Your point about his position was wrong, as you didn't know where he played under Ramos or where he plays now. No team in the Premier League has back-up that's equal to Modric, Parker and Bale and there's probably only one that arguably has back-up equal to Adebayor and that's City. Players like Sandro, Gallas, Dawson, Kranjcar, Saha, Defoe, Cudicini and the like are at least equal to the back-up that many of the teams around us have. They're better than a lot of teams first choice players.
1) Of course, we've seen it happen tonnes of times but it wears off, see Liverpool at the end of last season, or Sunderland now. It goes nowhere to explaining the 30 games Harry had in that season. 2) He played centre mid for Croatia, as I pointed out and left wing for Dinamo, as you pointed out. At what point was he "out of position" for us? 3) Sandro's good enough to fill in for Parker but he's been unfortunate with injuries this season. If you watched our games against AC last season you wouldn't doubt him. Livermore's our 5th choice centre mid behind Luka, Parker, Huddlestone and Sandro but when he's played he's done well, it's equivalent of bringing up Evans for United. Kranjcar's a good player, he's had some good games for us but I wouldn't mind seeing him leave for a pacey winger in the summer. Defoe is our top scorer this season and has 8 goals in 17 league games(only 8 starts) which is very impressive for "backup". Rose is our backup left back, he's barely played because Ekotto's nearly always fit but when he does he's never made any mistakes so what more could we want? Add Saha, Huddlestone, Gallas and Dawson to our list of non starting 11 and it looks a lot rosier.
Hang your head in shame Harry: You have presided over Tottenham's most successful season since 1984. You have signed for the most part proven, low risk, premiership players. (What were you thinking of?) You are the most successful English manager in the Premiership. Bale just "developed himself." From LB to LMF. Modric just "developed himself." From LMF to playmaker. You have bought on the likes of Walker Livermore Townsend into either first team players or serious contenders. For those of us who have watched Spurs for a long time, you have delivered a side that eclipses the Hoddle side of the 80's and is probably as good as our double winning side, arguably our greatest team ever. You have been universally lauded by players and other managers as the only candidate for one of the biggest jobs in football. Please Mr Levy, get rid of this fraud we need yet another period of instability and a mid table finish!
Harry`s strength is man management and motivation, his tactical astuteness could be questioned in my opinion. There have been times when I have witnessed the wrong tactics, formations etc used and I have been left wondering WTF is going on. If Harry goes then it would very interesting to see what a top top drawer boss with exceptional tactical skills could achieve with our squad of players.
Harry has solved the left sided problem Spurs had for about 5 seasons, oddly the seasons Jol and Ramos were in charge. Harry turned Kyle Walker a CB at Sheff Utd, in about 12 months into the clubs no.1 RB, displacing a seasoned Croatian International and vying for the England spot with Micah Richards and Glen Johnson. Harry has been able to get Adebayor, Mr. Trouble Nobody Else Wanted, to play football again. Ade credits him with it in a very recent interview after a game, actually saying "I love the man"....don't hear that too often. Wenger turned down Modric, Van der Vaart, Parker and Saha. I'm a tad bored now correcting you, but thanks anyway for your somewhat inadequately researched opinion, perhaps you'd like to air one armed with the full facts now.
First off I just want to say that I am mighty glad Redknapp is our manager. You cannot possibly argue that he hasn't done a brilliant job and I really don't like the idea of Spurs trying to replace him if he goes for the England job. But. The Bale thing is the one big blot on his copybook in my opinion. Because he only got played at LB when it was forced on Harry. Then, if I remember correctly, wasn't there an injury to Modric when Benny came back and that's why Bale then played there? I'm sure I remember there being some factor that pushed that decision. And when he did play there Harry was insisting that LB was going to be his position long-term. Now I might be forgetting some periods of injury (apart from the two big ones when he first came) - was Bale injured when Harry first arrived? Don't think so. And the thing with Bale was that we Spurs fans had seen how good he was. He looked electric when he first joined - he scored a few (against Man Utd and Arsenal) from LB then got injured in October or something of that season. Why couldn't Harry see that he had such a good left winger under his nose?
Spot on analysis. If I was smart enough I would of written this because its EXACTLY what I think. Spurs will be lucky is Harry leaves and they can get a top notch manager. Then they might go places.
Which says it all. Too dumb to write it. Too dumb to respond to it with no degree of bias. Too dumb too realise that Spurs will finish as the top London side.
"If I was smart enough..." I know it's already been said - but that is just priceless. Mate - if you were smart enough you'd realise that every point in his post (initially convincing-looking to an outsider) has been refuted or seriously undermined. Harry brought Ade, VDV, Kaboul, Parker to the club - undoubtedly some of our "best players" Modric had NOT been here for a year when he took over - about two or three months in fact. There is nothing wrong with signing established, able players at very reasonable rates. The fourth paragraph is a non-point. The fifth paragraph overlooks the new money at City. It is now a lot harder to finish 4th than it was when Jol was here (and when, by the way, we didn't). Not only that but anyone "smart enough" will see that our team now is much better than it was under Jol (and, importantly, Comolli). The final paragraph about injuries has also been shown to be, at best, exaggerated. So why would you aspire to be "smart enough" to write what has been shown to be so full of holes? You need to aim a bit higher, I reckon.
i made a mistake about modric, big wow, people said no-one was interested at the time spurs bought him, utterly false. croatians knew he would be a world beater, but how could they reject £16.5m? it is easier to finish in the top 4 now, than when jol was in charge because chelsea, liverpool and arsenal are all shadows of the teams they were before. chelsea under mourinho were unstoppable, arsenal had henry and the gang, liverpool were champions league holders (though 5th at the time). the league as a whole is more competitive, but the top 4 are less competitve in europe, hence the likelyhood of only having 1 team in the quarters. ac milan were poor last season, this season they have been a changed team, same with inter, they were a shambles under benitez. my point about buying experience is that you're fine for the next 2-3 years, but after that your money is down the drain on the likes of parker, gallas etc. at the time jol was angry he got bale instead of martin petrov when he asked for a left midfielder. it pays to invest in youth. in time i will be proven to be right about spurs doing well to finish in the top 4, i believe both chelsea and arsenal will finish in the top 4. quote me on that if you wish. i believe this is as good as it will get for spurs, i dont take pleasure in saying that as i've enjoyed watching spurs on sky this season, just an observation. next season chelsea and liverpool will kick on and, unless serious investment is undertaken by levy, i think spurs will be overtaken. again, time will tell.
Cannot understand your logic there. Why/ how will Chelsea and 'Pool kick on? Chelsea are aging. Terry, Drogba, Lampard, Malouda and co aren't at their best. They have a £50m flop upfront and a defender in Luiz who can't actually defend. 'Pool may have won the Carling Cup but I still can't help but see over-priced British talent - Adam, Henderson, Downing and most of all Carroll. Stevie G doesn't boss the games anymore like he used to in my opinion and Carragher is finished. Our squad, compared to many others is a lot younger than most in the league, add to the fact we've got some great youngsters coming through too, we're currently above both teams and play far better football. Bar the Modric situation earlier in the year, our squad also seems very settled and there's no indication we'll lose any star players in the summer (perhaps Ade if we don't get on a perm - but we all know a top draw striker is priority when the window opens - and perhaps a new manager! :S). Surely it's Liverpool and Chelsea who need "serious investment" though if they're to "kick on".
It's very simple, just like the game itself. Ramos shows you how a Manager can damage a team. Redknapp shows you how a manager can enable a team. Managers job: Pick the players, get them playing to their potential, line the team up in a way that enables a good performance. Ramos failed in all three. Redknapp succeeds in two and sometimes all three. How great managers are is a subjective judgement as there are so many variables. 40.000 words will not prove it one way or the other, so I will leave it at that.
Modric was bought with no other team willing to match the £16mill bid we put forward. It doesn't matter how many Croatian football fans you know that rated him, the fact is that none of the other big clubs rated him at £16mill when we bought him. No it's not. The 70 points we gained to get 4th under Harry would have been enough to get 4th in all the seasons Jol was in charge of us for. It would have been enough in 7 of the last 10 years, infact in 06-07(a Jol year) it'd have been enough for 3rd! The big 4 were untouchable at the time because no one else came close to the 68 points it took to take 4th place in most years, we came close once and Everton did it when 59 points would've been enough to finish above one of the big 4. The experience we have bought have all been low cost or free and none of them are on long contracts so they won't be a drain on our money once they become past it. We've spent more on buying in young talent like Sandro, Naughton, Walker, Falque and Coulibaly in recent years so we get the best of both worlds with experienced players to raise our game and young players breaking into the first team. Bale has turned great for us in the long term but you misunderstand the situation. Jol wanted a left winger because we'd had none for several seasons in a row. Bale was not really a left winger at the time and certainly wasn't good enough at 17 to go straight into our first team and play every game. So we'd do well to finish in the top 4, yet we are currently 3rd but Harry isn't a great manager? Tell you what, if we finish 3rd will you admit that Harry's done a very good job with us and is a top manager? This is all great stuff but what's it got to do with the price of fish? You're supposed to be replying to what we've said. You created a thread about whether our improvement in recent years has anything to do with Harry and without properly addressing what we've said back you've changed the subject to our longterm ability to stay in the top 4.
There's a fundamental problem with Swamp's argument. He wants to say two things that contradict one another. 1) Harry is not responsible for Spurs' current position. 2) We are in a position that we will not better for many years to come (despite, most likely, a change of manager). So whilst Harry has nothing to do with our current success the future without Harry will be nowhere near as good. Err...
