Levy fiddles while Tottenham burns

I have that sick feeling again. Over the last two years we have been in a dreamland by comparison with todays complete and utter rubbish some have the nerve to call a football team. After a couple of seasons of staring at only the top half of the league table, I now find myself squinting at the wrong end with Tottenham Hotspur FC in dire, dire straits. This season has been nothing short of a catastrophe purely of THFC PLC’s making. Drunk on success and greed and not unlike a modern day Greek Tragedy our self appointed leaders are guiding us towards oblivion as the behemoth that was THFC disintegrates into a disparate bunch of separate entities hiding under the guise of a football club.

It is clear that in any business (and football is a business natch) that decisive leadership is the order of the day and unfortunately for the supporters there is none to be found in the halls of our great football club and instead we are subjected to a series of buffoons pulling in different directions simultaneously destroying the very fabric in which they exist. It is against that backdrop that one decision was executed and botched beyond all belief and one which, long term, may consign our great team to the Nottingham Forrest’s and Leeds of this word. I refer to the decision to sack or keep Jol and the nature of this episode may prove to be fatal.

The cliché goes that you can’t make an omelette without breaking eggs and some decisions that have long term benefits may have short term pain. The pain being to sack Jol in order to move on. It was abundantly clear that Jol had taken us as far as he could. Jol turned a floundering, Fruitini managed debacle into a team that could challenge for a Uefa cup place, could have a decent cup run or two and finish with a very respectable 5^th in the league. No mean feat but towards the end of last season it was clear that we were riding our luck in many league games and last season’s fifth place was achieved more by luck than judgment and there were too many times when we would choke during the big games (losing to the vermin after being 2-0 up at home stands out in my mind but there are many others). The problem is that Jol was loved by us. There was a decision to be made and Levy was just the man not to take it. Paralysed like a rabbit trapped in the headlights he passed the blue and white buck to bad cop fat Paul Kemsley who, in true THFC PLC fashion cocked the whole saga up out of all proportion. Levy had decided that the holiest of holies, the fabled CL, was this seasons target but another, as valid and perhaps more realistic target should have been to keep on keeping on. UEFA, top 5, decent cup runs with maybe the slight chance we won’t choke during a semi-final and actually go all the way. To be happy with the latter would require patience and a bit of footballing nouce. Rome wasn’t built in a day and although there are exceptions to this rule (Chelsea) we are Tottenham and we should know better. Consistent performances and results, to consolidate and to get used to the altitude sickness would inspire us to move forward slowly but surely. Unfortunately slowly but surely has the same appeal as a David Rocastle health plan especially when there are foreign investors looking to sink more filthy lucre into the Premiership gravy train. THFC PLC is competing with all the other doggies in the window and we needed to show a bit of leg ASAP lest we don’t attract those big money punters. Levy decided he wanted to show CL football rather than the Steady Eddie approach and that is what has cost us dear.

One could argue that it is not unreasonable during the summer to aspire to a top 4 finish based upon the squad and upward trajectory that we have achieved over the last few seasons. All was in place apart from the manager. Doubts were lingering amongst some fans and the board and rather than spend 16M on another (not required or wanted) striker, we should have sought a manger of European pedigree and that is where Ramos enters stage left. Ramos was newly revered by the THFC PLC hierarchy since the Spaniards mouth watering Seville trounced Spurs at the Lane with stylish and potent football that ultimately achieved European silverware and quite frankly they liked what they saw. Levy was in love. He knew what he wanted but it took our hapless hero over six months to pluck up the courage and speak to this swarthy heartthrob. This hesitancy, this procrastination, this timidity of approach allowed rumors to circulate and the five brain cells that the Spurs players shared began to put two and two together and Jol’s aura of leadership was compromised. The perfect time to replace Jol would have been a few months ago in the summer. It would have given the new manager time to assess the squad, bring in new players as he saw fit and begin stamp his own style on the team. The worst time to bring a new manager would be ten games into the season when there is no time to assess the squad, no transfer window to bring in new players and no time to stamp his authority on the team that is already in a relegation dog fight.

The way Jol was humiliated and destroyed by the Spurs board is nothing short of a sporting crime. Even the satanic Graham was afforded some kind of dignified exit but back then the current board were like flashing blades with purpose and cause and justice on their side but now? Well now they are lazy, greedy and ultimately impotent. They are the only reason our club, our great and historic club, is where it is right now. Where is that now? After Saturday’s game against Boro all is clear.

To put things in their context I watched the Boro match after Manchester United played the vermin and in comparison the Boro game could have been Canvey versus Scunthorpe. The standard of football was leagues apart and there is no way in a month of Sundays we will achieve that level this season and maybe not even next season if Spurs, by some kind of miracle, find themselves still in the Premiership. The Spurs players (with one league win in ten) strolled out of the tunnel as if it was a Sunday league match. It all seemed to have the air of a jolly jape as, well, if Tottenham are relegated then why would they care right? They are off and we, the supporters are left cradling our club in our arms long after the goodtime boys have had their fun. In these desperate times these we have appointed three unknown quantaties in English football to oversee our salvation and transformation and the three amigos sat on the bench not unlike the three wise monkeys. Our new Spanish leader, unable to communicate to the players through speech had the farcical situation of having to make do with a series of finger pointing and facial gestures whilst the events on the pitch unfolded. He knew what he wanted but he couldn’t get it over to the players. It was tragic. The actual game was turgid and similar to two drunks slogging it out in a pub car park such was the quality and I wondered why I was wasting my time watching people who cared not a jot about the team and the game they were playing. Grown men that would rather have a laugh, earn lots and lots of money, shag some bird or buy another car/house than to play for the honor and tradition of the club I have supported since I was a boy.

Many of us have seen personnel come and go and historically there have been much worse players, squads and mangers than those we are lumbered with right now but seldom have I seen a team, a club, a heritage so doomed as ours feels right now. Ramos is a hapless passenger aboard United Flight 93 trying against hope to salvage the situation but we all know what will happen and the funny thing is that this season I don’t care if it does. Everything that happens from here on in will be down to a handful of fools and they will ultimately suffer if our club (their business plan) goes out of business (gets relegated). They will only suffer short term but we will suffer forever. There is no easy way out of our current plight and it will be a slow and very painful few months but for me I have a detachment that I have never experienced in my twenty plus years of following Tottenham. In a strange way I hope we get relegated and all the sham and drudgery gets swept away when there isn’t as much money to be made. Then, and only then, we may have our Tottenham back.

By Daniel