100% true Boss, he did do a lot right. But the platform he had to build upon in doing those things right was so much more impressive than the platform MP has to work with. The West Ham example is a mysterious one that in many ways proves both of us right. The quality of the league that season was diabolical that year. They somehow finished 5th with just 57 points and a -7 goal difference, no less than 10 points adrift of Leeds in 4th and just 10 points above us in 11th. I.e the league that year was a collection of 7 bang-average mid-table sides separated by just 10 points. By comparison, our own 5th,6th and 5th finishes of the last 3 years accumulated 64, 69 and 72 points respectively. And again - was he in the right place at the right time at West Ham? A once in a generation emergence of youngsters from the academy such as Ferdinand, Cole, Lampard coupled with established players like Ian Wright, Trevor Sinclair and Vivian-Foe...again with that one special mercurial talent Di Canio there to drag them up above the likes of the mighty Derby, Middlesborough and Leicester into 5th place. And again, that crop of youngsters was inevitably sold off to the big guns, never really adequately replaced and the club slowly went into a decline followed by relegation. Sound familiar? It's us, and every other club outside the Sky 5, just without the threat of relegation. But seriously though, cheers for the debate - some really interesting opinions flying around already.
He also had Bassong playing very well in his first season, and Palacios too. Had those players gone off the boil after changing manager you'd be blaming them. Fact is players have periods where they do well and periods where they do poorly. Look at another example. Pienaar was great for Everton under Moyes, then he played for Harry was rubbish, moved back to Everton and found his form again. That doesn't mean Redknapp's to blame, no manager can get every single player playing at their best so looking at individual examples is just pulling a ball out of a hat. A manager has to hope he can get more out of the team overall, not just in a handful of examples. That's why Moyes wasn't a success at United, despite Rooney and Welbeck having much improved seasons, that's why most managers end up getting the boot.
True, but then you have that unique breed of players who are so good they can more or less play for any manager anywhere and still improve the team. Harry had 4 of them at once. Moyes had 1 (Carrick was always injured). MP has none, yet.
Yes mate, but as we have said before "you can't argue with the impact of Redknapps signings" in terms of the impact they had on the club and our immediate targets, that is my main point, he proved himself as a manager that can fix issues within a team with signings. In the final season he signed three players pre season, Friedal, Parker and Adebayor, all perfect signings for his 4-4-1-1 formation, he also wanted Crouch to stay and what happens in January, we need a striker and ended up having to buy Saha. I'm happy to cristise Redknapp for what he done wrong, but lets not forget all the great work! and I know you miss the arm resting on the window of his 4x4 on transfer deadline day! please log in to view this image
Redknapp is history but is still used as stick to beat our current manager. Once again Boss your support for Redknapp is based on a view that many do no share. I have on many occasions expressed my support with his philosophy on the way football should be player, however that does not mean I think he was as wonderful as you seem to Boss. Examples? How about a midfield containing Modric and VDV being constantly bypassed by long balls to Crouch who occasionally showed the ability to gather it and do something with it. IMO and it's no secret Crouch is one of the least gifted players I have ever seen in a Spurs shirt. It took Redknapp weeks to address this problem even complaining to the press that he did not ask the players to play hoof ball football. What about his public shaming of Bent (a player I have little time for but no player deserves to be humiliated by his manager in public) or simlar with Pavlyuchenko and incidently his complete waste of Pav as a player who has looked brilliant playing for Russia but never got a run in the Spurs side. Standout events that all point to Redknapp putting his ego first and not the sign of a good manager in any walk of life. We have had these particular debates many times but if you insist on this continual lauding of his qualities, expect some of us to redress the balance a little.
Oh I agree, Harry's transfer dealings have always been one of his strong points. He did brilliant work with us and Portsmouth on that front, even if the latter were overspending(which wasn't his fault).
Yes, but then posters like Lenny and SC tend to share the same view as me regarding Redknapp, but I'm not concerned about my view being shared, unless thats important to you spurf? You may class Crouch as one of the least gifted players but VDV praised him for his ability and much of his talent was ignored because of what he represented in terms of his build, with fans viewing Crouch as "anti football", but what was you doing when Crouch scored to beat man city? or when crouch linked up well with VDV the following year, or when Crouch produced in the champions league? But then it comes back to opinions on a player as I personally never rated Pav, he wasn't suited to this league, Redknapp never signed him, he was a panic buy after we sold Berbatov and aside from the odd spectacular goal, he wasn't a player I rated. You seem more focused on your favourite players not getting a chance with Redknapp, rather then praising the players that actually contributed to the club and our success and that is more important to me. I don't rate Chadli but he is starting to win me over with his ability to score goals, even if he is a player that I view as being a tad suspect in terms of his overall game.
Part of the transfer problem is that most clubs at our purchasing level want to line up replacements before selling unless they are offered ridiculous sums of money. WBA have just signed Rondon so perhaps they will now let Berahino leave.
My favourite players come on Boss Bent is one my least favourite and I never saw anything much from Pavlyuchenko which was my point. I have already praised Harry for his acquisition of Parker for example. You are very one eyed on this, is Harry your uncle or something . It's complete nonsense to suggest I should have praised players who performed well. Why? we all know that Bale, Vdv, Modric, Lennon, and so on played well that's the point.
Spurf you should know by now I enjoy the Redknapp debates and share a laugh or two over them but you must agree that much of the issue is with Redknapp and his personality. If Jol had done what Redknapp had achieved, he would be viewed as a legend by all fans on here. But no it isn't nonsense to suggest you should praise players that have performed well, especially a player such as Crouch, what do you have against him? was you at the England match when he was booed on his international debut! Guess who Spurf? Crouch!
It's also a very competitive market with all PL clubs able to spend big bucks it makes it that much harder to find the right players. Go back to the time of Spurs buying Greaves and we were the biggest spender at that time. Go back to Ardilles & Villa and Spurs again were the first to bring big foreign players in. It's much more difficult now that we are competing with maybe 20 clubs for a player. This is a sellers market and has been for some years now and that makes it difficult.
What do I have against Crouch? His complete lack of ball control is my main problem. He is difficult for defenders to deal with because of his unusual height but apart from that and a reasonable positional sense he offers little to a team while at the same time encouraging teams to play hoof ball. A team containing 3 world class midfielders bypasses them to aim the ball at the head of Crouch. That in itself tells me that Redknapp has some serious managerial shortfalls when he failed to deal with it and more than that created it by playing Crouch in the first place. MP has not done anything that comes even close to the stupidity of that move IMO.
Apart from sticking Chadli upfront and hoofing the ball to him or playing Mason/Bentaleb in central midfield while being concerned about the lack of protection for the back four. Jol/Redknapp/AVB/Poch have all made decisions that we can question, but Crouch performed well with VDV, surprised you forget this with much of their impressive link up play, but its clear you refuse to praise Crouch and that is disappointing.
When you have a midfielder of the quality and vision of VDV sending balls over his head is a crime against football. I do not think Crouch is a very good footballer and only got as far as he did by being a freak of nature, why would I want to praise him. He is on a par with Darren Bent in my view another poor footballer who people who should know better have wasted millions on. The only player we have atm who appears to be on a par with them is Lamella but he is still a baby and I live in the hope that our scouting people have seen something in him that is about to come to fruition because I certainly can't.
When VDV first arrived, Redknapp struggled to fit him in the team as VDV can look a luxury player, he can be shifted out to the wing, played in midfield or played in the traditional sheringham type role, but that in itself isn't a crime, struggling at first to use a player correctly as once Redknapp found VDV's best position, VDV (by his own admission) played the best football of his career under Redknapp so not sure how you can talk about Redknapps use of VDV (overall) in anyway as being negative, unless we forget about the great performances of VDV? But as for Crouch, sure he is a freak of nature but he is a proven premier league player, produced at international level, helped us to top four, scored at the san siro and is actually a decent footballer, a clever player that fans prefer to ignore, but here you go mate, VDV speaks on crouch Crouchy is a great player," Van der Vaart told Tottenham's official website. "He is a big, tall guy but he can also play fantastic football. "I remember in my first training session his heading ability was fantastic. "He has a great technique, sees everything and when I played behind him it was easy to make goals. "I think my first five or six goals were because he gave me the ball so he has been a really important player for me."
I was talking about the footballing ability of VDV not his decision making. Have a look at his life his ability to spot a winner is perhaps not up to his footballing abilities If that is VDV's opinion he is either being decent to a mate and coleague or just mistaken. The fact that such statements need to be made tells us a lot about the opinions on Crouch.
Boss I have already said many times there were some very good aspects to Redknapp but he is certainly not as good as you or he seems to think IMO.
Crouch is massively underrated. We probably would've won that game yesterday if he'd have swapped benches. That might be mostly down to him being better than literally not having a striker, though!
We just have to agree to disagree re Crouch but I have the two legends Redknapp and VDV sharing the same view and I know you're allowing your dislike of Crouch to forget about the ability he showed. You should look up the season review of when Crouch was here with VDV (to remind yourself) of some of his team play and one thing to note is that since Crouch has left us, he has proved an excellent performer for Stoke, you can't argue with his record.
