Cowardly Duo Must Follow AVB Out of Tottenham

Andre Villas-Boas has filled your morning front and back pages. He has dominated discussion on television, radio, twitter and football forums across the world as the face of a crisis at Tottenham Hotspur. After being portrayed as the figurehead who oversaw a spending spree of £100m, a dismal scoring record and two abject performances against Manchester City and Liverpool, the scapegoat has finally gone.

But hiding behind such a façade are two men whose accountability stretches significantly further, albeit is vastly different forms.

Appointed in June at the request of Villas-Boas, Baldini joined Tottenham as technical director with reported responsibility to sign a higher calibre of players at White Hart Lane. Quite where Etienne Capoue, Nacer Chadli and the unused Erik Lamela sit amid that remit is unknown but the trio represent catastrophes in the window which while Villas-Boas might have influenced, and Levy sanctioned, was directly primarily by Baldini.

True, a coach of Villas-Boas' capabilities – a treble winner with FC Porto in his first season as a manager – should have produced more with the likes of Roberto Soldado and Christian Eriksen at his disposal, but being fed a mishmash of players from the continent makes building a credible challenge for Champions League qualification or the Premier League title problematic.

Baldini's influence also extends to endorsing Fabio Capello as the leading contender to become the club's new manager; an appointment which threatens to continue the pain.

Meanwhile, the buck at White Hart Lane surely stops with Levy, who begins his search for the eighth different manager of his 15-year tenure and yet shares little of the accountability. Two League Cups and a single qualification for the Champions League has come in the two decades of Levy's reign of terror in north London yet as seven other managers suffer brutal public criticism, the chairman hides away in his ivory tower.

Levy's strike-rate would make Billy the Kid blush. George Graham was sacked within a month of his move to Tottenham, Jacques Santini after 13 games in 2004, Martin Jol unceremoniously removed mid-way through a UEFA Cup tie in 2007, Juande Ramos following 17 defeats in 12 months and Harry Redknapp after two top four finishes in his three full seasons in charge.

Justification for each of those sackings, including that of Glenn Hoddle, accompanies each of those decisions but it is the original appointments, and the seemingly misguided nature of them, which should be truly scrutinised. If Villas-Boas is allowed little margin for error within an 18-month spell in charge, then Levy during 15 years, seven managers and none existent success must surely be on his last legs at Spurs.

If either man, Baldini or Levy, have any credibility remaining, they should both resign from their elevated positions at Tottenham to share the blame for the club's current plight and shield Villas-Boas from further criticism which is likely to consign his managerial career to the scrapheap, or at the very least away from top tier clubs on the continent.

Their lofty roles likely dictates they are too arrogant and comfortable to make such a drastic decision. At the very least, Tottenham fans must realise that if Villas-Boas is to partially blame for the backward progress, then the men who load the gun must be responsible also.