Spurs Dulled: What's Going On at White Hart Lane?

As a Portsmouth supporter, I’ve come to realize that we always seem to face Tottenham at the wrong times. We started the season a few seasons back with an own goal and a loss against them, followed it up with the return of Harry Redknapp and a disappointing 3-1 loss, and this time, we took on Spurs having conceded 10 goals in two games with no reply.

Not the way you want to go into a game against a team desperate to win.

Yet, there was something very different about the Tottenham team this year. Although we were lucky not to concede a penalty after handling in the box, Tottenham rarely tested us. They never really threatened to make anything happen.

But that seems to have been the story of this Tottenham team. Poor performances against Middlesbrough, Sunderland, Villa, and Pompey have continued to raise concerns, with the only bright spot being their match against Wisla Krakow.

Their win against Newcastle in the Carling Cup won’t have done much to ease fans woes, as Newcastle are arguably the only club worse off than Tottenham right now.

Striking options are definitely the huge concern in this Spurs team, and I don’t see goals that will flow steadily from anywhere other than midfield. If Bent is given a good run in the side then there is hope, but I for one am still completely aghast at the team’s decision to sign Russian forward Roman Pavlyuchenko.

I don’t believe he’ll be prolific, and I certainly don’t believe he’s a replacement for Jermain Defoe, Robbie Keane, or Dimitar Berbatov. Add to that his ridiculous price tag, and Spurs fans should be hoping that Bentley shows the form he had in pre-season. They'll need it.

While Ramos stated to the media this past week that he could do nothing to prevent Defoe from leaving, I definitely disagree; Defoe wasn’t given a good enough chance under Ramos, and was tired of manager after manager leaving him on the bench.

And while Keane and Berbatov probably forced the issue with the club of allowing them to leave, a much more suitable replacement could have been found. Djibril Cisse’s loan move to Sunderland was a stroke of absolute brilliance, and why a club like Tottenham didn’t look to sign a striker proven in the Premier League like him is beyond me.

Even more worrying is assistant manager Gus Poyet's admission that Pavlyuchenko and Bent are struggling to form the understanding necessary for them to be successful on the pitch.

And while I don’t agree at all with Terry Venables statements to the media that Berbatov has “poisoned” the atmosphere at Tottenham, it certainly has played a part.

There were a number of contributing factors towards the negativity from Spurs, and while Berbatov certainly “threw his toys out of the pram,” it can’t be laid on him alone for Tottenham’s plight.

The boardroom needs to take a long hard look at the overall atmosphere and direction the club is going. Expect to see some significant money spent in the January window.

Juande Ramos has proven himself to be a manager of incredible quality, but I don’t expect we’ll be seeing him at Tottenham for very much longer.

I can only wonder how close he is to “losing” the dressing room, and as we’ve been seeing for several years now, the board rooms always seem to look to the management long before they look to themselves.