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Comolli The Cause Of Spurs' Woes

TF90M feels it is time for Damien Comolli to accept his part in Spurs' downfall and stop continually pointing the finger elsewhere.


 

With Tottenham still deep in trouble and fighting for Premiership survival, despite the change in management personnel, the structure of the squad that Harry Redknapp inherited is still a main cause for concern. The man arguably responsible: Damien Comolli.

Brought in under the title of Director of Football to replace Frank Arnesen at White Hart Lane, Comolli arrived from French side St Etienne with a high reputation.

Prior to his position at St Etienne he served as a coach of Monaco Under-16's for three years before spending seven years as the European scout for Spurs' North London rivals Arsenal. Credited with finding the likes of Kolo Toure and Emmanuel Eboue, Spurs Chairman Daniel Levy expected similar results from the Frenchman.

With his apparent knowledge of European football Comolli's job was to pinpoint the best young talent from across the continent before allowing the manager to elect whether or not to go ahead with the purchase.

With Spurs spending astronomical amounts on signings, Comolli must surely take the blame for the poor buys as well as taking the credit for the good.

One name to fall under the latter category has to be Dimitar Berbatov, the Bulgarian reported to have been selected by Comolli proved a hit at the Lane before making his big money move to Old Trafford. Though apart from the striker, the remainder of Comolli's purchases seemed mysterious.

Ricardo Rocha (£3.3m) from Benfica, Dorian Dervitte (undisclosed) from Lille, Hossam Ghaly (£3.25m) from Feyenoord, Darren Bent (£16.5m) from Charlton, Kevin-Prince Boating (£5.4m) from Hertha Berlin, Younes Kaboul (£8.2m) from Auxerre... and the list goes on.

Big money, small returns. Whilst it was said that the manager of the club had the final say, after his dismissal from the club, Martin Jol hit out at the transfer policy.

Jol said that he had informed Comolli of his wish to recruit an experienced midfield player, as well as a left winger, to help the north London club break into the top four with his top targets being Elano and Martin Petrov. Jol went on to discuss how he felt the squad was imbalanced and how his relationshp was poor with Comolli.

Whilst Comolli may have outlived Jol at White Hart Lane, when Juande Ramos was sacked, the Tottenham board felt it was time for the Frenchman to depart as well after overseeing an outlay of £170 million on players over three years.



Redknapp may now be without Comolli in presence, but his effect on the club is still present. Critical of the past regime, Redknapp declared "This is a football club that has been put together by I don't know who and I don't know how".

Whilst Redknapp will hope to restore the balance in the summer, Comolli's time at the Lane is one reason why Spurs are struggling this season. Though speaking about the North London team, Comolli refuses to burden any guilt.

"I think the fact that Berbatov stayed so long, until the last day, made life for the coaching staff difficult...I'm not looking for excuses but when I joined Spurs I didn't realise how difficult it would be to break into the top four." Furthermore Comolli, now back at St Etienne, believes the picture of the squad painted by Redknapp is unfair and says "I think, personally, the quality is there."

Rather than blaming Berbatov, who always desired to move to Manchester United, Comolli should accept his part in the mess that has been caused at Tottenham. Whilst Comolli is trying now to sort out the mess at St Etienne, it is up to Redknapp to fix Spurs' many problems.

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