Webster’s Dictionary Defines “Anticlimax” As…

Spurs have confirmed, to the delight of whatever PA at Blackburn takes Mark Hughes’s phone messages, that Juande Ramos is their new manager. They’ve done well to get him, although it remains to be seen whether he’s enough of an improvement over Martin Jol to justify the ten-story belly-flop of what can only with charity and circumspection be called the hiring process. His results at Sevilla speak for themselves; still, at Tottenham he will face two comparative disadvantages that could tell on his performance. The first is transfer policy: Sevilla’s is run by a sporting director so talented he goes by a single name (“Monchi”, which manages to combine the balls-to-the-wall toughness of a ’70s TV cop with the panache of a Brazilian striker); Tottenham’s seems to be handled by an ad hoc alliance of Masonic politics and prayer. (Sevilla: payed £700,000 for Dani Alves. Tottenham: payed more than six times that for Pascal Chimbonda. Advantage: Sevilla, just.) The second is that Ramos has a history of falling out with club directors, to the point that he was thought to be barely on speaking terms with Sevilla’s president José María del Nido. Now, is there any reason to think that the corporate overlords of Tottenham might be difficult for a coach to get along with?

Still, it’s hard to imagine a better choice for Tottenham at this moment, and Spurs fans can feel hopeful that the board have at least hired a competent maid at the conclusion of making their mess.

More, and still more, later Juande Ramos:

• Left out of this Sid Lowe profile: Ramos is also an excellent kisser, has better-than-average taste in sweaters. (The Guardian)
• Martin Jol was doomed in August. Possibly of 2005. (The Guardian)
• Juande also expressed an interest in signing Fabregas, Messi, possibly Philipp Lahm, and the Franz Beckenbauer of 1971. (Teamtalk)
• Does anyone worry when they read that Gus Poyet’s main qualification to be Ramos’s top assistant may be that he “speaks English”? (Spurs Pies)