Ok, so it looks pretty bleak right now (not that losing to Man Utd is anything to get depressed about for Rangers' fans) and of course we can get out of this if we start to play to our potential. But if we do go down into the Championship, I just wonder if Redknapp will be the right man. Now I dont really have any stats, only my own thoughts from watching a lot of Championship football, but it seems to me that there is a continuing trend (being given half a Serie A team aside) in successful Championship sides being built around two or three experienced players around a chore of promising young players, either brought through the club or purchased from the lower leagues/on loan from EPL sides. This is, I believe a very good and sustainable way of creating a team and when I look at the sides who have gone down in recent years (west ham excepted), those who have kept on or purchased more established players (middlesbrough, birmingham, blackburn etc) seem to have struggled. Now this might be part of the ebb and flow of football, empires rise and fall, particularly in the world away from the mega rich and more than ever it seems that 'clubs get their day' now as reward for a crop of players coming good, with fewer teams (i look at leicester) seeming able to buy their way out of the league without an existing chore in place. But, I would think that planning and scouting the right sort of player with the right mental appetite plays its role. And this is what concerns me. Harry is a good manager of people and we all know his major strength comes in persuading established yet slightly wayward players of coming in and performing. But this is a very short-term measure when most of the players of this type are toward the latter end of the their careers and I wonder how many of these could perform in the Championship when so few clubs seem to have been able to make it work. If we do go down, I just cannot see Redknapp out scouting leagues 1 and 2 as well as the lower championship sides to find the right blend which seems so important. We are a club that has been mismanaged for several years now with 6 month to 1 year mass spending and recycling of players, and we keep signing the same sort of players, 28+ and looking for a either a payday or players that other teams or managers perhaps couldn't acquire. More of the same from Redkapp in the championship could be a disaster. A lot of my Spurs friends were concerned enough for their own side with player recruitment under Redknapp and I just wonder if we continue with his signings how long we can really expect to last. I know he aced the league with Portsmouth, but the league has changed since then, its become younger and a breeding ground for decent talent who have the energy and desire to keep working and improving and I just dont know if under Redknapp we will have the knowledge to target a certain group of players that seem to be making a difference to promotion campaigns yet are not household names. This might all be nonsense of course and i am in no way anti-redknapp, its just something I have been thinking about and wonder if anyone else thinks that HR might just be too out of touch with a very progressive league. Ric
I don't see Harry around next season in Championship TBH, but I think with the players we have we are in a better shape than some clubs to go straight back up again, we need to stay calm and get a team built again like what Warnock did but IF we go back up not dismantle it too quickly.
A key question. Harry wouldn't do the scouting of course, and if our scouts make recommendations to him, I see no reason why he would have lost his judgement in assessing players. Not just leagues 1 and 2 either, but overseas. TF might use his contacts to find good, young Asian players.
