The Perfect Fifth

BBC SPORT | Football | Europe | Tottenham 1-2 Getafe

I was there in 1985 when Spurs lost their only other European game. We lost then to Real Madrid with Valdano and Butragueno up front giving the best display of forward play I’ve ever seen.

Back then our side consisted of players such as Steve Perryman, Mark Falco and Glenn Hoddle. We weren’t a great side but we had some great players who were committed to the club. After being out played in the first leg, we took the game to Real Madrid and were unlucky not to get a result with a perfectly good goal by Falco being disallowed. Steve Perryman was sent off for a Bruce Lee like kung-fu kick on Valdano.

Anyway my point is that we haven’t got the players anymore. Robbie Keane and Berbatov would’ve got into that 1985 side but I can’t think of many more. It has to be said that because we haven’t got the players, the manager can only use what he’s got. Martin Jol hasn’t always played his limited hand well. Although you can point to the relative success of the last couple of seasons, the limitations that stopped us actually winning something (the long aimless balls from the back, not supporting the man in possession, defending poorly as a team and so on) have found us out this season and the finger must be pointed at Martin Jol.

As a character you can’t fault him and for that I’m sorry to see him go. As a manager he has made too many poor decisions especially with regards to team selection and so it was inevitable. Tottenham need to be strong and get rid of all the back room staff. Chris Houghton (he played in the 1985 side) needs to go. We need a new approach and new ideas.

The Tottenham board haven’t covered themselves in glory and to be frank the way it’s been handled over the last few months has been nothing short of a disgrace. It doesn’t reflect well on the club and at the moment no one in their right mind would want to come to Tottenham.

There have been rumours about Martin Jol approaching Ajax in the summer about a job and it’s been well documented about Tottenham approaching Juande Ramos. So you never really know what goes on behind closed doors but now it’s all out in the open, we as supporters can only hope that Tottenham will get their act together and produce a decent football team.

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