Managers; Past, present, and future

Spurs are currently halfway through a tie in the Europa League which has brought them head to head with former manager Juande Ramos, with his side Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk gaining a 1-0 advantage from the first leg. Prior to the game Ramos did an interview for the Guardian, in which he attempted to defend himself, and explain some of the reasons for the poor start to the 08/09 season which led to his sacking. One of his main complaints was the sales of Robbie Keane and Dimitar Berbatov, and the failure to adequately replace them. He states that he wanted us to sign David Villa and Samuel Eto'o, but we ended up with Fraizer Campbell and Roman Pavlyuchenko, I can understand his disappointment there, though I'm unsure how realistic his targets were. He also argues that unless Spurs are prepared to spend in the way that Man City and Chelsea do, then they're never going to challenge for major titles, which is hardly a massive revelation. None of the above explains why we were bottom of the league with 2 points from 8 games when he was sacked (unfortunately for him this predicament that he left the club in will never be forgotten due to Harry Redknapp using it as his first line of defence for any bad result suffered during his time at the club). It can be argued the squad was weakened during the summer with the sales he mentions, but surely not to the extent that we would now contest a relegation fight. Indeed once Redknapp arrived results turned immediately, it's true that the club then invested heavily during January to help sustain the revival that had started with Redknapp's arrival and was faltering slightly, but nonetheless it's tough to argue that Ramos was getting the most out of the squad during the opening couple of months of the season. He also mentioned the difficulty in only being able to play Ledley King in the important games due to his troublesome knee. At the time Ramos was playing him in all the UEFA Cup games, and resting him in the league, it seems he was placing importance on the wrong games.

Ramos brings his side to the lane next Thursday to take on Tim Sherwood's Spurs. Sherwood will be hoping to avoid a third cup exit in a row following the defeats to West Ham in the League Cup and Arsenal in the FA Cup. He's been doing rather better in the league, with 7 wins, 2 draws, and a defeat from the the ten he's taken charge of so far. This has been acheived against a backdrop of speculation about who will take his place in the Spurs dugout in the summer, despite his contract running to the end of the 2014/15 season. When asked about the speculation he's been realistic and good humoured, stating that he's well aware he will be out of a job unless he can meet the club's targets for the season, and joking that there are only two types of managers; those who've been sacked, and those who are about to be sacked. If he can lead us to a top four finish, you would think he will surely be kept on, if not, you would have to think one of the names being linked as his potential replacement will arrive.

On the subject of replacements, the current Italy coach Cesare Prandelli has become the latest name to be linked, with some media outlets reporting that he has jumped to the front of the queue. My thoughts immediately turn to the last time we appointed a national team coach back in 2004. Back then it was France's Jacques Santini who arrived fresh from a quarter final exit from Euro 2004. His tenure was mediocre, and extremely short lived as he resigned after only 13 games. But other than that fact that they're both national team managers, there's really no reason to compare the two. Prandelli became Fiorentina's longest serving manager, during his spell in charge from 2005 to 2010, in this time he led the club to two Champions League qualifications either side of the club being implicated in the 'Calciopoli' match fixing scandal and punished with a points deduction. If nothing else the longevity he acheived there is certainly admirable, particularly in Serie A where managers are fired more frequently than contestants on The Apprentice. The other two names believed to be on the club's radar are the dutch duo Frank De Boer and Louis Van Gaal. At opposite ends of the spectrum in terms of experience, they both have impressive records. Van Gaal was the man behind the all conquering Ajax team of the early to mid 90's, and has gone on to win titles at Barcelona and Bayern Munich, amongst other successes, while De Boer has already won three dutch league titles in his spell at Ajax, his first managerial position. The latter matches the template of a young intelligent manager who could commit to a long future with the club. While Van Gaal would be a unique appointment for Spurs, with his proven record of league titles at multiple European clubs, along with a Champions League win to his name incomparable to any previous occupant of the manager's job at White Hart Lane.

Guarded Optimism

Having only seen the first half of the Hull game in which we were poor, putting in a performance that was very reminiscent of the most disappointing league display so far under Sherwood; the 1-1 draw at home to West Brom. And then only seeing highlights of the Everton game, in which it appeared we were fortunate to win the game, I was looking forward to watching the Newcastle game. I was very pleased with what I saw. At last we started a game well, getting on top and creating chances in the early stages, though we were still grateful to Hugo Lloris for making an important save from Cisse's point blank range effort. But we looked the better side and deserved our early goal (for us this season, the 19th minute is very early) through Adebayor, who continues to make AVB's decision to freeze him out of the first team picture look preposterous. At half time the only disappointment was that we were only 1 goal ahead. This was rectified early in the second half when a slick move involving Paulinho and Adebayor ended with Krul palming the ball straight to Paulinho six yards out, allowing him a simple finish for 2-0. Having got the two goal cushion, the Spurs players then appeared to switch off, allowing Newcastle to enjoy their best spell of the match, forcing Lloris into a string of saves, including an excellent reaction tip over the bar from a Mathieu Debuchy header. Momentum was regained late on and the result was put beyond doubt when a swift break away led to Andros Townsend seeing his shot pushed back out by Krul straight to Adebayor, who directed a volley into the ground and perhaps a touch fortuitously the ball bounced over Krul and into the far corner. Nacer Chadli added a bit of gloss to the scoreline with a glorious 4th goal, struck from just outside the left corner of the box into the far corner of the goal, in what was without doubt his best contribution since his £7m summer arrival.

There was plenty of good news for Spurs in addition to the result. Younes Kaboul returned to the starting line up and completed the 90 minutes, despite an injury scare mid way through the second half. Andros Townsend came off the bench again, as he continues his return from injury, he looked a bit rusty, which is probably understandable following a fairly lengthy absence from the team. Possibly the most pleasing thing of all was that Sherwood made changes once again to the starting eleven, changes which worked well. He is starting to show flexibility, having initially looked like he was a stubborn 4-4-2 man, he has recently played an extra midfielder in certain games, and against Newcastle he brought Etienne Capoue back into the team to provide some steel and solidity alongside the craft of Bentaleb, and the energy of Paulinho. So with those three in the middle, he moved Dembele out to the right, in what looked like another shrewd move. Moussa Dembele is a bit of a conundrum, I think if you asked 100 Spurs fans their opinion of him, 90% would say they like him, but find him frustrating. He seems to have almost every attribute you could want for a midfielder, he's big, strong, can win the ball, and can use it well too. He has excellent technique, can beat players, and has shown in rare glimpses an ability to create and score goals - he just hasn't done this enough. So you could say consistency is his weakness, and if that is the case then it makes sense to use him out wide, where perhaps he can drift in and out of games, making telling contributions going forward, whilst not causing as many problems for us defensively when he does go missing. Although they are very different players, his predicament reminds me a little to that of Luka Modric when we first signed him. On arrival he struggled massively to settle in the Premier League, it was clear he had talent but there were question marks over his ability to adapt to the pace and physicality of the league. Juande Ramos had attempted to integrate him straight into central midfield in a 4-4-2, a pivotal position, and an unforgiving area of the team for someone struggling to adapt to a new league to play in. When Redknapp arrived he initially played Modric in a less responsible role behind the striker which immediately saw improvements from him, before switching him to the left wing, again a position where he could use his natural talent for creation, without having the same level of defensive responsibility. As we all know he eventually progressed into one of the leagues best central midfielders and is now establishing himself as one of the finest in Spain following a slow start to his time at Real Madrid. It will be interesting to see whether Sherwood can make similar progress with Dembele using the same methods that Redknapp did with Modric.