Christian Gross Retrospective

[Gilzeanking]

My grandad was Swiss .

I always felt Gross got a bit more grief than he deserved .

The tube arrival was mercilessly laughed at by our press . I never fully grasped what was so contemptable about him arriving on the tube , but there you are .

 

[SpurSince57]

But what did you expect, MkKid?

You can draw parallels between then and now, but the difference is that Ramos has taken over a very decent squad that's been through a bad patch, not the bunch of bozos Gross found himself lumbered with. There were problems—I think Mabbs said Gross had problems communicating with the players—but I also suspect there was a collective resentment towards the regime Gross wanted to impose. There has been a huge change in attitudes in just ten years.

Let's face it, he had just 26 league games. Only Fruitini had fewer. That's ridiculous. I don't think anyone's saying we would have been runaway league winners had he stayed, but his record before and after his tenure at the Lane says he's no mug, and I can't believe we wouldn't have been at least as well off as we were under Graham and Hoddle if he'd been allowed a decent crack of the whip.

 

[mkkid]

But what did you expect, MkKid?

You can draw parallels between then and now, but the difference is that Ramos has taken over a very decent squad that's been through a bad patch, not the bunch of bozos Gross found himself lumbered with. There were problems—I think Mabbs said Gross had problems communicating with the players—but I also suspect there was a collective resentment towards the regime Gross wanted to impose. There has been a huge change in attitudes in just ten years.

Let's face it, he had just 26 league games. Only Fruitini had fewer. That's ridiculous. I don't think anyone's saying we would have been runaway league winners had he stayed, but his record before and after his tenure at the Lane says he's no mug, and I can't believe we wouldn't have been at least as well off as we were under Graham and Hoddle if he'd been allowed a decent crack of the whip.

I suppose it was the Herr Flick accent and the comments about the team having to climb a mountain and we have to all pull together!
It was one of the most exciting seasons in a long time because ,i defeinetely thought we were goin down!
Im one of the few spurs fans,who liked Graham.He would have been unsackable if hed had won that semi final against the scum.
This is probably the reason i had no time for Levy.

 

[jimbo]

I miss Allan Nielsen.

 

[The Apprentice]

I miss Nicola Berti. We should have built the team around him. He was magic.

 

[SpurSince57]

At least he was free.

 

[DC_Boy]

I thought the whole tube ticket incident was disgraceful - using public transport is something to be encouraged not ridiculed. As usual the press got its anti-spurs agenda into overdrive and Gross was never given a fair chance - but hey what's new at Spurs - I'm afraid it tends to come with the territory.

Re Graham, for once I don't think the press were were particularly on his back - of course we know how he split the fans - I was never against him and am grateful he helped win us our only trophy for the last 16 years- but I certainly don't want to get involved in the Graham arguments again - I had enough at the time

 

[BrotherJustin]

Posted this on the front page, but thought I might as well stick it here. Sorry it's a bit long....


Hmmm, lots of this sounds quite familiar

"Francis had...left Spurs in, as captain Sol Campbell admitted, "really dire straits". They were 16th in the table after 14 matches, just one point off the relegation zone." - Like the dire situation we were in when MJ left.

"chronic lack of confidence that had afflicted Spurs under Francis.", "Gross believed the first step to healing Spurs' mental fragility was increasing their physical solidity.", "he imposed dietary restrictions and shocked White Hart Lane by introducing the heretical notion of training the day after matches, but his football philosophy was about more than put-'em-under-pressure physicality" - Lack of confidence, a need to improve fitness and extra training sessions..... hasn't that happened recently?

"Ultimately he knew he couldn't develop the high-tempo, offensive style that had brought his Grasshoppers Zurich side two Swiss titles in the previous three years and to the brink of the 1997 Champions League quarter-finals (notably winning away to Ajax, who'd reached the two previous finals) so long as Spurs remained the frailest side in the league, saddled with a habit of conceding late goals and a treatment room more loaded than a Pete Doherty on a Saturday night." - High-tempo offensive style, recent success with his last team, and Spurs with a habit of conceding late goals and important players injured?

"Her Majesty's bureaucrats to deny a work permit to Fritz Schmid, the fitness coach with whom he'd always worked" - well, at least Juande managed to bring Alvarez with him.

"Sugar also guaranteed him a significant say over tactics and selection.", "David Pleat drafted in over his head as director of football" - a Spurs board undermining their manager, that just doesn't happen, does it?

"three players for whom Gross was allowed to pay a transfer fee during his time at Tottenham (compare that to Francis, who had been splurged £30m on a slew of flops)." - previous manager spending 10s of millions (I know it's Commolli who spent the money, but still...), I hope Juande will be allowed some spending money.

All in all there seem to be a lot of similarities that can be drawn between the situation with Gross and the current situation. I'm hoping that Ramos will not be a repeat of Christian Gross, but I wouldn't mind if he can emulate a couple of Gross' achievements....

"during his brief tenure at Tottenham, Gross transformed the Frenchman into the player that would eventually be voted the best in the country." - lets hope this happens to Lennon!!!

"A team that had been in freefall thus finished the season on a high, losing only one of their last nine" - And lets hope Spurs have an improvement in form!

I know that Gross' history teaches us pretty much nothing about Ramos' future, but I was a bit surprised by all the parallels, especially when some people (Jim Duggan on TopSpurs in particular) often commented on the similarities between Jol and Francis during BMJ's reign.

I'm sure Ramos will be more successful than Gross, he's already one up by managing to get his fitness man here!

 

[pffft]

Okay, I was just going to bump this to take the piss since we seem to be pining for our old managers, but...reading the post above...

Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.

 

[spursfan1991]

The legendary manager is back. He has gone to Schalke.

 

[BringBack_leGin]

Is there a way to have threads this old locked automatically when they reach a certain age. Saw it in Spurs chat and got excited that SS57 had made a come man ?