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6th May 2008 – Stadium move update Daily Mail, 6th
May 2008 - Spurs to have 50,000 stadium by 2012 Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy is on the verge of
confirming plans for a 50,000-capacity stadium to be built next to Funny that, I remember reading something like that a month or so ago … J Topspurs Editorial, 3rd April 2008 I heard a little whisper the other day about the plans for
the new Spurs stadium and it seems that Spurs are going to keep it in the
area with some sort of expansion or move slightly northwards to the area
which currently has the Wingate Trading estate on it (see map)
The word was for two options – either a realistic 55k
stadium or for a larger probably 60k plus to accommodate that ever so large
and real season ticket waiting list. No info on what Spurs are to do with the
site of the current ground but at least it should remain a viable during the
construction phase of the new stadium and not mean a couple of years at West
Ham. (update: just heard that Spurs have paid £2m
for an option on the Wingate estate for two years last September. The
purchase price is £17m. The plot thickens) |
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15th April 2008 – The Perfect one or a load of old PR cobblers After reading the latest PR offensive (sic) about Ramos, it was time to write again. The Mirror reported Ramos as saying: "In the club they call me the Perfect One.” Yeah right. In the club would boil down to the fella in the PR department who was asked to put out a puff to the press to remind them what a good decision it was to appoint Ramos and how different things are now to Jol, despite the evidence of recent results and performances. And is Ramos actually distancing himself by bringing it up all this talk of perfection or is he doing a Smashie n Nicey - he is perfect, but in a does n’t like to talk about it. When I saw the headline "Ramos not happy about his new nickname" I wondered if he'd heard the "Wendy Random" but it was just a lead into this advertorial on his apparent managerial worth as there are obviously a few panic buttons being pressed to restore the image of Ramos as Spurs lose their way towards the end of the season. Just in time for the season ticket price rise announcements? More illusion of progress which needs to be paid for. The Mirror went on: Now Ramos insists he has established himself in his own right at Hapless boss Martin “Two 5th places” Jol? Oh dear. This time last year Spurs were winning 9 of the last 12 matches to finish 5th for the second consecutive season. This year, Spurs seem to be sinking the other way, with poor performances and apparent lack of team spirit fostered by aggressive management, with the only sign of rescue being a complete overhaul and spending more money, and of course another transitional season next year. "We did none of the things that the team was
doing before our arrival. If they used to train on one pitch and leave
through a certain door, then we changed the training to another pitch and
sent them out through a different door. Yeah, the door they have come out for the second half of the last two home games is certainly a different door than any other Spurs side I can remember coming through as its difficult to think of two worse halves by a Spurs side at home in terms of flair or commitment. WTF are they trying to demonstrate? "We changed timetables, diet, everything. We
wanted them to forget everything from before, like it never existed." They make it sound like Ramos arrival was the liberation of Berlin in 1945 saving Spurs some awful tyranny, but perhaps the false celebrations are more akin to the labour landslide in 1997 when for all the hullaballoo, things went sideways and/or regressed at what was last chance saloon for progressives. Again, ‘Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose’ Spurs had a few internal troubles caused by boardroom friction but nothing terminal, or at least it should n’t have been in a PLC which is not private fiefdom. Did Spurs need revolution or evolution? The Wembley win on the back of the strong league finishes, allied to the director of football system, suggest the latter was the original brief and still what Spurs need. If Ramos can do it with these players at Wembley, his next task is consistency and improvement of what he has got – something he has totally failed to achieve. Letting him spend money is a big risk, esp as he has not been at any club longer than 118 games in his managerial career – although perhaps not as much a risk as giving the piggy bank to Comolli again. Perhaps that was the mistake of the summer – not Jol but trusting Comolli – but we can’t admit that as it is an error too close to the boardroom The irony as regular readers will know is that I was not a great fan of Jol – I wished he’d believed in the team a little more and played a more expansive game – but equally, it was clear that Spurs had returned to a generational high in terms of performance with two top six league finishes for the first time since 1990, European football and last season long cup runs with a happy set of players and a positive crowd. All of which was achieved while the teams best player was sold from under him half way through. Ramos has started well with the win over Arsenal’s league cup team and a famous win over elite side Chelsea but he should be letting his record speak for itself rather than cheap shots at the previous regime which was not that bad and seemed to be removed by boardroom unrest rather than any football rationality. Its difficult to generate much positive feeling about Ramos (or indeed the Spurs PR machine) after this little piece and he is best off getting those good players who won at Wembley and delivered the goods in the league over the last couple of seasons starting winning and playing well again – with the results and strategy evident, he will not need to defend his position with this pathetic crap. "Nine years of winning nothing had generated
an impossible pessimism." I think a quick look back to the TOPSPURS season Vox Pop (Click here for what fans thought this season would bring for Spurs and what they thought of Jol in August last season) can quash this cobblers as there was nothing but optimism at the start of this season after Spurs had finished strongly and had lots of money to spend over the summer with Comolli and the wonderful director of football system. Has Ramos done any better with Kaboul, Boeteng or Bent? Still there is a long time between now and when it all starts properly again and you never know Spurs may turn up then as a better side. Its right that current form does not matter but if they can turn it on in August why are they not doing it now – what is going to be the difference – is it just down to lack of effort or something more which is a sign of regression at Spurs? All the evangelicals can show what great human beings they are by not thinking too much now and trusting in faith, a strategy which has served Spurs fans so well these last 20 years has n’t it, while the rest of us can wonder why such good players can be allowed to play so badly if an upturn is just going to come because its the start of a new season. As Delboy may say, this time in 6 months, we'll be footballing millionaires or more pertinently, as our old nan would say, we’ve got a right juan(de) here |
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THE LATEST TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR NEWS
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It’s hard to believe its 17 years since that great lunchtime game, and the fare dished up by the 5th best squad and the best paid manager in the league in the second period made it seem even further away. Just as against Newcastle, Spurs were ordinary at best in a first half which produced a 1-0 lead (or 44 mins if you are being pedantic against the Geordies), and then shocking effort in both skill and application in a second period which was an embarrassment if you still believe it will be any different next season and a disgrace if you think every Spurs game is important and swallow the guff about wanting to be better than some mid-table also ran Again there were a couple of special ‘random’ substitutions which left Spurs with three strikers on the pitch but no viable width in the attacking half of the pitch after losing Lennon and Malbranque – if this is not good enough to create a chance for Spurs let alone rescue a game against end of season nothing to play for Boro, how is this sort of thing gonna work when the real stuff starts again in August? Looking back at the League cup final, although taking off Chimbo who was having a good game and then Malbranque who similarly was playing well before being played out of position and then subbed, worked because Spurs won, its increasingly likely that Spurs won despite rather than because of these counter intuitive decisions. Apparently Spurs played ok in the first half but I can’t remember many decent chances created to show for it and it only looked semi decent in respect of the second period which was dire and must have appalled the obsessed with winning Ramos. Although apparently not if the following comments are anything to go by: Ramos: "We always want to produce the best performance possible but you have to understand the situation the team is in. We are in the middle of the table, the points aren't excessively important - we can't reach the top part of the table and we don't seem to be in danger. It is not easy to get the maximum motivation when the team is in this situation." That is the talk of a pub team manager or a manager from the 70s. Even allowing for the language thing, are those really the comments of a modern sports manager? Esp. one who is obsessed with winning? Jol was meant to be too lax with Spurs and while the football was n’t always as fluid, I can’t remember a game where Spurs were not winning at home which did not feature a sustained assault on the oppo goal to retrieve the situation at some stage in the second half. Not just under Jol but any Spurs manager and now we’ve had this twice in two home games under the latest messiah Speaking from experience, Huddlestone looked like he was playing with a hangover. Very few comments about how Ramos had turned him around via fatfighters after that display. Jenas was another who was apparently transformed from a talented but erratic midfielder into a top (stand aside stevie g) international by the magical Ramos effect. If it was wishful thinking then, after another typical decent but not great effort from Jenas where that fantastic run after the Keane flick in the first half was surrounded misplaced passes, dead balls not beating the first man and always lots of effort – where is the difference between Jenas 2005, Jenas 2006, Jenas 2007 & Jenas 2008? ‘Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose’ as Delboy may have put it for both Jenas and Spurs. Je veux croire In keeping with the theme of the St Hotspur day semi final, Spurs were known as a one man team (although that failed to include England’s second highest goalscorer Lineker and legendary club captain Mabbutt amongst others) and that one man rushed back from an operation to not only last more than an hour but have a devastating impact on the game. Football has changed but you’d need to be sharing a pipe with Lewis Carroll to imagine our current ‘one man’ doing anything akin to this unless his interest was paramount. Poyet signalled one of the first official signs of discontent with Berbatov in the MOTD interview which may perhaps be part of the agenda to sell him on at a massive profit in the summer but also may just be a genuine frustration about not being able to harness his skill for the benefit of the team as a whole. If Ramos does n’t care, and the players once a happy squad under Jol are not putting themselves out for each other, why should we the customers bother? I don’t suppose Levy will be there dolling out the refunds recognising the early end to the season, although I suppose its also bad timing for him as well as he’ll need to twist minds backwards to the Wembley cup win when announcing what will be the usual above inflation price rises for next season with the familiar refrain, we need more of your money so Spurs can be better. Really? Will more new players with names like ethethetheth pethethethethe & Sminki-pinki from a chanel 9 news summary (but hopefully without Boutros Boutros-Ghali) be any better than Spurs currently have? Do Spurs want another opening day game with 5 debutants and the first three months of the season written off while they bed in (or not as proved to be the case this year). I thought it was about building something no going round in groundhog circles. Ramos has got these players to outplay Chelsea in a major final, and the squad has two 5th place finishes in the bag so for all this weak finish to the season they are no duds and Ramos is not acting in the best interest of Spurs and outside his remit if he just wants to junk these players on – which is all we seem to get from him rather than how he is making a difference with his coaching and motivation. Sure Spurs have lost Carrick and its obvious that we’ve seen the best of poor old Ledley, two mainstays of the recent success and there is always room at Spurs for good and better players but I can’t get away from the idea that, wonderful cup final win apart Spurs have regressed over the last 12 months starting with some bad summer signings, through the messed up league season to the seeming falling away of the team spirit Despite Levy’s words last week, Ramos job is to get this squad into 4th place next season. Anything else will not have been an improvement on Jol’s performance. The Wembley win and the two previous league finishes demonstrate he has enough talent, and as such his job was and is to bring consistency and improvement. Anything else such as wholesale changes is just a major contradiction of the final performance and Spurs operating policy for most of the decade and very risky for the club should he fail.
6th April 2008 – Spurs update Spurs spent the weekend going through the motions of a 1-1
draw with That said, its all about next season now and it really
can’t happen quick enough. The games after the League Cup final really
don’t matter in the scheme of things as long as Spurs pick up the baton
they dropped after that game next season. These games are to try new systems
and if it means embarrassing defeats to sides like The obsessed by winning line for Ramos game from an ‘interview’ Levy did with some business rag. Where once they lauded Jol and his ‘winning mentality’ now its Ramos and his ‘obsession’ with winning. Two sides of the same illusion. I would stop short of calling it an interview as it was another instance of Levy getting his own thoughts out in the open without having a nasty member of the fourth estate querying any of his statements or asking questions of their own Like Berbatov’s agent, Levy started out by denying a story that apparently did not exist – namely that he would only sell the club if the right offer came in, but that none had come in. Most of the interview was pony but two pieces stuck out: "People know we run
the club well and that it is not some private fiefdom.” "There is no time
scale for the latter (champions league qualification), because you've got
four spots and a lot of potential contenders. I don't accept that we will
have failed if we don't make it next season." When Levy was appointed Chairman, his mob ENIC had paid well over the odds at 2001 prices for 29% of the club and now they own over 60% through a series of snide rights issues which has taken a widely owned public company into much fewer hands tending towards something akin to private fiefdom. Friends of the owners such as Kemsley were appointed to executive positions without any particular experience or at the start any remit. The second part of this came as a bit of a surprise as in
the removal of Jol, his reason for dismissal was his ‘failure’ to
deliver champions league football. Levy has been at the club since 2001 and
has sacked and appointed five managers – when does someone say to him
its time to step aside little man, and let someone else have a go if there
are more years where the stated aims have not been achieved? A much more interesting sporting event happened in the north
west this but unfortunately its remains another National of what might have
been as Bewleys Berry’s stamina evaporated
jumping the second last while in the lead and I’m left cursing the fact
that my own system as identified in the preview (over 8 years old, between
10-4-10-0 in the weights, not a second season novice and form in certain big
races – even down to having a season off through injury) got the 40
runners down to the winner Comply or Die. Do as I think not as I say…
still there is always next year and hopefully the presence of Denman will
make things a little easier
The word was for two options – either a realistic 55k stadium or for a larger probably 60k plus to accommodate that ever so large and real season ticket waiting list In one respect its good that the fourth Spurs stadium move will be in the area and much like all of the previous three but equally the transportation issues are going to be even worse with greater car volumes No info on what Spurs are to do with the site of the current ground but at least it should re |