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Casino, go-karting and culture gaps: How Tottenham won League Cup in 2008 and why it then went wrong so quickly
Exclusive interview: Damien Comolli, Dimitar Berbatov and Gus Poyet recall Spurs' last trophy success and reasons they failed to build on it
By Matt Law, Football News Correspondent 24 April 2021 • 10:23am
Juande Ramos was Tottenham's manager the last time they won a trophy - in 2008 Credit: ACTION IMAGES
It is one of the great unanswered questions in British modern football - why do Tottenham Hotspur find it so hard to win trophies?
On the eve of their latest attempt to end a drought that has now stretched over 13 years, Telegraph Sport spoke to three of the architects of Tottenham’s last trophy success in 2008.
Damien Comolli, in his role of director of football, helped to build the 2008 team, which included Dimitar Berbatov and was coached by Gus Poyet, who was assistant to head coach Juande Ramos.
Here, all three men explain how Tottenham last won a trophy, why the success turned sour so quickly and wrestle with the question of why, ahead of Sunday’s Carabao Cup final against Manchester City, the club are still yet to win any silverware since.
Comolli and Poyet are in agreement over the key to Tottenham’s last success, when, as they are on Sunday, they went into the League Cup final against Chelsea as underdogs.
“We decided to take the whole squad away for two days before the final to The Grove Hotel, which cost an absolute fortune,” said Comolli. “I managed to push it through without really asking anyone for permission in case they said ‘no’. Juande had won so many cups with Sevilla and he had done similar things there by having some fun with the players.
“We created a no-cash casino for the Friday evening. Then, on the Saturday, we trained at White Hart Lane in the morning and in the afternoon there was archery and go-karting. One player flipped his go-kart, I think it was Berba actually, and two players crashed into each other. Berba threatened to shoot everyone with his bow and arrow as well. But it was great fun and I think it was a huge reason why we won.”
Berbatov admitted the players were initially sceptical of the idea, but conceded it was the perfect preparation.
“I don’t remember flipping the go-kart, but maybe I did,” said Berbatov. “I do remember the players were like, ‘come on, we don’t want that. It will be boring’, and we started moaning about it. But then it turned out to be really fun. It relaxed us, we forgot about the game and all the thoughts, and in the end it was perfect for us.”
Poyet added: “The way Juande Ramos prepared the final, it was very unique, very special and I’d never seen it before. It meant the players didn’t spend the afternoon in bed or sitting in their rooms and it meant they slept during the night.”
Tottenham’s players were also shown a motivational video on their way to the game, which included a clip of Clive Allen, who was part of the backroom staff, scoring at Wembley.
“I looked back down the bus and Clive was sat next to Berba watching it,” said Comolli. “I thought then that Berba would score for us in the final - it was like it was an omen.”
“I was really nervous (taking the penalty),” said Berbatov, who is a Betfair ambassador. “Maybe I didn’t show it and show my emotions, but it was because I wanted the team to feel secure and the team to say, ‘Berba has got this, no problem’.
“All the emotions were going through my head in a period of like one minute, something like this. When I stepped up to take the penalty you see Petr Cech in the goal and you think, ‘Oh my God, he’s massive’.”
But Poyet said: “No chance, he’s lying. I’m saying he’s lying! If he was nervous, what about us? He was as cool as you possibly can be, taking a penalty in a final. He was never nervous. We never thought even he could be that cool on the penalty.”
Juande Ramos, Robbie Keane and Dimitar Berbatov celebrate winning the League Cup in 2008 Credit: GETTY IMAGES
Comolli, Berbatov and Poyet were all confident that Tottenham could use the 2008 success as a platform to win more trophies, but eight months later they had all left the club, Berbatov to Manchester United in the summer and Comolli and Poyet were sacked, along with Ramos, in October.
“When I set foot in Spurs from the first day, I saw they were always mentioning the glory, glory days,” said Berbatov. “But it was all glory days in the past and I was always thinking to myself, ‘OK, but we are in the future now, we are in the present so we need to start to think about bringing glory to the team again by winning something’.
“When we won that medal, in my mind were thoughts like, ‘OK, this is the first step now towards bringing the glory days back’. Of course, my path in football drifted and I went to another club, to chase these kinds of dreams.
“After I left, I was watching Tottenham and, as harsh as it sounds, telling myself that I made the right decision. They didn’t win anything and this is the biggest problem with their team, that consistency and winning mentality. I don’t have answers, just questions that I ask myself.”
Comolli said: “We signed Luka Modric and the aim was to get in the Champions League the following season. But we made some mistakes, not selling Berbatov sooner to get a replacement and selling Berbatov and Robbie Keane in the same summer.
Spurs signed Giovani dos Santos, Luka Modric and Heurelho Gomes in the summer of 2008 Credit: AP
“Also, there was a big culture gap between Ramos and the team that got bigger after the final and I didn’t see this early enough. I tried to protect Ramos, I protected him for too long. He could never adapt to the game in England, he couldn’t ever adapt to the British players - they could never understand each other.
“I should have done a better job of convincing Daniel (Levy) that we actually had very good players. Everyone, people who were after my job, people who had a vested interest, agents, were telling him we had bad players, they are crap, (Gareth) Bale is always injured and should go on loan to Nottingham Forest and Modric is too small, this and that. But in the end we had great players. I am not a good politician and I should have done more politics.”
Damien Comolli (right) alongside Spurs chairman Daniel Levy (left) Credit: PA
Having played for both Spurs and Chelsea, where he won the FA Cup, the old Uefa Cup Winners’ Cup and a Super Cup, Poyet recognises the difference of culture between the two clubs.
“When I got sacked (by Tottenham), I remember joking with a friend of mine, a big, big Spurs fan. I said to him, ‘OK, let’s see when you win the next trophy now’,” said Poyet. “He was like, ‘Yeah, we’ve got Modric, it will be next year and the year after’. But now he says, ‘Maybe you were right’. I was joking, but it’s still right.
“This isn’t a criticism of Tottenham, but there are clubs that have got a winning mentality and it’s easier for them to win trophies. You get to two finals and maybe you win one.
“In Tottenham, when you got to the final you felt like it was the biggest opportunity in your life and it shouldn’t be like that. It’s too extreme, ‘Whoa, 13 years, it’s now or never’. Instead it should be a chance to win a trophy every couple of years, especially with the history of the club, but it’s not.”
Asked how Tottenham’s players will be feeling ahead of the City game with 13 trophyless seasons weighing on their shoulders, Berbatov said: “Everybody is talking about that trophy and the players probably have a headache and everybody at the club is saying, ‘We know that we need a trophy, so shut up’.”
Casino, go-karting and culture gaps: How Tottenham won League Cup in 2008 and why it then went wrong so quickly
Exclusive interview: Damien Comolli, Dimitar Berbatov and Gus Poyet recall Spurs' last trophy success and reasons they failed to build on it
By Matt Law, Football News Correspondent 24 April 2021 • 10:23am
Juande Ramos was Tottenham's manager the last time they won a trophy - in 2008 Credit: ACTION IMAGES
It is one of the great unanswered questions in British modern football - why do Tottenham Hotspur find it so hard to win trophies?
On the eve of their latest attempt to end a drought that has now stretched over 13 years, Telegraph Sport spoke to three of the architects of Tottenham’s last trophy success in 2008.
Damien Comolli, in his role of director of football, helped to build the 2008 team, which included Dimitar Berbatov and was coached by Gus Poyet, who was assistant to head coach Juande Ramos.
Here, all three men explain how Tottenham last won a trophy, why the success turned sour so quickly and wrestle with the question of why, ahead of Sunday’s Carabao Cup final against Manchester City, the club are still yet to win any silverware since.
Comolli and Poyet are in agreement over the key to Tottenham’s last success, when, as they are on Sunday, they went into the League Cup final against Chelsea as underdogs.
“We decided to take the whole squad away for two days before the final to The Grove Hotel, which cost an absolute fortune,” said Comolli. “I managed to push it through without really asking anyone for permission in case they said ‘no’. Juande had won so many cups with Sevilla and he had done similar things there by having some fun with the players.
“We created a no-cash casino for the Friday evening. Then, on the Saturday, we trained at White Hart Lane in the morning and in the afternoon there was archery and go-karting. One player flipped his go-kart, I think it was Berba actually, and two players crashed into each other. Berba threatened to shoot everyone with his bow and arrow as well. But it was great fun and I think it was a huge reason why we won.”
Berbatov admitted the players were initially sceptical of the idea, but conceded it was the perfect preparation.
“I don’t remember flipping the go-kart, but maybe I did,” said Berbatov. “I do remember the players were like, ‘come on, we don’t want that. It will be boring’, and we started moaning about it. But then it turned out to be really fun. It relaxed us, we forgot about the game and all the thoughts, and in the end it was perfect for us.”
Poyet added: “The way Juande Ramos prepared the final, it was very unique, very special and I’d never seen it before. It meant the players didn’t spend the afternoon in bed or sitting in their rooms and it meant they slept during the night.”
Tottenham’s players were also shown a motivational video on their way to the game, which included a clip of Clive Allen, who was part of the backroom staff, scoring at Wembley.
“I looked back down the bus and Clive was sat next to Berba watching it,” said Comolli. “I thought then that Berba would score for us in the final - it was like it was an omen.”
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“I was really nervous (taking the penalty),” said Berbatov, who is a Betfair ambassador. “Maybe I didn’t show it and show my emotions, but it was because I wanted the team to feel secure and the team to say, ‘Berba has got this, no problem’.
“All the emotions were going through my head in a period of like one minute, something like this. When I stepped up to take the penalty you see Petr Cech in the goal and you think, ‘Oh my God, he’s massive’.”
But Poyet said: “No chance, he’s lying. I’m saying he’s lying! If he was nervous, what about us? He was as cool as you possibly can be, taking a penalty in a final. He was never nervous. We never thought even he could be that cool on the penalty.”
Juande Ramos, Robbie Keane and Dimitar Berbatov celebrate winning the League Cup in 2008 Credit: GETTY IMAGES
Comolli, Berbatov and Poyet were all confident that Tottenham could use the 2008 success as a platform to win more trophies, but eight months later they had all left the club, Berbatov to Manchester United in the summer and Comolli and Poyet were sacked, along with Ramos, in October.
“When I set foot in Spurs from the first day, I saw they were always mentioning the glory, glory days,” said Berbatov. “But it was all glory days in the past and I was always thinking to myself, ‘OK, but we are in the future now, we are in the present so we need to start to think about bringing glory to the team again by winning something’.
“When we won that medal, in my mind were thoughts like, ‘OK, this is the first step now towards bringing the glory days back’. Of course, my path in football drifted and I went to another club, to chase these kinds of dreams.
“After I left, I was watching Tottenham and, as harsh as it sounds, telling myself that I made the right decision. They didn’t win anything and this is the biggest problem with their team, that consistency and winning mentality. I don’t have answers, just questions that I ask myself.”
Comolli said: “We signed Luka Modric and the aim was to get in the Champions League the following season. But we made some mistakes, not selling Berbatov sooner to get a replacement and selling Berbatov and Robbie Keane in the same summer.
Spurs signed Giovani dos Santos, Luka Modric and Heurelho Gomes in the summer of 2008 Credit: AP
“Also, there was a big culture gap between Ramos and the team that got bigger after the final and I didn’t see this early enough. I tried to protect Ramos, I protected him for too long. He could never adapt to the game in England, he couldn’t ever adapt to the British players - they could never understand each other.
“I should have done a better job of convincing Daniel (Levy) that we actually had very good players. Everyone, people who were after my job, people who had a vested interest, agents, were telling him we had bad players, they are crap, (Gareth) Bale is always injured and should go on loan to Nottingham Forest and Modric is too small, this and that. But in the end we had great players. I am not a good politician and I should have done more politics.”
Damien Comolli (right) alongside Spurs chairman Daniel Levy (left) Credit: PA
Having played for both Spurs and Chelsea, where he won the FA Cup, the old Uefa Cup Winners’ Cup and a Super Cup, Poyet recognises the difference of culture between the two clubs.
“When I got sacked (by Tottenham), I remember joking with a friend of mine, a big, big Spurs fan. I said to him, ‘OK, let’s see when you win the next trophy now’,” said Poyet. “He was like, ‘Yeah, we’ve got Modric, it will be next year and the year after’. But now he says, ‘Maybe you were right’. I was joking, but it’s still right.
“This isn’t a criticism of Tottenham, but there are clubs that have got a winning mentality and it’s easier for them to win trophies. You get to two finals and maybe you win one.
“In Tottenham, when you got to the final you felt like it was the biggest opportunity in your life and it shouldn’t be like that. It’s too extreme, ‘Whoa, 13 years, it’s now or never’. Instead it should be a chance to win a trophy every couple of years, especially with the history of the club, but it’s not.”
Asked how Tottenham’s players will be feeling ahead of the City game with 13 trophyless seasons weighing on their shoulders, Berbatov said: “Everybody is talking about that trophy and the players probably have a headache and everybody at the club is saying, ‘We know that we need a trophy, so shut up’.”
