Time to bag a Tel

Beasley: Tel could return

Newcastle have been the laughing stock for a long time, but Tottenham are now doing their best to win the title of most stupid club in the land.

Rob Beasley
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Rob Beasley believes Terry Venables could well be the man to sort out the mess that is Tottenham Hotspur.

The former England boss has been linked with a return to the club he once managed following another disappointing start to the season at White Hart Lane.

While the pressure is already on Juande Ramos, at least one Sunday newspaper says Venables is being sounded out about returning to the club as director of football.

And, says the News of the World's Rob Beasley, it could well be the perfect job for the 65-year-old.

"Tel's certainly got unfinished business at White Hart Lane," he told the Sunday Supplement.

"When he was there as boss he was very, very popular with fans, but not with the powers-that-be and it forced him out at the end and he really feels that if there is one club he would go back to it would be Spurs.

"He'd rather be manager of course he would, but his opportunities as a manager will be few and far between and this might just suit him. I think he's developed businesses away from football so that may colour his judgement."

Stupid

Whatever happens next, the Sunday Supplement panel agreed that Tottenham's biggest problem has been their transfer policy this season.

Current director of football Damien Comolli is the man said to be responsible for bringing in Roman Pavlyuchenko and Luka Modric, who have both failed to impress.

Ramos has since admitted that £12million man Pavlyuchenko cannot play alongside Darren Bent and that, says Beasley, is a perfect example of just how mixed up things have become off the field in north London.

"Newcastle have been the laughing stock for a long time, but Tottenham are now doing their best to win the title of most stupid club in the land.

It's the raging debate now about the role of a director of football at the club. You have to say that the summer signings that have been brought through the front door at White Hart Lane have just not gelled at all.

Remarkable

"If you look at them individually there could be an argument for saying, that's a decent player, a decent signing and you can see the sense of it.

"But I think when you look at the fact they've brought in Pavlyechenko and they've now decided that after only six or seven games, that there's no way he can play he can play alongside Darren Bent. That's quite a remarkable state of affaird when you've splashed out all this money, first on Bent then on Pavlychenko.

"You've got a guy sitting upstairs scouring videos scoruing the internet going through a list of players saying he would be valuable as a player in the squad of Tottenham but the reality is it's down to someone else to get them into the team and get the best out of them.

"From what we understand these players have been forced upon him without much feedback and we've already seen two other managers this season - Kevin Keegan and Alan Curbishley - saying this is impossible, this is hopeless, this makes the job virtually impossible.

"It can only work if the two guys work in tandem and I think at Tottenham, and certainly at West Ham and Newcastle, they weren't working in tandem. It was two inviduals going about their business and in the end it caused chaos."