EPL Talk » Juande Ramos

What A Difference A Year Makes At White Hart Lane

Paul Bestall — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 13:01:34 +0000

With the season starting slightly earlier this year due to the World Cup, most teams in the Premiership have played 8 league games already. Last season, the 8th round of matches was played two weeks later, on the weekend of October 18th/19th. By the end of it, Tottenham were staring up at every other team in the league with a lowly 2 points. A 2-1 loss against Stoke City at the Britannia Stadium had left Spurs trailing Newcastle by 4 points and Stoke and Fulham by 5.

A club in disarray, the fans in despair, the players lacking leadership on or off the pitch, things were not looking good. Not since 1988* had Tottenham propped up the table, ironically on Halloween. That season was to shadow a remarkable turn around in events at White Hart Lane as the week continued to get worse as Udinese beat Spurs on the Thursday 2-0 with a implosion in the last 15 minutes. Juande Ramos cut a depressed figure on the touchline in Udine, a man completely at a loss to explain what was happening or it seemed able to arrest the decline.

Daniel Levy’s reign as chairman had seen plenty of ups and downs during the course of the 7 years that had led to this point. Ramos was supposed to be the marquee managerial signing to move Spurs onwards from the work of the underrated and under appreciated Martin Jol. It was fast becoming a disaster of epic proportions as the club lurched from crisis to crisis. After 5 managers in that time, Levy was under enormous pressure to finally deliver, yet here they were, bottom of the league, winless, shapeless and facing relegation.

After the defeat in Italy, Ramos made the usual “We can play our way out of trouble” statements, but they rang hollow in the ears of the Spurs fans. Other than a well deserved point at Stamford Bridge, there had been nothing to cling to in the way of optimism. No-one else could see where the win was going to come from, the team looked beyond help. On Saturday, October 25th as the fans prepared for another inevitable defeat the next day against Bolton, things couldn’t get much worse.

As Match of the Day finished, I flicked over to Sky Sports News, just to see if perhaps anything at all had happened. As the image flicked on, the newsfeed at the bottom of the screen suddenly went in to to overdrive. “Tottenham have sacked Juande Ramos, Gus Poyet and Daniel Comolli with immediate effect…..Harry Redknapp has been confirmed as the new manager of Spurs …. Discussion with Redknapp next on Sky Sports News.” Then the adverts kicked in. Damn it!

I’d had a drink, who wouldn’t when you’re team was bottom of the league and playing like Worksop Town. I rewound the pictures and watched it again. Yep, still said the same. I shot to the PC, went on the BBC football site. It was the top story, Breaking News. The I checked the Guardian, yep, same there. It was true. I ran to the bedroom and woke my better half up, she told me to stop winding her up. I insisted it was true, and probably to simply placate me, she got up and went downstairs with me to see for herself.

Chelsea fans don’t believe a lot, though living with a Spurs fan means you get used to false dawns on a seasonal basis. Sitting down, SSN burst in to life once more, BOOOOOOOOOM went the special effects, WHOOOOOOOOOOSH went the graphics and then it was confirmed by the presenters clearly excited that people would actually be watching for once late on a Saturday night. Redknapp was indeed the new manager of Spurs. I let out a hearty cheer! My other half wasn’t impressed at all, ” Oh no, I’ve always really liked Harry. What has he done that for!” Time for another drink I decided, my despair transformed in minutes to optimism! Ah the joy’s of football eh!

As managerial announcements go, for me, its quite possibly one of the oddest I’ve ever come across, late on a Saturday night, less than 24 hours before a team is due to play a match. I bet every newspaper editor was cursing Levy throughout the United Kingdom. Yet, in the 38 League games Redknapp has managed Spurs in now, his record reads Played 38, Won 19, Drawn 8 Lost 11.With this season’s excellent start, Redknapp has assured that for the first time in 4 seasons, Spurs are not playing catch up after a slow start. 16 points from 8 games is Tottenham’s best ever start to a Premiership season.

No Spurs fan thinks that we’ll win the League, or finish in the top 4, but after the year of hell that was the Ramos era, it’s a whole lot better. The oddity of Ramos’ tenure, Spurs won the League Cup, their first trophy in 9 seasons and a 5-1 victory against Arsenal, yet it will always be viewed as a dreadful year. Two shots of sunlight do not make a summer, but at least Harry’s got Spurs fans smiling again.

There is still plenty of work to do at Tottenham, the centre half issue needs resolving due the injuries King and Woodgate now have. The midfield have to learn to be able to play without Modric against big teams and not let Palacios do all the running, Keane needs to keep performing as he did against Burnley and Hull City. Defoe needs keep running and not get downhearted and the players outside the first 11 need to knuckle down and try and force themselves into Redknapps plans rather than whining to the media. Then maybe a top six place wouldn’t be out of the question, anything else would be a bonus.

*Spurs became the first team to be bottom of the First Division on Halloween in 1988 and not be relegated, actually finishing 6th as Gascoigne and Waddle combined to drag them up the table. The following season saw Spurs finish 3rd with Lineker joining the team as Waddle went to Marseille.

Juande Ramos and Rafa Benitez Were Both Wrong About Robbie Keane

tyduffy — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 19:35:35 +0000

Real Madrid manager Juande Ramos, formerly of Tottenham, criticized Liverpool manager Rafa Benitez for giving up on Robbie Keane after half a season.

“You can’t tell me Robbie will not score goals at a top club,” Ramos is quoted as saying in The Sun.

“He is a top player and I don’t think he did badly at Liverpool.

“He scored goals and showed he’s a team player.

“He’s definitely a matchwinner for any club and if he were still at Liverpool, I would be telling my defenders to watch for him,” he added in reference to next week’s meeting between Real and Liverpool in the Champions League.

Ramos is right that Keane can be a match-winner. He’s a tremendous instinctive player. Flourishing in a free role, he’s unpredictable and can create havoc for opposing defenders.

Keane, however, could not have done that at Liverpool. Benitez’ team plays a considered, deliberate brand of football. For all of Keane’s fantastic instincts, he’s not a thinker.

He intuitively reacts to what’s in front of him, sometimes brilliantly. He’s not one to set out with a task and impose on the opposition. When forced to do so, he befuddles himself into ineffectiveness.

There is a role in Liverpool’s system for a spontaneous, freewheeling and instinctive player. Steven Gerrard fills it, and far better than Keane ever would.

Rafa Benitez should be censured over Keane, but for wasting club’s limited transfer funds on him, not for being decisive once the story was clear.

Liverpool’s problem up front, now, is not Robby Keane being gone. It’s that the Keane deal did not go through quickly enough to buy a replacement.

Resurgent Tottenham Surprise Everyone

Dominic Mather — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 11:26:21 +0000

Tottenham started the season as serious contenders to break into the top four, but as we all know this was not to be. The joke “What’s the difference between Spurs and a triangle?…A triangle has more points” was going on into late October, and until the last few weeks Tottenham looked like the favorites to be relegated.

Tottenham’s losses at the both of the newly promoted clubs they faced compounded their failure and made, now former Tottenham manager, Juande Ramos’ future look increasingly more uncertain. The departure of Ramos from White Hart Lane signaled a huge change in this attitude; whilst Ramos was at the helm Jonathan Woodgate came out to the press and admitted that there was a good chance that Spurs would be relegated. Woodgate’s pessimism showed the negative attitude around the Tottenham camp and around Ramos.

When Harry ‘Houdini’ Redknapp was brought in to stop the rot this defeatist attitude was immediately arrested and the performances instantaneously picked up; he seemed to inspire the players into working for him. Darren Bent had been Ramos’ top goal scorer and had scored four by late October, since Redknapp’s arrival Bent has had the purple patch of his Tottenham career and has scored seven goals in five games and Pavlyuchenko seems to have come a lot closer to realising his potential, scoring four goals in the same period.Tottenham have recovered from their early losses to win twice over Liverpool, and came close to beating Arsenal in a four goal apiece thriller. Who knows; if they keep on beating the big names they may yet reach the top four.

Housecleaning Begins at Tottenham. Ramos Out, Redknapp in.

Johnathan Starling — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 01:01:01 +0000

The BBC is reporting that the house cleaning at Tottenham Hotspur Football Club has begun. Manager Juande Ramos, Sporting Director Damien Comolli, and first team coaches Gus Poyet and Marcos Alvarez are all looking for work after being sacked Saturday night ahead of their tie with Bolton Wanderers on Sunday. Clive Allen (Development Squad Coach) and Alex Inglethorpe (Youth Team Manager) will be in place for Tottenham for Sunday’s tie.

It’s a toss up over what Ramos will be most remembered for. Back in February, Tottenham won the Carling Cup with an extra time defeat of Chelsea 2-1, their first since the League Cup back in 1999. It could also be argued that he’ll be most remembered for the poor start to this season that ultimately saw him sacked.

The partnership between Ramos and Comolli never seemed to take off. It didn’t help either that Tottenham sold Robbie Keane and Berbatov in the last transfer window, without adequate replacement up front. It’s going to be difficult to judge Roman Pavlyuchenko this season as he’s played a full season in Russia and will probably fatigue before the whole season is over. Luka Modric hasn’t exactly fit into the system Ramos had at Tottenham.

In the same report, it has been reveiled that Portsmouth have agreed compensaion so that Harry Redknapp can take over as Tottenham’s manager. While it surprises me, I can understand why Redknapp would want to leave. If all the media reports are to be belived of late, Portsmouth are facing debts beyond their control and won’t be able to build their new ground. And in all fairness to Portsmouth, Redknapp has taken the team as far as he can go.

For Redknapp, it’s also another bottom of the table challenge. When Redknapp took over Portsmouth back in December 2005, Portsmouth were in the same situation Tottenham are in now. Can he keep Tottenham up? Only time will tell.

What’s unfortunate for Tottenham and Portsmouth is that this happened so close to their Sunday fixture. However when changes need to be made, it’s best to go ahead and get them done and out of the way.

Thanks to Bishopville Red for tipping me off to this breaking piece of news.

Redknapp New Spurs Manager after Ramos Sent Packing

Josh Pedley — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 01:00:02 +0000

Harry Redknapp is set to become the new manager of Tottenham Hotspur after the club sensationally sacked Spanish Head Coach Juande Ramos late on Saturday night. Tottenham will pay Portsmouth a £5m compensation fee for Redknapp and the deal is set to be concluded before Spurs take on Bolton tomorrow.

Redknapp told Sky Sports News: “It’s going to be done tonight [Saturday], it will all be sorted out and by tomorrow [Sunday] morning I should be in place.”
“It’s a great opportunity for me. It’s a big club, Tottenham. I love Portsmouth and I loved my time there, we had some fantastic success and I’d never been happier. But it’s a great deal for Portsmouth, £5million for me, and it’s a chance for me to get on and see what I can do.”

After an horrendous start to the season it looked as though chairman Daniel Levy was going to give the ex-Sevilla boss time to turn things round. But after another defeat in the Uefa Cup at Udinese on Thursday and players David Bentley and Jonathan Woodgate’s outspoken remarks at the state of the club, Levy has decided to act. Assistant coach Gus Poyet and Sporting Director Damien Comolli have also been shown the door.

A statement from the club said: “The club can announce that Damien Comolli, sporting director, Juande Ramos, head coach and first team coaches, Marcos Alvarez and Gus Poyet, have left the club, with immediate effect. We wish them well.”

While this is a blow to Portsmouth and their fans, this is the move that Redknapp has been waiting for his entire managerial career. He may have wished he was taking the job under better circumstances but at least he has now got the chance to prove just how good a manager he can be.