Tottenham : The Levy Experiments (pt 1)

White Hart Lane faithfuls rejoiced when Tottenham’s clueless chairman Daniel Levy swung the axe at manager Juande Ramos and sporting director Damien Commolli. After sucker punching Martin Jol for a less that stellar start of the 2006-07 Premier League season, Levy snapped up Sevilla’s back-to-back UEFA Cup winning coach Juande Ramos as a perfect fit for the struggling North London club. After sacking Glenn Hoddle, Jacques Santini and Martin Jol, Levy’s attempt to bring some stability to the club with its 4th manager in 7 years was heartening, but Tottenham’s vocabulary no longer includes the word “stability,” and its various synonyms.

Emulating Daniel’s Levy classlessness, Juande Ramos claimed to have rejected Levy’s advances, promising Sevilla chairman José María del Nido and the Rojiblancos (Red-Whites) that he would remain at the helm till the end of the season. All it took for him to jump ship was Daniel Levy’s chequebook. The dirty deal was heralded as a good piece of business by the English press and Tottenham fans, but no more than a quick look at Ramos’ CV clued that heartbreak was one step away.

Juande Ramos’ rise to the top wasn’t exactly smooth sailing, even though Spanish managers move more frequently than their British counterparts. Before leading Sevilla to the 2005-06 UEFA Cup, Ramos began his coaching career at Elche Youth Academy before moving onto Segunda Division B (Spanish football third tier) side Alcoyano in 1993. A year later, he left the Valencian side to take over the reins at cross-town neighbors Levante. He led the team to a record 13 straight victories and a promotion to the Segunda Division (Spanish football second tier). Seeking a new challenge, Ramos deserted Levante and joined Logroñés, engineering the club’s promotion to La Liga, though his tenure there was doomed to fail thanks to the club’s financial troubles.

Ramos took his leave and joined Barcelona’s B team at the onset of the 1996-97 season and later moved across town to Catalan club Lleida the following year. His brief but successful tenure at Lleida caught the eye of Rayo Vallecano - the poor cousins of Madrid giants Atletico and Real - and again, lead the team to La Liga and a UEFA cup spot. His remarkable rise brought Real Betis calling in 2001. ‘Super Juande’ led Betis to 6th place and a UEFA cup spot in his first season and finished 8th and 9th the seasons after. A year later, disaster struck at Espanyol and Ramos got the sack after 5 games in charge. A year later, he took the reins at Malaga and led the team to a 10th place finish.

Juande Ramos replaced the well-traveled Joaquín Caparrós at Sevilla and as we know it, the rest is history. During his first season at Sevilla, he won the UEFA cup and finished an impressive 5th place in La Liga. Ramos doubled the feat a year later by winning the Copa Del Rey and capturing the UEFA cup once again by defeating Steve McClaren’s Middlesborough in the final. Impressive to say the least!

Accolades flew in. Was Ramos the new Mourinho or the new Benitez?  Only time would tell. But with Ramos’s impressive resume, why was the Tottenham experiment doomed to end in tears?

Well, what Tottenham needed was stability, and loyalty in its leadership. When I think of stability and longevity, Juande Ramos’s CV isn’t at all comforting, and when I think of loyalty, Juande Ramos sends shivers down my spine. Chairman Levy’s penchant for instant gratification, coupled with a vagabond Spanish manager left the writing was on the wall. If Daniel Levy wanted a new era of stability and prosperity (and I use both words very loosely) at Tottenham, he dug his own grave with the disastrous appointment of the Spaniard.

Share:
  • E-mail this story to a friend!
  • Facebook
  • Y!GG
  • Technorati
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • StumbleUpon
  • Reddit
  • Slashdot
  • MySpace
  • Ninad
    I'm amazed at how such incompetence is allowed to even stay at the club. Saving grace was that they at least made a profit on this whole Keane shambles.
  • Ah thanks. Yeah Levy is quite a character to say the least. Oh, the part 2 deals with Damien Commolli - the well documented Sporting Director.
  • Ninad
    This is very insightful. Levy in my opinion has done a very good job of taking a great opportunity and making nothing of it. Clearly, they have the financial resources to move up the order in the EPL, but their two pronged approach of 1) a bad transfer policy and 2) poor management of managers has resulted in the opposite.

    It struck me as being particularly asinine that a team would sell its two first choice strikers in the same transfer window, and not bring in a suitable alternative. Tottenham were going to sell Berbatov in the end anyway, they were just holding out for a higher price. Any team with a smigden of sense would have gone ahead and brought in reinforcements. Yes, there is a different angle to this, it would have reduced Berbatov's price tag and handed Man U the upper hand in negotiations, but a few million would have been the price to pay for some stability.

    It also shows the weakness that is Ramos. In this respect, Benitez has shown his, well, strength, by selling Keane, if only to show the club's management where he stands.

    Tottenham let go of one world class player and one, well, good player, and brought in whom? No body of note. Bringing in a bunch of no-name players is not the way to build a team, especially when you just sold off your base.

    Waiting for Part 2 !
blog comments powered by Disqus