Martin Jol Quits Spurs…is Juande Leaving?

By: Ryan | October 25th, 2007

When I got home from classes today and turned on FSC, I was pleasantly surprised to find the Tottenham-Getafe game on. I only caught the last 15 minutes of it, in which Getafe held off Spurs to win 2-1. ¡Aupa Geta!

This game brought forth the end of the Martin Jol era at Spurs, as he stepped down from the club before the match. No big deal right?

It’s a big deal if you are a Sevilla fan!! Juande Ramos has been linked with the Tottenham job all along, and now we will see if all of the rumors and ‘cotilleos’ have been true. I want to say that Juande’s style is not set for the English game, that he isn’t ready to go over to England, yadda yadda yadda, but that is not true.

Juande came over to Sevilla in 2005 from Malaga upon the departure of Joaquin Caparros. Ramos won the UEFA Cup his first year against Middlesbrough 4-0 and then the European Supercup by defeating Barcelona 3-0.

A UEFA Cup repeat against Espanyol on penalties in 2006, a 3rd place finish in La Liga, and a Supercopa de España win made Juande Ramos a rather popular coach down in Andalucia.

The Telegraph says that Spurs are certain to replace Jol with the manchego.

Daniel Levy, the Tottenham chairman, has been unable to hide his disappointment at the team’s worst start for 19 years. As early as August he was linked with a move for Ramos, who claimed at the time that he was committed to Sevilla.

Ramos has steered Sevilla to successive Uefa Cup triumphs, beating Middlesbrough in the final in Eindhoven in 2006 and Espanyol, in Glasgow, in May. The club are in this season’s Champions League and are in a healthy position to qualify for the knockout stages.

The death of Antonio Puerta, Sevilla’s 22-year-old midfielder, in August hit the club badly and it was felt it would be difficult for Ramos to leave so quickly after the tragedy. However, in the Primera Liga, Sevilla have struggled and are presently 11th with just nine points, and the offer from Tottenham is too tempting for the Spaniard to turn down.

Tottenham were unable to provide any satisfactory explanation for photographs of a meeting between then vice-chairman Paul Kemsley, club secretary John Alexander, Ramos and his agent, Alvaro Torres, published by Seville newspaper Estadio Deportivo in August.

Spurs denied they had met with Ramos, but the coach claimed that, through a third party, Spurs had made him an “excellent, dizzying offer”. He later back-tracked, but the link with the Spaniard refused to go away.

These rumors have been circulating for some time now and finally we will see if there is any truth or not.

I for one will be hoping that come tomorrow, I don’t see the headline ‘Juande Ramos new manager at Spurs-

Or Sevilla will have a long climb ahead.