This author believes Ramos is the man to gatecrash the Champions League party and finally turn Spurs into realistic challengers to Man United, Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool.
'Everyone is tuned in to the Champions League - surely an ironic misnomer in itself as Liverpool have about as much chance of winning the Premier League as Mike Tyson does of joining Girls Aloud'
The Premier League is often referred to as the best in the world. But just take a look at who wins it every year.
Far from being the pinnacle of achievement, it is an exclusive members club where only three of the teams are capable of jostling for the title, and where the top four get to trouser a fat wad of Champions League moolah every season.
What of the other 16 sides? Well, they get to bumble around and enjoy their time playing with the big boys - but the top flight is a league where Champions League accomplishments are pretty much wrapped up every year and the other 16 teams have to scrap over the handful of UEFA Cup bones thrown down to them, like cur dogs fighting for scraps underneath the table at a Bacchanalian feast.
Thanks to the big teams in Europe, we now have only one good European tournament in the shape of the Champions League. The Cup Winners’ Cup is now extinct and the UEFA Cup is a ridiculously huge catch-all - the opiate of the under-achieving masses - which takes Herculean stamina to win and often upsets teams’ domestic seasons (see Ipswich) and offers a pittance in TV money.
Everyone is instead tuned in to the Champions League - surely an ironic misnomer in itself as Liverpool have about as much chance of winning the Premier League as Mike Tyson does of joining Girls Aloud.
I suggest that the UEFA Eurocrats pull their fingers out and reduce the Champions League places per country to a maximum of three. This will be a seismic change amongst the smug and aloof Big Four, as the team that finishes outside that top three will be stripped of Champions League revenue, shivering and prone to attack from the clubs hovering just behind them.
There are three clubs that are very well positioned financially to launch an assault. Aston Villa’s Randy Lerner, although very prudent with his dosh, is more than capable of bankrolling an attempt for the Champions League places, Newcastle’s Mike Ashley is passionate and rich in equal measure, and finally the biggest underachievers, Tottenham Hostpur.
Spurs are the great white hope of the Premier League. If they can crack the Big Four, then maybe it will splinter and we will once again enjoy a league which, as things stand at the moment, is so horrifically unbalanced that the team that finishes fifth are declared the winner of the "league within a league".
Tottenham grossly underperformed early this season under Martin Jol, a season which had promised so much before it began. But, with Juande Ramos and his fitness ethos in place, they have a more-than-capable squad to truly challenge the big boys - even before they signed Luka Modric.
A stuttering start from Liverpool or Arsenal next time around could be punished by Spurs.
Do Tottenham have the best chance of breaking the monopoly of the Big Four? Comment below, or write your own article on who you see as the surprise package next season.