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Spurs' revolving door policy is the reason for our current plight, no ifs or buts about it.

I have no idea if this post will even work or if anyone will read it, but figured it can't do any harm, so here goes.

Just thought I'd throw in a theory as to why we've been so abysmal thus far.

Looking at the team we put out last night, the thing that stood out was that so few of them had been at the club for anything approaching a decent length of time.

I decided to have put together some stats to back this up, so I've taken the average period at the club for the first team squads (22 players) of Spurs, Arsenal, Man U and Chelsea.

I've got the full Excel spreadsheet I used if anyone's interested, but the averages are below.

Man U: 1744 days (4.78 years)
Chelsea: 1257 days (3.44 years)
Arsenal: 1010 days (2.77 years)
Spurs: 616 days (1.69 years)

It's a pretty damning indictment of our revolving door policy if you ask me. How can we expect sustained success when we can't even sustain a squad?

Year in and year out we supposedly get rid of the deadwood and replace it with shining new stars, and though this is a great way to keep the fans buying replica shirts (after all, who wants a dependable, talented player like Steed Malbranque when you can have the 'next big thing' Luka Modric), it's evidently not the best way to go about mounting anything approaching a top four challenge.

Until the "chairman", "director of football" and all their associated underlings can bring something approaching stability to the club, there will be no progress, it really is that simple.

Should Spurs take a big loss on Darren Bent and Younes Kaboul?

Spurs_Badge.jpgOver the recent years at White Hart Lane, it's fair to say we've had more misses than hits in the transfer market.

For every Michael Carrick who we bought cheap and sold huge, there's been three Sergei Rebrovs who cost us a fortune in losses.

If we do flog Dimitar Berbatov this summer, we'll certainly be making a massive profit on the Bulgarian to fund a swoop for a new world-class striker. Spain's David Villa for £20m anyone?

But any cash we make in that deal surely looks set to be offset by losses on Darren Bent and Younes Kaboul who the Daily Mirror says could be heading to Everton and Portsmouth.

They reckon we'll lose £8m on Bent and £6m on Kaboul, the former costing us nearly £16m and the latter around £8m when they signed just a year ago.


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Posted by Jonathan Weinberg on June 23, 2008 12:22 PM in Juande Ramos| News| Transfers
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Dream team or mid-table side - who's right about Tottenham?

110608_Santos.jpgThere's an interesting conflict of statements occuring about Spurs right now. No sooner had Giovani dos Santos described his transfer from Barcelona as a "dream", another Barca player Samuel Eto'o snubbed a move to White Hart Lane and labelled us a "mid-table" club.

So who is right? Obviously the fact Chelsea target dos Santos chose N17 over west London has to be a good sign, and he pretty much said Juande Ramos was the reason for his decision to join us.

But on the face of it, I have to agree with Eto'o - and to do so is not to be disloyal to the Club that I love and support, it is just being realistic.

Last season's form in the Premier League was atrocious. Half the team gave up after we won the Carling Cup and guaranteed a European place through that competition.

The previous two seasons of fifth place finishes don't matter any more, we are under a new regime and a new manager who will start during this coming campaign to make his mark on the squad.

But as they say, you're only as good as your last result and we finished 11th in 2007/08 - and you can't get more mid-table than that.


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Posted by Jonathan Weinberg on June 11, 2008 12:21 PM in Juande Ramos| News| Transfers
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'Gary' O'Hara to leave Spurs? But when will our real fire sale start?

020608_Jamie.jpgYet another round of newspaper rumours were floated yesterday with the Sunday Mirror picking out seven Tottenham players who it says are on their way out of White Hart Lane.

None of the names were any real surprise except one. Paul Robinson, Darren Bent, Gilberto, Kevin Prince-Boateng, Younes Kaboul, Adel Taarabt and Gary O'Hara. Yep,
that well-known Spurs midfielder GARY O'HARA.

I kid you not, that was the name of the man in the frame for a move according to this article - which is lucky because it must mean his twin brother Jamie is staying. After all, he has recently just signed a new deal to keep him at the Club until 2011, been lauded by Juande Ramos and had a whole week devoted to him on the Official Spurs website. Not to mention the fact he won the Young Player of the Year Award.


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Posted by Jonathan Weinberg on June 2, 2008 10:32 AM in Juande Ramos| News| Transfers
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Would FIFA's 6+5 ruling ruin Juande Ramos' plans at Spurs?

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So the men in suits sitting behind their desks at FIFA have actually gone and done something for once that I applaud. They favour a rule to limit the number of foreign players in teams and have been backed by the Football Association here in the UK.

But many legal experts believe it would be impossible to enforce because EU employment laws would forbid it.

Daniel Levy has long voiced his opinion that Spurs should have a large core of Englishman at the Club. During his time at the helm, we've been one of a few sides with a decent spine of players from England, unlike our North London Gooner rivals.

Last season for example, Michael Dawson, Jonathan Woodgate, Jermaine Jenas, Jamie O'Hara, Ledley King, Paul Robinson, Tom Huddlestone, Darren Bent, Aaron Lennon all
figured in our ranks and would have pretty much kept us within such a regulation had it been in force.

But as Juande Ramos looks set to splash out on more foreign stars than he will Englishmen, and with one of our best stars - ie Robbie Keane - an Irishman, would you welcome such a change to the football standing orders?


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Posted by Jonathan Weinberg on May 30, 2008 4:01 PM in Juande Ramos| News| Transfers
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The Spurs Pies 2007/08 Season Review: September

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And so we move onto September, a month that saw points thrown away, an embarassing derby day defeat, and the start of our glorious Carling Cup victory.

Saturday 1st September
Premier League - Fulham 3 Spurs 3

When what should have been a routine victory over a poor Fulham side turned into an epic tale of comebacks and missed chances, Martin Jol must've known once and for all that only a miracle would save his job. An awesome performance from young Gareth Bale was the only real positive to come from a game that saw us throw away what was both a 2-0 and 3-1 lead, with Diomansy Kamara earning a point with his first league goal for his new club, a ridiculously acrobatic overhead kick deep into injury time.

Saturday 15th September
Premier League - Spurs 1 Arsenal 3

And so, with the club stuck very much in the Premier League doldrums, with only a solitary win over Derby to our name, the thing we needed least of all was a visit from our high flying neighbours to rub salt into our gaping wounds.


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Will the Dimitar Berbatov saga damage Tottenham's summer?

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Is he going? Or is he staying? The rumours around Dimitar Berbatov's future at White Hart Lane look set to continue for a while longer and that is going to cause Spurs no end of problems during the close season.

For a start, it puts our transfer dealings in hot water. If Juande Ramos and Daniel Levy identify a new world-class striker like Samuel Eto'o, can they afford to put a bid in before a deal to flog Berbatov is completed. What if they go ahead only for the Bulgarian to commit his future to N17?

Of course, that could be amazing for the fans but it might well over-stretch the Club funds to have them both on the teamsheet at this stage in our development.

Gus Poyet has no idea what his happening by the sounds of it. He admits: "This has been going on for a long time and it is a problem. People have to understand we want Berba at the club and if he stays it will be phenomenal. But if he goes we will need a replacement as well. We will have to wait."


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Posted by Jonathan Weinberg on May 16, 2008 12:10 PM in Juande Ramos| News| Transfers
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