Tottenham started the season as serious contenders to break into the top four, but as we all know this was not to be. The joke “What’s the difference between Spurs and a triangle?…A triangle has more points” was going on into late October, and until the last few weeks Tottenham looked like the favorites to be relegated.
Tottenham’s losses at the both of the newly promoted clubs they faced compounded their failure and made, now former Tottenham manager, Juande Ramos’ future look increasingly more uncertain. The departure of Ramos from White Hart Lane signaled a huge change in this attitude; whilst Ramos was at the helm Jonathan Woodgate came out to the press and admitted that there was a good chance that Spurs would be relegated. Woodgate’s pessimism showed the negative attitude around the Tottenham camp and around Ramos.
When Harry ‘Houdini’ Redknapp was brought in to stop the rot this defeatist attitude was immediately arrested and the performances instantaneously picked up; he seemed to inspire the players into working for him. Darren Bent had been Ramos’ top goal scorer and had scored four by late October, since Redknapp’s arrival Bent has had the purple patch of his Tottenham career and has scored seven goals in five games and Pavlyuchenko seems to have come a lot closer to realising his potential, scoring four goals in the same period.Tottenham have recovered from their early losses to win twice over Liverpool, and came close to beating Arsenal in a four goal apiece thriller. Who knows; if they keep on beating the big names they may yet reach the top four.
