Tottenham’s Juande Ramos – should he stay or should he go?

Tottenham have made their worst start to a season since the year that the Titanic made its one and only trip in 1912. That is a remarkable statistic and one that shows no sign of getting any better which ever way you choose look at it.

The finger of blame

Many people have pointed the finger of blame at Dimitar Berbatov and the unsettling nature he had on the team in the early weeks of the season. That, as Gus Poyet said on Sunday, is absolute rubbish. Berbatov didn’t exactly hide the fact that he wanted to go to Manchester United and what did Ramos do about it? Nothing.

At Aston Villa in the Summer Gareth Barry was in danger of unsettling the whole club. What did Martin O’Neill do about it? He barred Barry from the ground until it was sorted out. At Manchester United Cristiano Ronaldo was in danger of unsettling the whole club. What did Sir Alex Ferguson do about it? He flew to Portugal to speak to his player, lay down the law and ensure that he knew what was going on.

Aston Villa signed Steve Sidwell from Chelsea in case they lost Barry and Manchester United knew they had cover for Ronaldo if he actually left the club.

Clubs did all they could

In fact, in similar circumstances, Aston Villa and Manchester United did all they could, firstly, to try to keep their player and secondly, to minimise the damage if they didn’t.

Tottenham apparently did neither of those things.

The end result was that they lost the player and failed to replace him. Although that is not the whole story, that is a huge part of the reason that Tottenham now find themselves in such a dire position.

First plane to Sevilla

Now, the Tottenham fans are split down the middle about what should be done. Some believe that years of managerial changes and lack of continuity have caused problems and want the club and fans to be patient with Juande Ramos and stick with him even if the unthinkable, relegation, happens. Others want him on the first plane back to Sevilla.

Obviously the situation is not helped by the fact that former manager Martin Jol who led Tottenham to fifth place twice, is currently sitting at the top of the Bundesliga with his Hamburg side. The great Franz Beckenbaur even got in on the act of attacking Tottenham last week when he expressed his amazement that they had ever sacked Jol.

Hundreds of comments

Amongst the hundreds and hundreds of comments on the message boards and forums and radio phone-ins, one fan seemed to catch the general mood really well. He or she said,

“they have spent over eighty million in the last couple of years. It cost over £100 of my hard earned for me and my kid to watch an hour and half non-entertainment. Sort it out management! I mean who in their right mind would sell all their front line strikers with no replacements? It’s shocking what they have done to our club. Ramos hasn’t won hardly any league game since arriving. I still support the boys but they have to show some respect to us fans also and play for the shirt.”

Ramos seems to be understandably going on the defensive now and a remarkable statement he made yesterday seemed to accept that terrible mistakes had been made but tried to share the blame with everyone else. “The position of the striker is the most weak. It is the decision of the club, all the people are responsible for the good and the bad.”

What that fan was saying in his emotional plea to the management was that they are trying to make excuses but the team contains big money signings in Modric, Pavlyuchenko, Bentley and Bent. Gomes, Corluka and Campbell are also new faces. A lot of money has been spent on this team and the fact is that a line-up such as theirs should not be sitting at the bottom of the league.

Badly organised

Whilst the fans are being charged a fortune to watch a badly organised team containing players who don’t always seem to be giving of their best, it will not be possible for much patience to be on display.

Ramos made a pretty sound start at Tottenham but that seems like a distant memory now. This is his team and they are under performing more than almost any other team I can remember. Whoever was responsible for not lining up suitable replacements for their three strikers from last season is almost totally culpable and should go.

Serious relegation battle

This Tottenham side should be challenging for Europe but unless something is done quickly, they could easily be in for a serious relegation battle.