Firstly this is not a moan about Harry Redknapp. I am against getting rid of managers unless there is a good reason and don't believe the mid season slump is a good reason. However mistakes have been made: 1) loaning out Piennar (spelling?) 2) Not replacing Pav with a striker who is a proven scorer. 3) Not bringing in 2 centre backs when we have king and gallas injury prone and had Dawson just returning to fitness. 4) Not having cover for Lennon. 5)Appalling squad rotation. And we need to learn from them for next season. My main query is this; I believe that the England speculation had a massive effect on our season for the worst. As soon as Roy Hodgson has 2 bad results the press are going to tear him apart...some have aready started with taking the piss out of the way he speaks, criticising him for not being harry redknapp, laying into him for being appalling at Liverpool etc. and then the 'Arry for ingerland' headlines will start again and we will be back to square one. Unless Harry Redknapp comes out and says he does not want the England job (which he won't and probably can't as it would look bad) what's the point of keeping him? I honestly think that by November at the latest the knives will be out for Hodgson so I think that in order to save the club from chaos next season we should change to Moyes. I don't say this lightly and the England job and future speculation is the only reason I say it but I don't want this mess to be repeated next season. What do others think?
I have a sneaky feeling that Levy has plans for our Harry. Ones that don't include his future with Spurs!
I hope he goes. I'm thankful for the spirit he brought to the club, and for reminding us that football is a team game, and for bringing some balance to the side. These are things that any half decent manager would have done for us, but I am thankful that Harry is a half decent manager. What I have not liked is the fact that his own self-promotion has been the long-term detriment of the team, and this has been starkly highlighted by his blind belief that he was going to get the England job. That put all kinds of media pressure on him that we really didn't need at the business-end of the season. His legacy will be that he showed what can be done with our club and this squad, but let us not be fooled into believing that Harry is the only manager who can keep us competing for top 4 slots. And, no, I don't buy into this bollocks (spouted by some) that Spurs is too small a club for the big-name managers to want to come and manage us. There are plenty of top managers out there, and only a very few clubs that can pay Man £ity wages. We may not be able to pay silly money, but we hardly pay shabby wages to the right people. And if we can maintain a regular place in the CL, everything will pay for itself. We haven't had a good season this. Both Chelsea and Arsenal have been weakened, and yet here we are struggling to finish above either of them. NUFC has shown just how weak they are, by making a challenge of their own. If we had genuinely moved forward this season, we would have finished with 75+ points, and we'd be comfortably in third. Measuring ourselves against Chelsea and Arsenal is not a good indicator. We haven't improved this season, and I think we may even have gone backwards, as we may well find out next season, if the likes of Chelsea, Arsenal, and 'Pool improve. I'm not saying that he should be sacked, but I would be annoyed with Levy if he extends Redknapp's contract.
I doubt many of the things the OP wanted were possible. If a player isn't playing and is angling for game time, sending him on loan is one of the only feasible alternatives rather than have them moping around the first team. It is also obviously a good opportunity for them to get experience. We don't know the exact reasons behind Pienaar's loan, and it may have had something to do with getting Saha too (perhaps the only goalscorer we could have got, and he didn't do that bad did he?) As far as rotation goes, that's fine providing you could guarantee the same points we did get with our 'first 11' (whatever that means). There have been plenty of people on here saying we should play our best team whenever available. We could also not have foreseen Dawson's injury and problems and injuries to so many centre backs at the same time. Of course Bassong was loaned, but who is to say what he was pushing for and again, which centre backs were available in Jan (Nelsen hasn't been too bad and again may have been the best we could get at the time). For reasons posted elsewhere, I also think we've been particularly unlucky with results and if we'd received half the points we should have got we wouldn't be needing to have this discussion, or at least we'd be having it under different circumstances and pressures.
Mr.Redknapp is now damaged goods, the mere fact that we spend so much time discussing him tells you something. A lot of the time football management is about luck. The luck of being in the right place at the right time, luck with decisions on the pitch going for or against you, luck with player injuries and so on. The manager affects things by assembling a good squad, keeping them motivated, using the right tactics and generally building the club in the eyes of the fans and the outside world. There is no doubt that under Mr.Redknapp Spurs have assembled a good squad. I personally believe he motivates them very well and that for me is his contribution. When it comes to tactics and building the club, I think he fails. On that basis we have the squad, (Thanks Mr.Redknapp and his predecessors) what we need now is someone who can use this squad to it's best advantage and build the perception of the club to the point where Spurs are taken seriously by the whole sport. Levy does his bit and the stadium plans show the serious intent, but can a club like Spurs afford to employ a manager who has no skills in diplomacy, none in self assessment, and little in the way of tactical awareness. I don't think so.
It's been said many times, by many of us. Harry should realise his tactical limitations - and limited they certainly are. If he can't, or won't, through his own pride, then I agree with Spurf. It's time for us both to move on. Some of the players may be upset initially, but if we bring in the right man, they'll soon get over it. As I've already said, I get the feeling that what we may think, or want, could be irrelevant. I believe that Levy will not renew his contract, anyway.
"Once we're down to 10 men five minutes into the second-half, you'd take a draw all day long" 'Nuff said for me.
I think it's as close to a tactic as 'Arry will ever get, NSS. Frankly, he looked like a rabbit caught in headlights yesterday.
Mancini wouldn't. Ferguson wouldn't. Just because you've had a man sent off is no reason to give up on thinking a win is possible.
I thought that Redknapp actually did quite well to leave things alone, yesterday. We were totally dominant and changing things may have risked that. Defoe probably should've come on instead of Parker, but we risked losing the midfield and possibly the game if he'd have made the move early on.
"Mancini wouldn't. Ferguson wouldn't." Exactly. You'll never win anything if you're scared of losing. Billy Nick knew that.
Settling for a point yesterday was stupidity - a win would have put us in a better position, Villa were hardly threatening and are on a terrible run of form, but we were too conservative after the sending off and then decided to shut up shop instead of try to seal the win. A win would've seen us focused on our result against Fulham and our result only, instead we're watching Arsenal/West Brom, Newcastle/Everton and potentially the Champions League final.
A draw is no better than a loss for us. Either would still have required us to win our last game to clinch 4th, and require Arsenal to lose in order for us to take 3rd. The fact that Redknapp was obviously too stupid to work that one out worries me. An intelligent manager learns from his mistakes, a stupid one keeps making the same mistakes over and over.
Sorry Croydon, but there's no way that you can say we settled for a draw yesterday. We absolutely battered Villa after we went down to 10 men. I don't think that Redknapp wanted to change anything because it was working so well, not because he didn't want to risk the loss. We dominated the second half and had Villa on the ropes. The main complaint that I'd have is that our set-pieces are utter ****e, especially our corners. Why nothing's been done about that is just beyond me. Awful coaching, frankly.
How many times this season have we watched Spurs dominate and spend loads of time around and just outside the oppos penalty area? It's like standing outside a door in the dark looking for the key. You won't get in until somebody turns on a light. Once you have made it to their area you can't hang about passing this way and that, al la Barcelona can you! because we do not have a Messi in a Spurs shirt. Most goals are scored from very fast movement with the defenders unable to react in time. I didn't see much of that, did you? Pass and move is the Spurs game, at the moment it is more pass and hope.
I think Harry spends too much time thinking about his own reputation. The way he thinks is always governed by it.
That's fair Spurf, but I thought it was quite telling that we improved once Rose was dismissed and Bale was forced to play out wide. We suddenly had a load of space in the middle, which seemed to be provided by the removal of one of our own players.
Barcelona have Messi, and in normal times, Villa - both great finishers, as a rule. We don't really have anybody who can be relied upon to get you a goal when you really need one.
PNP - no one is saying that the players settled for a draw. 'Arry did, though. At least he said he did.
