15^th May 2008 - End of another disappointing season That was the season that never happened. This time last year finishing fifth again and looking forward to a summer of activity. Spending nearly forty million smackeroos on what turned out to be nothing more than squad players, and our season is in tatters as early as September. I wanted to have a go at someone at the time, Jol, Levy, Commoli any one of them would have done, but suddenly Levy takes action gets rid of Jol, Ramos and Poyet come in and we have to accept what we have got until the January window. Fortunately buying the likes of Woodgate and Hutton were positive moves, but the season did not really improve and to finish eleventh behind the Arse, Chelski and Spam is shameful. We played the top six teams in the league and did not beat one of them. Out of the 36 points on offer from these games we got 6, and to got nothing from a team that gets itself relegated and perform poorly against the Barcodes with “nil point”. Yet under Ramos we all feel that he will turn us around and make us be competitive again. Ok we won the Carling Cup and in doing so did beat the Arse and Chelski en route, but I really hoped this win would have galvanised our season into a big push for league position. How wrong? We even stopped scoring so freely at the end, and to play the last game of the season and not give the fans at least one goal was symptomatic of how we have under achieved. Blame has been put on many starting with Jol and Commoli, and then Robbo has come in for stick. Will he go? Or will he have to really fight for his number one slot? He hasn’t had to since he arrived at the Lane. Poor old Ledley another will he? Or won’t he? the jury has to be out on this one, but a lot of hope has been riding on the state of his leg these past thirteen months. I am amazed a club of our stature should leave ourselves so exposed by his lack of playing fitness. Yes we bought Kaboul but so much resting on his young shoulders, he was almost destined to fail. The injury to Bale did us no favours. How ironic that in the match against Brum, Keane gets sent off for a very innocuous tackle that does no injury and then Bale is put out for the season by a guy who just gets a yellow card. Amazingly a great furore erupts about Brum, weeks later when one of theirs almost breaks Eduardo’s leg in half! Could it have been as a result of trying to impress a new hard tackling Scottish manager?? No of course not. I think Jenas improved under Ramos, the extra fitness served him well and earned his England chance, didn’t really do the same for Lennon though. For such a young talent that burst onto the scene two years ago and got into the World cup squad he should take a long and hard look at himself, if he wants to emulate his so called idol – Ronaldo- the Mancs one I mean. Failing to get into the game and still not being able to cross the ball with regular and consistent accuracy just isn’t good enough and although I don’t want to see him sold, I feel I cannot justify his continued inclusion unless he makes a major improvement. Being unable to cross the ball has been Malbranque’s problem as well, admittedly he has worked hard and tries hard but in today’s game that is just not enough. Huddlestone has what Malbranque lacks, the ability to hit a good pass, but he lacks Steed’s running, tackling back and work rate. He is a bit of throw back to the Hoddle days, good vision and passing ability but in todays’ game he needs more than that. I cannot believe that he was considered to be a centre back?

. .

End of the season and here we go again about Berbatov. Good player that he is and a very talented one I think if the money is right and I mean £30 million plus we should cash in. Now we are up to date- Sky are already advertising the start of the league in August and the competition in Rotterdam including Celtic in July. I doubt whether we will have finished our dealings in the market by then but this is not far away. We are going to be linked with many players for all positions, and there are going to be some serious changes to the squad if you believe the ITK’s and the press. However I am concerned, too many changes and there is no guarantee they will succeed. Man City spent and although they finished higher than us and had a better season than normal, I would not have been happy with their season. So spending and bringing in mass numbers does not have guarantees. Consistency is needed. Buying an expensive player from overseas does not guarantee that he will succeed in what has now become the hardest league, but players from England who have played at this level are difficult to acquire and the fees are ridiculous. So we have to have faith in Commoli and Co. Everyone is talking about the state of the game in England at the moment. Spend money on pitches, facilities and academy’s is the brief. But what happens to academy players? They seem to fail with ever increasing regularity. Manure are saying they do not expect to bring on the likes of Scholes, Beckham, Butt and the Neville brothers again. Clubs who regularly produce good academy sides, seem reluctant to introduce them to the top level, maybe it’s because the manager’s future is riding on so much on success that he would rather go out and buy than give a kid a chance. Ok so O’Hara is an exception, but Jol didn’t give him a chance. WE bought Leigh Mills an outstanding prospect at 15, not even mentioned these days. Will we ever see the likes of Rose or Parrett in the first team squad, when we have spent millions on Prince Boateng and Kaboul? Is Gunter going to go the same way, and now we are linked with a kid called Bostock. I like the idea of these youngsters coming through, but being so success starved I can also understand the lack of patience in giving them a start. If we are to have faith and trust in Ramos then we must accept that he will turn us around, and get the right squad properly trained to fitness and motivation, I don’t think many of our players will be distracted by the European cup, apart from Modric, so they should return after their holidays keen and motivated. We have shown we can play entertaining football, we have shown that we can compete against the best, but we have to be more resilient in defence. I can’t remember the last time when the number of clean sheets was greater. When we won five league games on the trot? I want to hope that next season will be a good one, but I have been doing this for so long now, to score lots of goals and being considered to be one the entertaining sides in the league is one thing but I would not have minded us to be in the position of Chelski last Sunday morning, and they are one of the teams I dislike the most, to be playing, to perhaps win the league, and in the final of the Champion’s league, and to be accused of playing boring football under a boring manager? I will take that.

TOPSPURS COLUMNISTS
Mark Rose	Il Falcone	Graham Gardner	Martin Cloake	Greg Meyer	Sean Morley	Logan Holmes	Jim Duggan	Colin Ashby	Chris Dean	Guest Column
Paolo Hewitt	Mesmo	Clive Francis	Laurence Coss	Mike King	Mario Sergides	Rabbi Crackers	Chris Biggs	1Danny Thomas	Guy Edema

THE LATEST TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR NEWS

Disclaimer: Please note the words on this page are the opinion of the topspurs columnist and are just that, opinions, not facts and are nothing to do with Tottenham Hotspur Football club PLC. Just a supporter having his say nothing more nothing less. Any commentary on betting is meant for discussion purposes only and does not constitute any form of advice or recommendation.