Tottenham Hotspur's Worst XI Of The Decade: Manager

As you saw yesterday we kicked off our Best XI of the last decade with the announcement of Harry Redknapp as the manager of the side. Now it's time to take a look at who the worst manager of the last decade has been.

As mentioned on Monday, Tottenham Hotspur have had 5 managers in the last decade, not including the caretaker managers. So, given that we used three managers in our Best Manager of the Decade voting, it would seem logical that we only have two candidates for this spot in our Worst XI, right? Wrong.

It's hard to decide how we quantify who's the worst? Some managers draw considerably more ire than others. Some were in charge for only a short period of time. Some brought some success to the club, but eventually were failures.

On to the candidates!

Glenn Hoddle: I feel bad including his name on this list because, as a player, the man was a Spurs legend. He made nearly 500 appearances and scored 110 goals for the club. As a manager though, he's pretty much crap. His career winning percentage as a manager is 39%, which is boosted by his tenure as England manager. He did lead the club to a League Cup final, which we lost 2-1 to Blackburn Rovers. In his two seasons in charge the team finish 9th and 10th. Hoddle could pick a pass, but he always seemed to struggle when it came to picking a team.

Jacques Santini: Joined Tottenham after a stint as manager of the French National team. He was part of the group that built Lyon into the footballing power it is today. As manager of Lyon he won the French League Cup and Ligue 1. He resigned after only 13 games in charge at Spurs. Rumors persist that it was disagreements with Sporting Director Frank Arneson that lead to his departure. If nothing else, Santini was French and that makes him a bit too much like Arsene Wenger.

Martin Jol: I love Martin Jol, so it pains me to put him here, but you don't get fired for no reason (unless you're Carlo Ancelotti). He got us close to the Champions League in back-to-back seasons, but close only counts in horseshoes and handgrenades. Plus, under Jol we played very good defense. That's not Tottenham Hotspur! I want goals, goals, and more goals! For both teams! Clean sheets are bad, hence Martin Jol is bad.

Juande Ramos: Yes, there was all that relatively complimentary stuff that I said yesterday, but remember two points from eight games! That's horrible! And he didn't even speak English. Granted, that gave us the opportunity to hear Gus Poyet interview, which were generally funny. Also, we played rather boring football under Ramos despite having Robbie Keane (at his best) and Dimitar Berbatov as strikers. Two months after being sacked he was managing Real Madrid (not a bad career move) where he managed to earn 52 of 54 possible points over his next 18 league games. Is he the worst? I don't know, but like I just said, two points from eight games.

Harry Redknapp: Yes, I know he just won best manager the other day, but that's really not the point. His squad selection and tactics are all horribly lacking. Sure, he says funny stuff, but that doesn't make him a good manager. Add that to the fact that I think he's very much out of his depth with the quality of players he has available to him and you've got a slim case for him being the worst manager as well. Harry, you've done great things for the club, but seriously, why the hell does Alan Hutton ever play?