anyone want the job considering the chairman is such a destructive force?
Now I know what some would say. Levy and his financial skills and astute business sense was the reason we challenged for 4th place in 'that season' and that it's down to him we have been looking to make a move to a bigger stadium (or expand WHL). Remember even Jol gave him some credit at the end of one season, with the crowd (not me) responding with a chorus of support. But considering the support this club has and money made from tickets/merchandising etc, it's what you would expect from the chairman. It's the other decisions and the way we do our business, football wise, which he must be judged on. Unless you are willing to blame completely (and its a blame game we are all involved in) Ramos for the position we are in.
Levy dragged the Berbatov saga to the very death for an extra £6M or so. Was it worth it Daniel? How many millions will be lost for finishing in the depths of the Prem table? How much more would be lost with relegation? Shareholders happy? Don't be avoiding that phone call from Joe Lewis.
BouncebackabilityI joked a while back that us going down was the only way to rid the club of Levy and all the delusions of grandeur that this club is guilty of. I suggested the club needed the most cruel of baptisms so we could be reborn, and take nothing for granted as a consequence. But who, hand on heart, would want to see their club relegated? Aside from the fact that most of the players who got you relegated would be sold, you'd have to deal with every day life outside the top flight (at least we won't have to listening to Andy Gray commentating on our games).
And if preparations are spot on you could do a Leeds or a Man City, rather than bounce back first time. Last time ('77) we did bounce back first time. And signed two Argentinians and went on to plenty of Cup glory and beautiful football. But times have changed. This is the modern game, that is made up of the Sky 4 and the rest of the Premiership battling out for 5th and 6th. The top 4 are so far ahead of everyone, and with billionaires grabbing up other clubs faster than you can say 'credit crunch', we will be so far away from what we aspire to, it will hurt more than castration to think one summer of discontent has buried us 6 feet under.
Going down is simply not acceptable. Other fans would say the same about their club. Stoke, Hull and WBA fans would hope that other clubs struggle and they somehow survive. Or perform like a dream and pick up Prem-place saving points nice and early (Hull). We've spent millions. We've had the backing of pundits and fans. But we deserve nothing if we don't play like we care and believe we belong. Too big to go down? You have to play big to stay up, and we are nothing more than small time at the minute.
Woodgate has come out in support of Ramos. Citing 'togetherness' and making bold statements such as 'I think we will stay up' and 'There's no doubt about it, everyone thinks we should and I think we will'. Ramos on the other hand prefers to be far more honest (pessimistic) telling us 'I am worried about the situation. At the moment it is terrible'. 'No shit Sherlock moment' right there for you. With the Bolton game taking on the 'Biggest Game in our History' tag, a Levy mass/demo protest is planned for Sunday. A demo? How come I didn't think of this? Now call it extreme if you like, but I propose we hit Levy hard, and we hit him fast, with a major, and I mean major, leaflet campaign.
In the ground, support the team. Outside, protest to your hearts content.
Someone should have a quiet yet stern word in the ears of the management and players because they don't quite grasp the reality of the situation. At the time of writing Newcastle are beating City 2-1, which means we are 5 points adrift of 19th spot.
Rock'n'roll. City just equalised. 4 points off 19th spot.
Monday, October 20, 2008 at 7:54PM Site obviously down, ticket raised. Looks like it's been dead since around 2pm ish.
I've been 'out of the office' all day and just got back. Sorry for the downtime on the forum. Hopefully will get fixed shortly.
edit: site back up.
Sunday, October 19, 2008 at 8:12PM Stoke 2 Spurs 1
Spurs (back in the 1913 season) played 13 games and lost 10, drawing 3 before finally winning a game against Newcastle on November 23rd. We managed a 17th place finish that season with the manager Peter McWilliam keeping his job until 1926 and through the Great War - winning one FA Cup and finishing 2nd in 1922. Our current run of 6 losses and two draws is the second worst start in our history. Post WW1 in 1928, 1935 and 1977 we were relegated, all times with better starts.
Arguably, you could take a positive out of all this. The fact that we have to go all the way back to the year the Titanic sank tells us that performance wise, we haven't done too shabby for the best part of a century of seasons. But this year, we have truly excelled. Everything that is wrong with the club and team has finally broken through the superficial mask that was hiding the wretched truth.
The DoF system. Levy's greed. Over-rated players and expectations. Arrogance from the chairman to assume we were close to breaking the Top 4. Comolli and his obsession for signing the wrong players. No leadership. Apart from the blip of wins in pre-season, our form has been beyond dismal. It's been Derbyesque since the Carling Cup final. But let's avoid going over old ground, because all the fuck-ups and mistakes have been highlighted a million times already.
Lost in translationHow do we get out of this mess? Considering we are in a position where we have to start thinking about reaching 40 points to possibly give us a chance of surviving (how surreal is that hey?) the fact is, retaining Ramos might see us slip even further behind (based on how little things change from game to game). Once the gap is 10 points or so, then if you think the players are struggling now, watch them give less than 1% when the light at the end of the tunnel is faint. They're all be too busy thinking about what team to jump ship too. Modric, Bale, Hutton, Woodgate etc....bye bye.
So the only thing left to do is to either have Ramos walk or sacked and hope someone is crazy enough to take the helm. That one clichéd footballing knee-jerk is needed now more than ever, as dirty as it makes me feel saying it. The board will probably wait. Not for the UEFA Cup game, but next Sunday's home match against Bolton. If Levy has already decided to wait, then this game will either be the one that saves Ramos job for another week or the one that condemns him.
The positive out of this never-ending negativity is that if Ramos goes, so will Comolli. Levy is accountable for the mess but is untouchable until we get to the point of no return. He'll sell up and fuck off. But at what price (in both sense of the word)?
I wonder what the mood will be like on the team coach as it drives them back to London? Can you imagine Ramos and Poyet and the players all having it out, laying their footballing souls bare? Or do you reckon they're all be chilling, listening to their ipods and chatting on their mobiles? No leadership. Not a single whiff of it. Obvious to me, you and everyone else but not so obvious to the millionaires with their feet up on their way back to their plush cribs.
Spurs fans are already talking about discounted season tickets (yeah right) and who would stay and go 'when' we go down. Some drama queens are even beginning to wonder if we will make it out of there at the first attempt. Dizzy heights, how I miss 12th place.
I might join in with the dramatics if we don't get three points against Bolton and then I can truly look forward to QPR and Palace (replacing Arsenal and Chelsea).....that's if they don't both come up, giving us a wave and a wink as we pass them by, downwards into the hellish Championship.
I'll end on the whole 'luck' thing. We don't have much of it. Apart from the Bent goal which should have been ruled offside. And the penalty that hit the woodwork a few times (although it was not of any true consequence). But when you lose Corluka to an injury that sees him taken to hospital and replaced by Dawson who then gets sent off..........you have to shrug and face facts that luck doesn't come anywhere near something that has contracted (the equivalent of footballing) leprosy. Everything is falling apart. And trying to cello-tape it together just wont work.
Sunday, October 19, 2008 at 4:22PM We are going down. Embrace it. Hug it. Welcome it.
edit001: Bent, 1-1. Off-side, he was. Is lady lucky glancing our way for once?
edit002: Half-time. Bale (the jinx) red carded, and the direct result is 30 minutes of determination, heart and character. More fight club mentality in the second half and we might just nick all 3 points. Imagine that.
edit003: It's all gone to shit again. 2-1 down. Fight? More like fright.
edit004: Corluka, with neck brace and oxygen, is stretched off the pitch. Bad to worse.
edit005: Jenas. Jenas. Jenas. A free kick that is neither a cross or a shot. Quintessentially textbook from the most redundant player in the universe.
edit006: 11 minutes of injury time. Cue a 3rd Stoke goal.
edit007: I'm crying and laughing at the same time. Woodgate gives away a penalty, which is taken, hits both posts comes out and then gets struck against the bar. Hilarity that only the Spurs can bring to you. Still 2-1 and still no hope.
edit008: No Dawson is sent off (rightfully), and has goes spastic at the ref's decision. Football suicide at its very finest.
edit009: And that's that. Upcoming Prem fixture list:
Bolton (H)
Arsenal (A)
Liverpool (H)
Man City (A)
See you next season at Burnley.
Sunday, October 19, 2008 at 2:29PM More pre-match stats from the beeb.
Winless Spurs, on the joint worst ever start to a league season in their history, pay their first visit to the Britannia Stadium for Stoke's 2,000th top-flight match.
Between them Stoke (Football League founder members) and Spurs (Premier League ever-presents) have lost 10 matches and won just one this season, dropping a collective 36 points.
This is Tottenham's 35th Premier League match under Juande Ramos. They have only won 10 in his tenure.
Tony Pulis selects a side for his 600th league match as a manager, and 100th league game since his return to Stoke in June 2006.
Spurs recorded their joint biggest away win in top-flight football when defeating Stoke 1-6 at the Victoria Ground on 15 September 1951.
Shitting a brick yet?
King out. Hutton starts at right-back. Bent upfront on his own. Pav (shockingly) on the bench.
4-5-1.
/shakes head
Friday, October 17, 2008 at 3:17PM ....after 7 games we scored 10 goals and conceded 12. This season we've notched up 4 goals and conceded 10.
Stoke, you have been put on notice.
Friday, October 17, 2008 at 10:56AM Posted by 'Get Levy Out' (I would assume it's someone from the Tottenham Hotspur Supporters Trust as it's his first post on GG.net and claims to be ITK) yesterday:
Sorry if this has been posted but it appears Daniel Levy has turned his back on the fans.The supporters trust were due to meet with board earlier this week but the meeting was cancelled due to Levy being concerned that one of the more militant members of the trust board may question the way the club has been run.
The club has finally taken the step to divorce itself from its long suffering fan base. As good as an admission of failure to me.
This comes all at a time when the THST chairman Daniel Wynne is stepping down from his role.
Daniel needs to be replaced by a chairman who is going to be firm with the club and willing to take action when the club acts against the wishes of the fans.
Unfortunately the trust have closed new membership (a worrying sign that the club may be trying to influence the result of the chairman vote).
For me, the time to disolve the supporters trust is here as they can no longer be called independent from the club. A proactive action group prepared to take our club back.needs to be formed...
More to follow...
Bit of a PR disaster this for our esteemed chairman. Although how relevant the Trust genuinely is, is debatable. Asking a few questions is neither here or there based on the fact that Levy generally tells fibs. The fact I don't know probably speaks volumes about just how effective and prominent such an organisation is. I'm sure their intentions have always been good, so no offence to anyone who represents the Trust. In their defence, they are the only official recognised 'voice of the fans'. Even if most fans don't even know their exist.
It's all a bit shambolic when the chairman avoids the proposed meeting. Does he expect me to show up and ask the questions? Daniel Wynee (the chairperson of the Trust) is stepping down, so its possible that Levy sees this whole exercise as redundant. Especially if a more militant member takes the helm and asks one or two heart pulsating questions.
If we sat pretty in the Top 4, Levy would be there with bells on. Seems a bit gutless that in this quite horrid time he doesn't see fit to appease as a little. And the Trust no doubt is losing out on some primetime.
Thursday, October 16, 2008 at 2:40PM David Seaman is apparently finding it difficult to wipe the smile from his face. No, he hasn't just watched the Coen Brothers latest comedy 'Burn after Reading'. Seaman is quite blatantly talking about the plight of Tottenham Hotspur (bottom of the league, if you've not been following the soccer recently). He also revealed (to Jeremy Kyle on TALKsport) that Ramos needs to learn English. Cutting edge stuff this.
Ronaldinho in Japan in the World Cup. Nayim from the half-way line in a European final. Gascoigne from 35 yards at Wembley, in the FA Cup. About time he found something he could smile about.
Glad the Spurs could be of service David. Now if you don't mind....vete a la verga o vete a la mierda.
Thursday, October 16, 2008 at 10:30AM Great to see England finding a decent stride in their qualifying group. 4 wins on the trot. Rooney on fire. Even our U-21's are doing the business, with Huddlestone and O'Hara instrumental, helping to get us past Wales. All-action Hudd managing to score from a free-kick and get sent off. Whether either ever make the grade to the first team (England) proper is altogether another thing (which you can file under 'hardly bloody likely').
As for our reserves, with Taarabt, frustratingly good one second, inexperienced imp the next and Bostock smacking the goals in for the academy - I'd like to think we'll make some use of the 7 subs on the bench rule to blood some of forgotten Spurs kids.
All this on the assumption that if they're good enough then they should play a part. But are they anywhere near good enough and is selecting them for a team thats struggling the wrong time to do so?
Bostock is three years younger than Hoddle was when he made his debut for Spurs (in another desperate season from our past). Taarabt is possibly the wrong type of player required at the moment. In fact, talking about the youth players as options is as desperate as hoping Ghaly might make a return to the squad. We need our experienced costly players to finally show their class.
Huddlestone and O'Hara on will probably be involved this weekend - unless Ramos prefers Zokora in the middle. O'Hara, would give us some much needed bite compared to Zokora who will just run around without any end product. Hudd is likely to be an impact sub if he plays any part.
If we ever start winning games again then maybe the likes of Bostock and Taarabt will be given an opportunity but the general form of the first team regulars and their attempts to reclaim some confidence and class is a tad more important.
Thursday, October 16, 2008 at 8:52AM Interviewed by the highbrow ZOO magazine (you can read the extract on Sky Sports) David Bentley has been stating the bloody obvious. It's another slice of sound-bite heaven.
Insightful. Is it the constant booing and depression at WHL? Or maybe the humiliation of two points and bottom of the table? While most fans struggle to get together the £700 or so to buy a season ticket, you earn £30K+ for hitting the first man with every corner. It's the type of irony that gently crawls up your back and then bites you in the neck, sucking the very life out of you.
Not trying hard enough. Stop trying to appease us with awareness of perspective. We know we have the right, but I see no proud-making attempts on the pitch. Just chaos.
Again with a shout-out to the fans. Yeah, we are the ones that matter. Thanks for pointing that out, but how about changing peoples opinion by producing the good on the pitch? At least then I can be spared reading yet another Spurs players 'We know we've been shit, we're gonna try our bestest, its gonna be alright' interview.
Honestly, what kind of sodding excuse is this? Is David placing the blame on fan-pressure? A few times this season we have attempted to get the boys going with one or two emotional sing-a-longs, to no avail. A team that believes its better than it is (and if you listen to King, Woodgate, Dawson and Bent you'd think we were almost potential world-beaters) shouldn't be choking or freezing on their home patch. And as for 'less expectation' away, this is probably the reason why our away record over the years has been so pathetic. Where is the confidence? Ok, sure, it's not sitting amongst us at the minute, but to suggest that Spurs have less expectation in away games is quite possibly the most backwards thing I've heard in recent weeks. I know what David is trying to say, but regardless, it's stupid.
So in other words, yes it does affect them. What a bunch of pussies.
I'm wondering what the likes of Ramos, Poyet, Bent, King and Bentley churn out if we lose to Stoke on Sunday? Because they are fast running out of soundbites. One win will probably kick-start the season, but that win has to come on Sunday and if it fails to come in the next 3-4 games, then go into hiding for a couple of seasons.
