Who has the Worst Memory?

Article submitted by Danny Foster

So then, who has the worst memory? Spurs fans or a goldfish? You decide.

I know that yet again it's only a minority of the fans that are calling for the managers head and that every club has them, but it just seems our minority is slightly larger than any other club's, and although it's still only a minority, it's becoming evermore apparent that there is only a small difference between the minority and the majority.

Don't worry yourself if you're confused by my above statement as it's probably my fault; with everything that is flying around about BMJ (Big Martin Jol), I'm actually beginning to struggling with words, let alone sentences and paragraphs so bare with me.

There really are Spurs fans that want Jol sacked. What are you on? My level of frustration has gone through the roof. Do people not understand that no matter who takes over, it will take years to break the top four? Manchester United, Liverpool and Arsenal have a ten year head start on us. And as for Chelsea, we know that their billions have helped them enter that bracket.

Maybe this is the reason why no one likes us. Why do we have the right to be there? Aren't there another fifteen teams in the league? Just because we spent a lot of money, it doesn't mean we are now a better team than those that were above us previously, for several reasons, but I'll just pick a few.

A) These teams were above us last season for a reason; they had a better team. Therefore, the first few improvements are just the catch up signings with the other additions maybe taking us beyond them.

B) Further additions may not take us beyond them because unfortunately, we're not the only team allowed to strengthen in the transfer windows (I know, don't worry, I'll be writing to the FA to find out why this is), therefore it makes it even harder to catch up.

C) The head start these teams already have on us as a unit. And I don't just mean the playing staff. I am talking about the coaching staff, the backroom staff, and everything about the structure of these clubs is in place. These clubs work in an orderly fashion, like clockwork, well almost.

D) Also we can't attract the quality that Arsenal can because we can only offer a UEFA Cup run.

There could be a whole alphabet of reasons so I'll stop there for now.

No matter who takes over these facts won't change. Jol said at the commencement of his Spurs career that he had a five year plan to make us a top four team. When he made that bold statement, I nearly choked on my Cornflakes. Even then I thought if he does it in five years he's a miracle worker; he very nearly accomplished it the next bloody season!

Did you know that on average, we've finished just four and a half points behind Arsenal in the last two years? If someone told me we'd close the gap that much in such a short period I'd have been ecstatic.

This minority claim that Jol's isn't the man to take us any further? Why? How do you know that without letting him try? We were all so happy to give him five years to do it in when he took over, but now he's taken us this far, it isn’t far enough?

Remember, it was about this far into his managerial career at Manchester United that the fans were trying to get Sir Alex Ferguson sacked. This just shows how little us fans actually know about football. I truly believe that the 'Jol Out Brigade' are just as wrong.

People question his substitutions and tactics. How can you? Unless you've played the game professionally, you know nothing about football! I don't understand half the stuff Mourinho does, but it works, and to say it doesn't for Jol is ridiculous.

As far as I'm concerned, he's the 5th best tactician in the league. I know he's got more quality to work with than say Portsmouth, but he didn't when he took over.

The perfect example is when Jol played Keane on the left wing against Chelsea in November 2006. He tore them to bits and we beat them for the first time that I can remember in the league. In our game after the Chealsea win, Jol used the same formation/tactics against reading, it didn't work, and so he tried to change it but it was too late. And what did we get after the game? Sites full of people slating his tactics! They deemed the tactics he used three days before against Chelsea as brilliant, but didn't like the way the team performed in the next match.

We all know nothing about football at this level. We don't know what job he's asked the players to do and as fans we look too deeply into things we really have no understanding of.

Let's look at the things we do understand. Martin Jol takes over; we just miss out on Europe. In the next season, we do badly in the cups, but finish 5th (the first time we've qualified for Europe via the league in twenty years). Next season, we participate in two cup quarter finals, one semi-final, and finish 5th again (the second time in twenty years we've qualified for Europe via the league).

So I ask you to think long and hard about this next question; Is that not progress in every season he's been with us?

If you do think it's progress, why do you find it so hard to believe he can progress again?

Too many people keep saying we're showing blind faith in Jol. The evidence is not blind. Since Jol has been at the helm, we've done nothing but go FORWARD under his guidance. Please tell me how that is BLIND faith? Where’s your evidence that he’s not the man to take us forward?

Do you agree with the way he's achieved what he has? The tactics he's used? I personally do. We were the 3rd highest goal scorers in the Premier League last season; yeah we conceded a few, but we were missing King, and more importantly, it's what we asked for; attractive, attacking football. No one complains about the goals Brazil concede. Maybe we should be more careful with what we wish for?

Jol intentionally went against his own footballing principles (which were obviously a bit more negative when he first took over) to create a team the fans wanted. He came out several times to comment on the type of football Spurs fans expect and tried to make a successful team that played that way. This fact on it's own makes his job harder, but he did it for us, the fans.

Would you rather win more but play how Chelsea play? I personally wouldn't. I'd rather get the attacking football right a la Manchester United last year. Maybe if we didn't force this attractive football on him, he may well have moulded a more defensive team together and won us some trophies, but he didn't, and that's down to us, not him!

And let me tell you something, a team doesn't do well IN SPITE of the manager, if a team is badly managed, it does badly.. simple really.

Do you remember pre-Jol? Now look where we are! All we've done is progress under his guidance, yet some people think he's not good enough. We want Juande Ramos, the manager of the team we lost to last year due to two bad penalty decisions and not due to the tactics he employed during the game?

If it wasn't for those two ridiculous decisions, we could well have won the UEFA Cup. Would I be writing this now if we had?

I think not.

Ramos is a manager that has done nothing for twenty years, but has had success in the past two seasons. Jol has vastly improved teams he has been with in Holland and now England.

Remember, were it not for Carlos Queiroz coming back from Spain, Jol would actually have been the assistant at Manchester United. Ferguson is no mug. I am however, starting to think that Levy and some of our supporters are though. I have always thought Kelmsley was!

So I ask you; who has the shorter memory; a goldfish or Spurs fans?