Wrong Medicine - Jim Duggan

Hatch99

3rd March 2009 – Wrong medicine

The media are reporting (from what feel like briefings from somewhere within the club) that “Spurs plan a clear out in the summer”. Really, again? Another season starting with half the team making their debuts on the opening day?… stop me if you think that joke isn’t funny anymore

Perhaps this is just a press brief to keep the customers happy, as there is nothing a modern football fan likes more than the hope that the chequebook is coming out to solve all the dissatisfaction, esp as season ticket renewal time is looming. And perhaps it will be unavoidable if Spurs manage to perform worse than the likes of WBA, Stoke, Hull etc and are euthanized to Div2, but if Spurs stay up, is yet another wholesale change really going to be the answer? Or should we look beyond the football, and wonder whether clear out is desirable for other reason beyond the comprehension of wally customers?

Its fair to say there have been some gorblimey signings over recent seasons where Spurs have mirrored Godolphin, splashing money around with little success, rhyme or reason. There is no doubt a few of the players who have not and will not make it should be moved along in the normal scheme of things (just as there should be a few signings to improve the squad in weak areas), but for the most part Spurs have a fairly decent squad and most of the problem with the new signings has been price relative to ability and balance within the squad, mostly a legacy of the director of football dogma.

And remember, all this money that Spurs seem to throw at things has to come from somewhere, as Spurs like all the other clubs have to balance the books at some stage, and waste is waste whether or not there are unlimited money trees in Spurs garden which seem to have bankrolled the club beyond the other midtable rivals such as Everton and Villa in recent years

If a Premier League team fielded: Gomes-Chimbonda, Dawson, Woodgate, Bale–Bentley, Jenas, Zokora, Lennon-Bent, Defoe, would that not be something to build on and develop? Top keeper by reputation and Dutch championship medals, Chimbo a star at Wigan, Woodgate England class when fit, Dawson 100% solid EPL, Bale very promising before losing confidence, Bentley/Jenas/Lennon all young England fringe with plenty of EPL experience, Palacios/Zokora solid EPL, Bent has scored plenty of EPL goals, as have Keane/Defoe and again Pav is a top international who may do better in his second season.

I’m sure many of the other midrange teams do better with a lot worse, which leads on to the issue of what is “success” at Spurs as while the club wave glory glory in front of the fans when they have credit cards in their hands, the reality is that success for Spurs is staying in the with snout in EPL trough and poss having a UEFA run to widen TV exposure for shirt sponsor (obviously not to try to win a competition where Man Zhitty are now favourites)

The only thing Spurs need to clear out is excuses and ducking responsibility. For me the issue at Spurs, throughout the club is about knuckling down to some hard work and making the best of the resources available. This is the first step, the building block on which future success can be delivered. Without it, Spurs will just toss out cowardly excuses and throw money at the problem.

On paper, the squad is no worse than any of the teams in the scrap to be top of the crap – what is missing, is the leadership, determination and consistency. If those players believed Spurs wanted to do well (by not selling the best players), a manager who lost as well as won with them, knew that they were not going to be in the shop window at every transfer opportunity and had a chance to develop footballing relationships as a team… well you never know, a position challenging to be next on the ladder for the CL and some decent football may be achievable.

Gomes, Bale and Bentley will serve as a test case. They represent £30m of investment and all have had spells in the recent past where they were top players in their position. If there is anything left of the football club at Spurs, these players with the multitude of coaches, hangers on and whatever Sherwood does assembled by the current management team, they will be coached back to be top players rather than sold at a loss after just a handful of games. At the very least, they should try

Unfortunately, Spurs don’t seem about to start off down that path any time soon… and the customers can look forward to a summer of looking at youtube videos of Lulu Cheekygirl and wondering why Spurs are parting with what seem huge sums for them, plundering the relegated teams of cheap assets and should any of the Spurs players do well, losing them to a more ambitious club

Although Mr Harry may be encouraged that he gets to deal in lots of new transfers as he seems to like that, the other thing he should bear in mind is that these summer clearout/squad changes tend to be completed in October when the manager is bounced out of the club with the multi million pound handshake by the deadhand of Levy…and thinking about it, perhaps there is one person at the very top of the club who has been given plenty of chances and who is still making ****e decisions who deserves a chance elsewhere, even if like a load of old rubbish, it meant paying someone to take him away

yiddo

lot of sense there alright. stability is what we need now and some fine tuning not wholesale changes.

Hatch99

yiddo wrote: »

lot of sense there alright. stability is what we need now and some fine tuning not wholesale changes.

Definitely. If we go and sell the Bale's and Hutton's of this world, we will become a complete laughing stock (some might say we already are).

tippspur

I think he's right,no need for another major clearout, it would only set us back again.if Harry can get the players that we have playing with a bit of spirit like they did in Sundays final on a regular basis it would be great.

keane=cock

we sold a lot of regular starters last season and paid the price dearly at the start of the year. now we have got our feet a bit on the ground they are talking of ripping the stability away again. no way, come on! changing too much too soon will tear the heart from the team again