Candid Juande Ramos Interview about Spurs....

[Coyboy]

I always blamed Comolli more than I did Ramos. Reassuring to hear Ramos did the same.

There is a huge contradiction at the heart of this club; the manager’s post demands a pragmatist who can work with the resources provided, a Jol or a Redknapp, but these types are not considered inspirational enough for our ambitions, so we keep giving them the shove to bring in big name managers, Santini, Ramos, AVB, who demand to do things their way and end up in conflict with the board.

True but then Jol couldn't work with DC and Redknapp wouldn't.

 

[eddiebailey]

and one Aaron Lennon, I think. To say DC was a fraud is quite silly. His transfers were not instant successes; but few ever are.

Not Lennon. But he did sign Rocha, Gilberto, Gunter, Hutton, Pavyluchenko, Bostock, Parrett and that Spanish goalie who never played and whose name I have forgotten, as well as spunking an unfeasible amount of dosh on Bent and Bentely, and achieving the major transfer coup of getting Frazier Campbell on loan.

He also allegedly told Levy that we could sell Carrick, because he could get us Zokora!

There were good signings, Bale and Modric in particular, but also Assou-Ekottu and Kaboul. Boateng and Taraabt were talented players but major arseholes. The problem was that, as this season has proved, a squad needs a balance of experience; you cannot throw a load of youngsters with no Premiership experience together and expect to function as a team.

That was what cost Jol his job, that and Comolli's behind the scenes mutterings that it was okay we could let Jol go, because he could get us Ramos!

 

[Timberwolf]

Not Lennon. But he did sign Rocha, Gilberto, Gunter, Hutton, Pavyluchenko, Bostock, Parrett and that Spanish goalie who never played and whose name I have forgotten, as well as spunking an unfeasible amount of dosh on Bent and Bentely, and achieving the major transfer coup of getting Frazier Campbell on loan.

He also allegedly told Levy that we could sell Carrick, because he could get us Zokora!

There were good signings, Bale and Modric in particular, but also Assou-Ekottu and Kaboul. Boateng and Taraabt were talented players but major arseholes. The problem was that, as this season has proved, a squad needs a balance of experience; you cannot throw a load of youngsters with no Premiership experience together and expect to function as a team.

That was what cost Jol his job, that and Comolli's behind the scenes mutterings that it was okay we could let Jol go, because he could get us Ramos!

Christ, when you put it like that it's clear that we have other options...

We must team up with all the disgruntled Liverpool fans who was also subjected to Comolli's fumbling arseholery, catch him in a net, and burn him at the stake.

 

[Gbspurs]

Wasn't Arshavin our big target that year? Instead we got David Bentley.

 

[nightgoat]

Bent did ok while he was here but super Pav was a bust, I can't believe your serious with that Harry Kane comment, I'd like to see us competing for CL football with Kane as our top striker, he could even get in the side when Defoe was sold. Nothing against the kid but not a replacement for those two.

I would assume that Levy wouldn't even inquire after Falcao or Ibrahimovic let alone enter negotiations. If you enter negotiations with a player then obviously there is a realistic hope that they may sign.

As for the money spent it's all very well saying that we spent 88 million but he wasn't the one who spent it and you also got to look at who we spent it on.

My point was that you said selling Berbatov and Keane and bringing in Modric would be like selling Adebayor and Soldado now and replacing them with Moutinho. But it wouldn't be, because back then we still had Bent and Pav. If we sold Adebayor and Soldado our only striker would be Kane, so it's not really a fair comparison.

 

[nightgoat]

Wasn't Arshavin our big target that year? Instead we got David Bentley.

To be fair we probably dodged a bullet with Arshavin too.

 

[Gbspurs]

To be fair we probably dodged a bullet with Arshavin too.

I always thought he would have done ok here. Certainly better than Bentley. Anyway all irrespective now.

 

[guiltyparty]

He blew that interview for me when he starts comparing us to City, Chelsea and Utd about buying players and not looking at an age. Unfortunately we cannot afford to buy players who are on a last contract like that, we have to run economically

Want to tell Levy to rein in the expectations accordingly then?

 

[guiltyparty]

"We couldn't have scored if we'd used a rainbow as the goalposts" is quote of the week though

 

[sandros kung fu kick]

Not Lennon. But he did sign Rocha, Gilberto, Gunter, Hutton, Pavyluchenko, Bostock, Parrett and that Spanish goalie who never played and whose name I have forgotten, as well as spunking an unfeasible amount of dosh on Bent and Bentely, and achieving the major transfer coup of getting Frazier Campbell on loan.

He also allegedly told Levy that we could sell Carrick, because he could get us Zokora!

There were good signings, Bale and Modric in particular, but also Assou-Ekottu and Kaboul. Boateng and Taraabt were talented players but major arseholes. The problem was that, as this season has proved, a squad needs a balance of experience; you cannot throw a load of youngsters with no Premiership experience together and expect to function as a team.

That was what cost Jol his job, that and Comolli's behind the scenes mutterings that it was okay we could let Jol go, because he could get us Ramos!

Wasn't ceser Sanchez the keeper? If I remember correctly he played for real madrid?

 

[mattyspurs]

Want to tell Levy to rein in the expectations accordingly then?

I can't at the minute, I've not seen him for a few months. But next time I do see him I will!

 

[Spurs_Bear]

You're a very angry man.

You are.

 

[Ribble]

Do you think that the players we have bought in the AVB tenure are considerably worse than the ones he wanted?

Last season's I would say definitely, taking into account the players he wanted and their positions & styles of play. Dembele was probably the best attacking buy and may have plenty of talent but those talents are nothing like Moutinho's.

This season I would say that many weren't nearly as suited to making the desired impact immediately despite filling similar positions, and that we saw the effect of that with Lamela, Soldado and Eriksen struggling to make any kind of regular impact. If you look at the possible alternatives (Soldado/Villa, Lamela/Hulk and Eriksen/Willian) I think it's pretty clear cut too. Villa is more of a player to fashion more chances by himself as well as being predatory, Hulk who is an immense athlete and incredibly direct would have had much less of a problem fitting into the league, and Willian being a bit of a tougher and more experienced player has needed a bit of time to settle at Chelsea but is showing plenty now, and here he'd have gotten far more on-pitch time to adjust quicker. Also with the latter two they'd have been coming straight into a club with a Brazilian contingent and backroom staff who spoke Portuguese, and into a city where there is already a group of players from a number of clubs acting as a support network. Given Lamela's seeming massive problems settling I see that as a big plus in their columns.

Would it maybe have meant one less CM? Probably, but does that matter if Bentaleb was there ready to come through? Remember that he got his new contract when AVB was still at the club too, so it's not like he was an unknown player.

 

[mrlilywhite]

This is clearly why Ramos lost his job: He speaks highly of Jermaine Jenas, who "always offered tactical solutions"

 

[Metalhead]

Fucking hell, Berbatov really was a ****, wasn't he.

Apparently he was 'honourable', well according to Ramos.

 

[Shadydan]

Wasn't Arshavin our big target that year? Instead we got David Bentley.

But ask yourself this question....could Arshavin kick a ball into a skip from a rooftop?

 

[NEVILLEB]

Sums up Levy perfectly.

Interfering, profit based and unable to learn from his own mistakes.

 

[dontcallme]

I think Ramos had a squad that should have been doing considerably better than it was so I've no qualms with him being fired.

I think a lot of what he says is valid though. Particularly about the playing assets rather than players.

Southampton have had that problem this season. They spent £15m on Oswaldo who has been useless while Lambert has spent time sidelined who is their best player let alone striker. Hard to justify putting such an expensive signing on the bench and telling the chairman he simply isn't good enough.

Levy selling strikers and wanting Bent to play and achieve based on his price tag and pre-season shows when finances get in the way of good footballing sense. Yes we have to live on a budget but trying to force a signing to succeed based on what we paid rather than their ability is a bad way to run the footballing side of the club.

 

[mattdefoe]

I think levy is the problem here.. again

 

[Jenko]

It's not a distortion at all. OK, Modric didn't immediately reach the levels of performance that got Real interested, but he was still the most talented midfielder in our squad. Most of us could see from his first season that he'd be a great player for us, and Wenger's insistence that he was too light-weight for the PL massively smacked of jealousy that he hadn't signed him.

The fact remains that we still had a very good squad - Bent and Pavlyuchenko weren't of the same standard as Keane and Berbatov, either individually or as a partnership but they were still better than what most PL teams had. Bent was our top scorer that season. He can hardly moan about being handicapped in the transfer market - Jol had wanted an experienced defender virtually the entire time he was manager yet Ramos was allowed to sign injury prone Jonathan Woodgate for £8m in his first transfer window. Does he seriously think Levy sold Berbatov and Keane because Bent wasn't getting enough game time? Of course he didn't. Ramos is the one distorting events there.



True, but Modric was the creative, tempo-setting midfielder we'd needed since Carrick had been sold. We were overloaded on strikers when we had Berbatov, Keane, Defoe and Bent, but Eto'o and Villa? Get real, Juande. There was no way we would have signed Villa a year before Barcelona signed him for €40m. No way we'd have signed Eto'o from Barcelona. Maybe if he'd set his targets more realistically he wouldn't have ended up so frustrated.

Ultimately, Ramos had a good squad that was massively underperforming. He can blame Levy and Comolli as much as he likes (and neither of them were without blame) but the team's performance was his responsibility. Redknapp came in and immediately got results, even before the transfer window. Some of the stuff we played under Ramos was the worst we'd seen since Gross.



Valid point, but like I said before he was still an improvement on the central midfielders we had at the time.

I suspected Levy bought Bent because he knew he'd sell Berba. I'd say he was only pee'd with the sale because his hand was forced to accept less than he wanted.