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.
