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Levy: Views from the Board

Where does he go from here? He's managed to alienate his manager, the club's fans, the players and now the press in a week. He's obviously a megalomaniac and his advisers, should he allow any at all, seem lacking as him in the commonsense department. Even if Jol leaves, what manager is likely to want to step into his shoes with a chairman like Levy?

Before the past couple of weeks I thought he'd done a fantastic job with Spurs, but it seems like he's playing with the club like it is his toy (I suppose it is).

Views from the board:

Dwain: Reminds me of ‘Deadly' Doug Ellis. No manager will want to come in under Levy now.

Pilgrim: What he should do is be strong, sack the manager like he wanted and replace him with Ramos.

What he will do is keep Jol because he feels under threat from the fans. If Jol flops then Levy will get blamed, if Jol succeeds then Levy will look like an idiot. Lose-lose situation. It's difficult to know exactly because you don't know what the situation is with Ramos.

Flav: Levy has engineered this problem from himself as well.

You can see Ramos joining at the end of the season, this thing happens all the time.

JUS: He needs to keep a fucking low profile for the rest of the season. Then get ramos in the summer, unless we finish top four. If we manage that, and we won't, nobody will give a rat's cock about any of this.

NayimFrom50Yards: The point is that the press invented the vast majority of last weeks' shit and Levy is, quite understandably, outraged that it should have destabilised the place as much as it did. Levy has always been one for doing his business (tee-hee, I said 'doing his business') behind closed doors, which starves the press of stories and puts their back up against him. I still haven't seen him make an actual wrong move yet apart from banning the Standard itself because I can't see how he's not bringing down a whole accelerated campaign on his own head.

Pilgrim: I suspect the Ramos deal is all tied up for next season. Only doubts I have are because Ramos shot his mouth off about the meeting which suggests he might have just been using it to strengthen his position at Sevilla - with regards to keeping key players and getting a better contract. Alves being priced out the market could confirm this.

A few excerpts from THFCLatest2. You can find a link at the top right of the screen should you feel the need to vent.

CLICK THE IMAGE AT THE TOP OF THIS POST TO LINK DIRECTLY TO THIS THREAD

Don't Believe the Hype - by David Float

There are many things these days that are making me question my irrational passion for football: the obscene amount of money that is directed into it and into the pockets of many disgustingly gauche young men who continually prove themselves unworthy of the responsibility it brings them as role models; the cynicism of the game, where degrees of simulation, sledging of officials and media spin are as much part and parcel of the game as honest dedication and skill; this to name but two. But this past few days for me has thrown the spotlight on another indefensible issue; and since it has involved my beloved Tottenham to its great detriment, it is something that has sharpened my reservations about allowing myself to be so enamoured of football (and, being inextricably bound up in the game, even of Spurs itself). It is the wild media frenzy that has surrounded events and non-events around the Jol/ Levy situation which broke last weekend.

Anyone who knows me knows that I find the closed season and the transfer window unbearable. The rumours and the speculation drummed up by agents, commentators, reporters and bloggers these days are dizzying and I find it incredible that fans so avidly read and regurgitate the mountain of crap it generates when time continually proves that there is nothing at all in 99% of the stories.

The back pages and TV and radio programmes have seemingly become infected with this kind of speculation sensationalism in all walks of football life: potential takeover talk; the seeming lack of dedication to the flag by those involved in the England set-up; and rifts between club staff or in the board room. Any issue that affects the attitudes and relations of people, which are naturally endemic in any human activity, in football are held up to a spotlight and endlessly examined and re-examined, conjected upon, presumed upon and guessed at. Listen to TalkSport on any day and hear their shock-jock approach almost invent a story from some very basic facts and throw it out to the sort of monkeys who swallow the bait hook, line and sinker and the whole afternoon spirals out into a truly insane and often hysterical castle in the air.

The media plays with people’s passion for the game: the love of their clubs and the loathing of other clubs and schadenfreude felt at other clubs misfortunes. And for me, what played out this week in the papers, on TV and radio and on internet sites surrounding Martin Jol has been utterly pathetic and shown the media circus up for what it has become these days. Jol had already been fired. Ramos had already been employed. The board has a replacement coach list. Kelmsley wants Redknapp. Jol had pissed the board off by letting himself be courted by Newcastle. Jol tried to wrest player buying policy from Commoli. Commoli hates Jol. There is a rift between Jol and Berba. Berba wanted out because he was substituted at Sunderland.

No one seemed to stop and consider that throughout it all there was not one ounce of evidence for any of it. Even the quality back pages, which used to be able to be relied upon for a little cool reflection and balance were citing the situation as a shambles when everything coming out of the lane was relatively simple and straightforward. It was hysterically claimed that there is no smoke without fire, and Spurs seeming unwillingness to deny the situation was taken as confirmation of a great conflagration behind the scenes.

But let us take stock of the events we know about.

The closed season had seen the credibility of Spurs rise, almost universally, to heights that giddied the expectations of Spurs fans used to so many years of underachievement. But the first two games brought that crashing down, not the results as such, but the performances. After the Everton game it had been made clear that Levy was to sit down with Jol to discuss the situation. After those two games we were all incredulous at how ineptly we had and, being the chairman and fan that we all know Levy is, of course he'd want to know what on earth had gone wrong so quickly; what boss wouldn’t want a chat? And Levy had provided Jol’s squad with a heavy and well publicised investment.

Nothing but speculation put it forward that Jol was in imminent danger of losing his job but, of course, more clueless performances would call his aptitude for the next push up the table into question.

That meeting is what happened earlier in the week resulting in the first statement on the website. That told us that Levy is hugely ambitious for the club and he needs Jol to be the right man for the job given the squad provided and the expectations set. Jol didn't appear to have taken it in any way badly, suggesting the meeting was indeed just a chairman and a fan wanting to know what the hell had gone wrong in those two games.

Then the ‘news’ from Spain. Maybe Kelmsley did sound out Ramos but to see how the ground might lie in the next year (he only has a one year contract) should the board need to reconsider the managers position. In business, whilst you might be committed to a particular course, keeping your options open is imperative. We’ve since had confused noises from Ramos, he was offered a job, he wasn’t offered a job and two very direct (but carefully worded) refutations on the Spurs site.

Now Levy, very unlike him and his usual attitude to dealing in anything but had facts, has felt it necessary to placate the nonsense being spouted with his interview yesterday. Levy, after an admittedly shaky start, has proven to possess judgement and intelligence in running his club, but from the media frenzy we were being presented with an absolute bumbling incompetent. How is that likely?

The ‘no smoke without fire’ thing did occasionally throw me into fits of despair. We’re Spurs supporters and too used to a seeming good thing imploding on us. We’re horribly used to being the Premiership’s laughing stock and we are all too ready to believe it’s happening again. But I think sober reflection shows that in this last week’s events, the club has acted in a responsible fashion. Perhaps it might have made definitive statements more quickly, but it can't be held responsible for the mountain of utter bullshit that's been imagined and inferred.

So, hopefully now it's just back to being about the results. Of course, each one will be subject to trial by wild media speculation; but I think the fact that the club didn't feel it necessary to stoop to deny every half-witted, ill-informed piece of rubbish that the sort of muppet who phones TalkSport thinks might have happened supports Levy’s assertion that he won't knee-jerk to those results. Levy seems to want what we want and at the moment it's Jol. Even the greatest lover of Jol (and we’re all that to some extent) is not completely convinced as to his ability to fulfil our heady ambitions, so we and the board seem to be completely at one.

As I said before, in business it is crass not to keep your options open. I do love Martin Jol, and I want him to be The One. There hasn't been a figure at the helm at Spurs that seems to love it as much as I do. While we can't forget his finishing 5th twice because of the huge jump to finishing 4th, let's not forget how inept we looked twice this season just 'cos we pounded a weak Derby team. Let's not forget his choking against the big clubs despite beating Chelsea next year. Let's not forget our defensive frailty because of the 100+ goals we scored last season. Let's not BMJ’s his very poor record with substitutions. He is unproven and Levy sees that as much as we do.

There is no need for an effusion of outrage at Jol’s treatment or a boo-boy campaign at Levy. I don't see that there’s any problem beyond the obvious one of moving ourselves forward. Let’s all get off the cases of the people involved and let the rumour-mongering die down. We need the people at the club, including the players, to be settled to do the job we demand of them. The irony would be for the speculation about Jol’s future to so disturb the coaching staff and players that it makes it happen.

Myself, after many threats over many years of transfer window ‘activity’, I have vowed to no longer have anything at all to do with speculative football stories. For me, it’s just going to the games or catching them on TV and that’s it. No more TalkSport, no more back pages other than match reports, and no more speculative internet stories.

Berbatov decide, but with a heavy heart.

All right, so Sky Sports News have claimed that Man Utd have tabled a bid of £21m for Berbatov. Apparently Real Madrid are also interested. The two biggest clubs in the world are looking to snatch arguably our best player, or most skilful at least. Perhaps ‘snatch’ is the wrong word, as it really doesn’t matter who’s in for him, or how much they bid.

Berbatov is a Spurs player and he’s under contract, although that doesn’t matter either. Berbatov has been a Spurs player for only a year and we plucked him from relative obscurity. But that doesn’t matter. Berbatov has a great rapport with the fans. Irrelevant. What matters is whether Berbatov wants to be a Spurs player or not. If not then thanks for the memories mate, but do one.

Regardless of how good a player is I don’t want someone who’d rather play his football in someone else’s shirt. I love Spurs and part with my money gladly at the thought of squad fighting to be in the first team, but especially, accepting it with grace when they are not. It’s again time for Berbatov to declare his allegiance to Tottenham Hotspur and with it decide where he’ll be playing his football for the remainder of the season. If he chooses Man Utd or Real Madrid then he should know that it wouldn’t be with love he is remembered but with contempt.

This is a time when we need our squad together as one, a bunch of players that Martin Jol can place his belief, and with it, ours, because if there’s one player with his mind elsewhere it’ll be BMJ who pays, and our hearts with him.

Berbatov is a magnificent player, but he’s just that, a player. One, in an endless supply, that we will witness fill that glorious lilywhite shirt. And I’ll always love that more than any one player.

Come on you Spurs.

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with wornout tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on";

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run -
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man my son!

Martin Jol's Blue and White Army

It's been a horrible start to the week. The one before it wasn't great either. Losing to Sunderland was a punch in the face. Losing to Everton perhaps more painful because I sat next to baiting, jubilant, Toffee fans who held nothing back when ripping seven shades of the yellow stuff after each goal went in. The situation probably wasn't helped by the fair bit of goading thrown at them when Gardner equalised, but that's supporting football for you - well, supporting Spurs at least.

Speaking of which, opinion is divided between said Spurs fans over the fate of Martin Jol - a manager who's got the best league record for Spurs since Billy Nich, successive fifth place finishes, and a brilliant right hand wave. Tactically flawed, perpetually picking wrong substitutes and lacking the experience to get us into the top four are all points raised against the Big Man.

Whether you think Jol's got what it takes or not isn't massively important at the moment. The fact that Jol's tools to enable Spurs a successful season are being stripped from him by Daniel Levy and cronies is infinitely more pressing. Don't mistake me, Levy's done a smashing job, but he's handled this situation all wrong leaving Jol and squad under gigantic pressure. How can Jol prepare adequately for the trip to Man Utd when not knowing if he'll be out on his big Dutch arse the following Monday?

What is needed is calm. A statement of unequivocal support for Jol would've been the right thing for Levy to instead of the half-baked vote of confidence released by the Spurs board earlier today:

“We have had two good, progressive seasons with fifth place finishes. I am an ambitious chairman, we are an ambitious club and we want Champions League football at White Hart Lane. We, the Board, owe it to the club and the supporters to constantly assess our position and performance and to ensure that we have the ability to operate and compete at that level.

“We have made a massive investment in the squad and as a result we have the best squad of players this club has had for over 20 years and they are equally hungry for success and silverware. For that we need our management and coaching standards to be of the highest quality such that players can fulfill their potential and we can compete with the best.

“We have discussed all of these expectations with Martin [Jol] and he has confirmed to me today that he feels he is equipped with a squad and a determination to take on that challenge.”

What we have here is a 'get out' - finish fourth, or get out Martin. Thanks for the memories.

I would expect that Jol remains in charge until the end of the season, and, should he achieve qualification for the Champion's League there'll be a fair few humble gentlemen sitting in the West Stand come the beginning of next campaign. That's how, by rights, things should go, but they won't, we all know it. We'll finish 14th or something.

Whatever happens Jol has my support at least (as long as we don't lose the next three games then the fat gimp can do one). I got your back Big Man.