Christian Gross having the last laugh

To be fair Christian, I don't think the coat helped.

Any Tottenham fan watching Stuttgart take on Barcelona Wednesday night may have been a little surprised to see a certain bald headed Swiss patrolling the touch line, barking orders. For Christian Gross, securing a very respectable 1-1 draw with the European Champions is a far cry from the day he was sacked from Tottenham, and practically laughed out of the country by the English tabloids.

Christian Gross rolled into White Hart Lane for his first press conference as manager of the club on London transport, clutching that now infamous tube ticket. The press looked as baffled as Alan Sugar at the train-wreck that followed:

‘Hopefully it’ll be the ticket of my dreams,” Gross told the Guardian. “I came on public transport because I wanted to experience how the fans feel. I wanted to show that I am one of them.”

As first impressions go, this was a bad one, and the look on Alan Sugar’s face said it all. At least Gross had been able to travel to White Hart Lane that day in relative obscurity, as when he succeeded Gerry Francis in November 1997, nobody had ever heard of Christian Gross.

What followed is now confined to the history books. Gross lasted just ten months at Tottenham, and the media portrayed the Swiss as an incompetent joke of a manager. However, whilst Tottenham fans were not sad to see the back of Gross in September 1998, his success since leaving England has allowed the Swiss to not only rebuild his reputation, but have the last laugh at the English tabloids.

Gross got his first big managerial break when he was selected as the new Grasshoppers Zurich head coach in 1993 after achieving promotion with another Swiss side, FC Wil. Gross became a very highly rated coach in Switzerland, winning two Swiss Championships and the Swiss cup with Grasshoppers. However, outside of Central Europe, Gross was an unknown quantity. Perhaps in the mould of Hill-Wood and David Dein’s appointment of Arsene Wenger, Alan Sugar surprisingly chose a relatively unknown manager with a good reputation in football circles as the answer to Tottenham’s management situation.

Gerry Francis was sacked as Tottenham manager after losing four games in a row, the last a 1-0 home defeat by Crystal Palace, leaving Spurs just one point off bottom placed Everton. Tottenham were facing a bitter fight to avoid relegation, having already played 16 games when Gross took charge. The Swiss came to Tottenham with a reputation for being an authoritarian who prided himself on the fitness of his teams and their organization. However, Gross was derided in the media for his poor grasp of English, and his start was so poor, as Alan Sugar pointed out, the media simply annihilated his character. This would almost certainly have had an effect on how the players viewed Gross, and it is known that certain sections of the Tottenham squad were adverse to his long tiring training sessions. Heavy defeats also blighted his initial period in charge, losing 6-1 at home to Chelsea , 4-0 away to Covenrty City and 4-1 at Aston Villa.

In defence of Gross, his one brief that season was to keep Tottenham in the Premier League, which he duly did. This was despite inheriting a team that had a string of injury problems in attack, with record signing Les Ferdinand starting only 19 matches, Steffan Iversen 15, and Anderton 7. Furthermore, Tottenham’s squad was poorly assembled. John Scales was the latter day Jonathan Woodgate, with Tottenham lacking quality in the centre of defence and midfield. Gross was also denied the use of his fitness coach Fritz Schmid, who was also a good friend, and a key member of his back room staff.

Gross was also by no means backed in the transfer market by Alan Sugar. Unlike Levy, who gave Harry Redknapp a fortune to spend to avoid relegation following the Juande Ramos experiment, Gross was never given similar support, his two additions in the 1997/98 season being Nicola Berti on a free from Inter Milan, and Jurgen Klinsmann for just £175,000 from Sampdoria.

Despite all these factors, Gross kept Tottenham up. The Swiss showed a pragmatic approach to his tenure, bringing in the experienced Nicola Berti to anchor the midfield, and Jurgen Klinsmann to score the goals needed to spearhead Tottenham’s fight for survival. Klinsmann scored nine goals in fifteen matches for Tottenham, whilst Berti played his part in helping the club finish four points outside the relegation zone. Gross also lost just one game at home during his first season in charge, and Tottenham enjoyed memorable away performances against Wimbledon (6-2), Blackburn (3-0) and Crystal Palace (3-1).

Gross was sacked after losing two of his opening three matches in the 1998/99 season, but again, it should be noted that he was afforded just one signing, Paolo Tramezzani for £1.35million in the close season. At the time, Sugar was helping to fund the rebuilding of the North stand at Tottenham, but nevertheless, the Swiss was given very little to build a team around.

Following Gross’s departure, it should be noted that despite winning the League Cup, George Graham would manage to win just three points more than Gross at the end of his first campaign in charge, despite spending £4million on Tim Sherwood and over £1 million on Mauricio Taricco.

Following Gross’s ‘disastrous’ ten month stint at Tottenham, as Alan Sugar pointed out, Gross’s reputation had been destroyed. However, Gross soon returned to management with Basel, and contrary to the incompetent figure portrayed by the English tabloids, Gross would go on to achieve great success. He won four Swiss championships, four Swiss cups and led Basel to the UEFA Champions League in the 2002/03 season, where they beat eventual finalists Juventus, knocked out Celtic, and secured draws with Liverpool (twice) and Manchester United.

Gross has now achieved further acclaim with Stuttgart in the Bundesliga, dragging the side out of the bottom three with a run of six wins from eight matches since taking over from Marcus Babbel. His side’s excellent display against European Champions Barcelona is perhaps the most compelling evidence yet that the English media may have been wrong about Gross. Stuttgart should have been out of sight against Barcelona in the first half, and under Gross, the club is currently flying.

Maybe Gross was not quite what Tottenham needed in the late nineties, and his sacking came as no real surprise when the axe fell in September 1998. However, formerly derided by the English tabloids, Gross will lead Stuttgart out at the Nou Camp in two weeks in the last-16 of the Champions League, and if Stuttgart play anything like they did in the first leg, they have every chance of progressing.

For Gross, the ‘dream ticket’ may yet be a trip to Madrid for the Champions League final in May, and with regard to the journalists that chased him out of England in 1998, Christian Gross may just have the last laugh…

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