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Harry Redknapp: The Aftermath
- Thread starter mick cooper
- Start date
thfcsteff
Teddy Sheringham
I recently finished reading ÔÇÿHarry Redknapp ÔÇô The BiographyÔÇÖ by Les Roopanarine which covers up to the period just after our Champions League journey. It is quite damning on RedknappÔÇÖs ability to sustain a credible run in the second half of a season at any of his clubs. Some interesting comments -
Redknapp at West Ham ÔÇ£The day I stop choosing who I buy and who I sell is the day I am not managing a football club anymore.ÔÇØ
Rupert Lowe on Redknapp at Southampton ÔÇ£Journalists write very good things about him all the time because he spends his life giving them stories. If he spent five percent as much time coaching the side as he did schmoozing the media, we might actually get somewhere. Ultimately he has his favourites. HeÔÇÖs not a great man-manager in my view, heÔÇÖs lazy.ÔÇØ
Redknapp on Modric having taken over from Ramos and moving Modric into a more advanced position ÔÇ£That is his position. He needs to be free. IÔÇÖve never seen him as part of a 4-4-2. ItÔÇÖs difficult for him to play as one of two central midfielders; heÔÇÖs got to play further forward.
And perhaps the most pertinent comment from Redknapp was while at West Ham and they were slipping down the table ÔÇ£We wonÔÇÖt win the Championship but we do give the fans plenty of entertainment and I couldnÔÇÖt send out a team to play boring football. Unfortunately, some people have a false idea of where this club should be.ÔÇØ
Some things just dont change.
Redknapp at West Ham ÔÇ£The day I stop choosing who I buy and who I sell is the day I am not managing a football club anymore.ÔÇØ
Rupert Lowe on Redknapp at Southampton ÔÇ£Journalists write very good things about him all the time because he spends his life giving them stories. If he spent five percent as much time coaching the side as he did schmoozing the media, we might actually get somewhere. Ultimately he has his favourites. HeÔÇÖs not a great man-manager in my view, heÔÇÖs lazy.ÔÇØ
Redknapp on Modric having taken over from Ramos and moving Modric into a more advanced position ÔÇ£That is his position. He needs to be free. IÔÇÖve never seen him as part of a 4-4-2. ItÔÇÖs difficult for him to play as one of two central midfielders; heÔÇÖs got to play further forward.
And perhaps the most pertinent comment from Redknapp was while at West Ham and they were slipping down the table ÔÇ£We wonÔÇÖt win the Championship but we do give the fans plenty of entertainment and I couldnÔÇÖt send out a team to play boring football. Unfortunately, some people have a false idea of where this club should be.ÔÇØ
Some things just dont change.
Hotspur
Banned
I
indianspur
Guest
would have been insanely brave, but maybe Levy should have let Redknapp go last summer. The pending court case, the spectre of the England job, the way Redknapp went against Levy and suggested it might be better to sell Modric, there was enough ammunition for Levy to have gotten rid.
glorygloryeze
Les Medley
:ross::ross::ross:
But if his supposed strength is as a man manager then he should be able to overcome these things.
SissokoWasGood (BoL)
Terry Venables
It's not a tactics thing. You can't be good enough to get us 4th against the odds, get us wins over Inter and AC Milan, have us in the title race for half a season playing brilliant football etc by being bad tactically. Or having it, suddenly losing it and suddenly gaining it again.
I think it's a squad problem. We have a good first 11 and not much quality in reserve. We could have maybe spent a bit to really push on and solidify ourselves in the CL spots, but as Chelsea have shown, money doesn't guarantee strong league performance. And plus, the good thing about not finishing 4th will be the fact that we haven't mortgaged the entire club's future on top 4 success every season. Not finishing top 4 would probably seriously hurt Arsenal, but we can survive and try again next year. It sucks to have to say that from the position we were in, but those are facts.
The reason we haven't got much quality in reserve is because Harry let them go. That's down to him without question. He was talking at the start of the season that he didn't like the feeling at the club with too many players wanting to leave. He shifted a lot of them out, and saw form improve. He had a settled squad ready for the first half of the season, and everyone thought they would get a chance. When it became apparent that others would want to leave in January, he thought the same thing could be done I would guess. Get the unhappy players out, replace them with experienced heads who can fill in and do a job, and watch the good form follow. But I think now he will have realised that the requirements for the middle of the season are different from the beginning. At the beginning, you need a bit of optimism and focus. In the middle, injuries are going to stack up. You need cover. Tiredness is going to creep in. You need to freshen it up. Teams will figure you out and come up with new ways of nullifying the usual threats. You need different options. We lost all of that in January, because the players we signed were very clearly meant to be back ups. We should have told the players we let go that they will more than likely get their chance to perform in a team challenging for the title, and they just needed to wait. Instead we are trying our best to get by with the same team that got us through at the start of the season. It's ran out of ideas, teams have figured us out.
When we got 4th, the emergence of Bale meant that in the second half of the season we gave teams something different to think about. We haven't had that this year. We are trying to get by with what we had. It's obvious teams know how to stop it, but without new signings to freshen it up there's really not much that can be done. You can't change the fact that Bale likes to run at space in behind a full back. You can't change the fact that Defoe needs the ball into feet around the edge of the area. You can't change the way to get the best out of certain players, and now teams have a plan to stop us, we don't have anyone else to come in and mix it up. Saudi Sportswashing Machine did great business with Cisse. Ba has actually stopped scoring. Teams have figured him out but it's fine, because Saudi Sportswashing Machine now have the element of Cisse in their gameplan and it's a whole different threat to contain. We don't have it.
So I think that's a big reason. But we've also been unlucky. Bale heads a free header straight at the keeper today. Rafa completely slices a shot that should have been well buried pretty much out for a throw in. QPR didn't offer much at all. That's the story of the second half of our season. Teams are getting once chance against us and taking it. We are creating a fair few good openings but snatching at them.
I think it's a squad problem. We have a good first 11 and not much quality in reserve. We could have maybe spent a bit to really push on and solidify ourselves in the CL spots, but as Chelsea have shown, money doesn't guarantee strong league performance. And plus, the good thing about not finishing 4th will be the fact that we haven't mortgaged the entire club's future on top 4 success every season. Not finishing top 4 would probably seriously hurt Arsenal, but we can survive and try again next year. It sucks to have to say that from the position we were in, but those are facts.
The reason we haven't got much quality in reserve is because Harry let them go. That's down to him without question. He was talking at the start of the season that he didn't like the feeling at the club with too many players wanting to leave. He shifted a lot of them out, and saw form improve. He had a settled squad ready for the first half of the season, and everyone thought they would get a chance. When it became apparent that others would want to leave in January, he thought the same thing could be done I would guess. Get the unhappy players out, replace them with experienced heads who can fill in and do a job, and watch the good form follow. But I think now he will have realised that the requirements for the middle of the season are different from the beginning. At the beginning, you need a bit of optimism and focus. In the middle, injuries are going to stack up. You need cover. Tiredness is going to creep in. You need to freshen it up. Teams will figure you out and come up with new ways of nullifying the usual threats. You need different options. We lost all of that in January, because the players we signed were very clearly meant to be back ups. We should have told the players we let go that they will more than likely get their chance to perform in a team challenging for the title, and they just needed to wait. Instead we are trying our best to get by with the same team that got us through at the start of the season. It's ran out of ideas, teams have figured us out.
When we got 4th, the emergence of Bale meant that in the second half of the season we gave teams something different to think about. We haven't had that this year. We are trying to get by with what we had. It's obvious teams know how to stop it, but without new signings to freshen it up there's really not much that can be done. You can't change the fact that Bale likes to run at space in behind a full back. You can't change the fact that Defoe needs the ball into feet around the edge of the area. You can't change the way to get the best out of certain players, and now teams have a plan to stop us, we don't have anyone else to come in and mix it up. Saudi Sportswashing Machine did great business with Cisse. Ba has actually stopped scoring. Teams have figured him out but it's fine, because Saudi Sportswashing Machine now have the element of Cisse in their gameplan and it's a whole different threat to contain. We don't have it.
So I think that's a big reason. But we've also been unlucky. Bale heads a free header straight at the keeper today. Rafa completely slices a shot that should have been well buried pretty much out for a throw in. QPR didn't offer much at all. That's the story of the second half of our season. Teams are getting once chance against us and taking it. We are creating a fair few good openings but snatching at them.
I
indianspur
Guest
stop Bale, stop Spurs....thats all that opposing teams have to figure out about us.
Harry_Perkins
Ben Thatcher
Actually I can't dance with Harry when he says today:
I just think he underestimating here that the personal form of our all forwards has dived since earlier in the season. In particular, Adebayor. To be fair, he obviously isn't going to say that but it is one of the obvious issues. And there is no way out of that beyond hoping that one of Defoe or Ade turn it around. I think they might have into in them to win the remaining home games. It was certainly enough against Swansea. But we are going to need something big away.
I just think he underestimating here that the personal form of our all forwards has dived since earlier in the season. In particular, Adebayor. To be fair, he obviously isn't going to say that but it is one of the obvious issues. And there is no way out of that beyond hoping that one of Defoe or Ade turn it around. I think they might have into in them to win the remaining home games. It was certainly enough against Swansea. But we are going to need something big away.
yiddo2786
Steed Malbranque
You've had 7 transfer windows to sort that out
SissokoWasGood (BoL)
Terry Venables
I agree. Bale is pretty poor against teams sitting deep against us. His awareness and touch aren't great. He gets crowded out and tackled far too easily. And yet, he is one of our main threats and the players often look for him to do something when he isn't suited to doing it. He should be played at left back and the midfield should have something new added to it, a different threat. Guys like Modric, Rafa and Lennon should be a lot better in tighter spaces, but teams are just sitting deep, playing tight and showing little to no ambition against us. In this run, every team has done that to frustrate us and we haven't had an answer because we've been figured out. Against the bigger teams, Man United and Chelsea away, we actually looked like doing something.
Just watching Saudi Sportswashing Machine and the other thing to mention about them is that Ben Arfa is someone they've added to the team recently. He wasn't a regular starter at the beginning of the season and has had to wait for his chance, but now he is taking it.
All of this is easy to say with hindsight but it just seems like that is what is happening. We've been figured out. I'd love to see Gary Neville do one of his tactical break downs and see exactly where it's happened. It just seems like Bale should really be moved to left back. But even then, there's not exactly much else we can put in his position. And it's not as if Walker is pulling up any trees on the right hand side.
Southcote Spur
Jason Dozzell
Is it right that we have only managed 6 points in 8 league games and that we have failed to score away from WHL for 400 minutes?
Would someone please tell me that I have got this wrong?
If I haven't, then I am afraid that it is time to say cheerio to old saggy face, because he was clueless today!
Would someone please tell me that I have got this wrong?
If I haven't, then I am afraid that it is time to say cheerio to old saggy face, because he was clueless today!
glorygloryeze
Les Medley
This happened last year, when lots of us were bemoaning our forwards then. Guess what? We believ we've upgraded on Crouch and Pav, but yet same result in the second half of the season: nosediving.
There is one constant over those two periods, even though the forwards have changed. Guess what that is...
Harry_Perkins
Ben Thatcher
Errr... not me. I've been saying for 3 years solid, with much stick, that our performance in the market under Redknapp is poor and he has acheived what he's done with his ability to get the most from what he's inherited.
Yes, we may have nosedived but we still picked up 7 points from the last 4 games last time. And they were a much harder 4 games. So if we can end that way last time then why not now? If he does that and make top 4, he'd deserve another year (I think he'll go to England anyway, for the record) to try and deal with the issues. Just. But if we don't, time to move on.
Kingdawson
Banned
6 from 9 now isn't it?
glorygloryeze
Les Medley
This year's nosedive is FAR FAR WORSE that our trickle off last season. Do you remember how far ahead of Arsenal, Saudi Sportswashing Machine and Chelsea we were in February? The only thing that compares with last season is the downward trend and the way we were/are playing. All down to the manager. If he hasn't fixed the issues this year, regardless of if we do/don't get 4th what hope he'll fix it next year?
Harry_Perkins
Ben Thatcher
I agree. I wouldn't be confident but I don't think you can sack someone who finishes 4th. Especially not with this highly overrated squad (and yes, he is at fault for putting most of it in place!) That said, again, I don't think it'll be an issue as he'll go to England if we finish 4th and we'll sack him if he finishes 5th.
And I don't agree it is far worst. Results wise, no. Performance wise, even less. The difference is that we were playing better the rest of the time this year compared with last year. We had a couple of players in Ade and Parker earlier in the season that proved good short term improvements but haven't done it in the long term. Story of Redknapp in the market at Spurs. Is there anyone he signed really worth talking about? VDV remains the standout, for me, and that wasn't exactly planned.