- Nov 3, 2009
- 501
- 810
That's an excellent post - one that clearly delineates the difficulties of DL's position - though I doubt many will absorb the detail.Leaving aside Hoddle as a special case, my recollection is that Levy was widely applauded for pulling off a real coup with Santini; who foresaw that he'd walk out after 11 games and effectively end his management career? Most of SC thought Ramos was an absolutely unbelievable appointment, and even the minority that had looked closely at his CV and weren't quite as unreservedly enthusiastic thought we couldn't have done much better at the time; he was going to bring Sevilla-style football to Spurs! He didn't. With AVB, most were more reserved, but blamed his failure at Chelsea on Terry & co and were willing to give him a chance. In truth, if the football was largely uninspiring, results were pretty good; it seems his demise was less down to them and had much more to do with Santini-style personality clashes and his refusal to bury the hatchet with Ade in order to try and solve our goal drought. It's still not clear whether he jumped or was pushed. The fact that his departure seems to have left Levy with no choice but to appoint Sherwood after a desperate attempt to recruit van Gaal suggests it was certainly very sudden, and possibly took him by surprise.
I think your racing analogy's a good one. There is no such thing as a certainty, and it's frequently been remarked that Levy's had far more luck with the firemen he's brought in than with his first choices for the job.
I don't remember this making it on to SC, although there may have been a thread during one of my sabbaticals. Clearly Comolli is covering his own arse here, but it does suggest that what you see (in this case Ramos) isn't necessarily what you get.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/fo...sions-awful-Comolli-hits-claims-old-boss.html
The linked article is also very revealing, and rings true. Sadly, there appear to be distinct similarities between Ramos' and Pochettino's training regimes and results on the field that I hope don't result in the same outcome. I truly believe that DL does what he perceives to be best for the Club at any given time - and so I like him as Chairman - but I now worry that his undoubted ambitions for Spurs have lead him to appoint advisers and managers who simply interview well, but possibly don't have the wherewithal to deliver.