Premier League

Ramos joins Tottenham with top four the sole ambition

By Matthew Day ⋅ October 27, 2007 ⋅  Print This Post ⋅ Post a comment

Juande Ramos has flown into Luton Airport - by private jet no less - after resigning from Sevilla and the Spaniard now takes up one of the toughest tasks in European football: to break up the Premier League’s top four monopoly.

Unlike in Spain or Italy, it has become an almost impossible task to dislodge the four incumbents at the summit of the Premier League. Everton managed it in 2005 though only after their rivals for fourth place, Liverpool, were distracted by their epic Champions League run and Tottenham themselves came extremely close a year later as Arsenal progressed into a European Cup final, only to bottle it at the season’s end. Ramos was the most successful Sevilla coach ever, earning the club consecutive Uefa Cups along with the Copa del Rey over the last two seasons, but it is league form that will determine whether Tottenham’s gamble will be vindicated.

Like any ambitious club, trophies are highly desirable but Martin Jol was sacked because he did not believe Tottenham could make it into the top four. Spurs fans have overwhelmingly condemned the board’s decision to get rid of the Dutchman and were even more critical of the treatment of a man who has brought consecutive top-five finishes to a club that had previously been steeped in mediocrity. Thus, even though the supporters will back Ramos, anger at the Tottenham hierarchy means the 53-year-old must deliver results quickly. The next 19 months will put into perspective Jol’s achievements, and ultimately settle whether the board’s public relations disaster over the last month was worth the bedlam it caused.

“If Ramos plays the same brand of football as he did in Spain, undoubtedly he will take Tottenham up to the level required to earn a Champions League berth”

Ramos’s Sevilla side won the hearts of neutral Spanish fans last season, their attacking and scintillating brand of football winning them plaudits and matches in equal measure. Injuries and fatigue put paid to their title hopes - had they won their final two matches instead of earning just one point, they would have triumphed in La Liga - but their efforts were highly commendable after extended runs in European and domestic cup competitions, both of which they eventually won.

Tottenham fans pay the most of any Premier League supporters and rightly expect progress, especially after such heavy summer investment. It seemed Jol had taken the club to its limit, or at least he had reached his limitations as a coach, and penetrating the top four hasn’t looked likely since that lasagne-inspired 2-1 defeat to West Ham in May of last year. Ramos is a more talented coach but his command of English is nowhere near up to scratch - the reason Gus Poyet will act as his assistant - and he has no experience outside of Spain. Yet if he plays the same brand of football in North London as he did in Southern Spain, and with similar results, he can undoubtedly take Tottenham up to the level required to earn a Champions League berth.

Ramos will take home £4m a year in his new job, and will have significantly more to invest on new players if he desires a makeover. Bringing in some of the best players from his Sevilla squad is an option - perhaps even former flop Frédéric Kanouté - but the team he has inherited from Jol is the strongest outside of the top four and the envy of most of their Uefa Cup rivals. Immediate results are not expected, but by the end of the 2008/9 campaign Ramos will have had time to stamp his authority on the team and integrate his coaching methods, so the supporters would be justified in expecting a certain degree of progress and a sustained challenge on the top four’s cartel by then.

By 2010, if Ramos continues to receive ample transfer funding, Tottenham fans have reason to anticipate a spot amongst Europe’s elite or a piece of silverware.

The new coach’s first task will be to reassure the players that Tottenham are heading in the right direction. Sven-Göran Eriksson lured so many top imports in at Manchester City because of his vision for the future, something prospective players bought into and accordingly signed for the club. Ramos first has to keep the current squad content, including the highly coveted Dimitar Berbatov who reportedly is still striving to leave the club, and the four strikers who seemingly all want to play at the same time. There is a goalkeeping and defensive crisis, and morale is understandably low following a dreadful start to Spurs’ biggest and most promising campaign in a decade.

Ramos has a lot of work on his plate, starting Monday morning.

Ramos to deliver Champions League football by 2010? Share your views by leaving a comment below.

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