It had been rumoured that Daniel Levy had given Jol six matches to save his job, with the Newcastle game being the last in that series. Before Monday night his Spurs side has shown signs of turning the corner, of the sort of grit and determination that proved the spirit of the side had not been broken despite the chaos at the club. If the comeback against Villa and the 46 minutes of the second half at Liverpool had been encouraging, however, the performance against Newcastle was soul destroying and was quite easily our worst this season.
Defensively we were wretched. Radek Cerny, deputising for Paul Robinson (who had, for some reason, decided to torture himself on TV by sitting in the studio being grilled by Tim Sherwood), had a reasonable game but was lucky that his Robinson esque flap from a corner wasn't punished by Faye. As for the back four it was as if they had never played together. Dawson has been a shadow of the player that was so roundly applauded at the end of last season, with the former Forest player having lost all concentration and focus from corners and freekicks, allowing Faye to drift away from him with consummate ease to bullet a header past a helpless Cerny. As for Dawson's defensive partner, Younes Kaboul was muscled off the ball by the minuscule figure of Obafemi Martins far too much for Jol's liking and looks as though he'd be better utilised in the center of midfield in replacement for the consistently useless Didier Zokora. Defensively it was shocking and it didn't prove any better further up the pitch.
In the center of midfield, Jenas and Zokora were woeful. Jermaine in particular was so dreadful, so completely without merit, that he may as well not have been on the pitch, such was his impact on the game. Allowing himself to be completely intimidated by what was not a particularly hostile home crowd, Jenas gave the ball away with such wastefulness and showed so little commitment that, if I had my say, he wouldn't get near the first team bench, let alone squad, until Christmas. Zokora, Malbranque and Tainio were little better.
I for one, feel that seventy five per cent of the predicament Jol finds himself in is not of his own doing. He's been hung out to dry by a Chairman who has gone about removing his headcoach with all the subtlety of a brick to the face. Where Jol is to blame, in my opinion, is his stubbornness and faith in his favourite players. Jenas and Robinson should have been dropped months ago and players such as Tainio and Zokora have a long way to go before they prove to me that they are worthy of a place in a side that has aspirations of a top four club.
On the subject of team selection, quite how a coach can leave his best striker and arguably his best midfielder on the bench for a game that he knows could have a massive impact on his future at the club beggars belief. Dimitar Berbatov wore a sullen look on his face as he watched his less gifted teammates flail about in the Newcastle night like startled deer in the headlights of an on coming Lorry and would have been forgiven for sneaking round the back of St James' Park to ring Sir Alex. Jol said that Berbatov 'knows his schedule' and was 'completely happy' denying that there was any rift between the two of them and suggesting that the UEFA Cup, rather than the league, is Jol's current priority, a policy that is as shortsighted as it is misguided. His future will be decided on improvement in the league much more than it will be decided on progression in the cups. Levy wants Champions League, not Championship.
As for tonight's game, Getafe are a somewhat unknown quantity. Like Tottenham they are struggling in their domestic league and head coach Michael Laudrup was quote last week as saying that he intended to rest players this evening in preparation for their next league match. Few of their players will be recognisable to the home crowd, though forward Kepa did make several appearances whilst on loan to West Ham last season. One would expect Berbatov and Lennon to start, simply because Jol had adopted a more expansive approach in cup competitions this season. Hopefully Defoe, who had the good fortune of missing the Newcastle altogether, will replace Bent on the bench, with the former Charlton man currently making a total mockery of the £16.5m the club paid for him.
Match prediction - Tottenham 3 Getafe 1 Spurs to lift some of the blues before Sunday's game against Blackburn.