Another New Dawn

by Alex Allen

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Ramos is out, Redknapp is in. Sometimes in football, inexplicable things happen. Diego Forlan, prolific at Villareal and now Athletico Madrid, never met expectation at Manchester United. Juan Sebastian was dubbed as Scholes, Keane and Beckham all rolled in to one, but it never clicked. Now, despite winning the UEFA cup and turning Espanyol in to a highly regarded outfit that played with style and verve, Ramos is out of a job after leading Spurs to their worst start to a season in history. Inevitably, although Ramos' potential was never in question, 2 points from 8 games has left them in serious danger of relegation which would have horrendous financial consequenses, and the era of Manchester United giving a young Alex Ferguson time to prove himself and reaping the long term rewards of their loyalty are long gone.

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I feel for Juande Ramos, his squad was decimated on transfer deadline day, and there was no time to plug the holes that those big departures left. It was clear long before the deal was concluded that Dimitar Berbatov would not be a Spurs player for the 2008/9 season. Even if his move to Manchester United had no materialised, his personal strike would have seen his position at Spurs completely untenable. The whole episode was a prime example of Spurs' incessant money grabbing. Manchester United had made their interest in Berbatov apparent since last summer, so it must have come as no surprise that they made a concrete offer during the last window. Whilst I think that teams like Spurs should at least get some sort of financial benefit from the big four clubs luring their biggest assets away with lucrative contracts and Champions League football, in this instance they did it to the detriment of their own team. Darren Bent showed few signs of coming good during the last season, Frazer Campbell was totally unproven despite being highly rated, and it was idealistic to assume that Pavlychenko could adapt instantly and score Spurs out of trouble. Levy wants the team to be competitive, he fired Martin Jol for finishing fifth in consecutive seasons after all, but his actions don't match his words. If he wanted to give Spurs the best chance, he would have taken a 5 million pound cut on Berbatov, and given Ramos the best chance of replacing him. If Ronaldo had been lured to Real Madrid, who, incidentally, I don't believe for a second have genuinely dropped their interest in him, Manchester United would have struggled too, losing influential players can do that to any team. In recent seasons, time and time again Spurs have acted more like a business than a football club, and wasted the proceeds of their sales on players that couldn't make the grade. Great stadium, great location, money to spend, what's holding them back? Redknapp seems like a good choice, a motivator, a track record of spending money wisely and knowing how to organise a team. Sometimes managers who have worked wonders at smaller clubs struggle to make the grade when they step up, take Allardyce and Curbishley as prime examples, but at 61 this could be the last chance Redknapp has to take on one of the big jobs and possibly put him in the frame to succeed Fabio Cappello, so what has he got to lose?