The 'disappointment' actually began when Harry bottled it in a game that would have guaranteed us 3rd place in the league. If I remember, he kept a hungry Defoe on the bench, and played for a draw when 4th was already secure, lose or draw. He had a big chance to make history and blew it. We had absolutely nothing to lose by going all out for the win, which would have left Arsenal with nothing to play for in their final game. They would have sat in 4th. How different would it be if it was Arsenal who missed out of the champions league because Chelsea won the final? I like Harry, but to only half admit this by saying 'we should have got higher to be honest', is just deflection, and a bending of the truth.
Can't really disagree with anything he says - it's all pretty much objectively true: We are finishing lower in the league, we play far less attractive football and, out of the 24 players we have signed since he left I think it would be incredibly hard to argue that the genuine successes (and, to give you a clue, Lamela is certainly not a genuine success) come to a number greater than the number of fingers of one hand. Though perhaps not the "to a man, been a disaster" claim of Harry that's pretty awful by any sensible standard. Why he would choose to say it, though, is another matter and makes him look like he's rather desperately trying to get himself out in the public eye and looking for a job. Shame, really. (Also I would think it's clear that he's trying to claim that his going is the cause of the downturn which is a much more dubious claim since I do not know how he wold have coped with having his best players sold out from under him).
I also have very mixed feelings. Running Spurs down, however true most of what he said was, gives me no joy. I think he was our most effective manager of talented players in a long time, essentially because he didn't muck about with them. He let them play. On the other hand, Even if he didn't know we could lose the CL spot, why would he not try to finish above Arsenal, and potentially avoid CL qualification? It's one of the most spectacular mistakes I've ever known a manager to make. His comment was "A draw away is a good result," as I remember. Saying that Eriksen was an awful signing is ridiculous. Awful? One of the top 15 or 20 players in the league for 12 million? Really? I'm sick of that characterization of those seven buys, actually, because it simply isn't true. "Mixed" sums them up nicely. If we sold them today, we'd get about what we paid for them. Surely Rodgers' recent buys should have put ours in perspective. He spent a lot more and got considerably less. Finally, Harry's last team was head and shoulders better than anything since. Only Kane, Eriksen and Lloris would get into it. It's an interesting question whether it was Harry who deserves the credit for putting it together. QPR this year does not support the theory.
He knew that if Chelsea won, 4th wouldn't be good enough. He was just 'certain' that Bayern would beat Chelsea. 'We've done our job, let's see what happens in the final' he said, leaving fate in the hands of Bayern. Very foolish. Especially when in that position. He gave our rival extra incentive to win. (That naivety alone would unsettle me if I were Bale or Modric.) Since when is 4th 'good enough' when you can mathematically achieve 3rd? (This mentality would also unsettle me if I were Bale or Modric.) He potentially had the chance to put two rival teams in danger of missing out on CL football. Chelsea finished 6th that season if I remember, and Arsenal would have needed to qualify if they were 4th and Chelsea lost the final. No team in premier league has seen quality to match Modric or Bale in their positions, let alone Tottenham, since they've left. This puts the replacement buys into perspective. Who would Harry have bought to replace them? Or any other manager for that matter? Man U still haven't replaced Ronaldo, how much have they spent trying? and if it wasn't for Rooney staying where would they be now? They have proven to be irreplaceable players.
..One more thing. (Yes I'm having a rant!) I don't appreciate this rhetoric that Harry and some pundits have that we have been 'saved by the kids', as if the kids were loaned in from another club for the season and not a part of the club. Along with the 'When you look at Kane you have to wonder, where would Spurs be without him?' nonsense. No you don't have to wonder! Kane is Spurs!! As are the rest of the 'kids'. This season has been way less disappointing than it might have been. We have a manager who seems to be aware of the weak areas in the squad and is systematically building from the back. We are re-developing a style or system of play. We have a talisman that is pledging his allegiance to the club and a new stadium being built. The future is bright. (As long as Levy doesn't sell Kane and Lloris.)
Whoah! I didn't say that any particular signing was awful or that they were all awful. Just that a handful of successes out of 24 is awful. (Thereby implying that there *were* successes). And I think the Malignant 7 pretty much have proven to be as bad as is becoming the general concensus (in the papers etc if not on here). Soldado looks a good player. Was he a good signing? No. Clearly not. Paulinho is, I suspect, a better player than we've seen for the most part. And we've seen literally 2 or 3 games from him when he's really looked the part. But a successful signing? Clearly not. I won't go through them all... Of those 7 Eriksen alone looks like a proper good signing. I don't have to imagine a huge metamorphosis like people propose for Lamela to see that he's good enough for a top 4 team and has already contributed a lot in his 2 years. Chadli would be the only other one I think you can make a good argument for. For me he looked clumsy for a season and a half but could get you a goal. He improved second half of this season but I can't see a huge improvement on Siggurdsson who many, including myself, thought was good but not really good enough. A successful signing for Spurs is a player that Chelsea, Man Utd etc come to covet. Those are the only calibre of player that can close that huge chasm and push us into the top four. Running around a lot and closing down the other team will only get you so far.
Very true about the youth system. It's something that's clearly become much more important to the club. The massive investment on the training facilities and the hard work put in by various youth coaches shouldn't be waved away as luck. Clive Allen, Chris Ramsey, Alex Inglethorpe and others deserve a lot of credit, at the very least. Does anyone ever say that Ferguson was saved by the kids when the likes of Beckham, Scholes, Giggs, etc. came through? Man Utd worked very hard tapping them all up! There's a quote in the media today from Nathan Oduwa, a young forward from our academy. He's asked about Pochettino and points out that he's likely to get a chance to prove himself if he puts in the hard work. That's got to be a massive positive when we're recruiting talented kids, even if we're likely to face clubs with more cash.
I don't think there is any evidence that anyone on here disagrees with Redknapp just because of who he is.In fact very few criticize his words just perhaps the quantity and the over bearing ego.
Others have already said pretty much all I can say (I have 'liked' their comments) I would just say that once again Harry has too much to say and most of it boils down to how good he thinks he is. I have never liked people who insist on blowing their own trumpet and that's very much why I don't much like Redknapp. He might be a nice guy personally but in public he is just a big mouth. As regards the current team I think it has far more potential than the the team Harry performed very well with. It's more home grown and younger AND it has finished 5th with all those disaster signings and a new manager. The new stadium is not far off and the youth policy is starting to work. The excitement will soon return.
Lenny, I wasn’t saying you were saying all our signings were bad. I was saying Redknapp was saying that, and he wasn’t right, strictly speaking. I know you think much less of the seven than I do, as do most people, and that’s fine. I happen to think the signings in and of themselves weren’t so bad. The real problem was signing 7 potential starters at once. We should have gotten three or four, and spent the rest on young players.
Given the upheaval with three different managers in less than a twelve month period I was not expecting too much from us last year. In fact coming fifth was quite an achievement - look at the results of Man U, Everton and Liverpool when going through their changes. We were roughly matching results for the previous year until the last 8 games or so - we only took 11 points compared with 18 and 19 in the two previousyears from those games. I like Redknapp - apart from his mouth - but he only achieved oneplace higher than Poch
"but he only achieved one place higher than Poch" This type of comment is red rag to a bull with me. If you seriously believe that is all Redknapp achieved at our club, then you seriously need to have a rethink.
Harry will always divide opinion, nobody can deny that in the main we were 'triffic' to watch. the football we played at times was just a joy to behold. People can say quite rightly that he inherited good players, but he still got them playing entertaining attacking football. We played Champions league football and thoroughly enjoyed the ride. But he also has to be accountable for our failure to play Champions league football again, when we were 3rd and flying and he took his eye off the ball (looking for England) and we crashed and burned. But I prefer to remember the good times and I think I enjoyed watching Harrys team more than almost any other in my lifetime, I am just a little too young to have fully appreciated Bill Nicks Teams, Burkinshaws were great and the David Pleat side of Hoddle and Waddle was exquisite, but Harry is right up there with everyone except Bill. (and I am far too young for Arthur Rowe and Push & Run)
I'm in no way arguing that Harry didn't serve the club well. He was definitely one of our best managers of all time. I just have an issue with him attempting to paint a picture of all disappointment starting after he left, is if he wasn't responsible for any of it. I remember feeling very disappointed when we bottled that chance to go gung ho for 3rd and genuinely upset the status quo. If Arsenal were to miss out on champions league that season, instead of us, who knows how it would have all worked out since. Certain players might not have left, or we may have been able to get better replacements. To me that measures a bigger disappointment than most of what he mentions in his rant. Until he has the humility to fully accept that, I'm less interested in his opinion of how Tottenham have disappointed him since he left.
Calm down dear. Read what I said - I like Redknapp - but deny if you can that he only achieved 4th place in the league. He did a lot more for the club too but I wasn't writing a review of all the good he did - just simply pointing out that Poch in his first season got 5th agains Harry 4th. Only a blind man would not see Harry had a lot of good - and some bad aspects. HIs head was turned by England and as a result we suffered.
"When I took over, they had 2 point from 8 games.......". Did Harry forget to mention that in his interview? He nearly always finds an opportunity to mention that fact. Harry was, and is, our best manager for some time (maybe since El Tel). We haven't played as exciting football since. We haven't finished as high since. We haven't looked as likely too since. A huge part of that is down to Harry and he will always be remembered for that achievement. BUT Like all managers, he made mistakes and is judged on those too. He failed to grab the opportunity to finish 3rd when we had the chance. He ran the same set of players into the ground with his desire not to rotate (settled side: Positive. Knackered/Demotivated Players: Negative). When he did rotate it was almost like he was trying to prove a point that it didn't work (Stevenage in the FA Cup. What the hell was that formation supposed to be!). And a tendency to want to be the centre of attention at all times (just a personal annoyance of mine to be honest).
