Superb article from the Guardian

Jol aims for top-four finish but fans want top-three


Gerry Cox
Sunday August 5, 2007
The Observer


Tottenham fans are not normally shy when offering an opinion about their team's prospects, so perhaps it is a surprise that some of the glass-half-full brigade are not happy at the idea of finishing fourth in the Premier League this season. That would be failure - they want to finish third.
Ridiculous notion, or is it? Two summers ago it would have been laughable to think of Martin Jol's side seriously challenging the big four. But after finishing fifth in successive seasons, having been in the top four for most of the season before last, Spurs are now widely regarded as the team most likely to break into the big time and yesterday they took another step to confirming that with a 2-0 win over Torino.

Alex Ferguson has said so, Jose Mourinho has said so and many pundits expect Spurs to make a sustained challenge for one of the Champions League places. Having continued to record high finishes despite patches of the poor form of old, Spurs have added considerably to their ranks this summer without any appreciable loss to match the one they suffered when Michael Carrick left for Manchester United last year.
Jol has spent lavishly, but shrewdly, snapping up the hugely promising Gareth Bale from Southampton, Younes Kaboul as cover/replacement for Ledley King should the captain's knee problems seriously threaten his future, and most significantly spending a club record £16.5million to bring Darren Bent from Charlton. There have been other signings, with Kevin-Prince Boateng arriving from Hertha Berlin and the unpredictable but exciting French teenager Adel Taarabt making his loan deal permanent.

Jol is wary of talking up his side's chances. He is also wise enough to know that even if it is not this year, he has enough young talent in his ranks to keep pushing. The club can punch their weight commercially, too.

Jol is caricatured as a jolly Tony Soprano lookalike, but he is more serious than that. He is a serious art collector who invested in several works on Tottenham's recent tour of South Africa, where his sense of history meant he visited Nelson Mandela's house. (In England, he has been to where Shakespeare lived in Stratford-upon-Avon.) But he is first and foremost a football coach. 'My targets are to play better football, score more goals, get more points on the board.'

Is the top four a reasonable target? 'Yes of course, although we have to be realistic. It is not just the clubs above, but some of those around us have spent a lot of money this summer - the likes of West Ham and Newcastle, for example. It will be tougher than ever. But with the squad we have, with exciting young players, the sky is the limit. It's not easy with our expectation levels - if you are fifth everybody wants to be fourth - but our supporters deserve something and I would like to give them that.'

The difference from this time last season is that Jol has managed to hold on to one of his main assets, this time Dimitar Berbatov. 'If you want to be in the top positions it's very important to keep your best players. Last year was a difficult situation. Carrick had only two years left on his contract and we were going to get big money for him so we had to let him go. It wasn't easy for the first couple of months without Michael, but later on I felt that we gelled and proved it in Europe and in the league as well.

'This year players are very happy. They see why this is a big club. There are only two or three clubs that get the same level of away support, and there is a good connection with the supporters.'

As well as his excitement about the signings - Taarabt is potentially 'the most talented player we have' - Jol believes there is a lot more to come from the current crop. 'Berbatov has all the talent and the skill. He started scoring a lot of goals after Christmas, as he had done at Bayer Leverkusen, so I told him, "Maybe this year it is better if you start before Christmas." He scored 11 goals in the league, but he could easily score 18 or more.'

Jol sees Michael Dawson and the underrated Jermaine Jenas as key figures, especially with King set to miss the opening months of the season. 'Dawson did very well. He was my player of last season in many ways,' he says.

'And when Jenas came back from injury, he was better than ever, an influential player, who dictates our rhythm. If he is not playing you miss him. He could be a special player, a goal-scoring midfielder. Jenas could prove he is in the same bracket as the Lampards and Gerrards. So I expect a lot of him.'

Even with a number of high-profile players not certain of starting every game, he does not feel he has any ego-massaging to do. 'The spirit here is the most important thing. That is a Spurs thing, team spirit. I feel we've got no stars; the team is the star - that is our motto. As long as that is the case I think we will be successful.'

It is not just on the pitch that Spurs are in prime position to move into the elite. Commercially the club can compete, according to Paul Barber, the former commercial director of the Football Association who has been on the Tottenham board for almost three years.

He says: 'Our shirt sponsorship was the seventh largest in football, and the kit deal was also very big, a record for the club. Certainly we're punching our weight not just in the UK, but across Europe.

'Independent research across the world has shown that we have almost five million fans, and about one-and-a-half million in the UK. At the moment the membership scheme includes about 100,000 and we have sold out all our season tickets with another 10,000 on the waiting list. You can see the potential.'

The obvious problem is how to accommodate those fans on match days. All sorts of ideas have been mooted - moving to Wembley, the new Olympic Stadium in Stratford or redeveloping White Hart Lane, the clear favourite with fans and officials. The club promised at last December's annual meeting to reveal their plans within a year, so Barber is guarded. 'We're not in a position to say anything now, but we're making progress,' he says. 'The majority of fans will want us to make the right decision in the right amount of time, as opposed to the wrong decision in quicker time.'

Barber says of Tottenham's behind-the-scenes set-up: 'Under Daniel Levy's leadership we've been stable for many years and made huge progress on and off the field. We're a young board, not afraid of change; we have adopted new systems, new strategies. And there's a young English spine to the team and that's been the backbone of recent success.'

The most important people, as the late Bill Nicholson used constantly to remind his players, are the fans. 'It is a symbiotic relationship,' says Barber. 'The great thing about this club is that the fans were loyal when it wasn't going so well. It's just terrific now.'

Liked that but dont you think it really is getting a bit out of hand now?? Two weeks ago it was 'top 4 finish, now its 'top 3'. If the close season went on another 2 weeks we'd be reading about winning it

I reli agree with the view of Jol that Jeans is an influential player in the coming years. If you see his performance on the pitch(no live on TV), you will notice that he is nearly the most "off the ball" player in Spurs. And that spirit indicates that he never said give up in his mind before the match ends.

Go on Jenas, Hope that you will be great in future.

He played well last night. Both he and Zokora have good engines. Cover plenty of ground - some nice short passing from Jenas, plus he always has the capacity to surge forward and score.

Taarabt was a handful for his 10 minute on the pitch. Do we need a new LM ? I think the answer is still yes, however if a suitable candidate cannot be found perhaps Taarabt can step up to the challenge.

Kaboul did okay - made a couple of clumsy passes which could have proven costly.

Malbranque looks danergous on his prefered right side.

Overall an impressive performance.

CM is the key - Zokora, Jenas, Huddlestone have to tighten things up when we haven't got the ball, if that happens I honestly think we could go for 3rd this year.

Despite my conservative predictions I do believe a top 3-4 is possible. The forward line up is so impressive. We're gonna score plenty.

I always maintain CM is the key. My faith in Jenas and Zokora is 'slowly' growing to the point I actually believe they might just be good enough to led us to glory.

I watched the game again yesterday afternoon minus 6 pints of lager and a bottle of wine prior to the game. Despite very poor opposition (understandably as Torino are 3 weeks away from their league opener), a number of things struck me.

1. Zokora and JJ are improving
2. What a good game Malbranque had
3. How badly we lacked width down either flank. Chimbo being the most common outlet in the first half with little success.
4. How more fluid we were in the second half with Routledge on the right flank and then a little cameo appearence from Jimmy "ZZ II" Tarbuck.
5. How reluctant I am to burst into song unless I've had a few too many!

I hope we play ambitiously against Sunderland and really take the game to them. I fear that starting with Tainio instead of either Routie or Tarbie will produce a very stale and cautious display and possibly setting us up for failure (btw, anything less than a win against that lot will be failure).

Alternatively, start with Berba , Bent and Keano in the hole and go for broke........4-3 to the Tottenham, 4-3 to the tottenham......5 more sleeps!! (6 if you count the one I'm gonna have under my desk this afternoon.....I'm knackered)

Yes, I could quite easily fall asleep during work today.



Agree with your comments Ezza, especially about lacking width.

Yep, I'm a big JJ fan, despite understading the criticisms thrown at him.

No reason why, with a fully fit Ledders, we can't be muscling in with everyone else in the league.

Nevermind getting carried away - we need to have the mentality and faith at the club (not among us as supporters) that we can and will be in the top 4,3,title challengers, etc

JJ the poor man's Gerrard.

At times, he makes some beautiful runs down the centre, neat passing etc but he does it 1 in 4 games. If he showed his brilliance on a consistent basis he'd be a huge asset.