Aricle by e-Spurs Correspondent Philip RowlandsFollow e-Spurs on Twitter here!
Old Tim’s being getting a bit of stick from some of us of late. He’s not the first and he certainly won’t be the last. Bill Nick was the manager when I fell in love with Super Spurs. It’s been a mostly downhill ride ever since but after what he and his team achieved that was always likely to be the case.
Even Bill wasn’t above criticism. Granted it wasn’t anywhere near as viscous as some of the bile that passes for informed comment in some quarters. However I agree with Jimmy Greaves who felt the double winning team was broken up too quickly. Selling Dave Mackay nearly broke my heart. Losing Bale, Modric and Van de Vart was painful but nothing compared to how I felt when Dave left. It was like the heart had been ripped out of the team. He was a force of nature and players like him come along once in a generation if you’re lucky.
Still, I will be eternally grateful to Bill Nick that my memories of growing up are wrapped in the glorious deeds of my beloved Spurs. From then on Spurs fortunes have fluctuated more wildly than the stock exchange. There have been some highs, lows and times when you just wanted to shake your head in disbelief like Keith Burkinshaw once famously did. I think it fair to say that most of the success we have enjoyed has been under British managers.
Keith Burkinshaw, another pragmatic Yorkshireman, has been the most successful since Bill Nicholson. Harry Redknapp did a very decent job as did Terry Venables. (Dare I mention George Graham?) In 1986 a certain Alex Ferguson, then manager of Aberdeen, rejected the Tottenham board’s approach and David Pleat took over instead. It seems as if fate is always waiting to kick Tottenham in the teeth. Chelsea winning the European Champions Cup wasn’t the first time Fate stuck its spiteful foot out to trip us up. The awful tragedy of the Heysel disaster which saw 39 people killed also robbed us of a place in the UEFA Cup after we had finished third in the League. Obviously that tragic event put football into perspective but it was still a bitter pill to swallow for those teams who qualified and were not directly involved.
Ossie Ardiles was a legend. We all loved him. We all wanted him to succeed but as with so many other foreign managers it ended in tears:
Christian Gross – “Who was that masked stranger?” – came and went but not quickly enough for most of us.
Jacques Santini – Remember him, was he ever really there?
Martin Jol – Martin was a positive legacy of the farcical Santini tenure but fate once again decided to smash us in the face with a custard pie, well lasagne actually. Whether we would have clinched 4th place against West Ham we will never know for sure but we would have stood a damn sight better chance without half the team succumbing to the galloping trots. Jol’s sacking was, I believe, unjustified and undignified.
Juande Ramos – ‘Smiler’ to his friends – was unveiled as the new Master Plan. We did win the ‘Whatever It Was Then’ Cup but things soon turned as sour as Ramos’ expression.
Andre Villas Boas – Andre succeeded the successful and, in many quarters, still popular Harry who had given us supporters some unforgettable memories. (Thanks Harry). Andre’s appointment was met with, it’s fair to say, a mixed response. I for one thought he would do a good job. His inability or unwillingness to handle or integrate Ade back into the team when we were in desperately need of a striker was probably his undoing.
Which leaves us with Tim, a man it appears that many want to see fail. Perhaps Fate has another trick up her sleeve. Wouldn’t it be ironic if our least qualified manager proved to be one of our most successful? Perhaps Fate does have a sense of humour.
Come on Tim - it’s in the stars!
COYS
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"Wouldn’t it be ironic if our least qualified manager proved to be one of our most successful?"
ReplyDeleteActually Bill Nicholson was our least qualified manager!! So it wouldn't be ironic at all!! When Nicholson took over in 1958 he had not that long retired from playing and had no managerial experience. Like Sherwood he was coaching at Spurs when he took over, but Sherwood has been coaching for a longer time.
I still remember vividly Nicholsons first game in charge as Manager. I watched it!! We beat fellow strugglers Everton 10-4.
Wow, that left me with egg on my face! Thanks for your comment. Wished I could have been at that game with you. Didn't Tommy Harmer have a blinder that day?
ReplyDeleteNorth London cllub ,Nth London manager ,what the hells wrong with that?I suppose a lot of the ate girected at Tim is because he perceived to be a Gooner,he may have been years ago,I supported Charlton for a bit,mainly to annoy my Dad,Mega Spurs man,we all do silly things in our youth.I would think Tims been a "spud"for a long time now.So COYS
ReplyDeletePhil, when Dave was sold he was 34 and, shall we say, rather barrel chested, but no-one goes on for ever.
ReplyDeleteI know when he left it seemed like the end of an era, as he and Cliff, who both left in 1968, were the last of the (still playing) double winners to go. In Dave's case however, we had Phil Beal to replace him as No.6, and while Phil wasn't such a driving force going forward as Dave (perhaps that was supposed to be Alan Mullery's job) I do believe that if the FA had not favoured West Ham's captain for so long, Phil would have won many England caps, as he was a great player.
Perhaps Bill Nick's biggest mistake was to let Souness go - I was at the 1971 Youth Cup final, and if he and Steve Perryman had been allowed to develop into our midfield, who knows what might have happened......
Back to Tim - it does annoy me so much seeing all this speculation on someone else coming in for next season, and the criticism he gets from supposed Spurs fans on social media. It must be unsettling for the players too.
Tim should be given everyone's 100% support, and also be given next season to give him time to get the team playing his way.
COYS