Mr Ramos – that awfully nice chap in charge of the football club that plays at 748 Tottenham High Road, has got 19 victories from 46 matches, a 41% win record.
That might look fairly awful but regular Tottenham watchers (if there are such things) will know that this is fairly normal middle-of-the-road stuff for Tottenham.
For example, Mr Ramos’ predecessor, a Mr M Jol, won 67 games from a total of 148 – a 45% win record, which clearly is better than his successor.
I wonder if it might not be a jolly good idea for Tottenham to sack this manager and get someone else in. After all, that’s what they usually do.
But no, I thought, enough of the cheap laughs. Let’s do a serious analysis of what is wrong at 748 High Road, Tottenham.
Consider Martin Jol. OK as a ritual, we knock whoever is manager down the road, but inside me I thought Jol was actually a good manager struggling in an impossible situation. That 45% record is hardly wonderful, but he was trying to put together a consistently good team from a poor start. He also said that the club should aim to be 6th, which he could probably have achieved. But of course that was not acceptable to the dolts from up the road.
But look at Martin Jol now. He is manager of Hamburg. Who are…. two points clear at the top of the Bundesliga. While the Tiny Totts are two points clear at the bottom of the EPL.
If you follow my argument that he was a good manager with an impossible club then the reason Tottenham are bottom is clear. Jol’s squad (which remember included Berbatov) was expunged in the January and summer transfer windows to create a team that could come 4th.
Just how much trouble they are in can be seen by these two quotes from Ramos. First, “Don’t forget, this is the same squad that beat Roma 5-1 [in pre-season]”.
Second, “We had little time to prepare…We have had Corluka, Pavlyuchenko and Campbell only since transfer deadline day. It’s a bit of an uphill struggle but we have a young squad.”
You can’t have it both ways – and you certainly can’t call the Totts a young squad. Arsenal’s reserves are “a young squad.” In fact looking at who came on against Blackburn, Arsenal’s first time is “a young squad”.
You know you are in trouble when even the excuses don’t make sense. And Tottenham are in trouble
It’s their idiot board. I almost feel sorry for the fans, until I remember the boasting and the commemorative mugs last season.
Ramos’ win ratio was vrtually identical to Jol’s last year as well. They never learn.