Why the Tottenham board must replace Martin Jol
Being an Arsenal fan, there is no better time to stick the boot in Spurs as now. During the summer, Tottenham Hotspur spent around £40 million while Arsenal actually made a profit on transfer dealings after selling mercurial captain Thierry Henry.
Many tipped Tottenham to finally break into the top four while Arsenal faded into the UEFA Cup places; the opposite has been true as the Gunners have soared to the top of the table while Spurs sit in the relegation zone.
As much as I love taking the piss out of my Tottenham supporting father (who must have had a troubled childhood to pick such a team), I will not use the widely viewed stage that is SoccerLens to bash the Lilywhites (I have Arsenal forums for that ;)). Rather, I would like to issue a friendly, neigbourly warning:
Tottenham Hotspur must get rid of Martin Jol if they want any chance of challenging for the Champions League places.
After Martin Jol was appointed head coach after the departure of Jacques Santini, he completely revamped the Tottenham lineup. His first act was to promote Michael Carrick (a player who was ignored by Santini) to the first team; this move soon reaped rewards. In the years Jol has been at the club, Tottenham have seen two top five finishes, far better than those before the Dutchman. So why am I, a person who takes pleasure in the misfortune of Tottenham, calling for his head?
Tottenham have been in a bit of a decline ever since they lost out on fourth place to Arsenal on the last day of the season two years ago. Spurs were in pole position to secure that lucrative Champions League place; however a combination of them slipping up against West Ham and Arsenal beating Wigan saw them fail. Although they challenged sporadically last year it was not enough of a collective effort by the full team, and they never seriously competed with Arsenal for fourth place (despite the Gunners’ relatively poor season).
This year, they have done even worse. A last gasp winner conceded to promoted Sunderland was seen as a blip at the beginning; the games that have followed have proved the opposite. Tottenham Hotspur’s record this season reads played 8, won 1, drawn 3 and lost 4. This gives them just six points leaving them at a lowly 18th; far below their achievements of even last year. Although there is not way that Tottenham will be relegated, I put their failures this year down to one man- and that man is Martin Jol.
ENIC spent big this summer hoping to propel the team to a top four place; Jol wasted quite a bit of the money. Whilst the signings of Gareth Bale and Younes Kaboul were definitely decent ones, the signing of Darren Bent for £16.5 million was puzzling considering the availability of Berbatov, Keane and Defoe up front. Kevin Prince Boateng was brought in to try and give Spurs some much needed creativity in midfield- why has he not played till now? Tottenham would have been much better off had they used the Bent money (no jokes, please ;)) on a creative midfielder like Guti and/or a left winger like Mancini.
These failings in the transfer market have seen Tottenham play with a lack of cohesion on the football pitch, and as Jol seems unable to mold his players into a team that plays anything resembling the decent football of two years ago he must go. As for his possible replacement, many names have been linked. Mourinho is one of those that crops up most, but apparently there is was a clause agreed that he couldn’t manage a Premiership team for a year.
For me, there is one man that can take Spurs forward- Juande Ramos. Why? Ramos has experience of molding young players to play attacking football, and he does not need to spend like the best to compete with them. Ramos would transform Tottenham Hotspur both on and off the pitch- which is why this Gunner desperately hopes that he does not join the club.
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Discussion - 48 Responses
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Great article and nice to hear a realistic opinion from a gooner
Written like a true gooner fan. Heres a guy who has probably never seen his team play never mind kicked a ball. In other words great qualifications for being an arsenal supporter.
Re-gurgitating all the old media coverage of the last few weeks and giving us his little ‘pearls of wisdom’. If he had written his full knowledge of the game on the back of a postage stamp none of us I’m sure would have been surprised.
Arsenal will fall away from their top spot as sure as night follows day. A team of foreign imports without an englishman in their first eleven and a team which no self respecting englishman would support. But then Arsenal fans are a breed unto themselves. Thanks for your insight Jason but as an englishman and a true football fan I think I’ll pass on the advise.
that’s a really naive article. we’ve been hideously unlucky this season, jol’s tactics have been spot on…but he’s been let down by individuals’ errors.
the signing of Bent was made by daniel comolli, a total weasel judging by his lack of joy when we clawed our way back into the game on Monday. Politics between the chairman’s right hand man and our manager have a lot to answer for this season, in terms of the signings and undermining of Jol generally.
Prince Boateng was injured when we signed him, and scoring once for the reserves does not mean he’s ready for the prem. (fabregas took 4 years to become the central figure he has at arsenal, and he was a well known player when you bought him)
Jason
Don’t worry about the abuse mate. Was a good enough article. And anything that further winds up that “big club” Tottenham is alright by me.
The reason why Spurs must keep Jol is clear - he will take Spurs to the promised land and the top of the table (the Championship table).
Heh, given that Spurs are pure sh*te at the moment and can’t seem to get themselves out of the relegation zone, Spurs fans are resorting to the “OMG we have so many Englishmen in our team and Arsenal have none” argument to somehow prove that they have greater credibility.
Your English players, bar King, are shit. And even King won’t get into the Arsenal first XI, though I wouldn’t mind having him when Gallas leaves, I don’t think he’d mind either!
We’re playing great football this season, and you’re not. Get over it.
you went against your father’s back to support the scum. Your dad must be so ashamed.
A guy comes on here calling himself ‘Rocky’ and we are supposed to take him seriously???
Your not a big man and Im afraid you will always be an arsenal fan….now you get over it!
yeh, Paul why did you go making tottenham fans looking like mugs again? most of us are rational.
the arrogance of you arsenal supporters doesnt help though… clearly when the ego left for barcelona, he left some arrogance behind.
martin jol to stay… and do a great job! (you’re mugging yourself off if you think anyone like lippi or cappello would want to manage such a fickle club, and who says they’d do a better job anyway…)
i love the comment that says, ‘We’re playing great football this season, and you’re not. Get over it.’ that sums up you Gooners monkeys completely…!! A one of you lot writes this article to do nothing other than give an opinion and try to wind up the Spurs faithful who happen to spot it on Newsnow just that little bit more and then one of your other minions wants to tell us to get over it. You ass’s started it, you wanted to put the boot and then we’re the ones who want to get over it…?? Typical Arsenal and school playground reasoning, trying to bully us like some kind of retard only to tell us to get over it cos your playing great football. Heres my opinion, Arsenal are playing great football at the moment and deserve to be at the top of the table because of it, well done Arsenal and fair play to the team… Thats an unbias and fair opinion without winding any one up and having a dig. If you want to give us your opinion, do so but dont subject us to your bull-shit digs because all you do is make yourself look like a complete twat. Try being objective if you must subject us to your ramblings.
Excellent comments, great article. From a Spurs perspective, I couldn’t agree more.
Great article and I totally agree with it. What palent are these Spurs fans on that say we have been unlucky. You make your own luck in this world and we haven’t because the fat man in charge hasn’t got a clue what he’s doing. The truth is all the gooners would much prefer us keep the fat man so they can continue to gloat. Spurs will be relegated this season if he stays.
Great article and I totally agree with it. What planet are these Spurs fans on that say we have been unlucky. You make your own luck in this world and we haven’t because the fat man in charge hasn’t got a clue what he’s doing. The truth is all the gooners would much prefer us keep the fat man so they can continue to gloat. Spurs will be relegated this season if he stays.
What a load of twaddle. Now that Henry is plying his trade in Spain, he’s suddenly mercurial and, presumably, therefore worthy of disposal. I suggest you learn what big words mean before you use them. As someone with only half a brain cell, you’re not qualified to comment on anything to do with Tottenham Hotspur. Presumably from what you say about your father ‘choosing’ a team to support, you and he used the ‘page falling open in your Panini sticker book’ method.
Well thanks for your words of wisdom there Paul, now crawl back under your rock and please leave this to the Spurs fans who actually give a shit about our club. Forget rose-tinted glass’s i know our club is fucking up but comments like ‘you make your own luck’ is just bull-shit, this isnt Championship manager and you cant just save a game and then replay it over and over til you get the result you want, this is the real world and you take the good times with the bad. We will come through this and eventually it will be someone else taking the brunt of it all, its just at the moment its our turn and fine but we have the quality to move up the table, and we will.
I blame the parents! Your Dad should have slapped you the day you came home and said ‘Im a gooner’! What was he thinking?
Whilst I accept the scum are playing good football and deserve to be top I will never understand or accept the gooners obsession with us!! Do you think if Spurs were top of the league I’d be on their forums explaining to them the problem and what they should do to improve? Who would give a f*ck?
Its evidence of the insecurity of supporting a bunch of mercenary gypo’s who belong south of the river.
you’re a joker SY. “leave it to the Spurs fans who actually give a shit about our club”?? Clearly you don;t and you suffer the Spurs fan disease of insulting anyone you don’t agree with - that is why everyone hates spurs because of fans like you. The fact remains you do make your own luck and anyone who disagrees knows jack about anything from A-Z.. Right you are about coming through it - only difference is the Fat man in charge won’t be the one leading the team and thank god you won’t be listened to by levy who is smart enough to see through the mornon Jol.
the point (2) by Paul is a different Paul to the Paul that makes points (12) & (16). Can the moderator please make this distinction?
[…] The daily “Laugh at Spurs” section is here; Michael Dawson states how ‘upset’ he was at conceding four goals at home, but praises Spurs ‘fighting spirit’. The ‘Dawson’s Creak’ title sums it all up rather well I think. Meanwhile, I tried to write a relatively unbiased article about the Spuds for SoccerLens; you can read that here. […]
Yawn, - truth be told not a bad article but not a good one either. Dealing with the points in order:
Apparent Decline: This is overstated. In the season we nearly came 4th we played the least amount of games over a season than any other team in prem history. Last season we played double and this season we hope to play even more so this will - naturally - have an impact on league form.
This seasons form: You are factually correct. Our form early this season has not been good. But apart from the game against Everton (which was woeful). We haven’t played terribly badly either. The problems have been in defence, mainly individual errors, which could be a result of the fact that 50% of the back four met each other in June. The unsteadiness affects everything, and therefore we’re less sure of ourselves in attack as well. Tactically, its been a bit up and down (Derby has been the only perfect game) - against Fulham, Sunderland, Arsenal, Bolton we were too defensive. Against Man Utd we played well and went down to a good goal. Against Villa and Everton - two defensive nightmares. The 4 losses are to Everton, Man Utd, Arsenal and Sunderland (only Sunderland makes me cringe).
Enic Spending Big: Truth be told, the Bale and Kaboul purchases were good buys. If Gardner had gone through the door at the proposed £6M (net spend on defensive improvements would have been £8M on two really good footballers). Prince is not match fit (no pre-season in Germany and no pre-season here meant that he was 6 weeks back). The pressure has made it difficult to find an opportunity to bring him in. The eye-brow raiser is Bent, but what could Spurs do when W.Ham had already bid the asking price? Were they good/bad purchases? Its hard to tell as the manager has been under pressure from week 2.
Ramos: I don’t get the hype surrounding this guy. He has had one phenomenal season, but he is no footballing genius and with some real talent at his disposal he got tonked at the Emirates. In Navas and Alves two players who could walk into nearly any team in the world. Yes, he is an attacking coach which is a good thing - but I am still to see this additional tactical nous that makes him better than Jol.
In summary my view is and remains that the current crisis is entirely of the Boards own creation. Its impossible to believe that the speculation isn’t affecting the team. Is Jol a great coach? Well that question is impossible to answer until we can get the computer game-esque situation where Ferguson manages Arsenal for 10 games and Benitez manages Spurs for 10 games and so on. Does Jol have a good system of play? In my view yes. But he in my view is hamstrung by his own lack of belief in his players ability to go out and win certain games. I would rather Jol played his natural game than tried to keep it tight (something that we appear unable to do right now). Finally, fans need to realise that the manager is only one piece of the puzzle and players have to execute. Robinson has to catch crosses, Dawson should not get out-muscled by Agbonlahor, Strikers should convert good chances. These are things that managers cannot legislate for, and no manager should take the blame for these individual errors.
Steve: ???
ShamelessYid: I’m simply commenting on another comment, not the article. As for school-ground reasoning, you’re easily forgetting that Spurs fans were most vocal about knocking Arsenal out of the top four. Don’t dish it out if you can’t take some in return.
Essex Yid: WE are obsessed with you? Are you having a laugh? It’s you lot that celebrates DRAWS with us as if you’ve won the European Cup final, and you do treat the Arsenal fixtures as cup finals. A disturbingly high percentage of Tottenham fan comment on the blogosphere centres around “Arse this” and “Arse that” with generous helpings of “COYS” thrown in the middle. Be very careful with throwing around the word “obsession”. Glass houses, stones, etc.
On that note, what exactly should we be obsessed about? Your excellent squad managed by a great manager and backed by an astute board?
Oh.
Paul - how the hell can you surmise that i know bugger all about anything ‘from A-Z’ as you put it just from that statement i made…?? Your obviously full of shit mate. I agree that Jol has to go, that Robbo has to go and even Hughton needs to go but i cant see how anyone can say that you make your own luck when it comes to football, anyone with any knowledge of the game will tell you that when decisions are made during the match its either going to go in your favour or not, luck of the draw…!! Same with our Carling Cup draw… would you not say we’re lucky to draw Blackpool there, or did we make our own luck…?? Get real man! And i wasnt insulting anyone and if you took offense to what i said i’ll apologise but i just dont agree with the whole ‘make your own luck’ statement. sorry if you cant accept that.
Corrupted Mind: good comment.
I can accept that SY and fair play to your response. The reason I believe you make your own luck in football is because the more shots you have the more chances one will be deflected in, the more penalty appeals you make (because you’re creating chances) the more penalties you will get, the simialarly the more corners you get from your attacking play the more likely you are to score. (all this works the other way too) The more you train, the more the team and management get things right the more “lucky” you get. Freddie Trueman encapsulated this with his reponse to a supporter that once shouted to him “you lucky Bastard Trueman” when he bowled someone out and he replied “it’s funny that. It seems the more I practice, the luckier I get!”
Rocky: Do you not expect us to retaliate when articles are written to give an opinion and are in fact a basis for some old fashioned ‘putting the boot in’…?? And to be completely clear on the matter, the media were the most vocal about who was going to finish 4th, we spurs fans we’re just optimistic, and some obviously overly optimistic. But as for dishing it out and not being able to take it back, i for one wouldnt be so shallow as to write an article like that if the positions were reversed, i have more class and would be too busy enjoying my own success to worry about the temporary failings of another club. I have better things to do with my time.
can’t understand why an Arsenal fan feels he’s so qualified to give advice on Spurs. Surely there must be something interesting about his own team and he wouldn’t have the time to analyse a team he doesn’t support in such depth.The condescending,smug style of writng can be explained I’m sure. Being of the older generation I grew up supporting the same team as my father and indeed grandfather. It was their local team. In turn my sons have followed my support of Spurs and now my young grandchildren are following in their fathers footsteps. You see it’s about traditon and respect for their parents. I see children jumping on the bandwagon of currently successful team and in passing years lose some interest and the sad people have nothing to pass on. The article smacks of this. I have respect for those that follow tradition through thick and thin e.g Burnley, Huddersfield etc. They are real fans. Suppose with Arsenal they are not a North London team by tradition but nomadic with South London roots. Might explain the quality of some of their fans.
Here Here Roy!!
ShamelessYid: At the risk of repeating myself, I am not commenting on the article, but other comments. And I fully expect Spurs fans to respond to the points made in the article. That’s the point of a blog, isn’t it? No harm in banter.
Paul dont get me wrong, the luck in football only plays a small part but it is there, for example when a shot is taken and it takes a ‘lucky’ deflection and goes in… but i totally agree that skill is key, practice makes perfect and all that and in that respect i suppose i see where your coming from, its just i put that down to skill and the practice paying off more than luck. but fair agruement tho…!
Apart from The Arse have had a good start, Spurs have had a bad start most of this article is complete rubbish e.g.
-’Spurs have been in decline ever since they missed out on 4th place’…er didn’t Spurs finsh 5th again last season playing 20 extra matches ?
- ‘ Last gasp winner’ or equalizer ? Yip a thin line between the actual 6 points and 11 or even more.Even so if you give away goals you expect to pay for it but a bad start last season didn’t stop Spurs finishing 5th and I expect similar this Season as our comeback from 4-1 down shows what we are capable of.
- ‘ failings in the transfer market’…er… that’s Commoli not Jol.Actually, I think Spurs main weakness is that we don’t boss the centre of the park the way we should & this ends up with extra pressure on the defence.However, it’s an open question whether we need someone new or make do with the tried and tested or develop new talent like Tarrabt or Boateng ( who’s been injured by the way ).
- ‘Spurs spent £40m’ maybe when the add on payments become due but you ignore about £10m in sales
However, perhaps the biggest disappointment this season is not having the chance to see Wenger resort to his petulant whinging yet - surely this is just a question of time ?
Forget Ramos.
The team needs a rocket up it’s arse and Mourhinio is the type of man who can put it there.
Ramos’ team lost 3-0 the other day, that’s hardly a “go get him” sign from a man so good who’s got it sussed or shall we bring him in and plod away for another 3 seasons as we “give him time”?
Consistent hatred of losing is what top managers seem to posess and that should be clear to see on the pitch and that’s what we’ve lacked probably since Bill Nick’s days.
If we don’t end up with Mourhinio next season then the board will have failed in their job just as Jol is in his.
But whatever happens, we can at least be thankful we don’t support the Woolwich Wanderers.
Rocky - i got that the first time, dont you worry, you dont have to repeat yourself. And your right, theres no harm in banter, im all for it, i just dont see the point in writing an article to give over a point of view on a subject being covered so widely and then just using it as an excuse to get a couple of kicks in, thats all im saying. But to go back to my original point that was made regarding a comment (yes comment) that you made about ‘get over it’, i dont see where that came from..?? A Gooner wrote the article and some Spurs fans replied in their defense as youve said you would expect, yet not one of them commented on how arsenal are playing… thats not responding to any comments made above, to me, thats just a pointless comment…! Sorry if ive misinterpreted what you’ve written there…!
Fair enough, the “get over it” part was irrelevant.
Thanks for another interesting article. As a Spurs fan can i just make a couple of comments. 1 The trophys you have won over the last ten years, is great-well done.2 And style of play since Wenger took over- nice .
But your comments that “since we got fourth place- we have since been in decline” The following season we achieved fifth place- same as the year before-does not seem like a decline “IT’S THE SAME AS THE YEAR BEFORE”!!! Jol promoted Carrick to the point whereby he was recognised as great player by Man utd who forked out £18million for a player who couldn,t get a game under Santini.
Why pick on Boateng? He only had one-two seasons in the German Bundesliga!
How can Wenger say he is such a great manager in the English Premier when none of the teams he picks contain english players! Spanish, Cameroon,Dutch.brazilians, albanians,estonians- any Kosovans coming?. Jol has bought Danny Rose(english)Huddlestone(english) Lennon, Bent(english) Dawson (english)etc. Perhaps Arsene can,t spot a player who is English. Maybe he does not want or can,t find Darlington, Scunthorpe, Bridlington, Milton Keynes in his African A-Z. Maybe he`s been bedding in the French National team for the French Federation.(Henry, Pires, Flamini,Clichy,Anelka,oh yeah Cygan!) i don,t think you can comment on our Manager when yours and your fans don,t rate the players in league they play in. You support a manager who doesn`t rate english players.
I dont think Ramos should even be considered- he doesn`t speak ENGLISH! maybe thats ok in the United Nations in the Arsenal dressing room but not at WHL.
I’m not going to get into the whole spurs/gooners debate because it seems quite irrelevant at the moment. I’m just shocked by the number of spurs fans who are saying we’ve been unlucky, or we’ve been playing good football despite not getting the results. The spurs v villa game highlighted everything; we weren’t unlucky, Robinson made 3 awful mistakes which is hardly unexpected these days, and the defence once again showed a complete lack of responsibility in set piece situations. That is not bad luck and it certainly isn’t good football!
Up until now I’ve been a big supporter of Martin Jol, but in all honesty I think it was more about wanting stability rather than believing in his ability. He constantly sticks with players who are in bad form, which is no good for the player and no good for the club. He is absolutely destroying the confidence of the players he continues to pick, aswell as the morale of the players he seems to ignore.
As for the youth policy…wonderful…can’t fault it. Yeah, players who are going to improve year on year until they reach their full potential. Except, hang on a second, who exactly is on the pitch that they are able to learn from? Can we buy a captain please; someone with a winning attitude; someone with a bit of experience maybe; someone who doesn’t care whether they play nice as long as the job gets done?!
I know this has turned into a bit of a rant, but I’m just sick and tired of people saying we’ve been ‘unlucky’. As the gooner says, we could argue that over the sunderland game but we can’t continue to use that as an excuse. The board should have sacked Jol after the villa game, with only an easy uefa cup game, and on current form an impossible to win away game against liverpool before the newcastle game on the 22nd october. It would give them a long time to be fully committed in finding the correct replacement. Mourinho is the man in my opinion, and I’d love to see Abramovich try and enforce a clause in the pay-off telling him he can’t work for another english team this season. At best he’d only be able to claim back any compensation awarded above what he would have earned had his contract run until the full term.
Well it took 20 comments before someone said “you celebrated a draw like you had won the european cup”. What a surprise! How unexpected! So Rocky, you’re telling me that if Arsenal had come back from 3 goals down in a Premier League game, or, for that matter, a last minute equaliser against us, neither fan or player would of celebrated in the way we did the other night? If you say you wouldn’t of, then you obviously haven’t got any passion for you club or the game. So please, no more of this celebrating draws rubbish.
First off, thanks for the comments. Whether positive or negative, feedback is always good. Don’t have the time to respond to all of them, so will reply to Patrick’s as his points have been fairly well backed up.
First off: Granted, Spurs played a lot more games last season; however remember, the year before they were on the verge (and should have) broken into the top four. Last season they did not even look like challenging, despite some of the crap we played (and we played pretty badly by our standards). Once you’ve come so close, you should look to improve; we finished just a point above where we did in 2005/06 so had you improved by even four points (a win and a draw) you would have overtaken us. A gap of two points in 2005/06 to eight points in 2006/07 surely shows a decline, does it not?
As for Kevin-Prince Boateng, he was very highly rated in the Bundesliga (I believe he won the best young player award there but I may be wrong) and Spurs have desperately lacked a creative spark during their games this season, have they not? So why has the player not played? He seems to be stuck at a level of match fitness that does not allow him to play.
The issue with English players- they are either simply not good enough, or simply too expensive. Sure, we would have loved Wayne Rooney or Rio Ferdinand- but why pay 30m for each of them when you can get Kolo Toure for 150k and Van Persie for 2.75m? As for the English players in your team, I’d take Lennon and Dawson as substitutes; none of the others look particularly tempting to me for various reasons. Our academy has dozens of decent, young English players; more than half of them will not make it with us, however they will still strengthen the Premiership- Pennant, Sidwell, Bentley anyone? As I’m not English, I don’t give a toss about the amount of English players in our team; quite a few of them have been c*nts (Pennant, Bentley, Cashley Cole) and others have not been good enough (Franny Jeffers, Steve Sidwell). The ones that are willing to wait will make it- Justin Hoyte may not, but Theo Walcott probably will.
As for the French jibe, only Clichy, Gallas and Sagna of the normal first team are French. Good luck.
Brad M: I’m speaking specifically about draws with Arsenal, read that comment again.
I THINK SPURS ARE SHIT BECAUSE OF THE MANAGER SPURS HAVE AND ALSO BECAUSE THE SPURS KEEPER PAUL ROBINSON BY FAR IS THE WORST KEEPER IN THE PREMIERSHIP AND JENAS,DONT EVEN GET ME STARTED ON JENAS THE WORST MIDFIELDER I HAVE EVER SEEN. HE SHOULD BE PLAYING FOR A CHAMPIONSHIP TEAM. I AM A SPURS FAN AND UNTIL THEY START TO WAKE UP THATS WHEN ILL CHANGE MY VIEW ON THEM. BUT THEY ARE BY FAR THE SHITTEST TEAM IN THE PREMIERSHIP. DRAWING WITH BOLTON AND SUNDERLAND AND VILLA. DISCRACEFULL. I HAVE LOST BELIEF AND FAITH IN THE CRAP BUNCH OF SHITHEADS.
Nice one spursman, absolutely spot on
one question i have is why the fixation on the presence, or lack their of, of english players on these teams? as far as i know, there is no mandate that a team playing in the premier league must favor english players to make the fielding of a better national squad easier.
an epl mgr is hired to win the league, qualify for europe, win silverware, avoid relegation…or some combination thereof. oh, and do it on their teams budget.
the national squad manager is hired to find, recruit, train and field a team that can win in europe, the olympics and the world cup.
until the epl is designated as a national team training and development league, this isnt going to change.
so slamming arsenals success or wengers status as a successful epl manager because of his rosters collective nationality really means nothing, nor does it mean anything in support of jol.
simply, arsenal is exceeding common expectations this year, tottenham is lagging behind common expectations.
Henry left, arsenal must fall…spurs spent, therefore must rise, ergo, spurs 4 arsenal 5…overly simplistic but that is how the summer commentary sorted itself out…
increased expectations are a dangerous thing, and they bring enormous pressure to deliver…sadly, spurs reacted badly to a less then optimal start to the season, and now its snowballing on them…every bad result ‘proves’ they should have acted earlier, every comment must be analyzed for hidden meaning, every time the coach grimaces, means “he knows hes on the way out”…it becomes self perpetuating and self fulfilling…
we see this stuff every season over here when the nfl gets going, this year 3 favorites for the super bowl are a collective 2-10 after 4 games each…same story lines here that you’re seeing…
just wanted to throw out an ‘outside’ perspective
I’m a gooner from the Far East and I don’t give a damn if there are no Englishmen in the Arsenal Team.
Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester United are the 3 big teams that have a huge following here in Asia, and I believe that the money generated (on club jerseys, merchandise,etc)from Fanatics here cannot be dismissed as unimportant to the clubs in question.There is a crazy ridiculous obsession here in Asia with the EPL and we want to support the teams that play well, no matter what nationality.
your father supported spurs because at the time spurs were the team, just like arsenal have been recently so spurs was the team to support and attract fans,at the time spurs was winning european trophies (infact the first to do so in england), first team to do the double at the time and fa cups galore you name it, like what wenger is for arsenal now, bill nicholson was doing it at spurs, secondly i agree martin jol does pick 2 or 3 wrong players every single game yes you are right, i will also tell you who they are, keane,jenas, huddlestone, they should be replaced by, defoe, malbranque and zokora, malbranque in the middle with zokora this will balance the team as malbranque is agile and can tackle and dribble he is wastyed on the wings, simple as that, jol has the players but dosent know where to play them and also has favourites and has too much faith in the wrong ones, he dosent have the guts to drop people and make them fight for their places and thats why we are not performing, having said that to be honest we have conceeded silly goals this season and havent had the rub of the green cos we have played quite well apart from the first 2 games.could have beaten arsenal if the chances were taken, should have beaten united only for hitting the bar and not getting at least one of the penalties, unlucky against fulham as they got a deflected goal which sparked the comeback and then a shinner overhead kick lol, outplayed villa but conceeded stupid goals, we need a little bit of luck and soon we will be challenging, remember a good team dosent become a shit team overnight.
Just a couple of thoughts here…
Jason Pereira - I just to put my 2 pennies worth in on what you said in the comments. Firstly, the comments about us ‘declining’ last season compared to the season before are incorrect. Yes i agree if you want to look at the league and just the league but if you look at the bigger picture and the fact we played 18 more games last season to the one before and finished with only 5 points difference on the season before but with decent cup runs on 3 fronts, i dont really see that as a decline, i see that as progress as would most people from any team. Im sure if that was Arsenal you would be thinking the same thing.
Secondly, Kevin-Prince Boateng was very highly rated in Germany and did win the young player of the year award out there, however he came to us with no preseason and injured and totally unclimatised to the English game so he has been building his match fitness and getting used to playing English football, however you will see this evening when Jol plays him in our UEFA cup match in Cyprus that he will play and start playing with the first team. Spurs have been looking for some kind of consistancy in the team, this has given him time to get match fit and experience of the English game.
Lastly, your comments about English players way out of line and how you can compare Toure and Van Persie to Rooney and Ferdinand i have no idea, they are both far superior players and Man U paid that money for them for a reason, cos they are worth that money and they could afford it. But your comment of ‘As I’m not English, I don’t give a toss about the amount of English players in our team’ is so low its unreal. This is the ENGLISH premier league, played in England and was created by, yes you guessed it, the ENGLISH people and is watched and supported by the ENGLISH people, and as such your comments are unfounded and out of order. You may not care about it but if you want to watch the English game and support and English club then id suggest you get used to English players. Yes Arsenal have had good luck with their foreign policies and i salute those but this is still the English game and i for one cant wait for the FA to introduce the rule of a minimum number of English players for teams and starting 11, not just for the good of the English game and the England team but also cos Arsenal would be fucked.
Good luck to us all.
Spursman - why dont you go put on a red and white shirt and fuck off down the road to the immigrants with the rest of the Arsenal monkeys. You say your a Spurs fan but you sound Gooner to me and i for one sense no support from you at all. If you really SUPPORT spurs then how about SUPPORTING them. your a glory glory boy, will be singing Spurs from the roof tops when we win but when the going gets tough and your off with the rest of the monkeys glory hunters. Maybe thats a big assumption but fair considering your comments.
ALSO people are forgetting that we had 5 very important players out at the beggining of this season which played a big factor as well, dawson, kaboul, bale, lee, ekkoto oh and lennon oh and ofcourse king, ( i think thats more than 5), now how would arsenal cope without, tore, senderos gallas(whos always out) clichy, and another recognised left back and lets say hleb, think about it, these players where out for the first 4 games and as i mentioned earlier we havent had the rub of the green aswell but we have created a lot of chances against good teams and that includes man utd and arsenal where infact we had the chance to go 2-1 or even 3-1 up before the 2 long range efforts that arsenal scored, so realy its just a very fine line between defeat and a win, we will turn it around that im sure of
n who is 2 replace martin jol? i think he is not @ fault at all except buying bent. don’t cut ur nose 2 spite ur face is the saying. see lyon. they had a top manager. they sacked him 2 win the champions league… n the team fades away…
Keane replaced - be serious! Much as I admire Defoe, he does need to sharpen up and stop blazing wide & getting caught offside + Keane & Defoe are really different style players & Keane can come on and turn matches round,Ditto Jenas - for a club that has always espoused open attacking football it’s funny why some keep on getting on Jenas’s back - give it a rest or go and support the scum or why not even try Fulham or Bolton ?
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