Great post, Lenny. Suarez and Sturridge are definitely dangerous (and also profligate at times!) Coutinho and Sterling (Young and younger, I like to call them) are massive talents who impress game on game. People usually dismiss any praise of them as 'standard' Liverpool fan 'delusion' (never really understood people's views on that, TBH!) ... until they watch 2-3 games that they feature in. Also, Henderson has become our anchor. He's got the most minutes of any outfield player and has been vital for us. Some fans have decried the fact he got clapped off the pitch for that shocking tackle on Nasri, but the applause acknowledged his massive contribution to our team this year. Sunderland fans will confirm he's not a malicious player and that tackle was in no way nasty in intent. He was very tired, having given 300% as usual, and therefore mistimed his tackle very badly. No intent, but clear red card. No doubts. No one will be as upset as he will be .. apart from (perhaps) Nasri! Gerrard, in his new role, and Flanno have been revelations this year. Just brilliant. Mignolet is a great shot-stopper, and Skrtel has been immense - goals and clearances galore. As far as the 'play acting' is concerned, I don't even think we'd be in the top 5 in the Premiership this season. I can't improve on our Yoda's answer to be fair!
As a jedi master that's no bad thing. Worth pointing out that we're on for the double - the league AND the fair play league So we won't finish empty handed this season...
No doubting Pool have played the best football this season, they've been really enjoyable to watch, the antics of Suarez does tar him/ them a bit but I'd say they deserve to win the league by the way they've played. In some senses it'd be nice to see an outside bet win the league, though one thing I will say, can you imagine the Pool fans if they do win? Jesus we'll be still be hearing about it in 2034!
Remember this? http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/eng_prem/8365091.stm This was the season where you really planted your flag, and then you went and sacked Harry. Such a stupid decision. The man even got you top 4.
Liverpool are top of the Fair Play League?! Proof, if any were needed, that that those running the thing have no idea what they're doing. He treated the club like crap and then tried to play hardball with Levy when the chairman's mother was dying by bringing in Rooney's agent and spouting off to the media. That was only going to go one way, especially after he'd been back to the hilt when he was on trial and after that too, when he got a holiday in the middle of the season which Levy paid for. Redknapp did a very good job for us, but he screwed himself over and the fact that he ended up at struggling QPR in his next job says a lot.
We'll never look back fondly on a manager because of how tactful they were in negotiating contracts or deferential they were to a chairman who had helped them out. We might, I'd suggest, look back fondly on a managers who build excellent teams and get them playing exciting, winning football. I couldn't give a toss what they say to the media or how they say it. Words to the media are just another aspect of their actual job (getting the players to perform). And the fact that he ended up at QPR and not some other top job probably has more to do with the fact that his name does not end in a vowel, he's in his sixties and doesn't have the most glamorous face around. I'm sure there a few managers around who have big reputations by getting teams like Bayern Munich or Real Madrid to (gasp!) win some silverwear but others have to make do with getting the other 98% of teams their best-ever EPL league finishes (as Harry did with three separate clubs) etc. There was this amazing one who won a shed-load of trophies with some little team called Porto... (Sorry to be turning this into a Redknapp debate again but with things how they are at the club with the management turmoil and total mess of an underacheiving and under-skilled squad it's hard to not look back and think "Hang on - how and why the **** are we in this mess?!". And to have that thought very often - as I did when watching Liverpool at the weekend). P.S. Just to show you how much my brain is in continual revolt at the destruction of the squad and management in the last couple of years I had a dream last night that Huddlestone hit an absolute beauty of a volley. For another team. I had a great view of it from behind the goal. These thoughts plague me! VDV, Modric and Bale are the obvious ones but there must be another half-dozen completely unnecessary departures over the last couple of years and their replacements have NOT been upgrades.
In AVB's first season we won as many games in a season as Redknapp ever managed whilst scoring one less than 'Arry's best. I'm sure you remember them both fondly. At the end of the day, they both perhaps could have been given longer but both made enough mistakes for them to have themselves to blame. We went on a bad run of results at the end of Redknapp's last season and what was he doing? Talking to Rodgers and others to find out if they'd be willing to join his coaching staff for the Euros and thinking about who he'd take in the summer. That's enough to get anyone sacked in my opinion. That's not taking anything away from what he achieved with us, I still like him and am gratefull for all that he did but it was a series of **** ups that led to his dismissal.
Redknapp is 67, the list of clubs he has managed are: 1983–1992 Bournemouth 1994–2001 West Ham United 2002–2004 Portsmouth 2004–2005 Southampton 2005–2008 Portsmouth 2008–2012 Tottenham Hotspur 2012– Queens Park Rangers Take ourselves out, and QPR fit in nicely with the level of clubs he has managed so I wouldn't really try and suggest because he took the QPR job that its a negative, or a dig at his ability as hes an old man nearing the end of his managerial career and has never been in the running for top jobs when younger and no one has said he is universally a great manager, but what Redknapp is, is a "great fit", underlined by the fact he has a way of walking into a club and doing a great job (aside from Southampton), which he took for the wrong reasons, but no one has said he is a great manager by the standards of Fergie, but he was a great fit with us, thats it, how it ended was just how it ended but it appears that if you like Redknapp then you give him the benefit of the doubt but if you want to criticise him then you can throw every cheap shot going as Redknapp is easy to insult, hes mouthy, brash, confident and looks like a used car salesman but hes a great character who gave us four years of great memories. Avb did do well in terms of points, but don't pretend anyone remembers him fondly, no one does unless you're related to him as he was here for little over a year and half and everyone on here was tired of his dour personality and boring football, we all knew he wasn't a spurs man and he clearly wasn't up to the task of managing this club long term and it got to the point where I saw fans hoping for us to lose games, so he was sacked, and that is a pretty dire situation to be in. But back to Redknapp, he is someone who has to be at the right club but as I said hes an old chap, and the best bet Redknapp has of managing a big club again is when a club is in trouble or struggling, Newcastle would probably be a great fit but he turned them down before, yet overall hes had a good career and the biggest regret for us is that him and Levy couldn't find a solution as taking away all the cheap shots they where a good team, they worked well together and hopefully our next manager can show that sacking Redknapp lead to a positive as so far all its created is two years of (overall) boring football and a lack of excitement and no one can pretend they have enjoyed the last two years as I've seen the moaning, not just on here, its been a disappointing two years apart from individual displays by players like Bale amidst our crap football. Watching games under Avb was hard work until Bale done something special. This year we have had Eriksen and Adebayor. Maybe next year we can enjoy a season of playing as a team and the last manager to unite everyone was Redknapp, even if in the end it went sour. Before that Jol united us and will be remembered more fondly even if he had a lower win rate then Avb, as who done a better job, Avb and the record points total, or Jol and our challengers for 4th? what do people remember more fondly? Jol of course.
"The Arthur Daily of football" for all his faults gave us the best football at Spurs for a quarter of century . Looking back nearly all of us if we were being honest , would have reversed the insane self destructing decisions that followed. Unfortunately ego's rule and we live on a bed of mockery and constant implosion .
But, as I have always maintained, Redknap had the great luck to be in the right place, at exactly the right time. In truth, any manager (who had good PL experience) could have worked wonders with that side, at the time during which Redknap was in charge; and it is my contention that a different manager would have got us third, or better, in that last season of Redknap's reign, and we would not have been forced to let Bale go so early.
HIAG, that is utter rubbish to say that (and you know it) as Redknapp got us into the champions league his way, there was no luck or being in the right place at the right time, in fact WE where lucky he was available. He was perfect for us and there was no other option after Ramos, unless you want to name these other experienced premier league managers we should have went for? Fergie might have been tempted,or fat sam would he have worked wonders?! And Instead of focusing on not finishing 3rd, the main focus should be the rise from challengers for 4th, to finishing 4th and enjoying champion league nights, plus having a manager who gave Bale a run in the team and gave us some of the best football we have seen in PL history.
However you spin it, Arry blew his near-term future by not getting that CL slot in 2012. Staying at Spurs, or getting the England job.
So, "only Redknap could have got us CL footy" - that's your contention? That's an utterly ridiculous argument! Any number of managers could have done what Redknap did. No way was Spurs a relegation side, when Redknap took over. It was always going to be the case that, with even a modicum of decent man-management, that team would go on a trail-blazing run back up the league. I'm not disagreeing with you that Redknap didn't, initially certainly, do a very good job, but to suggest that he was the only person who could have done that is patently absurd.
Boss didn't say "only" (and certainly didn't make the statement above - despite you putting it in quotes). We were lucky to get Redknapp, not because he was the only choice but because he was a good choice. We could have gone for an Allardyce or Pulis and not had the joy that we had over the few seasons he was here. Others could have done as well, arguably even better, but Harry did a good job with us.
Come on! How on earth am I supposed to make valid, argument-winning points, unless I make stuff up? And here I was thinking I was the only Spurs wumster! Very funny! Seriously, though, what if we'd gone, instead, for Martinez, or Steve Bruce, or Mick McCarthy? You're not telling me that any one of those could not have done just as good a job as Redknap?
Which other managers where a realistic choice at that time and what proof do you have they would have "worked wonders". Levy said it himself It wasn't just about experience, it was also about his approach and his individual ability as a manager. I have no issues with you or anyone slating Redknapp for his faults but trying to discredit Redknapp for the job he done by suggesting any number of managers could have done the same, is not just ridiculous but also absurd and only the claims a WUM would make
I've heard this argument before. So Spurs managers come in two categories: 1) The ones who are outright failures and 2) The ones that do well but then again who wouldn't with that team/that squad/at that moment in time? And besides what they achieve is not enough. There is some totally fabricated reality where some other un-named and untestable manager would have done better. Absolutely amazing lack of appreciation of a good thing and a literally vacuous argument. I wonder who else's achievements should only be viewed in the light of some invented reality where someone else could have done exactly the same but better? Should we have stifled the praise of Nelson Mandela cos someone else could have done the same thing but with less garish shirts? Should we focus on how he did nothing about Zimbabwe but the invented replacement did? Or maybe anyone could have re-awoken Man Utd and besides there were a few years when they didn't win the title (when of course there exists, in my twisted imagination, a character who definitely would have won it every year bar none) so SAF wasn't all that. Some fans don't recognize or deserve success they're so consumed by the tabloid narratives surrounding their clubs.
