Updated at 18.50
TOTTENHAM HAVE HAD some unsuccessful managers in their time, and judging by today’s reports, Tim Sherwood is set to become the latest boss ultimately deemed a failure at White Hart Lane.
With that in mind, we’ve taken every manager Spurs have had since the Premier League’s inception (aside from caretakers) and ranked them in order of ineptitude.
So keep in mind, number one is the worst manager and so on…
12. Harry Redknapp
Win ratio: 49.3% from 198 games
Summary: Not the manager with the best record in Tottenham’s Premier League history but arguably their most successful and second-longest-serving boss. He is the only manager to have steered them to Champions League qualification, though still arguably underachieved with a team that boasted the formidable talents of Gareth Bale and Luka Modric — his last season was particularly disappointing, as they appeared to have all but ensured Champions League qualification, before a poor end-of-season run saw them finish fourth and miss out thanks to Chelsea’s European exploits.
11. Andre-Villas Boas
Win ratio: 55% from 80 games
Summary: He may be perhaps best remembered for overseeing ignominious thrashings by Liverpool and Man City, but it is somewhat harsh to judge him purely based on these sporadic failures. Tottenham acquired their highest Premier League points tally ever with him in charge last season, and the club were still within touching distance of the Champions League places when he was harshly sacked halfway through this season.
10. Martin Jol
Win ratio: 41.6% from 113 games
Summary: A popular figure at White Hart Lane thanks to his genial personality, Spurs’ fortunes improved considerably under Jol after he took over from Jacques Santini. He was the first manager in the Premier League era to turn Spurs into genuine top-four contenders, though he still perpetually missed out on that elusive Champions League spot, most infamously after his side suffered food poisoning ahead of the crucial end-of-season encounter with West Ham, which led to them losing the game, with rivals Arsenal claiming the last top-four spot instead on the season’s final day.
9. George Graham
Win ratio: 34% from 98 games
Summary: George Graham’s win ratio may be considerably lower than Tim Sherwood’s, however the Scottish boss gets bonus points both for relative longevity (by Spurs’ standards) and guiding the club to their first trophy of the Premier League era, when they won the League Cup in 1999. That said, his Arsenal past and pragmatic style of football meant he never really endeared himself to the Tottenham faithful, and he did waste a then-club-record fee of £11million on Sergei Rebrov — a major flop by most accounts.
8. Tim Sherwood
Win ratio: 56% from 16 games
Summary: Sherwood actually has the highest win ratio of Spurs’ Premier League managers so far, albeit most of them didn’t have well over £100million worth of talent at their disposal. In addition, his reign has been tarred significantly by some embarrassing thrashings against the likes of Chelsea and Liverpool, which indicate they are currently well off their desired Champions League standard.
7. Gerry Francis
Win ratio: 36% from 199 games
Did a reasonable job of clearing up the mess left by Ossie Ardiles and guiding a Jurgen Klinsmann-inspired Spurs to 7th place in the 1994-95 season. However, after Klinsmann left, performances got worse again, and Francis left Spurs as they battled relegation in 1997.
6. Doug Livermore and Ray Clemence
Win ratio: 38% from 42 games
The club finished a respectable ninth during the duo’s one season at the helm, however they were dismissed at the end of the campaign along with chief executive Terry Venables, after the latter fell out with then-chairman Alan Sugar.
5. Glenn Hoddle
Win ratio: 37% from 89 games
The glamorous football Spurs played under Hoddle was in stark contrast to the dour style they employed under previous boss George Graham, however results weren’t much better — after a couple of mid-table finishes, Hoddle was sacked with Spurs lingering in the relegation zone in September 2003.
4. Christian Gross
Win ratio: 33% from 27 games
It was hoped that Gross would be the Tottenham equivalent of Arsene Wenger — a largely unknown foreign manager, who had only been recently appointed by Arsenal at the time, and quickly enjoyed considerable success. In reality, Gross’ time in charge was brief and largely unsuccessful — he steered the club away from the relegation zone in his first season, but a bad start to the following campaign meant his position became untenable.
3. Jacques Santini
Win ratio: 27.3% from 11 games
Summary: Much was expected of Santini after he left the France job to take over at Spurs, however his tenure there was an unequivocal disaster. Not for the first time at Tottenham, Santini left amid rumours of disagreements with the Director of Football (then Frank Arnesen). Yet most fans were far from unhappy to see him go, as his negative brand of football failed to yield the requisite results.
2. Ossie Ardiles
Win ratio: 30% from 54 games
Summary: A fine player for Tottenham, Ardiles never emulated that success as a manager. He finished a disappointing 15th in his first season in charge, and despite the club signing a number of expensive foreign imports in the summer, he was sacked the following October as results failed to improve, with the side having adopted an all-out attacking style that most critics considered deeply naive.
1. Juande Ramos
Win ratio: 28.6% from 35 games
Summary: Branding Juande Ramos the worst manager in Spurs’ Premier League history may seem a tad harsh, given that he did win the League Cup with them. However, given that they only managed to secure two points and were bottom at the time of his sacking, with an expensively assembled side that eventually finished eighth under Harry Redknapp, Ramos demonstrated the type of poor management and underachievement that Spurs fans have become all too familiar with over the years.
ht The Guardian/ The Telegraph for the win ratio stats
