My point about Modric stemmed from the fact he actually ended up staying in the end - I think that's down to Harry and what he could do with Spurs - and I wouldnt mind betting some of your dip in form has come from players considering their options if he was to go.
To be honest we've not played well in the cup all year have we? It was a struggle to beat Stevenage ffs. Also it seems that Harry is being true to his history of failing after a while. I think he will go now whatever happens in a league that I'm not at all confident of.
It was Levy who kept Modric more than 'Arry. If anything, 'Arry has been pissing our players off - whilst Bent is a serial flouncer-outer, and Bostock, Taarabt and Boateng are toy-throwers par excellence - the list of players who've been unhappy under him at Spurs is quite long (at various times, Kranjcar, Corluka, Bassong, Naughton, Rose, Defoe, and Pavlyuchenko), which is quite an alarming state of affairs, as well as the most damning indictment of his inability to rotate a squad effectively.
Well you follow the team inside out so I guess you're write. I still thing he has a strong bearing on your success, dip in form, and future depending on where he goes though. I can't comment on his selection policies as I havent watched you enough. From an outsider their seems to be a general sense of apathy, loss of confidence and general confusion due to his position with England.
It's an opinion shared by quite a few Spurs fans, Sharpe. Redknapp was given a holiday paid for by our chairman, following his court case. Capello went at around that time, but it meant that the manager didn't have much contact with the squad. He returned for the game itself, which was our 5-0 win over Newcastle. We've been **** since that, basically. Coincidence? I doubt it. Redknapp's lack of squad rotation's probably playing it's part too, though.
Interesting. He needs to lay his cards on the table so people can focus on winning again. Right need sleep!
The sense of malaise creeping in can be directly attributed to the England speculation - the only other way to drop off that fast is to do the guaranteed season-killer that is winning the Carling Cup, which we obviously didn't do. Harry's inability to rotate the squad properly has had so many knock-on effects, both this season and last: The main pool of 14 players he picks are burnt out come March/April, the reserves are rusty due to lack of playing time, and several players are disenchanted due to lack of opportunities. Potentially that could have been addressed in the Europa League, but due to numerous injuries to players like Kranjcar and Sandro, we ended up taking the genius decision of fielding a lot of youngsters - often not utilising them correctly, such as playing right winger Andros Townsend at left back, and Harry Kane as an out-and-out striker when he plays in the Sheringham/Rooney role. If he leaves, it's a fresh slate - which is why a manager that can rotate the squad properly and get the most out of them is crucial. That way the first team will be kept sweet, and the reserves will be happier to play a reduced role in the early season as they feel they could feature in the latter stages.
Exactly, Croydon. Look at Pienaar and Bale. One's doing the business for a team that look far worse without him, whereas the other's lost his way and looks jaded. It appears that Redknapp wants Bale to drift inside a lot and stop doing what he does best, which is actually where Pienaar's strengths lie, ironically.
Good points. And come to think it your players did look off pace today and perhaps that is indeed because they're shagged. Chelsea looked alarmingly good today.
We can make any half decent team look great at the minute! but lets not forget it was only weeks ago we made Chelsea look ordinary on their home ground and created about 5 clear cut chances and missed two open goals and their fans were moaning their quest for 4th was over. Its such a fine line in football matches between a close result and a hammering but our form has become so bad that we basically look beaten once the whistle is blown (at the start).
There's a limit to that - Neil Warnock doesn't have much in his locker other than bawling at his players, and that didn't work for Sheffield United or QPR in the Premier League. The likes of Terry and Rooney have also run rings around their managers/clubs in the last couple of years to their own benefit, too.
Amazing how peoples perceptions change after the disastrous result. The OP says we didn't look like winning in the first half even. Er? Are you suggesting that VdV aimed for Terry on the line, or for the post rather than the goal... those were opportunities that could just as easily have gone in as not, the keeper was beaten on both occasions and a lot of the time that happens it doesn't get blocked or hit a defender. To suggest otherwise is to believe in some cosmic force other than bad luck. On the other hand Chelski had one clear cut opportunity and the ball went in about the only small area of the goal it could have gone, such are the margins of success and failure (bit like that away match at Newcastle where their equaliser went in just about the only place possible to score). That's unlucky and all this talk of not having the desire to win / bad tactics etc is simply altering your perception of the game in order to meet the facts of the rather unpleasant scoreline, as if Harry's "bad management" somehow arranged for an appalling ref display. Some of the stuff written here tonight is making me nearly as angry as the "ref"... nobody could argue Chelski deserved their lead and everyone in the world knows they were given a goal for no reason. That changed the rest of the game, where yet more decisions went against us - you can't pretend those decisions had no effect on the game and the mentality of our team. And if that means we're victims then actually we are. Grow up some of you... in order to have got to a very comfortable 3rd in the league we must have been doing a lot of things very well, yet there seems to be more criticism of what's going on now than praise for our previous achievement... as if we had some sort of divine right to 3rd spot (in order to lose 3rd we had to be there!), and if Harry is so bad how come we got there then? And may I also remind you that if you look at the stats of many (probably most) of the matches in this poor run were on, we've actually dominated games and had significantly more shots than the opposition and have been rather unlucky not to have picked up more points.
your talking about things that could have happened...and little margins of error that could have been different if the ball was here instead of there....about being grateful for what Harry has done..... everyone else is bothered about what happened today!! and what that means for the next match.
