Based on what? In the last few years, we've brought in: Van Der Vaart, Brad Friedel, Scott Parker, Emmanuel Adebayor, Louis Saha, Steven Pienaar, William Gallas, Younes Kaboul, Eidur Gudjohnsen, Niko Kranjcar, Sandro, Peter Crouch, Kyle Naughton and Kyle Walker which by all accounts have been approved (or chosen) by Harry seeing most have played in the first team, not to mention held onto our prized asset Luka Modric through thick and thin. I call that pretty bloody good support, not to mention the pay packet he's on!
There are only two entities that are not heartily sick of Harry's ever open gob. Harry, and The Press. Everybody else, from the Chairman, on down to the fans, has heard more than enough "pearls" from our current, erstwhile manager.
No sorry I don't agree. In recent transfer windows our spending has been at the bargain basement. Levy did not back him , so we ended up with a bunch of old geezers, the good, bad and ugly. The bigger spending came in his first year after Levy had sold off the better players. First year amazing backing, after that compared to our rivals pretty poor. A little more determination from Levy may have resulted in Spurs in the champs league for 3 years in row and the money gained, would have covered any investment.
I don't believe he ever did this and just because everyone says he did does not alter my view. The press linked him with the job as soon as Capello quit and all I ever heard Harry say was that it is an honour to be linked, but he was 100% committed to Spurs and unless or until he was offered it, he didn't have to decide if he would take it. That is exactly the same position that Hodgson took, and I bet Albion fans don't go on about him flirting with the job. He was keeping his options open and that is right and proper. Not once did he demean the position of being Spurs manager, quite the reverse.
I'd say it was Harry who wanted the old geezers And of course it was Levy who wanted Modric to stay while Harry pretty much said let him leave
I, of course, respect your opinion, HD. However, as I pointed out earlier, a certain Mr Levy seems to disagree. As nobody has been closer to events as they unfolded, I have to say that he obviously believes that Harry was prepared to jump ship, and consequently took his eye off things at Spurs. Culminating in our throwing away a virtually certain CL place. There can be no other rational explanation, in my view, for Levy's dramatic change of stance re Redknapp.
Sorry, this is utter nonsense, you encourage the team or soften any blows accordingly as the season unfolds. There are reasons to criticise Harry but not about this.
That is entirely possible, but I think Levy's cold feet (if that is what is going on) could be about the fact that he didn't handle our poor run very well, regardless of any links with England. It was failure to get us CL footie that may have done for Redknapp (especially as it was in the bag almost) in the same way that it did for Jol. Possibly Levy no longer believes Harry is the man to take us further.
That would be fair enough if he did just that, but is more about justifying his position. there is a simple solution: he could just say less. A lot less.
I will speak louder Astonishing! Did you not hear him say, no English manager could turn that down. Pretty clear! If offered I'm going. He did not have to say that. All he needed to say and all he should have said is: Spurs are my club and that is what I am concentrating on. NOTHING ELSE! not a bloody peep!
Points! Don't talk about bloody points. The point is the points, too much blah blah and not enough points. Harry makes too many points while Spurs do not get quite enough points. Get my point. Points!
To be fair to Harry it can't have been easy with the England job. It's clearly a job he wanted, hence the comment he made about no Englishman turning it down. He probably felt (rightly or wrongly) that he had to show some sort of public interest towards the position in order to be considered - which he clearly wanted to be. Of course ideally he would have done what Pardew did and immediately refuted any interest in the job from the moment speculation began. But Harry clearly wanted the England job and to be able to come back to Spurs if England didn't work out for him, but that left the club, players and supporters in a state of uncertainty about their immediate and long-term future. It boils down to what others have been saying - Harry does what is best for Harry and damn the others. We put up with this (and his love of the media) when it doesn't negatively affect us but now it has in a clearly quite serious manner then we are rightly pissed off, as are the likes of Levy if they have any sense. Harry isn't a perfect manager but he has been good for us by and large. I've said it before and I'll say it again - I don't think we'll improve on him this summer if we get rid of him. We are at a stage where we need to push on, not rebuild (it'll be somewhat different if we lose key players this summer but atm we look like we might hold on) and a change of manager that goes wrong will set us back years. Next year, with no tax evasion charges looming, hopefully no health problems, and almost certainly no England-related speculation then we might see the best of us again with Harry at the helm. If it all goes wrong, and especially if it's because of Harry being unable to keep his mouth shut on all and sundry, then we could well have seen the back of him by Christmas. And if that is the case then he deserves the boot.
That has got to be Levy's biggest fear (unless he already has someone else in mind, of course). However, I would balance this against the damage that may already have been done, principally in the way he will now be viewed by the players, given that he was so clearly determined to get the England job. The other thing is that, despite the front that he puts on for the cameras, he is bound to be reeling from having been black-balled by the FA. I mean, it's not as if they even considered him for the job! That will hurt Redknapp, I don't care what he, or anyone on his behalf tells me otherwise. I just cannot help but think that too any bridges may already have been burned. So, even if it is the case that we cannot get someone better than him (although I, personally, doubt that), can we afford to stick with him?
As I keep saying Spurf, plenty to moan about, but not complaining about why change the tune from 'challenge for the title' to 'we'll do well to finish 4th'...over a period of a few months what else is anyone supposed to say???
