Tottenham’s Woes: Blame it on Sir Alex

There may be hundreds of reasons for the down fall of the premier league club Tottenham Hot Spurs in this season. For me, their collapse started in 2006 summer and Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson has a big hand in this downfall. There is nothing wrong with Sir Alex. He did it in the best interest of his club and made the maximum out of it. Tottenham has to learn a lot from Sir Alex and his way of doing things. Sir Alex proves that the concept of team building is not just about splashing money in the transfer market and changing managers every year like Spurs. At the end, finding is, it is not players or manager who is letting Spurs down, and it is the Club management who doesn’t have a proper future policy, is derailing its progress.

At present they are in the bottom low of the league table with just two points in hand and struggling to show the strength of the squad. In such condition, every club will look into the performance of the manger. In last year October, after finishing in the 5th place for two consecutive seasons, Spurs faced the same situation and sacked their then manager –Martin Jol and replaced him with successful Spanish manager Juande Ramos from Sevilla. This move made an initial success and Spurs managed to win the league cup by defeating Chelsea in the finals. Ramos took them to 11th position in his last campaign. This year, the Spurs is repeating the same show of last year. Martin Jol managed more draws than Ramos by this time, still he lost his place. Ramos, who rebuilt the team with better players is struggling to keep his job in White Heart Line. What happened to Tottenham Hot Spurs? Where things went wrong?

English Premier League is nearly 15 years old and most probably the Spurs holding the worst record of changing managers. They tried more than 10 mangers in the last 15 years and one manager, David Pleat, worked as interim manager for three terms. Apart from Martin Jol’s two seasons, the club was positioned in the middle of the league table. Money was not a big problem in White Heart Lane. Mangers were supported by the club management with money. Jol spent a good amount on young players and developed a good team to challenge the top clubs. In his first full season, Tottenham reached in the fifth position in the league and unfortunately they lost 4th place and Champions League chance that time. His players were properly jelled into the team and they started showing performance as a team rather than individual talents.

2006 summer was the first crucial juncture for Spurs. They lost out in the race for Champions league but developed a young team for next season. Generally, for every manager, the foundation of a team building is based on one of two highly talented players. Sir Alex had Eric Cantona, Roy Keane, Paul Scholes etc. as a cog in the wheel in different times. This is same to Arsene Wenger, another long term manager who built different successful teams for Arsenal –the eternal rivals of Spurs. He had Tony Adams, Patrick Viera, Gilberto, Fabregas etc. and he built team around them. This is the same what Rafa Benitez did in Liverpool with support of Steven Gerrard. Spurs forget this fact and never found their key person to run the team. Martin Jol was lucky to have young Michel Carrick in his team, especially in the midfield, who was good in delivering the telling passes and control the pace of the match. Martin Jol brought Carrick from West Ham united for less than 4 million GBP and rebuilds the team around him and the team was a great success by reaching in the fifth position in EPL. What will happen if a beautiful building lost its main pillar which holds the entire roof? When Sir Alex decided to get rid of provocative Roy Keane, it become a heavy lose for Tottenham Spurs in future.

In 2006 summer, Alex Ferguson approached Tottenham to buy Michel Carrick and offered a good amount which is difficult to reject for Spurs. Manchester United got Carrick of 17 million GBP to fill the gap of Roy Keane and won their first Premier League after a three year break. Meanwhile, Spurs used that money to get some better players like Bebatov, Dider Zakora, Steed Malbaranque, and Pascal Chimbonda. Lose of Carrick disrupted their free flowing game and midfield struggled to cope up with the pressure from attacking teams. Carrick provided enough cover to the back four and also managed to go forward to support his attacking players. Though the superb attacking display by Berbatov, Robbie Keane, Jermine Defoe managed to cover up the absence of Carrick by scoring good number of goals, it was the defense which struggled and conceived more goals than last year.

Though, manager Jol was the person to decide whom he should buy for the team, in Tottenham, it was decided by different people. After finishing in the fifth position for second time, the management decided to get more players under Jol’s disposal. The football director of Spurs, Daniel Comolli supported the club to spend big money on players like Darren Bent, Younus Kaboul, Adel Tarrabat, Gareth Bale, Kevin Prince Boateng etc. Interestingly, this selection was against the wish of the team manager Martin Jol. Among the new purchase, he was interested only in Gareth Bale, who plays in the left fullback position. The new addition struggled to jell with the old team and some of the players in the old squad also lost their form. The beginning of the 2007-08 season was turned out to be the worst season for Spurs. Under Martin Jol, they lost matches in the first two months and the team struggled to regain its form. Pressure was mounted on the manger and the club management and Fans impatient attitude added oil in the fire. The Club chairman looked for alternatives to manage the team and get back them in winning mode. Media too poured petrol in the fire against Jol and he was sacked from the job in 2007 October.

Tottenham Hot Spurs found their manager in Juande Ramos, who led the Spanish club Sevilla to UEFA championship. Ramos took over the charge of Spurs by the end of October and led them to the finals of league cup. They defeated Chelsea in the extra time of Carling cup final and put them on winning track in the premier league. Under Ramos, Spurs managed to finish in the 11th position in league table. Meanwhile, Ramos also started thinking in his own way to restructure the team and added players in the January window spell. During the summer break, Ramos decided to get rid of many players and buy proved players from other clubs. He brought in players like Luca Mordic, Giovanni dos Sontos, Herlo Gomes, David Bentley, Paulochenkov, Vderan Corluka, Gilberto, Alan Hutton etc. Ramos expected that these players will jell together in less time and will be enough to challenge the power of top four. But, he didn’t (or refused to) realized the business plans and methods of the club.

What went wrong with Tottenham Hot Spurs in the last couple of years? In the first place, the Tottenham management is blindly following the footsteps of some big clubs in transfer policy. May be, Spurs management is feeling that they have enough spending power to compete with clubs like Manchester United, Chelsea and Liverpool or at least with their neighboring rivals Arsenal. The club owner Daniel Levy is a rich man but the club is not that rich. Still they splashed money in the transfer market to compete with the clubs who are playing and generating money from Champions league. Stadium capacity of Tottenham is not larger than Manchester United, Arsenal or Liverpool and their income generation capacity through marketing is no where near to Chelsea. Above all, the personal economic fortune of Roman Abrahamovich makes Chelsea more powerful in spending power. In the case of Spurs, Martin Jol provided an example of team building by spending on young talents. But when the club tasted success on pitch, they just dumped his policy and moved to follow the footsteps of big clubs.

Sir Alex spends huge money on each player, but he rarely make mistake. He generally spends big money on maximum two or three players and never goes for buying each and every talent in the market to warm the bench. Another thing to learn for Spurs is, Sir Alex or any manager in the top clubs never try to sell their top most player at any cost. They will try to keep them in the team or make sure that he won’t go to the rivals in same league. Michael Carrick was developed as the cog in the wheel of Spurs and Jol knew that he was the main pillar of the team. Shrewd eyes of Sir Alex realized this fact and bargained for him. Tottenham should realize the importance of the situation. They have reached in a position to decide whether they should break the team or keep them intact for another couple of years, at least to find a proper replacement and make changes. They did it in other way. We don’t know whether it was the decision of the manager or the club management, still it went against the spirit of the team. They asked for huge money and Ferguson, who knew the potential of the player, accepted it and paid the asked amount.

In fact, by picking up Carrick from Spurs, Sir Alex did a big favour to the common enemy of both, Manchester United and Tottenham Hot Spurs, the Arsenal. Wenger, the Arsenal manager, who was a big admirer of Carrick benefited maximum from this transfer. The management failed to find a proper replacement for Carrick and they splashed money on different type of players without any understanding about the requirement of team. Still, Jol managed the team to the fifth position with a gap of 8 points between the third and fourth position, who shared same points in the league. Finishing in the fifth position provided a big boost to the club and its fans and the management decided to push the club further level by adding more expensive players to the squad. The club which already have three well proved strikers in Robbie Keane, Berbatov and Defoe splashed money on a fourth striker in Darren Bent. Instead of strengthening their leaking defence, they added more power in the midfield which is doing its work properly.

Expectation on Tottenham grew rapidly in 2007/8 season. The media interpreted that their high level spending will take them to the first four position and they projected them for next year’s Champions League. Fans also started believing such predictions and expected further from their team. In fact, I haven’t come across any writing which challenged the logic of spending decisions of Spurs. Once the Premier League started, Tottenham started struggling. They didn’t get expected results, struggled to play as a team and started dropping points in the first month itself. Each failure added immense pressure on players as well as no manager Jol. After one month, the same media who projected Spurs in top four started attacking the tactics of Jol, who managed the team to their best ever position so far in EPL. In effect, the expensive buys of the summer struggled to gel together as a team. In reality, Tottenham had more than eleven highly talented individual players but they miserably failed to become a proper team. When you have more players ready to play in same position, the manager also comes under pressure to select right player in right place.

When you follow a big club in its purchase policy to emulate their success, you should follow many other things what they do to gain such things. Spurs tried to spend money on players like Manchester United but they forgot one thing –to trust their manager and support him in long term. Success of Sir Alex in Manchester United is not happened in a couple of years. He started his career in United nearly twenty years back and he really struggled for years to build a strong team. In the initial years, he saw his team was struggling in the mid table and also positioned near to the relegation region. Still, the club management kept faith in him and supported him to bring up a team in his own way. This attitude was not familiar to Spurs, who is having the worst history of managerial changes. They forgot the fact that Jol was the manager who took the team to their best ever position in the premier league. They also put off their mind to see the reality that they are having a vast pool of talent and it is a matter of time to gel as a team. Fans also were blind in such aspects and cried for removal of the manager. The club management also reached in a conclusion that managerial change will help them to come out of this form problem and started looking for replacement. Daniel Levy found Sevilla manager Ramos as a proper replacement for Jol and without consulting with former manager, he opened talks with Ramos. This was a humiliation for any manager and Jol lost his case in a bad way.

Selection of Ramos provided fruitful result in the initial stage. He successfully led the Spurs in the Carling Cup and defeated Chelsea in the final. This was the first major trophy for spurs in the last one decade. Every manager has his own idea and policies in building a team, and Ramos too. Levy was generous in supporting this effort. Instead of going for less priced young talents, Ramos picked up finished articles in right price from the market. In the summer break, under Jol, Spurs has spent a huge amount of money, still Levy was ready to spent more to achieve better for the team. He financially supported Ramos during January transfer window opened. Ramos realised that Spurs is lacking depth in defence and splashed money on two proved defenders –Jonathan Woodgate and Alan Hutton. Brazilian player Gilberto from Hetra Berlin was added along with them in January break. Performance of Woodgate helped Spurs to win Carling cup. Ramos also managed Spurs to the round of 16 where they lost to PSV Eindhoven in the tie breaker. Though they struggle in the first half of English Premier League, Ramos managed to pull them to the middle of the league table in 11th position.


Juande Ramos, an experienced manager from Spain, had his own idea about a successful football team. During the summer break, he decided to restructure the entire team and started looking for proved players in different positions. He emphasised that there is no room for mistakes and confusions and decided to sell out those players who did not come up to his standard. This exodus forced more than 15 players to leave the club and apart from Berbatov and Keane, most of them were sold out in lesser price than they were brought. Meanwhile, Ramos brought 9 players to replace those who left spurs. He added expensive pieces like Luca Mordic, Vedran Corluka, Roman Pavlyuchenko, Giovani dos Sontos, Huerlo Gomes, and David Bentley. The same media, who projected Spurs in the first four positions and ditched manager Jol for all problems repeated the same show this time. They severely criticised those clubs how were not much active in the transfer market, especially rivals Arsenal who lost a couple of best players this time. Though there was a backlash in their expectations last year, the fans repeatedly fall behind their beloved Spurs and supported the purchases of Ramos.

One should learn from their mistakes and Spurs didn’t. They never realised the role of a good player in the team. They always saw each player as in individual rather than as a part of a big team. While building a young team, they lost Michael Carrick and it affected the coherence of the team badly. Same thing repeated in the summer in a worst way. Before going into the transfer market, every team should assess the financial power of the club and capabilities of the existing team. If somebody goes against the rule, the result will be abysmal. This lesson was written in big letters by Leeds United in 2004, who lost their way in Premier League and ended up in lower divisions. Spurs and Daniel Levy were aware about the financial matters and importance of book keeping. Before going for each buy, they thought about the generating money from different sources and major source available was selling of players.

Before realising the importance of depth of the squad, Spurs sold Defoe during 2008 January. Fine, they generated some money and paid it for getting Alan Huttan and Woodgate. When an offer from Liverpool for Robbie Keane reached the club, they didn’t spent much time to think and sold him. Before selling a valuable asset, any seller will think twice and also look for other options. Robbie Keane was one of the most important player in the last three-four years in Spurs squad. He always managed to get goals for the club and was in his peak form. When Berbatov and Keane gelled well, the club decided to sell off their third striker. This time they decided to break the partnership too by selling Keane. Liverpool didn’t wait long for the business and snatched Keane from Spurs quickly. Here, money worked first and club failed in its purpose. Before finding a proper replacement, Spurs concluded the deal. This was same condition happened with Carrick deal.

Ramos added four players into Tottenham’s midfield but failed to get a replacement for Keane. Spurs also failed to deal with Berbatov in his transfer episode. Though they made a huge profit in the deal with Manchester United, the delay occurred in the deal literally killed the advantaged Spurs made in the transfer market. Much before the transfer window opened, Berbatov declared his ambition to play in Champions League and showed his interest in top flying clubs and also decided not to extend his contract with Spurs. Ramos and Co. tried their best to keep him at club and miserably failed in this attempt.

Once again, shrewd eyes of Sir Alex fall on Tottenham for Dimitar Berbatov. Manchester United lost their key player Christiano Ronaldo to injury and the team struggled to repeat the same impact of last year. He realised that without Ronaldo, United will remain as an ordinary team and have to pick up the lacking piece in the puzzle. In the beginning of the transfer season, Ferguson showed interest in Berbatov and was not ready to pay the asking money by Spurs. But the injury of Ronaldo, poor form of Rooney and Tavez forced him to think again. United struggled to get good results in the opening matches and it forced Sir Alex to get back into transfer market. This time, he approached Tottenham for Berbatov and accepted the asking price, but the timing was very crucial for Spurs rather than Sir Alex. Though Spurs made a huge profit from this deal, they ended up as the biggest loser in the transfer market. Before making a proper replacement for Robbie Keane, they sold him and in Berbatov, they lost their existing and influential striker. They managed to sign Pavlyuchenko to fill the gap left by Keane and Berbatov but the result proved that their transfer decisions were disastrous.

Second time intervention of Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson was much more destructive than earlier one to Spurs. In Michael Carrick’s case, he made the transfer move in proper time paid the money asked by Tottenham. The deal gave enough time to Spurs to get replacement. This time, first approach was in time but the price was not acceptable to Spurs and Ferguson left it at there. His second approach was in a desperate condition and accepted the heavy price Tottenham asked. But, doing the deal in the last minute, Ferguson literally killed any chance of Spurs for replacement. In reality, Tottenham lost their both strikers and failed to find alternative.

One thing is very clear, the transfer policies of Tottenham is the answer of their problem. They should decide first whether they want to have a good team or a bunch of individual players in the pitch and balanced account book in the office. If they want to keep a team intact, they have to say a big ‘no’ to the clubs who approaches them with huge money. Second aspect is, they have to keep faith in their manager and allow him for long run. You cannot judge one persons ability, especially those who managed a football team successfully for years, in one day or month or in an year. The club has to wait and provide enormous support to him to bring fruitful results. This is the success behind all big clubs. Sir Alex Ferguson is the finest example of such approach.