White Hart strain

Stevens: worried

The biggest problem I think Spurs are encountering at the moment is the fact there were more players in and out of Tottenham than any other club in the country over the summer.

Gary Stevens
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Seven games in, two points on the board and sitting bottom of the Premier League... it has certainly been a tough start to the season if you're a supporter of Tottenham Hotspur.

It has also been a difficult period for Juande Ramos who saw his new-look Tottenham team slump to a home defeat to Hull City on Sunday to continue their win-less start to the new campaign.

The pressure is mounting on the shoulders of the Spaniard and former Tottenham defender Gary Stevens admits the situation at White Hart Lane is "extremely concerning".

With the new faces struggling to click into gear and several high-profile departures over the last few months, Stevens feels Ramos faces an uphill struggle to turn things around as we go into a two-week international break.

"Certainly his stock has gone down hasn't it?" Stevens said on Sky Sports News.

"He came to Tottenham regarded as a winner. He did great things with Sevilla and he did pick up the League Cup last season, but since that victory Spurs have hardly won a league game - from the back end of last season to the early part of this current season.

"I say the early part, but we are approaching a quarter of the way into the season with two points on the board from seven games.

"We have to look at the situation and say the situation at Tottenham is extremely concerning.

"First and foremost you need to turn it around on the training park and you might think a two-week break sounds very helpful, but the problem is the vast majority of the Spurs squad - as is the case with a lot of squads in the Premier League - are now jetting off around the world playing for their country.

"These next two weeks won't give any coach at the highest level in this country any chance to work with his players."

Identity

Former Tottenham manager Martin Jol has suggested Tottenahm have lost their identity with so many transfer dealings over the summer and an influx of foreign players.

Stevens agrees and insists there is a lack of stability within the squad.

He said: "I feel there is value in having a British backbone in a Premier League side, I think that would help Spurs.

"Having said that, the biggest problem I think Spurs are encountering at the moment is the fact there were more players in and out of Tottenham than any other club in the country over the summer.

"Because of that alone you lose stability and Spurs aren't stable at the moment."

Stevens also points to the loss of top goalscorers such as Robbie Keane and Dimitar Berbatov and says a lack of firepower will hold the club back this season.

"As a club you can't afford to look at what players are doing once they've left, but yes Robbie Keane is off the mark at Liverpool, Dimitar Berbatov is scoring goals and Jermain Defoe is too.

"In this calendar year Berbatov, Keane and Defoe have left Tottenham Football Club, three goalscorers and three matchwinners.

"They're left with Darren Bent and Roman Pavlyuchenko and Fraizer Campbell who I think is a good player but is on loan from Manchester United and last year did very well in the Championship. This is not the Championship, it's the Premier League and Spurs are very short up front."

Function

However, Stevens feels the problems are not just up front and indeed there are problems for Ramos to address all over the pitch.

Stevens added: "For any football team you need the vast majority of the elements within a team to be functioning.

"As you get towards the top - and of course the Premier League is the very top - you need all of those to be functioning on a consistent basis.

"If you look at Tottenham, from back to front and from right to left the vast majority of it is not functioning. They're struggling to score goals, they're short of quality strikers and the signgings they've made haven't settled in particularly.

"David Bentley has been playing badly, Luka Modric hasn't got involved particularly, defensively Spurs are a bit of a liability at the moment. Is Ledley King going to play consistently? Vedran Corluka signed very close to the transfer deadline, which didn't help and the goalkeeper Gomes is a bag of nerves.

"There's a whole raft of things and it would seem to me that nothing is functioning properly."