The squad was small and the team ran out of steam. We had a similar run last season and faded. It is impossible for any athlete to consistently be at their best throughout an entire year. Even Messi, Ronaldo, Usain Bolt, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal will have blips at some point throughout their careers or in a year. I'm no fan of Redknapp but if he'd been given backing in the market to buy reinforcements of a reasonable standard Spurs would have got top four in 2011/12 and it would be Arsenal struggling to get back in.
The target was finish top four, thats where we finished and as Redknapp had already took us to the champions league then there is a fairly high chance Redknapp will be the only manager to get us champions league football, for some time yet. not bad for a manager who you say was found wanting.
I think I have this right now, so let me summarise the points that many are making here: 1. Vertonghen does suicidal back pass - Sherwood and/or Levy's fault. 2. Ref wrongly gives penalty and sends off Kaboul - Sherwood and/or Levy's fault. 3. Ice caps start melting due to global warming - Sherwood and/or Levy's fault.
"the season is 38 games long, using portions of a season to suit doesn't work here..." Unfortunately, it does. In the 7 seasons that Spurs have been fighting for a CL slot, the PL points total has been averaging around the 33 pt mark at the halfway point. This means that the second half of the season is where things are decided. And in those seasons, the form in the second half has been not strong enough except for one season : 2009/10. "we had no Euro distraction either!" One less excuse for Arry to use for the epic collapse, nothing more.
But you begin the season knowing 4th will guarantee you CL qualification hence why it was always the target, you can't legislate for a UEFA rule being enforced a good week after the league season is over saying 4th is no longer enough. If UEFA had any gonads Spurs would have been allowed in instead of Trabzonspor. Wanting the winner of their elite competition to be able to defend their title is justifiable, IMO.
"The target was finish top four" The Levy target is a CL slot. IMHO he cares not whether Spurs finishes in 1st or 101st, nor what the points total is, as long as the end is achieved. "Redknapp will be the only manager to get us champions league football, for some time yet. not bad for a manager who you say was found wanting." I suspect Redknapp will also be the only Spurs manager for some time yet. who could not deal with the expectation and pressure of getting more than one CL appearance.
"But you begin the season knowing 4th will guarantee you CL qualification hence why it was always the target, you can't legislate for a UEFA rule being enforced a good week after the league season is over saying 4th is no longer enough." Sorry, but the moment Chelsky put out Barca, we knew this was on the cards. And was discussed on Spurs forums well before the final itself. Coincidentally, the P11 W2 D4 L5 sequence ended the weekend immediately after, with a sequence of P4 W3 D1 that good as it was, was too late.
Which in itself is a compliment, you're so confused with your attempts at trying to discredit Redknapp then you can't see when you handing him a compliment, as failing to finish 3rd is a position we aren't likely to be in for a long time. Plus, this breaking down of periods. we could combine both run of games. they come to P22 W12 D4 L5. Which quite clearly tells a different picture to focusing on set periods during the season.
"you're so confused with your attempts at trying to discredit Redknapp then you can't see when you handing him a compliment" You're so confused by the fact that Redknapp failed to deliver a CL slot from a position of strength (where losses and slips could be tolerated to some degree) to being dependent on an event outside of his control.
We're never going to agree on this point, as you see the situation different from me, yet regardless, we would have both been been gutted to miss out on finishing 3rd. The way I see the overall situation is Redknapp was the manager who showed we can finish top four, and we can get into the champions league, and we can have exciting European nights, and for that I believe he deserves respect as a manager. If Redknapp had arrived at the club and the previous manager had finished top four and Redknapp was deemed good enough to keep us at that level and failed, then I would view him as failing under pressure, yet that wasn't the case so I don't agree on trying to suggest he can't handle pressure. Plus, he should have your respect for the fact he managed to give us CL footy and exciting European nights with Peter Crouch, which in itself was impressive!
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=defoe+miss+v+man+city&sm=1 Its been downhill from that moment!!
That's pretty much it although you forgot: 4. 0-0 and looking fairly comfortable, bar a dodgy first few minutes, against the league leaders at a ground where we've never won in the PL and Mourinho has never lost - Sherwood and/or Levy's fault that we weren't attacking more
I think we've got where we are because Levy has done very well for the club in every area except selection of managers, all of whom have done around as well as you might expect given the squad they had at their disposal. Others seem to think that all the success is down to Redknapp and all the failure down to Levy? You can't possibly deduce that Redknapp made all the difference because there is not long enough for his results to be statistically significant. We know that AVB's win loss ratio is better than Redknapp's for example but that was also on a very short time. It seems very clear to me that under Levy's leadership we've gone from a mid-table side to being top 4 contenders every year despite other clubs having more money. Of course he's made mistakes (more than some of the players?) but I can see no reason at all for the negative attitude towards him.
If there were no other factors then this would be a good enough argument. But the bad run 'happened' to coincide with the period where Harry was peddling himself to be the new England boss. In any other field that would be good enough reason for him to be sacked on its own. And remember, Redknapp refused to appoint a DoF, so any signings (or lack of them) are down to him alone.
I think he can be blamed for several disastrous managerial appointments. As I pointed out earlier, his only two relative successes ( and no, I don't think Redknapp was perfect) were both by default. No Redknapp wasn't a genius - however, he's been made to look like a comparative one by Santini, Ramos, AVB, etc...
"It seems very clear to me that under Levy's leadership we've gone from a mid-table side to being top 4 contenders every year despite other clubs having more money. Of course he's made mistakes (more than some of the players?) but I can see no reason at all for the negative attitude towards him." The hostility towards ENIC is because some feel there is/was a window of opportunity for Spurs to get entrenched in a CL slot. And this window is now being closed while ENIC declined to inject a bit of cash (NOT Sugga Daddy FC levels) for NEW STRIKER etc, managerial musical chairs etc. Which IMHO is fair comment, regardless of sentiment on Arrys' final weeks etc.
I would also add that just as some Spurs supporters are commenting that the likes of Vertonghen have no financial consequences regardless of how well they play for the team (their wages are guaranteed) . so ENIC similarly have none for what happens (neither Joe Lewis nor Levy have their pensions dependent on Spurs having N yrs repeated CL participation etc) .
I agree that was a mistake, but why is everyone so sure that it was Levy who decided to sign Saha and Nelsen and not Harry?
