Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy has placed Dimitar
Berbatov at the centre of key events that led to Juande Ramos'
sacking at White Hart Lane.
Berbatov has been accused of looking for a move 12 months
after signing from Bayer Leverkusen, then a decision was made to
sell him at the start of this summer, for fear of losing the
Bulgaria striker cheaply if he served three years of his
contract.
With Robbie Keane also departing, Levy admits the club were
indecisive in targeting replacements - effectively a criticism of
sporting director Damien Comolli, who has departed in the shake-up
at Spurs.
"Dimitar first intimated to Martin Jol that he wanted to join
Manchester United after just one season at our club - and just 10
days before the end of the summer 2007 transfer window," Levy
said.
"The internal decision to sell Dimitar at the beginning of the
(previous) window was premised on a suitable replacement being
found and on the assumption that Dimitar couldn't be persuaded to
change his mind.
"The timing of the actual transfer of Dimitar was completely
immaterial and unconnected to our bringing in a replacement for
him.
"We had been aware for a long period that he was likely to leave
and our negotiations to get the best fee for him was independent of
our work to replace both him (as we did with Pavlyuchenko) and
Robbie Keane, with experienced strikers.
"We failed because we were not as decisive or as successful in
identifying or replacing the two strikers as early as we should
have been."
Comolli's recruitment of "experienced" strikers led to the
signing of youngster Fraizer Campbell arriving on loan, and Roman
Pavlyuchenko, who has struggled in the Premier League after no
break from domestic action in Russia.
Frenchman Comolli has overseen £175million of signings in the
last three years and saw his judgement heavily criticised even
before a disastrous finale to the summer transfer window.
Ramos, who had wanted a left winger in the summer, was left with
an unbalanced squad and two England right midfielders in Aaron
Lennon and David Bentley, the latter coming from Blackburn for a
deal starting at £15million.
It will be new boss Harry Redknapp who will oversee the
transfers during the next window.
"It is essential that we go into the January transfer window
with absolute confidence in the advice being offered to the board,"
Levy added.
"Following a meeting of the directors and a full review of our
football management structure... Damien will not be directly
replaced.
"In Harry, we are also accepting with his appointment that now
is the right time for us to move back to a more traditional style
of football management at our club."
Ramos has not escaped criticism and his training methods had
been questioned, as well as his admission that he barely looks at
the opposition before a game.
Levy added that the decision was "not something I have
undertaken lightly" but added that "significant change was
necessary as a matter of urgency".