Daniel Levy could not guarantee yesterday that Dimitar Berbatov, the Bulgaria striker, will be at Tottenham Hotspur beyond January, but the chairman was otherwise definitive: the blame for the club’s poor league position lies with Martin Jol, the former manager, and if results do not improve, Damien Comolli, the sporting director, will carry the can.

Tottenham officials were seen meeting Juande Ramos, then manager of Seville, at a Spanish hotel in August. That wounded Jol’s credibility, but he limped on until being dismissed last month, when Tottenham were in the Barclays Premier League relegation zone. Despite fierce criticism of his handling of the affair, Levy, the Tottenham chairman, kept his counsel until yesterday, when he spoke after the club’s annual shareholders’ meeting.

Levy denied that Jol had been undermined by the flirtation with Ramos and said that results and the squad’s loss of faith in the Dutchman, not the subsequent speculation over his future, had made his position untenable. “I absolutely don’t accept that there’s a cause-and-effect link between rumours of a replacement for Martin and results on the pitch,” Levy said. “What about the first two games of the season? We lost at Sunderland and now look at Everton beating Sunderland [7-1], so it’s nothing to do with rumours.

“You can’t have a situation where everyone’s talking us up to be challenging for the top four and then be in the bottom three when Martin was asked to leave. You can’t blame that purely on speculation about one’s job; you have to ask the reason why speculation’s there in the first place.”

Levy said that the board was forced to act because it could not risk relegation. “We got to the situation where we just weren’t winning at all,” he said.

It was reported in August that Ramos said that he had received a “dizzying” offer to coach in England. “It got taken out of context,” Levy said. “I can absolutely tell you that no one from this club or a representative connected with this club made Juande an offer [before Jol was sacked],” Levy said.

“We knew that Manchester City had been after Juande in the summer and he had decided not to go. When we asked Martin to step down, we absolutely did not know that we were going to be appointing Ramos. We hoped he would come.”

Comolli’s duties include scouting and negotiating transfers. He was given a rough ride by some shareholders yesterday after apparent tensions with Jol and Tottenham’s curious summer strategy. They spent £16.5 million on Darren Bent, the striker, when there seemed more urgent needs. “The person who makes the final decision is the coach,” Levy said. “There was never a player brought to this club that Martin Jol did not want.”

Ramos was Comolli’s choice. “He has recommended Juande Ramos, clearly he will have [to take] responsibility if it doesn’t work, but I have every confidence it will,” Levy said.

Results may have been poor on the pitch, but Tottenham enjoyed a record turnover of £103.1 million - a little more than half of Arsenal’s figure. Levy said that a decision on whether to seek a move to a new stadium or rebuild White Hart Lane will be made early next year.

He added that he does not expect any first-team members to leave in January, but he could only “hope” that Berbatov will stay. “Summer is a long way off and a lot can happen between now and then,” he said.