TOTTENHAM fans must think that they're suffering from a bad case of deja vu.

Last August they watched their team start with two straight defeats and it ended up costing them their manager.

This season, despite expensive reinforcements, it's exactly the same story, but it could be about to get a lot worse.

Tottenham haven't beaten Chelsea at Stamford Bridge since 1990 when Gary Lineker and David Howells supplied the goals in a 2-1 victory. Chelsea, of course, haven't lost at home to anyone since 2004, so the omens aren't particularly good.

In truth though, it's not the buying that has caused the problems, it's the selling, or rather the 'not' selling.

Daniel Levy was unwise to protract the Dimitar Berbatov saga longer than necessary.

It's quite understandable, and indeed laudable, to try and lever yet more money out of Manchester United, but when it disrupts the balance of the team so critically, can it really be justified?

You can't put a price on stability. The sulking Bulgarian should have been booted out long ago.

Juande Ramos needs to focus on the players who do want to be at White Hart Lane and he needs to make his mind up about where he's going to deploy them.

Luka Modric must have wondered what he'd got himself into when Ramos pushed him back into the 'Makelele' role against Middlesbrough.

From bad to worse

What happened to the devious ploy of releasing the Croat, along with Giovanni dos Santos and David Bentley to wreak havoc behind a lone striker?

There's a strong possibility that it's going to get worse before it gets better for Tottenham, but at least this will be an opportunity to play without pressure.

No-one in their right mind will give them a prayer of winning, so what do they have to lose?

Ramos will have to hope that, if he can't have the points, he can at least have a gutsy, determined performance to build the rest of the season on.

Jol won his third game, but it didn't stop Levy's axe. Ramos can lose his, but not many more. Tottenham must improve.