Martin Cloake column on Topspurs

yiddo

Food for thought !

11th February 2007 – We’re a big Club, but we’re out of shape

As I read phrases like “surprisingly hopeless” and “looked defeated well before the end” in the match reports from Bramall Lane, it became harder to get the thought of Manchester City out of my head.

But before fans of the “massive” club take umbrage, I’m not having a pop at their team. What City do serve as a reminder of is what can happen to a club that drifts, that believes its own hype, that forgets that football is about application and winning spirit. It’s not so long ago that Man City slipped three divisions, but what does seem an age ago is the possibility that any club could return – as City did – after slipping so far.

Surely I’m being unduly pessimistic, dare we use the word fickle? by even mentioning a slide from grace at this stage. After all, as the learned commentators of the football world tell us, we should be grateful that we’ve achieved so much under the current regime at Spurs. I agree that even Spurs couldn’t be so hopeless as to get relegated at the end of a season which we began in our best shape for many years – although the fact that we have not beaten a single team from the same division in six attempts since December 26th last year does give the possibility some shape. But what happens when, or if, we do stay up after a season in which – let’s be brutally honest, our chances of winning anything at all are slimmer than a model at London Fashion Week? The following scenario is not hard to envisage.

After being knocked out of all cup competitions by the first halfway decent sides we play, Spurs stumble towards the end of the season, finally finishing in a familiar 14th position. With no European football on offer, Dimitar Berbatov leaves the club for a large fee, followed by Aaron Lennon and Jermain Defoe. Ledley King is either retired due to long-term injury, or asks to leave, saying he can’t afford to wait for the promised land to come to him. Unable to retain or attract top talent, Spurs begin to slide backwards. Soon, with Reading, Wigan, Portsmouth, Bolton and Everton established as the second tier of the Premiership, Spurs are dragged closer and closer to relegation. Spurs to go down in three seasons? It might be worth getting some odds quoted.

This is, of course, a darkly pessimistic view. But such pessimism comes from confronting the root of the problem – something which, from a glance across the message boards, many Spurs fans aren’t doing. The most popular explanations for our current mini-crisis are 1) Jol’s rubbish and 2) we need to spend some money. But those explanations don’t stand up.

I liked Jol from the beginning because he seemed to give the team some solidity, got results and was an engaging guy. But this season the doubts have grown. I don’t think he’s getting the best from the players he’s got, not least because of his over-cautious attitude. And he’s beginning to clutch at excuses, blaming the pitch after the debacle at Bramall Lane to invoke shades of Gerry ‘the grass was too long’ Francis. There’s little choice but to travel with Jol to the end of the season, but some hard questions then need to be asked, and hard decisions taken. This is not to say that we have the slightest chance of attracting the ‘big name’ many Spurs fans think is just waiting for our call, but watching Jol at Bramall Lane reminded me of the last time I watched a manager utterly unable to comprehend what was happening on the pitch or to do anything about it. That was in the summer of 2000, the match was England v Romania and the manager was Kevin Keegan.

It’s hard to know just why Jol’s stewardship has changed so much in so short a time. The loss of Carrick – an important player for us last year but not the genius some seem to remember – has thrown him, and his team looks unbalanced.

So would spending more money have changed anything? No. We’ve spent big, and some of what’s happening now may be down to players bedding in, but despite the huge outlay we don’t have a midfield that can function – something which leaves the forwards isolated and the defence vulnerable. And it’s here that the most damming criticism of the Director of Football system can be made.

In the six years since Levy unveiled the system as the solution to Tottenham’s most deep-seated problems we have bought the following midfielders; Gustavo Poyet, Jamie Redknapp, Milenko Acimovic, Jonathan Blondel, Rohan Ricketts, Stephane Dalmat, Michael Brown, Pedro Mendes, Sean Davies, Michael Carrick, Emil Halfredsson, Andy Reid, Aaron Lennon, Tom Huddlestone, Teemu Tainio, Wayne Routledge, Edgar Davids, Jermaine Jenas, Danny Murphy, Hossam Ghaly, Didier Zakora, Steed Malbranque and Adel Taarabt. That’s 23 midfielders, an average of nearly 4 every year. Or, in other words, a complete midfield 4 every season. The total outlay that we know about has been £37.05 million, with three players arriving as loans, 3 for undisclosed fees, 3 on free transfers and two on Bosmans.

Of those 23, 13 are no longer at the club, 7 never established themselves in the first team, 3 are now plying their trade with more success elsewhere and only one was a wide left player – although the kind of wide Andy Reid turned out to be probably wasn’t what we had in mind. The total recouped, that we know about, is £26.6 million - £18.6 milion of that on one player – with 6 players released for no fee, 2 transferred for undisclosed fees and one let go on a free.

So, the DoF has system hasn’t provided a balanced midfield, it hasn’t provided stability and it hasn’t provided profit. Instead we’ve seen the rapid throughput of players that successive managers haven’t been able to fit into a team – almost certainly because they haven’t chosen them. And many of those players who arrived with promising reputations have left with their stars on the wane – which must prompt questions about the standard of coaching at Spurs. Of the 23, only 5 can be counted as any kind of success: Carrick we know about; Lennon is a success but is now at a turning point; Mendes was a success, wasn’t rated by the manager, and instead has proved key to Pompey’s great season – alongside a certain Sean Davis; Davids inspired briefly but – shades of Sheringham – couldn’t be found a place in the coaching structure; and Poyet flared, but all too briefly.

We’re a rich club but, in the words of the great Michael Caine, we’re out of shape. We’ve made bad decisions, too many of our internal processes on and off the pitch seem lacking, and we’ve got no guts. The last assertion may seem harsh, but that soft centre we thought we’d got rid of has metamorphosed into a lack of fight, of ability to confront and turn around a crisis. Too many players are hiding or looking for excuses, and the whole DoF system is built for buck passing, and the reason may well be that those who work for the club know we’re more of a player exchange run by an investment company than a football club.

This is not the start of another sack the board campaign – as we’ve found before you never know what’s coming next. But I don’t believe our present owners have the right answers or, in some cases, even the right questions. And this is reflected throughout the club. It should be acknowledged that ENIC and Daniel Levy – whatever their relationship is – have moved us on from the genuinely dark days of the Sugar regime. Then, ambition was a dirty word, now we have ambition but lack the ability to realise our ambitions. That’s progress, but it’s not enough. Not because we are fickle, but because of the passion we feel, the money we pay and the fact that we see signs that we could be left even further behind than we were at the start of the Sky TV era. Because what’s clear from some of the recent takeovers of English clubs – and I’ll give it six months before Liverpool’s new owners reveal the revenue-raising sting in the tail – is that the new owners know that the key to their investment’s growth is making sure that there are clear lines of responsibility and that they employ winners.

In the end it’s down to attitude and ability. Of course money makes a huge difference, but this is still a simple game and the starting whistle makes everyone equal if only for 90 minutes. If money is the only consideration then just give the richest club all the trophies and forget everything else. If money is the only consideration why are we 10 points behind Reading in that last European spot? We’ve chopped and changed owners, executives, managers, players and systems – at some point it’s stick or bust. There is still a great chance to arrest the slide and to genuinely make this club a serious force once more. Does anyone have the heart and drive to do it?

from http://www.topspurs.com/thfccol-martinc.htm