Tottenham Hotspur: what is going on?

Fan’s view: Tottenham Hostpur

There is something that lurks the halls of White Hart Lane that is denting my confidence in my beloved club. The story of the summer was all about where Dimitar Berbatov would go come transfer deadline day. I, along with almost every Tottenham fan, knew the Bulgarian striker would be leaving the club with Manchester United being the most likely destination. At first everything seemed civil. Tottenham had a price tag, Manchester United had a plan.

Headlines of Cristiano Ronaldo wanting to leave Old Trafford for the white lights of the Bernabeu were ever-present on the back pages of all national newspapers during the Euro 2008 tournament. The ever-increasing persistence of Real Madrid president Ramon Calderon was unsettling Manchester United to the point where a public outburst between the two clubs escalated when the Red Devils reported Real to Fifa, sparking those remarkable comments, Ronaldo stating that he felt like a ‘modern slave’. His situation makes me wish I was a ‘modern slave’.

The Berbatov story is somehow similar and typically hypocritical of Man United. They have persisted with Berbatov all summer long and at the beginning all was well. Alex Ferguson never directly named Berbatov referring to him as ‘a striker we are interested in’, and Berbatov never actually said he was leaving. He constantly said he was focused on the job at hand at Spurs.

The deadline was getting closer and Daniel Levy’s stance on a £30m price tag and United’s failure to meet that prompted a slanging match where Ferguson called Levy ‘different’ and Berbatov was caught signing a United shirt just as the season had started.

An eleventh hour bid of ‘in excess of £30m’ by Manchester City was accepted by Tottenham and it seemed he may be signing for the Blue instead of the Red side of Manchester. By watching the pictures being aired on television you would have thought that Berbatov was kidnapped by United as it was reported all day that they did not have permission to speak to the Bulgarian even though he was having a medical and talks with United officials. Finally Berbatov was signed for in the region of £30.25m with promising young English striker Frazier Campbell moving to the Lane on a year-long loan period.

Once Tottenham sold Berbatov the decision to complain against United for ‘tapping up’ was dropped and in the end the whole saga doesn’t put Daniel Levy and Tottenham in a good light, the words ’egg on their face’ comes to mind. It seems Spurs’ recent dealings not only with how transfers are handled but also their ‘tapping up’ of Juande Ramos and disposal of Martin Jol last season has started to make them sound hypocritical and is tainting their once holy reputation. Damien Comolli has been the heart of all these dealings and his position is in jeopardy if Ramos or any signings do not perform as expected (we are still waiting to see what Darren Bent can really do). A top four finish is expected but can they genuinely contemplate that when things haven’t really changed?

Last season Spurs had probably the best strike-force in the league with one of the worst defences. Now the strike-force is non-existent (Pavlyuchenko and Campbell aren’t proven in the Premier League) and the defence hasn’t drastically improved (Vedran Corluka alone isn’t enough). Reports earlier in the summer hinted that the Spurs board may be willing to sell up, which is typical of the state of football today. Investors can pick up a club like toy and throw them away and I’m disappointed that this may happen to Spurs next summer. Although I do wish that Spurs had the Abu Dhabi United Group on their side…