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Tottenham did a great thing for football at Wembley - becoming the first team outside of the big four to win a domestic cup for seven finals. It was also Spurs first silverware for nine long years (the 1998-99 Carling Cup) about the time Gazza was playing for Spurs, I recall... With Paul in the news for all the wrong reasons right now (apparently exposing himself in a hotel and talking to parrots, which he's clearly as sick as right now) at least it will give him a lift to know the glory days are on the way back for his beloved club. There's no doubt Jose Ramos can win trophies-this his fifth in a row-but can he get them into the top four and the Champions League?

Spurs remind me very much of the England national team, full or the best talent around but not quite able to push for the biggest prizes. They win the occasional domestic cup with dazzling football to keep the fans quiet but never really push for the Premiership, still a disappointing two championship titles to their name. In the 90s they were definitely guilty of not investing for success, quite happy to sit mid-table and save on the twenty-five million pounds in transfer cash required to get in Europe, just taking the TV money as an attractive TV team and job done. But the arrival or Martin Jol seemed to suggest they could start the new millennium with a place in the lucrative Champions League, going oh so close in 2006 and 2005 until food poising struck. Although Jol was a slow starter in the league, once his teams were fit and zipping the ball around they looked unbeatable, as is the case now under Ramos. Alas, with Europe in the bag after the Carling Cup win the incentive is lost for an impossible push for the Champions League and so now is the time for Ramos to sort the chaff from the wheat and concentrate on winning the UEFA Cup. If the Spaniard does it will be record three straight to go with his two with Seville.

Jol, of course, did look like he would take Spurs to the promised land of the Champion's League in the end, but never quite had that edge to move his side into that top four class where Tottenham belong, so the end came. Even though Ramos has started strongly you can only see the Spaniard going the same way. Ramos is no hot up-and-coming manager by any means, on his ninth club in twelve years before he had the success he did with Sevilla, his teams exciting win over Spurs in the UEFA Cup last season, rather ironically, why he was bought in it seems. With an incredible 27 managers since

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