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Tottenham’s very hot-seat: (clockwise) Andre Villas-Boas, Jacques Santini, Juande Ramos, Martin Jol and Glenn Hoddle
Published: 09 April 2014
Updated: 10:26, 09 April 2014
Bill Nicholson's legend is part of Tottenham’s DNA and so it is worth considering one of his maxims as yet another manager faces the exit door at his beloved club.
“It is better to fail aiming high than to succeed aiming low,” he said. “And we of Spurs have set our sights very high, so high in fact that even failure will have in it an echo of glory.”
There is nothing glorious about the mess Spurs are in these days. Of course, they continue to aim high. This season began with faint notions of a Premier League title challenge as the departure of Gareth Bale was seemingly expertly stage-managed from being a disaster to a liberating opportunity, as seven new players arrived for more than £105million.
But it will end with a mad, and in all likelihood, failed attempt at fourth place as Tim Sherwood follows Andre Villas-Boas out of the club to cap another campaign of turmoil.
Much of that turmoil, most of it in fact, they brought on themselves. There is a perennial state of flux at White Hart Lane as they seek to regenerate on an almost annual basis without having the patience to see a vision through to its conclusion.
The appointment of Franco Baldini as technical director to work alongside chairman Daniel Levy was designed to deliver stability. Levy is notoriously hands-on in transfer dealings and with Baldini’s contacts and expertise the pair could be expected to deliver top-class talent for a manager to mould into a successful team.
Yet the flaws of such a system were exposed in the days after Villas-Boas was sacked in December, as it emerged the Portuguese had only a sporadic input in the club’s overall transfer strategy, agreeing with certain signings and not with others.
Villas-Boas made mistakes and oversaw some hugely painful results but four months was insufficient to effect the change required. He was sacked with Spurs seventh in the table but just eight points behind then leaders Arsenal.
LOUIS VAN GAAL
The Holland coach will leave after the World Cup. He wants to work in the Premier League and held talks with Daniel Levy after Andre Villas-Boas was sacked. Hugely experienced, he has managed Ajax, Barcelona and Bayern Munich.
Today, they sit in sixth place, 15 points off top spot. Sherwood has kept Spurs ticking along respectfully enough — 32 points from 17 games can be described as such — but the longer his tenure continues, the more it is difficult to avoid the conclusion the job is simply beyond his capabilities at this embryonic stage in his managerial career. He has, however, been treated poorly. The 18-month contract agreed in December was insufficient to create the stable conditions required to command the dressing room. The silence from Tottenham’s hierarchy in difficult moments has been deafening.
If Sherwood is to be replaced, as is now surely inevitable, then the club must take the decision carefully and then commit to seeing that journey through. Ever since the clash of personalities between Harry Redknapp and senior boardroom level figures prompted his departure, Spurs have struggled for stability. The sale of key players has not helped. It was noted in this column last month that Spurs have received the highest income for transfers since 2008 of any club in the top five leagues in the world (England, Spain, Italy, Germany and France).
A clearer vision must be established. Belated progress is being made to fund a new stadium, while the next manager must be fully supported in the transfer market. Redknapp was not, Villas-Boas was but not in the manner he would have liked. Spurs may well have to pay bigger wages.
The correlation between salaries and finishing positions is clear and so a club with the sixth highest wage bill expecting to finish in the top four are always attempting to over-achieve.
History may well come to review Sherwood’s appointment as a failure, symptomatic of an impatient club faltering under their own inflated sense of expectation. But this is what Spurs do. Glenn Hoddle was sacked six games into the 2003-04 season, leaving David Pleat to tread water until the saviour, Jacques Santini, arrived.
He lasted 11 games. Martin Jol’s tenure was undermined by the pursuit of Juande Ramos, whose eventual appointment in 2007 was a disaster. This time it is Sherwood standing on a creaking trapdoor with Louis van Gaal in line to replace him.
Whoever inherits Tottenham’s imbalanced squad will find themselves in a stronger position than Nicholson. In 1958, he took over with the club sixth from bottom in the top flight, not sixth from the top. Spurs can rise again but to do so they must studiously appoint a manager and then afford him the time to establish control. Uncertainty and upheaval has prevailed for too long.
Published: 09 April 2014
Updated: 10:26, 09 April 2014
Bill Nicholson's legend is part of Tottenham’s DNA and so it is worth considering one of his maxims as yet another manager faces the exit door at his beloved club.
“It is better to fail aiming high than to succeed aiming low,” he said. “And we of Spurs have set our sights very high, so high in fact that even failure will have in it an echo of glory.”
There is nothing glorious about the mess Spurs are in these days. Of course, they continue to aim high. This season began with faint notions of a Premier League title challenge as the departure of Gareth Bale was seemingly expertly stage-managed from being a disaster to a liberating opportunity, as seven new players arrived for more than £105million.
But it will end with a mad, and in all likelihood, failed attempt at fourth place as Tim Sherwood follows Andre Villas-Boas out of the club to cap another campaign of turmoil.
Much of that turmoil, most of it in fact, they brought on themselves. There is a perennial state of flux at White Hart Lane as they seek to regenerate on an almost annual basis without having the patience to see a vision through to its conclusion.
The appointment of Franco Baldini as technical director to work alongside chairman Daniel Levy was designed to deliver stability. Levy is notoriously hands-on in transfer dealings and with Baldini’s contacts and expertise the pair could be expected to deliver top-class talent for a manager to mould into a successful team.
Yet the flaws of such a system were exposed in the days after Villas-Boas was sacked in December, as it emerged the Portuguese had only a sporadic input in the club’s overall transfer strategy, agreeing with certain signings and not with others.
Villas-Boas made mistakes and oversaw some hugely painful results but four months was insufficient to effect the change required. He was sacked with Spurs seventh in the table but just eight points behind then leaders Arsenal.
LOUIS VAN GAAL
The Holland coach will leave after the World Cup. He wants to work in the Premier League and held talks with Daniel Levy after Andre Villas-Boas was sacked. Hugely experienced, he has managed Ajax, Barcelona and Bayern Munich.
Today, they sit in sixth place, 15 points off top spot. Sherwood has kept Spurs ticking along respectfully enough — 32 points from 17 games can be described as such — but the longer his tenure continues, the more it is difficult to avoid the conclusion the job is simply beyond his capabilities at this embryonic stage in his managerial career. He has, however, been treated poorly. The 18-month contract agreed in December was insufficient to create the stable conditions required to command the dressing room. The silence from Tottenham’s hierarchy in difficult moments has been deafening.
If Sherwood is to be replaced, as is now surely inevitable, then the club must take the decision carefully and then commit to seeing that journey through. Ever since the clash of personalities between Harry Redknapp and senior boardroom level figures prompted his departure, Spurs have struggled for stability. The sale of key players has not helped. It was noted in this column last month that Spurs have received the highest income for transfers since 2008 of any club in the top five leagues in the world (England, Spain, Italy, Germany and France).
A clearer vision must be established. Belated progress is being made to fund a new stadium, while the next manager must be fully supported in the transfer market. Redknapp was not, Villas-Boas was but not in the manner he would have liked. Spurs may well have to pay bigger wages.
The correlation between salaries and finishing positions is clear and so a club with the sixth highest wage bill expecting to finish in the top four are always attempting to over-achieve.
History may well come to review Sherwood’s appointment as a failure, symptomatic of an impatient club faltering under their own inflated sense of expectation. But this is what Spurs do. Glenn Hoddle was sacked six games into the 2003-04 season, leaving David Pleat to tread water until the saviour, Jacques Santini, arrived.
He lasted 11 games. Martin Jol’s tenure was undermined by the pursuit of Juande Ramos, whose eventual appointment in 2007 was a disaster. This time it is Sherwood standing on a creaking trapdoor with Louis van Gaal in line to replace him.
Whoever inherits Tottenham’s imbalanced squad will find themselves in a stronger position than Nicholson. In 1958, he took over with the club sixth from bottom in the top flight, not sixth from the top. Spurs can rise again but to do so they must studiously appoint a manager and then afford him the time to establish control. Uncertainty and upheaval has prevailed for too long.
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