Category: 
At times it’s glitz and glamour. It’s Bond-like international travel and espionage with none of the dangers of being killed by a power-hungry Communist with plans to destroy the earth. It’s thrills and excitement followed by the euphoria of victory or the depression of defeat. In most people’s eyes it’s a dream job, but with stress-related health problems, thousands of people telling you how to do your job and any gratitude you receive being swiftly swept away at the merest glimpse of a downturn, being a football manager may not be all it’s cracked up to be.
With obsessive research a prerequisite for managers these days, it makes Bill Shankly’s denials that he took his wife to a Rochdale match for their wedding anniversary look almost normal
of course I didn’t take my wife to see Rochdale as an anniversary present, it was her birthday. Would I have got married in the football season? Anyway, it was Rochdale reserves.
If being a manager isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, then surely being an assistant to the manager has to be worse. Juande Ramos’ struggles with the Linguaphone tapes are well and good, but Gus Poyet having to explain abject Tottenham performance after abject Tottenham performance has to rank as the worst in football. It’s doubtful as to how much input he has and at the moment, he’ll probably want to shuffle a reasonable distance away from the crisis.
Too often a trigger-happy press set alarm bells ringing long before there’s a need for them, but in the case of Ramos, it may be justified. When you find yourself agreeing with Stan Collymore, maybe it’s time to reassess your opinions - or give up the dogging. Collymore has written about Ramos’ inability to motivate his players in his Mirror column - although he didn’t put it so eloquently - and for once, this knee-jerk reaction doesn’t look overly absurd. There is something remarkably apathetic about Spurs these days. Sometimes poor form can be explained by injuries, misfortune or some bad refereeing, but the Tottenham players are the architects of this particular downfall and Ramos is holding the blueprints.
Selling your formidable strike partnership will rarely aid your charge up the table and Ramos could have done little to keep Berbatov and Keane at the Lane. Likewise, Roman Pavlyuchenko’s difficulties settling in London aren’t exactly his fault, but the overall insipid displays of Spurs are. There was more to Spurs than Keane and Berbatov last season and there should be more to Spurs than Keane and Berbatov this season. The players look disinterested and Ramos seems to be incapable of motivating them. His squad may believe they’re too good to be involved in a relegation battle, but the reality that they’re not needs to dawn on them soon.
The phrase ‘too good to go down’ will soon start to get bandied about regarding Tottenham’s plight, but is this really the case? The squad seems to be littered with ‘luxuries’ - players who can play some pretty football, but can equally be pretty ineffective. Modric, Bentley. Giovani dos Santos and Lennon can be sensational when in the groove, but that hasn’t happened much of late. Outside of that, they have players that when not injured, have been involved in - at the very least - flirtations with relegation. Woodgate, Jenas and Bent have varying degrees of experience when it comes to the drop, but is it beyond the realms of possibility that these players enjoy reputations beyond their actual ability based solely on their nationality?
For all their troubles, it still sounds laughable that Spurs could get relegated, but come May, there could be very few smiles around White Hart Lane.
October 6th, 2008 at 12:16 pm
Its another case of the directorship having too much of a hold on the managerial staff.
Haggling for more money & holding up the chance to buy in players before the Kick off to the season did not help. Having a director of football who buys players the manager(Jol at the time) does not want, most of whom they now want to sell, also does not help.
Spurs won the Carling cup in spite of the owners not because of them.
If Ramos is sacked then Levy should resign.
October 6th, 2008 at 3:13 pm
Spurs need to give him the chance to turn this around, I thought they treated Martin Jol badly so this could be karma
October 6th, 2008 at 3:43 pm
Indeed Jol was a good thing for Spurs but theyve gone for the flashy titles of Directors of football instead of leaving that to the manager.Its no surprise that Man Utd Arsenal and Liverpool let their manager do what he is paid to do MANAGE and that they are challenging for honours each season
October 6th, 2008 at 3:48 pm
Chelsea are only challenging for honours since 2004 therefore I do not include them in above list
October 6th, 2008 at 3:59 pm
which honours are these that arsenal and liverpool are challenging for each season? i assume you’re not referring to the league?
October 6th, 2008 at 4:15 pm
Champions League Tiles Tonto, two finals in the last ain’t bad
October 6th, 2008 at 4:38 pm
I said challenging I didnt say anything about winning
October 6th, 2008 at 5:03 pm
ignore tonton lads - he is one of the bad breed of cockney mancs!!
October 6th, 2008 at 5:28 pm
tonton is a typical manc more worried about other teams failures than there own success. have you ever witnessed such a lack of celebration or mention of winning the double ,they think it is there god given right to win trophies. (blamed rangers for not having an open top bus tour) yous had better hope yous get the right manager when fergie goes look at what happened at liverpool, so enjoy your sucess while it lasts, its not guarenteed to last for ever.
October 6th, 2008 at 5:38 pm
last season clearly still hurts….
October 6th, 2008 at 7:01 pm
Two bad ref decesions to rescue the last two games, your luck has to run out soon
October 6th, 2008 at 7:09 pm
Add the 2 points Liverpool were robbed against Stoke aswel when Gerrard had a goal disallowed for, well i just dont know what for! and add the terrible decisions that have gone the filths way and Liverpool should have a big start on them. How come the bad decisions never seem to go against Man U,year after year it the same
October 6th, 2008 at 8:32 pm
tonton of course it hurts me , its only natural but it doesnt wind me up. i am mature enogh to accept that united are better than us at present but every dog has its day.
October 6th, 2008 at 8:37 pm
i thought idiot boy was banned . it wont be long until he starts slagging himself again,beware this “boy” is a total muppet ,he even replies to his own comments under various names. what a sad wee boy
October 6th, 2008 at 11:02 pm
It is sad to see a side like Spurs struggling to get a win after seven matches. Tony is right in that Levy and the board have made some really bad decisions.
The biggest mistake was getting rid of Martin Jol who now manages HSV Hamburg that are top of the Bundesliga and have also qualified for the group stages of the UEFA cup - something that could haunt them later this season. That is now history as Martin will not be in a hurry to return to White Hart Lane.
Unfortunetly Spurs seem to lack leadership on or off the pitch, I hope they can turn it around as they have a tradition of playing attractive clean attacking football but the first casualty will probably be Juande Ramos sooner than later.
October 7th, 2008 at 11:12 am
What’s sad about it Gazza? I have never met a likable Spurs fan.
October 7th, 2008 at 1:31 pm
I have, Alan Sugar
October 7th, 2008 at 2:59 pm
He talks almost as much guff as you Soupy.
October 7th, 2008 at 5:20 pm
Spurs will be fine. Ramos just needs some time.
They might not be in such a mess if they’d given themselves enough time to sign a replacement for Berbatov.
October 7th, 2008 at 6:18 pm
They knew he wanted to go in the early summer, so they have no excuses there. Give Ramos a chance, his players need to play for the jersey more
October 7th, 2008 at 7:19 pm
Spud, you obviously have not met me
. Eamo f,Spurs did not have the money until Man. utd & Liverpool coughed up. Man.utd trying to drop the price at the last minute before the season kicked off cost United another £5 million otherwise the deal would have been done more than a month earlier. As for karma m8, there are a couple of sides in the league that have a lot to answer for if Karma really does work 
.
Lee, thats what people used to say about Liverpool in the late 70s & 80s. Succesful sides seem to get more of the rub of the green. A lot of Refs bottle it.
Gazza, your right about poor leadership & good luck to Jol. The way Levy undermined him early last season was poor chairmanship.
Where are all the one eyed Arsenal fans? I thought they would be putting the boot in more than anyone. I get so much stick from my Arsenal m8s i play darts with.
.
I still remember the day John Pratt score from a corner to put us 2-0 up & Highbury was empty apart from the Spurs fans. Well, there was only 12 to 15 mins to go
October 7th, 2008 at 7:29 pm
Best replie for a Chelsea fan when Arsene Wenger talks about natural history & not an owners money should be the defining point to a teams success. Look at your history properly before making such comments as i believe you will find Arsenals whole history turned round on a rich mans money &, dodgy deals in bringing about the rise of what was an average club going nowhere in Woolwich.
See, thats all us Spurs fans have left at the moment. Picking holes in another teams past because we cannot slag off anyone today
.
October 7th, 2008 at 7:39 pm
idiot i seem to notice you are attempting to write in english the same as everyone else on this blog. you seem to be a bit confused. cant wait to meet up for the splitting in half always knew you were that way inclined.
October 7th, 2008 at 9:27 pm
A lot of the well established clubs that have struggled in recent seasons are the ones that have appointed a Director of Football.
It has got to be a real insult and put-down for a manager for the club to appoint someone to overrule them on a day to day running of the club and even transfer players in or out of the club whether they agree or not.
Unless they totally agree before anything happens it will never work. There is nothing wrong with the chief talent scout system where a manager will set out his requirements for targets.
A Director of Football is simply a tool for chairmen that want to interfere with the weekly team selection.
October 7th, 2008 at 10:25 pm
What a sad wee man idiot boy is, would feel sorry for him but he probably has enough self pity to do him.
October 8th, 2008 at 6:25 pm
i would hope spurs dont go down they are one of the fixtures i look for when liverpool fixtures are revealed at the start of season. i think they will sort it out but their confidence is non existant , confidence is the most impotrant thing in football so its not certain they will survive, remember Leeds
October 9th, 2008 at 8:03 pm
idiot you have just described your 7 year old cousin as sad and pathetic ,this tells everyone exactly what sort of a person you really are. as for hiding behind my computer is that not the only way this debate can exist? you must be really thick and dense, you probably wanted to be a QPR supporter but couldnt spell it.MUPPET BOY
October 10th, 2008 at 10:11 am
The saddest thing of all is backing up your own arguements under various names, but thats what johnny no mates idiot boy (aka Lee, mclovin, etc.) has to resort to. Thirsty i would not worry about that lad as he accuses others of hiding behind a computer when that is exactly what he does and uses a load of different names to hide himself further, pathetic!
October 10th, 2008 at 5:06 pm
You know you have idiot, you went into hibernation when the soft Dubs were taught a lesson in their own backyard. Us northern lads have ruled the land since the days of the O’Neill clan and never sold out like the jackeens from within the pale!
October 10th, 2008 at 7:20 pm
bet you would like me to be your friend idiot boy as this would be a weird experience for you. does your mummy know you are using her computer?
October 11th, 2008 at 3:19 pm
idiot i love you you are so easy to wind up.
October 17th, 2008 at 12:00 am
Man found dead floating in the Thames, he was wearing a blonde wig, full make up, bra, knickers, suspenders and a Spurs shirt…..before returning the body to the family the Police removed the Spurs shirt to avoid the family’s embarrassment hehehe!