Martin Jol takes over, gets Spurs to a creditable 5th in the table. Their highest ever Premiership finish.
The very next season he consolidates them in that position which is no small achievement with the established strength of United, Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool ahead of him.
This summer they spend an absolute fortune on players but due to the board’s idiocy completely undermine the manager, causing him to lose the dressing room. The players know he’s a dead man walking, they respond accordingly.
Some of Spurs players should hang their heads. They should realise they don’t play for the manager, but for the club. Martin Jol has been treated appallingly by the Spurs board and by some of his more senior players. Berbatov in particular will have done nothing to enhance his reputation as a top player with his sulking and antics. And let’s remember all Berbatov’s goals come against lesser teams, he hasn’t once scored in the league against any of the top 4.
Juande Ramos will come in, perhaps, but there’s nothing like the expectation surrounding a new coach at White Hart Lane. All he’ll hear is about the glory days and the stylish football but Spurs fans are living in the past. They haven’t won the league since 1961 and haven’t come close between then and now.
Today’s newspapers are hailing Ramos as a cross between Wenger, Ferguson and Mourinho. Nothing like building him up to knock him down again. Spurs fans will get all excited but those with any sense at all should be embarrassed about the way their club has behaved. They just sacked the most successful league manager they’ve had in years.
Let’s not overlook that Daniel Levy’s only ambitions for Spurs are to get them into the Champions League - so he can sell the club! Not so he can make them a major force in the long term but because he wants to sell at the highest possible price. That kind of short term thinking is what has them, deservedly, in the relegation zone.
The only way is down, with any luck.