Summer Wind(ow)

I have done my best to avoid transfer talk, it is mostly rubbish and I find it particularly disrespectful when journalists continually speculate about our players, most of whom have never indicated, even off-the-record, that they would like to leave. But I do have some views how I would like to see the Spurs squad at the end of the transfer window.

The first thing is obvious, we need to keep our best players – and they are Luka Modric, Rafa Van Der Vaart, Aaron Lennon, Gareth Bale, Sandro and Michael Dawson. And we can safely assume that our best player of all, Ledley King, won’t be going anywhere. And I think unless there is a falling out with the Manager, the others won’t be going anywhere either. Both the Chairman and Manager are strong and ambitious, and for all their other faults, won’t be bullied by other clubs or the players’ agents.

By and large over the last couple of seasons, unlike at other clubs, our best players have made no real noises about leaving, and the recent quotes from Modric while he was away at Croatia have been the exception. In the last year Rooney handed in a transfer request at Man Utd, Tevez has made no secret of wanting to leave City, Torres left Liverpool without a thought, and Arsenal’s captain has spoken non-stop about how he would like to sit on the Barcelona substitutes bench.

And that is why the recent quotes from Modric were disappointing, because there is a very good case for him to stay if he was given the choice about whether follow the footsteps of Carrick and Berbatov and sit in the shadows at Old Trafford (a choice I don’t think he will be given).

The idea that previous Spurs players were fed, that they could only win titles at Man United, and never at Spurs, should now be quashed. The fact that we have half a dozen players (including King) that would get into the United side shows there is no big gap. It is lazy, complacent thinking. It swallows the Sky status quo whole, and the broken logic that the World doesn’t spin around, but stands still with a manufactured ‘big four’. But, as Sir Alex Ferguson often acknowledges, football is cyclical.

United are in heavy debt, they have an ageing team to the extent where their biggest priority is now replacing Paul Scholes – a player who only started 16 League games last season, half the games started by Modric – and their cycle will end one day, just as Liverpool’s did before them. In 1992 we hadn’t won the league for 31 years. At the same time, Manchester United hadn’t won the League for 26 years. Things changed quickly in a short space of time. And with four teams now qualifying for the European Cup, the chance of success at the highest level is also now greater than it has been for many years, despite the down playing of expectations from Harry Redknapp.

Manchester City can spend silly money on James Milner, Liverpool can go to town on Jordan Henderson and Andy Carroll, and United can spend big money on Phil Jones (who showed in the U21s last night he is comfortable losing possession with long balls, an attribute that no doubt made Sam Allardyce such a fan); but their extravagance doesn’t mean their teams are better than Spurs.

But, it is a squad that is needed to succeed, and whereas Spurs currently have a good team with some high quality players, there is a need to invest in good players that can step into the first team now – players that are comfortable on the ball, players that have a winning mentality, players that can change a game, and players who when used are effective enough so we don’t notice any of the aforementioned quality players are missing.

Players who fit that bill include players we have been linked with, and arguably players we should have signed before this summer. Had Scott Parker been a Spurs player last season I think there is a very good chance his dynamism could have made the difference in home games against Wigan, West Ham and Blackpool. Parker is a better player than Palacios, and he is a better player than Jenas, and when he did play last season he was often the best player on the pitch, who ever the opposition was. (When he was absent, West Ham suffered). And he has looked good at International level now he has finally been given the chance. (And from what I heard a while ago, he has been openly saying that he wants to join Spurs for some months).

Too often last season we persisted in relying on a small group of players. That was partly because the manager didn’t trust the squad enough, and this summer is the time to resolve that. He rotated his team more in his second spell at Portsmouth then he did at Spurs last season, and next season we should be having a real tilt at the title, as well as having a go in all the cups. Cups are important, we know that. Our History tells us that. And even Arsene Wenger is finding that out now from his own fans.

We shouldn’t have a situation where Van Der Vaart is playing two games for Holland and then playing out of position away at Wigan three days before the Club’s biggest game in Europe since 1984, as we did last season. Ideally, by the time the squad of 25 is named, we will have two quality players for every position, plus an extra keeper, a third striker (in additions to two ‘number 10s’ – VDV and one other), and a fifth CB who is versatile – i.e. Younes Kaboul.

It is not even worth speculating who the three strikers are at this stage, though I would expect at least two new ones, and maybe three, especially if the manager doesn’t want to have an exact like-for-like cover for VDV. (The fact that Modric played in the VDV position against Milan suggests that there is room for an extra midfielder).

There are strikers I like that we have been linked with, but nothing solid to suggest we are actively going for them, or that they want to come (unlike Scott Parker, where I understand West Ham want to sell him to anyone but Spurs). Likewise, we have been recently linked with Jack Rodwell, a real quality player who was originally an England Under-16 Centre Back and Captain, but who could go on to play in the holding room for the national team, and would be happy to start of as a squad player for Spurs as he is at Everton – but it could just be speculation, and the market for young talented English players seem to be inflated, to say the least.

So, credit to the scouts that bought Kyle Walker and Danny Rose, who regardless of their age, could now both be considered as first choices, which is particularly welcome, as the full-back positions have been a weakness for us for many years now. And for a club with our aspirations, we should never have a full season where we effectively only have one left-back, as we did last year, when the apparent decision was made that Bale’s permanent position was further forward. Regardless, with the amount of games we will be playing next season, both Walker and Rose will get games.

It is tempting to name the ideal 25 squad I would like see now, but as successive windows have proved, there is no point in second guessing. Not signing a World Class striker in January was a big disappointment, but getting Van Der Vaart in the previous window was an unexpected triumph.

So I’ll wait and see. (While checking the BBC gossip column every day, before they sell it off because of pressure from the Daily Mail and BSkyB). 

MG

My e-book on Tottenham Hotspur's return to the European Cup after 49 seasons is available on Amazon and Smashwords.

 

F.E.A.R. – Martin Jol’s time at Spurs

An ex-colleague of mine once told me that people only do impersonations of you if they like you. He told me that after my then MD did an impression of me, when telling a funny anecdote. I do an impression of Martin Jol. Everybody knows that.

I like Martin Jol. Everybody likes Martin Jol. He was a very popular figure in English football in his time at Tottenham manager, an unusual period when non-Spurs fans would often mention in passing how much they liked our manager. And most people that met him have a good story to tell, be it the family of a young player I know that Spurs tried to sign in 2007 or my own group of football friends who met him in Braga a few weeks earlier when we were staying at the neighbouring hotel.  Once during Jol’s tenure, I happened to be eating in a restaurant in central London, got talking the owner, and it somehow came out in conversation I was a Spurs fan. (I can’t reveal the interrogation techniques used to get me to volunteer that piece of information.) The owner told me Jol had eaten there a few times and had given him tickets for his kids to come to the training ground. Most satisfyingly for me, the restaurant owner, a West Ham fan, told me that Jol said he hated his club, and would never forgive them for their fans singing “Arsenal” on that infamous final day of the season in 2006.

Jol was a good manager for Tottenham, and they way he was treated publicly by the club in his last few months, culminating with his sacking, was appalling. Reading Levy’s vote of confidence (effectively an undermining vote of no confidence) a few weeks earlier on Sky Sports News graphics, was one of the most bizarre things I have ever seen in a pub in London on a midweek evening, and that’s saying something. But tweets from numerous Spurs fans yesterday wishing that Jol was replacing Harry Redknapp now, seem to be based on sentiment rather than logic, and there is a tendency to look back in the past on his managerial spell through a rose tinted mist.

Similar to Redknapp, Jol is a manger who gives journalists good copy and makes people laugh. The footage of him at a Tottenham supporters meeting retelling of his confrontation with Mark Clattenburg after he didn’t give Pedro Mendes’ “goal” is particularly funny. Redknapp produces those moments on a regular basis, but while Jol never committed the crime of treating Spurs fans with disdain, both his ego and negativity were problems that led to his downfall.

It is well known that Jol seriously considered jumping ship for more money to Newcastle, but it is often forgotten how he openly coveted the Chelsea job while Frank Arnesen was the Director of Football there, even saying in a Guardian interview the day before Spurs played Chelsea in the 6^th round of the FA Cup how he wanted to win a title in two or three years, and dismissing Tottenham’s chance of even challenging, talking about a satisfactory top six finish.  

That Chelsea game was just three days after Braga, and followed a spell where Spurs had a good run of wins, after a period when Jol himself was under pressure. There had been rumours Levy wanted to bring Redknapp in then to replace Jol, and when Spurs won 4-0 away at Fulham in the 5^th round of the FA Cup, the relief to Jol was clear as he left the field ecstatic as he walked past the away end. He blamed the poor slump up until mid-February, and that game at Fulham, on the absence of Jenas and Tanio, but it was quickly forgotten with the good run that followed, which included a great Berbatov performance at home to Bolton when Spurs had ten men (after Keane got two early goals before being sent-off), the memorable 4-3 win at West Ham, and wins away at Everton and Braga.

The cup-tie at Chelsea that followed highlighted both the good and bad sides of Jol’s football decision making; the previous summer during the World Cup he wrote an excellent column for The Times, showing a great tactical understanding, which he rarely seemed to put into practice at Tottenham, almost with a fear of losing. One of the things he said during his World Cup columns was how Aaron Lennon was capable of playing in the hole, behind two strikers in a diamond formation. Against Chelsea that day, he played Lennon there, and as he predicted, Chelsea couldn’t cope. Spurs went 3-1 up early on, and the atmosphere in the away end on a hot day at Stamford Bridge, just two days after we had returned from Braga, was fun in the sun.

We missed a great chance to go 4-1 up at the start of the second-half, and an opportunity to score four goals for the fourth consecutive Sunday, and also a chance to go on and get our own 6-1 win. As the game went on, Jol’s negativity got the better off him. He took off Berbatov (who reportedly only played because Levy insisted on it) and Spurs dropped deeper and deeper, eventually conceding a last minute equalizer, and narrowly avoiding defeat in a game that should have been wrapped up.

Jol understands the principles of good football, and his use of Carrick to dictate the pace of the game transformed the side that was struggling under Santini, to a side that was comfortably one of the best four teams in the league the following season, despite dropping down a place on the last day. Towards the end of that season we out played Arsenal in the last North London Derby at Highbury, and had we won that by four or five clear goals, it would have been a true reflection of the game. I was too busy celebrating Robbie Keane’s goal in the Clock End to see Jol’s confrontation with Wenger until I left the ground, but what stood out during watching many replays of that goal, was Jol’s firm instructions to “Play. Play. Play.” Simple instructions, but the players rightly listened, and when Spurs did play under Jol, we were a very good team.

Six times in Jol’s that season we lost a decisive late goal, which cost us in both cup competitions, as well as of course Champions League qualification. It was no coincidence that when those goals were conceded, Edgar Davids was off the pitch – he was a great influence on that side, and an excellent signing. With a Director of Football it wasn’t always clear who made which signings – it is safe to assume Arnesen got in Carrick, Comolli got in Berbatov, Kevin Prince-Boteang, Beniot Assou-Ekottto and Darren Bent, but Davids was probably Jol’s choice, and a very good one at that.

That Davids was taken off in games was understandable, but it was Jol’s general use of substitutes that was worrying. He liked the idea of having a big striker upfront, even when Keane and Defoe seemed to be the best pairing before Berbatov arrived. And it wasn’t until he fell out with Mido towards the end of 2005-06, that he gave them regular starts together. For someone who has tactical knowledge, Jol seemed reluctant to change things during a game, and would often fall back on the old Dutch trait of having a big man in the box at the end of the game.

By the time of the 2007-08 season expectation was high, particularly from the chairman who invested heavily in the team, and the first team had financial backing no other Spurs manager had had for years. That all the players weren’t Jol’s signings was an issue and team selection started to become a problem. Bent was bought in case Berbatov left, Jol’s treatment of Defoe was strange, particularly if he wasn’t acting on instruction on the club because Defoe wasn’t signing a new contract, and he didn’t have his old favourites to rely on (he was still be bemoaning the big loss of Carrick after a year) and Jenas flattered to deceive (him if no-one else).

The poor start, coupled with perceptions of Jol’s ego behind the scenes caused the club to look elsewhere. And Jol can’t complain about the club keeping their options open, when it is a practice he not only did himself while Spurs manager, but one he has continued to do; when he was at Hamburg, he publicly courted Sunderland, and when he left from Ajax it was hours after Newcastle had sacked his former right-hand man, and true Tottenham legend, Chris Hughton. (Had Jol stepped in Hughton’s shoes then, my “I love Martin Jol” t-shirt may never have seen the light of day again, and the memory of singing “Martin Jol’s Blue & White Army” in Leverkusen might have been tarnished).

When Jol became Tottenham Manager, he was the right man, at the right time. Even after a couple of early defeats in his first games in charge, there was a collective confidence in him, and we went on to score five goals three times that season, as well go on a five match winning run in the League culminating with a memorable win at Carrow Road on Boxing Day. The following season, we were solid as a team, playing good football, with King and Dawson masterful, Carrick pulling the strings, and Lennon a constant threat. And in his final full season, with Berbatov added, we scored goals in all competitions, but were left to wonder how well we might have done had Carrick stayed, and King had been fit (things we sometimes still wonder now).

The handling of his departure was awful, and unbefitting of this great club, but Spurs have moved on now, past the limited ambitions, and seemingly past the internal managerial in-fighting. Jol was replaced for a reason. He is not the right man now, but that doesn’t mean to say, if his mind-set has changed, he may not be sometime in the future, if a vacancy naturally opens itself up. But no man is bigger than the club, and we at Tottenham set our sights high. At times Jol forgot that.

MG

My e-book on Tottenham Hotspur's return to the European Cup after 49 seasons is available on Amazon and Smashwords.