David Bentley believes he has lost his place in the England squad because he is being played out of position for his club. The right winger shook his head when Juande Ramos, the Tottenham Hotspur head coach, asked him to play at right back when he came on as a substitute during the 1-0 defeat by Hull City on Sunday and has been employed in several positions by the Spaniard this season.

Ramos came under fire after the defeat by Hull confirmed Tottenham's worst start to a season since 1912, but he met club officials yesterday and did enough to convince them that he can turn things around. It is less certain, however, that Damien Comolli, the club's sporting director, will be in his job by the new year. Tottenham are considering revamping their management structure, which could bring an the end to the continental model that is employed at White Hart Lane.

In mitigation, Ramos's decision to play Bentley out of position was down to Tottenham's failings in the transfer market. Bentley started the season at left wing, where the club have no obvious candidate to play, and he was then played as a second striker behind Darren Bent, before Roman Pavlyuchenko was signed from Spartak Moscow in August. Bentley complained to Ramos, who started the winger in his preferred position in the next match against Wisla Krakow in the Uefa Cup two weeks ago.

When Fabio Capello left out David Beckham from his first squad, against Switzerland, Bentley failed to take the opportunity to claim the right-wing position. His performance was average and he missed out against France in Paris after it was decided to play Beckham from the start. Since then, Bentley has arguably been surpassed by Theo Walcott, who scored a hat-trick against Croatia last month, and Shaun Wright-Phillips.

Bentley joined Tottenham with the approval of Ramos, although the latter did not want Fraizer Campbell, who is on a season-long loan deal from Manchester United, after the club were unable to sign a second experienced forward, bringing the position of Comolli into question. The club are now considering whether they should revert to using a traditional chief scout to identify players in conjunction with a manager.

The statistics show that Frank Arnesen, Comolli's predecessor, signed 24 players during his season as sporting director four years ago. Four of them remain but only Tom Huddlestone and Michael Dawson play regularly for the first team. Comolli signed 13 players for the first team during his first two years, of whom six have left and four do not have squad numbers this season. No decision on the future structure has been taken, but the club may make an announcement at their annual meeting, which is expected to take place in the next two months.

Tottenham have two points from their first seven league matches. Their worst record after ten league games is three points, which came from three draws in the top flight in the 1912-13 season. They finished that campaign seventeenth, avoiding relegation.

Paul Duffen, the Hull chairman and a Tottenham fan, said: “The idea of a director of football is very amusing to us. The clubs with the biggest problems in this country have directors of football.

“I feel you need a shallow hierarchy, total accountability, with nowhere to hide, good communication and you don't want an interim layer between the boardroom and the management. The extra layer tends to obviate responsibility and nobody really knows who is accountable.

“I feel very sad for Spurs. You can feel the club is in disarray. There seems to be a disconnection between various elements. The players on the pitch are trying their best but it seems to be a bit rudderless.”

Spurs among top seeds

Tottenham Hotspur are among the top seeds for the group phase of the Uefa Cup, which takes place in Nyon, Switzerland, today, ruling out the possibility of an intriguing meeting with Seville or Hamburg, who have both been given the same seeding. Juande Ramos, the Tottenham head coach, won the competition with Seville in two of the past three seasons and the German team are managed by Martin Jol, the former Tottenham manager.

Clubs from the same nation cannot be drawn together, but the English teams could meet Standard Liège, who knocked out Everton. Manchester City are in the third pot, while Portsmouth and Aston Villa are in the fourth pot. The top three teams from each of the eight groups will progress to the knockout stages, where they will be joined by the eight teams finishing third in the Champions League group phase.