mawspurs
19-10-2008, 01:41 PM
source: Mirror
Gerry Francis believes that if there is an impossible job in football it's not managing England - but being in charge of Spurs.
A decade after he quit the club because three years in the upper echelons of the Premier League wasn't judged good enough, Francis will try today to deepen the early season White Hart Lane crisis in his new role as a coach at Stoke.
And he's warning Juande Ramos that the pressure of being in charge at Spurs won't get any easier.
Francis, 56, said: "The thing with Tottenham is it's not just about winning - I didn't have too many problems with that. My record was the best for over a decade until Martin Jol below went there and finished fifth twice, and you know what happened to Martin as well.
"In most clubs winning is what it's all about, and people are happy with that, but at Tottenham you have to win with style as well, which puts even more pressure on.
"It's a great club, with loads of people going every week and I enjoyed my time there, but it's not easy - in fact there are aspects about the club which makes managing it a lot tougher than others.
"When I was there they hadn't done much for four years - but people still thought we would go to Manchester United and win.
"Then when we got to be top London club, reached an FA Cup semi-final and went into Europe, the expectations just got bigger."
Francis said of today's clash: "It's become a vitally important game for both teams. I felt Spurs might not have the greatest of starts, but I'm as surprised as anybody to find them bottom.
"They lost 50 or 60 goals with Berbatov, Keane and Defoe leaving over a period of six months, and it was always going to be very difficult to replace them."
Stoke boss Tony Pulis reckons Ramos is also suffering under a system where Spurs' director of football Damien Comolli buys and sells the players.
Pulis walked out of his first spell at Stoke when the Icelandic owners at that time insisted he signed foreign players he had not seen.
Pulis said: "If you are going to take stick for players performing badly you should be the one who signs players in the first place.
"Spurs should have far too much quality to go down, and it's the same with Newcastle - but you still have to win the games.
"I watched them against Hull and they created loads of chances, but you have to take them and they didn't.
"The big question someone should ask is why Berbatov and Keane were both sold."
AND IT DOESN'T LOOK GOOD FOR TOTTENHAM
Defeat today will make it their worst ever start to a league season.
Tottenham are the 18th team to fail to win in their opening seven PL matches. Of the previous 17, eight have avoided relegation.
Only four teams have avoided relegation from the PL after picking up two or fewer points from their opening seven matches - Southampton & Blackburn (1996-97), Southampton (1998-99) and Newcastle (1999-2000).
Only one team in PL history has avoided relegation after picking up two points or fewer from their opening eight matches - Southampton (1998-99).
LIKELY LINE-UPS
STOKE CITY
SORENSEN, GRIFFIN, CORT, A FAYE, HIGGINBOTHAM, DELAP, OLOFINJANA, AMDY FAYE, TONGE, FULLER, KITSON
TOTTENHAM
GOMES, CORLUKA, KING, WOODGATE, BALE, BENTLEY, ZOKORA, JENAS, LENNON, CAMPBELL, BENT
Gerry Francis believes that if there is an impossible job in football it's not managing England - but being in charge of Spurs.
A decade after he quit the club because three years in the upper echelons of the Premier League wasn't judged good enough, Francis will try today to deepen the early season White Hart Lane crisis in his new role as a coach at Stoke.
And he's warning Juande Ramos that the pressure of being in charge at Spurs won't get any easier.
Francis, 56, said: "The thing with Tottenham is it's not just about winning - I didn't have too many problems with that. My record was the best for over a decade until Martin Jol below went there and finished fifth twice, and you know what happened to Martin as well.
"In most clubs winning is what it's all about, and people are happy with that, but at Tottenham you have to win with style as well, which puts even more pressure on.
"It's a great club, with loads of people going every week and I enjoyed my time there, but it's not easy - in fact there are aspects about the club which makes managing it a lot tougher than others.
"When I was there they hadn't done much for four years - but people still thought we would go to Manchester United and win.
"Then when we got to be top London club, reached an FA Cup semi-final and went into Europe, the expectations just got bigger."
Francis said of today's clash: "It's become a vitally important game for both teams. I felt Spurs might not have the greatest of starts, but I'm as surprised as anybody to find them bottom.
"They lost 50 or 60 goals with Berbatov, Keane and Defoe leaving over a period of six months, and it was always going to be very difficult to replace them."
Stoke boss Tony Pulis reckons Ramos is also suffering under a system where Spurs' director of football Damien Comolli buys and sells the players.
Pulis walked out of his first spell at Stoke when the Icelandic owners at that time insisted he signed foreign players he had not seen.
Pulis said: "If you are going to take stick for players performing badly you should be the one who signs players in the first place.
"Spurs should have far too much quality to go down, and it's the same with Newcastle - but you still have to win the games.
"I watched them against Hull and they created loads of chances, but you have to take them and they didn't.
"The big question someone should ask is why Berbatov and Keane were both sold."
AND IT DOESN'T LOOK GOOD FOR TOTTENHAM
Defeat today will make it their worst ever start to a league season.
Tottenham are the 18th team to fail to win in their opening seven PL matches. Of the previous 17, eight have avoided relegation.
Only four teams have avoided relegation from the PL after picking up two or fewer points from their opening seven matches - Southampton & Blackburn (1996-97), Southampton (1998-99) and Newcastle (1999-2000).
Only one team in PL history has avoided relegation after picking up two points or fewer from their opening eight matches - Southampton (1998-99).
LIKELY LINE-UPS
STOKE CITY
SORENSEN, GRIFFIN, CORT, A FAYE, HIGGINBOTHAM, DELAP, OLOFINJANA, AMDY FAYE, TONGE, FULLER, KITSON
TOTTENHAM
GOMES, CORLUKA, KING, WOODGATE, BALE, BENTLEY, ZOKORA, JENAS, LENNON, CAMPBELL, BENT