Heads up in advance - this is a long, somewhat rambling post with a rant at the end.
First up I think there's a cultural problem at Spurs. While the likes of United, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool have a culture of winnings - Spurs do not. And while City are prepared and able to throw plenty of money at the team - Spurs are not. For as long as I can remember the air around Tottenham has always been that the club is an "almost" club, always on the verge of becoming great but always failing to do so. Not sure why this is the case.
In specifics I think a look back to Martin Jol's first full season in charge shows something interesting. That first season (05-06) saw us come so close to finishing ahead of Arsenal and a top-four finish. Dodgy lasagne was all that got in the way. The season after that (06-07) was also good, despite lots of injuries. A second fifth-place finish with close-run knockouts in the quarters of the FA and UEFA cups and a semi-final knockout in extra-time by Arsenal. The following season was poor in the League, Jol was sacked, replaced by Ramos. We won the Carling Cup and finished mid-table ending the season with a pathetic whimper of draws. Jol's sacking was somewhat pathetic since Ramos had already been approached before the season had even started. Aside from the Carling Cup run, Ramos didn't seem to do anything special. Next up (08-09) the season started badly again, Ramos was gone and Redknapp brought in. Comolli was sacked too. We eventually finished 8th and got to the final of League Cup for the second year in a row (the third season in a row getting to the semis of that comp). In (09-10) we finished fourth, got a semi-final place in the FA cup (requiring replays to get past Leeds, Bolton and Fulham). And last season we finished fifth again, getting to the quarters of the Champions League.[spolier]
I don't think Harry Redknapp has been the saviour he's portrayed as. Everyone says we should consider where we were when he took over which was bottom of the table. But we all knew even at the time that that was a false position. In reality, our finishes under him have not been so different to those under Jol who took us from season after season of mid-table finishes to two consecutive fifth places. Aside from two blips (see below or the spoiler) when managers were sacked mid-season, we've been consistently finishing fifth (and looks likely again this season, or possibly 6th).
In summary our final league positions since Jol's first season in charge have been: 5,5,11,8,4,5 with the two blips being when we started the season really badly.
The win-ratios of Jol and Redknapp have been: 45.27% win ratio for Jol and 49.48% for Redknapp. Redknapp has 25.52% draws compared to Jol's 25.68%. So I don't think there's a huge amount to call there.
So I don't see Redknapp as our saviour and clearly the whole England job discussion has got to him and our season is in tatters now as a result. It doesn't strike me as professional. I don't know if it's just Harry who is at fault here or if the directors are also to blame but it's somewhat pathetic.
One of the things that struck me during the commentary today was the stat that the combined honours of all Tottenham's players were outweighed by just Terry and Cole. And most of ours were from Gallas and Cudicini! We've spent so much money in the last six years - how have we not brought in winners? Redknapp's most praised signings (aside from van der Vaart which is as much about the cost as the player) are Parker and Friedel who are supposed to be amazing because of their experience. But neither has experience of winning. Neither has the winner's attitude if you ask me.
And nothing sums up my twin problems better than the signing of Ryan Nelsen in the summer. Harry says he's a great guy to have in the dressing room and the training pitch. He's 35 and has won nothing. He was released from Blackburn for nothing - they didn't want him but we did!?
Aside from the annoyance of signing a player who will rarely play and add almost nothing, it's the fact that he's a central defender that bothers me. Because (at least) since Jol's first season in charge we've desperately needed decent defenders. Our main guys now if all were fit would be King, Kaboul and Dawson. King and Dawson have been at the club since before Jol, while Kaboul joined the club for £8m, left for £6 before coming back again for £9.5m We've also managed to bring in Gallas for free after he was released by Arsenal. Today we had to rely on King who can barely play and Gallas who is somewhat past his prime.
Yet to me it's been obvious for ages that we need top quality central defenders. Just look at the stats:
For the league since 05/06:
Goals scored: 53, 57, 66, 45, 67, 55,
Goals conceded: 38, 54, 61, 45, 41, 46,
For comparison's sake here's our GD in context:
05-06: +15, finished 5th, teams above us finished with +37,+32, +38 and +50.
06-07: +3, finished 5th, Everton below us had +16, and above us was 28,30,40 and 56.
07-08: +5, finished 11th, top 6 had 20,22,39,43,39 and 58.
08-09: 0, finished 8th, top 5 had 18,31,44,50,44.
09-10: +26, finished 4th, GD of top to 7th (including us) was: 71,58,42,26,28,13,26
10-11: +9, finished 5th, Liverpool below us had +15, while those above us finished with 29,27,36 and 41.
And none of this was because we didn't score enough goals. In those same seasons we came 5th, 4th, 4th, 7th, 5th and 6th in terms of goals scored but 5th, 13th, 15th, 7th, 5th and 8th in terms of goals conceded. We've always needed to beef up our defence and have never done so.
We play attractive football but we're totally vulnerable at the back. We've got no winners in the team and, frankly, haven't got one in the manager's seat either. I know we won't pay massive wages, and that's fine and maybe a good thing but let's bring in some decent players not rejects from other teams? Can't we bring in solid defenders? Can't we have a decent substitutes bench? Our bench today was a disgrace compared to Chelsea's. Only two players on it were remotely capable of changing the match in our favour (Defoe and Giovani) and one of those never gets a chance from Harry.
The situation is totally pathetic. Let Harry go to the England job. If we're serious about being a winning club and a serious club we need to bring in a winning manager and support him. Although I dislike his style of football, I'd even take Mourinho at this point because at least he knows how to win things.
Clearly something significant has to change at the club. I'm not sure what it is but I'm fed up with the nonsense going on here. Lennon's been out for a while and we've truly missed him - but how long has he been at the club? Why have we got no cover? Why have we got no world class central defenders? Why did we go from the situation of having four in-form strikers (Berbatov, Keane, Defoe and Bent) to apparently having only one, on loan, and needing to bring in another near-reject just to cover the gaps? Why if Modric is playing poorly for months don't we have anyone even semi-decent who could come in and play for a while? Why when a decision goes unfairly against us do our players practically give up?
Just a couple of months ago we had all the buzz around the club, now its the sound of vultures circling waiting to pick off the pieces of this ruined season. And the problems here are no different to what they have been for ages. We need world class central defenders to go along with our world-class (on its day) attacking strength. We have done since Jol's time. We need strength in the squad, something we had much more of in Jol's time. We need confidence and a winning mentality, something we've never had for as long as I can remember.
OK so rant over. But the message is right, I think. We need a change in mentality, attitude and culture. And we need some new centre-backs.