Monday, October 27, 2008

Hasta La Vista Ramos

Juande Ramos didn't make it through the weekend, in fact he didn't even get a chance to coach Sunday's game against Bolton. Chairman Daniel Levy fired Ramos, coaches Gus Poyet and Marcos Alvarez, as well as Sporting Director Damien Comolli on Saturday. He then announced that starting immediately Tottenham's new coach would be Harry Redknapp. The turnaround was quick, as Tottenham won their first game of the season 2-0. While still last in the table, it was a quick improvement.

The wheels were set in motion after Thursday's loss to Udinese. Reportedly a number of senior players made it clear to Tottenham executives that the Spanish coaching staff had lost the respect of the players. Damien Comolli had already come in for a lot of stick(crap) for his failure to replace Keane and Berbatov effectively. On Friday, the four man board of Levy, Matthew Collecott, Sir Keith Mills and Mervyn Davies met and decided that it was time for a change. Harry Redknapp was their first choice, given his past experience in London and saving teams from relegation. When they contacted Portsmouth, Chief Executive Peter Storrie reluctantly allowed them to talk to Redknapp, who was interested. On Saturday the contract was worked out, and that night the Spaniards and Comolli were fired, and Redknapp was announced.

The decision to hire Harry Redknapp seems to be the first good decision by Tottenham in a year. Redknapp is an experienced coach, and after his days in West Ham he knows how to deal with pressure. Redknapp only agreed to join Tottenham when he was told there would be serious investment in the club, and that he would be allowed to choose the players he wanted. This made Comolli expendable, as Redknapp will identify the players he wants and Levy will try to purchase them. That Portsmouth let their manager walk shows their current problems. Sacha Gaydamak has put a freeze on spending, and Muntari's sale in the summer was due to financial problems. There have been suggestions that Portsmouth transferred their manager, agreeing because the £5 million Tottenham offered them for Redknapp's services. It will be interesting to see if Redknapp raids his old team in January, and Defoe could be back at White Hart Lane soon.

The first bad decision by Tottenham was to fire Martin Jol. If it wasn't for food poisoning he would have pipped North London rivals Arsenal for a Champions League place a couple seasons ago, and was the most successful manager for the club in years. Jol has Hamburg SV in third place in the Bundesliga, playing well in the UEFA Cup and all after selling Van Der Vaart to Real Madrid. Tottenham wanted to be a big club, and so they hired a big name. Ramos had been very successful in Spain, but the Premiership and a £6 million a year contract lured him to White Hart Lane. He did provide them with silverware in the form of the Carling Cup, but his performance in the Premiership had been dismal. He was not helped by Comolli, who bought talented players, but not a team. His hand was forced by Keane, but waiting until the last day to transfer Berbatov meant they had little time to find a replacement and create team chemistry. Roman Pavlyuchenko has to adjust to life in London and was already finishing up a full season in Russia, and Frazier Campbell has no experience. That means Darren Bent, who hardly played at all last season, was their starting striker. The sale of Malbranque and Tainio, coupled with Modric's small stature and Ramos' dislike of Huddlestone made for a soft center of the pitch. There was plenty of width, but they had trouble from Gomes all the way up the spine of the team and were leaking goals. Don't worry too much about Ramos, he is set to receive some hearty compensation from the club and should find another job shortly.