Also - with all this "Harry signings vs DoF signings" debate I would really like anyone to go through our signings and, one by one, judge in very simplistic terms whether each signing was a hit or a miss. Cos Harry's signings, a couple of years into his reign, had a much higher hit-rate than the DoF system delivered in the couple of years before him. It was quite stark as I recall (something like 20-25% hits for the DoF compared to more like 30-35% hits for Harry). I would not be at all surprised if Harry bought more successes than the DoF system either immediately before or after him. I guess the question would then simply be about the sustainability of it. Which system made the most profit/least loss? Probably the DoF, I'd have thought. But how about factoring in the 30-50m that getting CL football brings in as part of the profit/loss calculations on transfers?
I think if England were a Prem team you'd be a brave man to bet on them getting CL football, wouldn't you? Much more likely they'd be huffing and puffing over a EL spot with the likes of us and Everton.
Players are a success if the manager wants them...in theory and practice few managers want all the players they inherit so a turn over is inevitable when managers change at a club...a defined playing style can not develop and no one has a clue what to do. we bought 7 players last summer and they have played under 3 different managers in 13 months ... each with their own ideas and philosophies and until the club choose a manager because they want his style of football to run through our club then our player choices will always be hit and miss. under Sugar we had... Venables; shreeves; Ossie (all attacking in ossies case without defending) Frances ( way more defense minded) Ramos (God Knows) Graham (Boring as ****e) Under Levy we had ... Hoddle (attack minded); Pleat (?); Santini (Boring); Jol (attack minded) Ramos (attacking but no tactics); Redknapp (attacking); AVB (high line tedious football style); Sherwood (attacking but no tactics); Pochetinno (high line attacking style) There seems little consistancy from manager to manager since the mid 90's and tbh I will be amazed if we have the same manager in a years time
Why,Poch is doing alright so far,and needs time like every Manager ,De Boer might be a lame duck,like LVG is starting to look at United,he's unproven in the P/L,Poch has some experience
Too early to say that LVG is a lame duck tots as it's too early to say Pocket's a success. I just feel that a Dutch boss would have been better for us and on a personal level has been excellent for Ajax. I'd love to see Pocket successful believe me as I've already stated that he must turn himself into a top coach as we are running out of options and FDB would fit that bill.
I initially wanted FDB too but it's impossible to tell if he'd have done better or worse than Poch's first few games for us or whether he'd be a better fit or not in the long run. Poch has Prem experience on his side where as FDB has a winning mentality at Ajax (though they've had a below-par start to the Eredivisie season). I'm very excited for our season under Poch, I think he's a really talented manager and will prove that in time with us, we just have to give him time.
Slightly off topic (to your question) but I can't find it at the moment, however there was this article which contained a spreadsheet of Redknapps transfers from his first mangerial appointment until he left ourselves, outlining each transfer in (and out) and it showed overall he made a profit, which disputes the claim Redknapp overspent during his managerial career (before QPR).
Here we go https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AmOzhDdcSE4GdEQ1OThfZWRxM2VOOVRFQTdXWUFFWWc&hl=en#gid=8
Yep, and that's exactly the reason why Redknapp will be popular with club owners. His lack of tactical know-how plays a very lonely second fiddle to his ability to make money from transfers.
Tactics are over rated. Sherwood will tell you that. Anyway Redknapps has taken West Ham, Portsmouth and ourselves to a position that won't be beaten for a very long time, hopefully (for us) we will still be alive next time we reach the champions league.
According to SoccerexTransferReview we have become the Britain's Premier selling club . Nearly £300 million sales in 6 years . Thatcher-ism perfected , no wonder we never win anything.
That's not Thatcherism. She wouldn't have bought any new players and would've sold the ground, the name, the history and probably the fans, too.
Club owners like Redknapp because his abilities as a manager make a lot of his players worth more. He does well and improves a number of those in his squad, so they cost more to buy. His supposed lack of tactical know-how is a myth, in my opinion. Sure, he'll make mistakes sometimes, but who doesn't? You simply don't stay around the top tier of the English league for as long as he has if you don't know what you're doing.
Interesting reading. So many of his buys for us were at least useful. Very few out-and-out failures, as I thought. I'm now more convinced that he bought less lemons than the scattergun approach that a DoF provides. Less huge successes maybe but with less purchases overall perhaps you'd expect that. Also saw that he signed Steve Claridge for Bournemouth in like 1988. Can't argue with signing a player that another 24 or so other managers would then want to sign! (No exaggeration - his list of clubs is insane).
