FORMER Spurs defender Gary Stevens insists Juande Ramos' stock has fallen considerably since the side won the Carling Cup in February and believes the influx of foreign players has contributed to side's worst start to a league season in 96 years.

The Spanish coach oversaw a dramatic overhaul of Tottenham's playing staff, with over £80million worth of talent coming through the door, although that was tempered by the departure of star strikers Robbie Keane and Dimitar Berbatov.

Stevens, who played for the Lilywhites between 1983 and 1990, believes the eclectic mix of nationalities now floating around the dressing room has destabilised the club, with a limited time frame for all the new names to gel, while he pointed to the considerable void that has been left up front.

"I feel there is value in having a British backbone in a Premier League side, I think that would help Spurs,” the former right-back told Sky Sports News.

"Having said that, the biggest problem I think Spurs are encountering at the moment is the fact there were more players in and out of Tottenham than any other club in the country over the summer.

"Because of that alone you lose stability and Spurs aren't stable at the moment.

"As a club you can't afford to look at what players are doing once they've left, but yes Robbie Keane is off the mark at Liverpool, Dimitar Berbatov is scoring goals and Jermain Defoe is too.

"In this calendar year Berbatov, Keane and Defoe have left Tottenham Football Club, three goalscorers and three matchwinners.

"They're left with Darren Bent and Roman Pavlyuchenko and Fraizer Campbell who I think is a good player but is on loan from Manchester United and last year did very well in the Championship. This is not the Championship, it's the Premier League and Spurs are very short up front."

Stevens recognises that Ramos' reputation has taken a battering since he guided the side to the League Cup in February. He insisted that the major conundrum facing Ramos was finding a system which all the players are comfortable with.

"Certainly his stock has gone down hasn't it?" Stevens said. "He came to Tottenham regarded as a winner. He did great things with Sevilla and he did pick up the League Cup last season, but since that victory Spurs have hardly won a league game - from the back end of last season to the early part of this current season.

"For any football team you need the vast majority of the elements within a team to be functioning.

"As you get towards the top - and of course the Premier League is the very top - you need all of those to be functioning on a consistent basis.

"If you look at Tottenham, from back to front and from right to left the vast majority of it is not functioning. They're struggling to score goals, they're short of quality strikers and the signgings they've made haven't settled in particularly.

"David Bentley has been playing badly, Luka Modric hasn't got involved particularly, defensively Spurs are a bit of a liability at the moment. Is Ledley King going to play consistently? Vedran Corluka signed very close to the transfer deadline, which didn't help and the goalkeeper Gomes is a bag of nerves.

"There's a whole raft of things and it would seem to me that nothing is functioning properly."