October 19th, 2004

So the bubble has officially burst and, with 3 losses in our last 4 Premiership games, the knives are beginning to come out since as many fans have only tolerated the lack of attacking flair as long as the results were good.

There is, however, a lot of good news. The problems we currently experience are obvious in both nature and solution - we have been fielding only one functioning central midfielder (Mendes) and two 'wingers' who are either out of form or out of position. The loss of Edman also meant we have been missing one of our outstanding defensive players of the season - and the sight of Gardner ambling about at fullback only highlights how much we need the Swede's bravery and commitment in the side.

Luckily, most of these problems will be solved once our annual injury epidemic subsides. Carrick and Davis are gaining match fitness and Spurs fans around the world will toast the lack of either Brown or Redknapp on the first team sheet. Edman will hopefully return in a few weeks, as I doubt he will be rushed back from such a severe head injury.

The remaining problem is the dearth of any sort of attacking ability. With such quality strikers at our disposal it is gut wrenching to see them receive such poor service match after match. The problem remains out wide, with our fullbacks being committed to stay in our own half to maintain defensive solidity we are unable to rely on overlapping runs to create space and opportunity. As such, it has been a diet of long balls or merely sending the ball out wide to Davies or Atouba and hoping they do something special. Things will get better when the central midfield is bolstered and, Atouba's injury and Jackson's general crapness, we will hopefully see more of Reto Ziegler – much hype surrounds the youngster and hopefully he will be the first from Frank's babes (Ziegler, Defendi, Lee Mills, Silva) to break into the starting team regularly.

Speaking of Arnesen; he continues to show fans what we've been missing for, oh, just over a decade. The team is crying out for wingers and lo and behold we've linked to them all over the press, with rumors that Andy Reid is already a done deal with either Shaun Philips or Wayne Routledge on the way. It's truly a world turned upside down to finally be confident that those in charge of our beloved clubs' on-pitch fortunes know what they are doing, rather than looking in the papers and seeing us linked to a 5th center back or new first choice goalie.

The contrast of our on-pitch fortunes lately versus the continued good work off it has really highlighted the benefit of having the a continental management structure (separating Director of Football and First Team Coach). In the modern game, only epic managers who come along once a generation (Ferguson, Arse-biting Wenger) are safe in their jobs for the long term. Every other club has and will be in the hunt for a new manager every few seasons until they are lucky enough to turn up their own gem. However, in Arnesen we have already done so. All of the improvement that we have seen at the club so far (professionalism, transfers, scouting, medical staff, training, academy, the list goes on) is down to him, and even if it turns out that Santini is not the man to lead us out onto the pitch on match day - we can be optimistic knowing that the great work off it will continue.

The 'Director of Football - First Team Coach' system is perfectly suited to deal with the hardships and volatility of modern football; you just need to have the right man at the top.

And Spurs have the best.