First of all I'd like to thank the Spurs mods for allowing me to return to post on your board. I understand I crossed the line and upset many posters last time I was here so I was rightfully banned. I'm not here to WUM I just want some decent debate. Obviously I don't like Spurs, Arsenal or West Ham but heck I live with a Spurs fan and Arsenal fan so banter is common theme. ___________________________________________ Anyway there has been one question I've wanted to ask you since Redknapp's sacking. Do you feel in hindsight it was justified? I've never been a big Redknapp fan and feel he took too much credit for others hard work. I.e Tony Carr at West Ham and then Martin Jol at Spurs. When you look at the spine of the Spurs team and the talented players Jol brought in on small fees I'd go on a limb and say he's been your best manager for years. Bale, Modric, Lennon, Dawson, Assoue Ekotto, Huddlestone the list goes on really. So yeah. Do you think you were right to sack Harry and how does he rank amongst others?
First of all, welcome back. Most of us aren't very keen on Chelsea or Arsenal, but always enjoy a bit of " in depth discussion" with their fans. In short, yes. As you've already said, Harry was always very quick to claim the credit for everything when all was going well. But, he was equally as quick to blame everybody, and everything else, when it was going wrong. The final straw for me was his blatant courting of the England job, along with the total lack of concern or loyalty to the club. This coupled with his refusal to accept one iota of the blame for our subsequent loss of form, 3rd place, and ultimately, of course, our place in the CL. if he'd stuck his hand up and said that he was sorry to the Spurs fans for taking his eye off the ball, and what happened, I might still have thought that he had to go, but at least I would have respected the guy. If you combine that with his all too apparent lack of tactical knowledge, then yes, the right decision was made. Whether taking AVB as his replacement was the right move, I have my doubts. Obviously, I hope that I'm wrong, and that he achieves what he didn't get the time to do at Chelsea.
Welcome back. Was it justified? Yes. It wasn't worth keeping him risking another season being derailed by speculation as soon as Hodgson loses a couple of games for England, especially when the manager didn't share the club's vision of the future and was constantly pulling up in front of SSN reporters for interviews. Did he deserve to be sacked? No, he had a very good record for us and ultimately it came down to this season being an ideal time to change manager so it was a case of either taking a risk or sticking with him for the longterm... providing Hodgson wasn't sacked. Jol did well but he wasn't signing those players, it was Arnesen and then Comolli(as much as he also got things wrong).
I'm no fan of AVB but one thing he does do is talk the club up. Jose did the same with us at a time when the media were trying to make out we were inferior to clubs like United, Arsenal and Liverpool. He brought the fans together. I also thought Jol did that at Spurs. I never got the impression Arry cared about Spurs as much as his predecessors. When West Ham went down I remember him saying "For me it will always be one of the great clubs in English Football" and he made out what a great achievement it would be for Spurs to finish above Chelsea and Arsenal as they'd "never done it before". I always thought he tried to make out Spurs were inferior, that would have infuriated me as a fan
Redknapp showed a distinct lack of loyalty and then basically forced himself out of the job. He knows what Levy's like as a negotiator, so trying to force his hand via the media and the use of an agent with a bad reputation was always a bad idea. Doing it while the chairman was out of the country dealing with the death of his mother was the equivalent of handing in his notice, frankly. He definitely had his limitations, but Redknapp did a very good job for us, for the most part. He made some mistakes, which every manager does, but he failed to learn from them, unfortunately. He'll do a good job for somebody else, I'm sure and I'd like to see him get a good reception when he returns to WHL. The credit given to Tony Carr at West Ham is completely deserved, I'm sure, but who have they produced since Redknapp left? Is it a coincidence that so many of the youth players that he brought through while he was there have gone on to better things, yet virtually nobody has since? Seems unlikely, doesn't it? Sending out the bulk of our more mature youngsters has worked well for us recently, just as it did for them, so I'm not sure he gets enough credit for that, to be honest. Completely agree about belittling the club, though. He always referred to us as "they" and "them" too, which didn't help. Villas-Boas started off with "we" immediately.
YV I said as soon as Hogdson is appointed I'd bet on Arry being in charge by the 2014 World Cup. He's holding out for that job IMO
There's an article in this month's WSC about the Redknapp/Levy relationship (which won't be on their wesbite for about a month, probably...) and it is pretty accurate - Harry was brought in as a temporary measure first and foremost, rather than as a long-term vision for the team and the club. It should be said that the season we qualified for the CL, we were actually benefitting from other cock-ups. Firstly, we weren't playing European football that season, so we only had the Carling and FA Cups to add to our fixture list, so the players had more opportunities to rest, not least as they weren't flying out to various locations around Europe. Secondly, he actually got lucky with injuries - an injury to BAE meant that Bale got his chance (and that worked out very well), whilst Kranjcar and Pavlyuchenko also took their opportunities well and scored some key goals. Where Harry went wrong was his failure to utilise the squad when we had seasons that clearly needed a more savvy approach - he wanted to play our first team in every Premier League and Champions League game, causing them to burn out, and that meant various players who got chances the previous season (Kranjcar, Bassong, Pavlyuchenko) actually had less chances when, realistically, they should have had more. The same happened last season, and when he did try and utilise the squad he did it in some pretty incompetent ways, best summed up by giving Sandro a run of games but not resting Parker, which changed the shape of our midfield and caused our slump.
Sorry Croydon, but this argument is constantly used against Redknapp and it annoys the hell out of me. Had Assou-Ekotto not picked up his injury, then he'd have attended the African Cup of Nations, during which time Bale would've been given his chance. There were questions about whether the Welsh youngster was up to it and it was suggested that cover might be brought in, but the manager was having none of it. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/t/tottenham_hotspur/8427212.stm "I'm not looking for a left-back because you won't get a better one than Gareth Bale," said Redknapp. "He's worked hard, trained well and has been in good form." Sounds a bit mad now, doesn't it?
I've changed my mind on this, because I can't see how you can justify risking the team being unsettled again by England manager rumors. But I'm sorry Redknapp had to go and think we'll be very lucky to do as well as he did (two fourth place finished in five years). I'm a fan of his basic approach, which seemed to be to have fun, because it's the one I found works best playing (low-level) competitive tennis. I think criticisms of his squad rotation or lack of it are entirely justified (can't understand why Kranjcar, a very useful player, got frozen out last year, in particular), but criticism of his tactics I'm not so inclined to agree with. Bringing in Sandro to play with Parker was exactly the right move for the second half of the first Arsenal game. I'm not convinced continuing to play them together was a bad move--seemed to me like a good adjustment away/against strong and/or pressing teams. I saw an interesting stat (goal difference over time) which made Jol look like the best of Spurs managers. It shot up under him, dived under Ramos, and returned to about where Jol had it under Redknapp. But Redknapp will continue to have an excellent reputation for breaking into the top four. About the only thing which could make him less memorable is even greater success by AVB. I'm hopeful, but we'll just have to see.
First of all District Line I don't believe for one moment that you're sorry or that you feel justified in being barred or that you're interested in what we think about the Redknapp sacking. Anyway I thought the sacking justified as there were too many distractions ie England and a court case. He stupidly let a 10 point lead slip and for me that made him a manager with a huge weakness. A similar thing happened the season before and hopefully it will never happen again. I've always felt that the most expensive players aren't always the best as we saw the big money signings flopped badly last season notably Torres,Bent,Suarez,and Carroll. To me the middle priced players like VDV are much better value and we should continue down that road as you quite rightly point out by Jol's signings. To me Jol was the best manager in years because of the vast improvement he made in the team ie just missing out on 4th and a dose of the shi*s. Back to back 5th was excellent. Now District Line,I hope the mods kick you straight off the board again at Upminster or Wimbledon if you pee us off again. Thor,noble of Asgard has spoken.
Jol was a good manager, will always be thought of fondly but he is not our best manager in recent years, our best manager is clearly arry Redknapp, he is the man who got us 4th and he is the man who took us into the champions league. He is also the manager that got us playing the best football we have seen since the premier league started. When Jol was manager there was no mega rich man city around, the top of the table wasn't full of as much quality as has happened in recent years so the standard has increased, and its increasing each year, in fact it becomes harder each season for clubs like spurs, everton and liverpool to break the sky four of city, utd, chelsea and arsenal.
Hi DL welcome back,i liked Harry he did well for us but his action's on the England job annoyed me.Levy also wanted a younger Manager.i did'nt want AVB,but as he's the chosen one i will back him,so far he's doing alright
Respect for coming here with the OP. No grudges here, so lets hope its not a calm before a storm! For now I shall say as I find, and any opposing fan is welcome here for general natter and good humoured banter.
Cheers for the feedback anyway. Btw totsfan the flame is coming by your way this weekend. Rose Hill I hear
No Luke,Modric is welcome to go by me and he can go anywhere he likes. It's gone too far now for him to stay and enjoy his football at Spurs and I'll hold no bitterness to any team rival to which he goes. I hold no grudges against District Line either,I just think that he's worming his way back to start on us again. In a way I hope that he does.
I reckon Modric may have to stay. Especially if Moutinho doesn't happen. Chelsea I believe have dropped out and I don't feel you lot will meet the £40m asking price
it'a already been to us,i'm in Andover,my Niece was also one of the the torch carriers,it is is Sutton next week though
I've been a Modric fan since 2007, I was gutted when he went to Spurs. For me he is the ultimate midfielder. There are probably only 2 or 3 better midfielders (at best) of his type. If Spurs can keep him there and playing I believe they could easily get 4th
Why keep a player who doesn't want to stay? I only want players who want to play in the white shirt and wear it with pride and passion. If we have to drop our valuation then why not? We don't want another miserable sulker like Berbatov whose DREAM MOVE to Utd didn't quite work out the way that he wanted it to. He could disrupt the team by staying.
