Sunday’s 5-1 FA Cup semi-final defeat at the hands of Chelsea capped a couple of months’ worth of largely sub-par Spurs performances, and the previously untouchable Harry Redknapp is now coming under serious fire from the White Hart Lane faithful. Yes, it’s time for Football Burp’s Embattled Manager of the Week!
Embattled Manager of the Week:
Harry Redknapp, Tottenham Hotspur
Stands accused of…
ArcspacE, Glory-Glory.co.uk…
“His transfer policy has fucked us nearly beyond repair – dying cloggers on massive wages.
He leave us in a fucking mesa – just like he s done with jusg about every other previous club.
We are FUCKED. Proper. Modric and Bale are most likely gone already. 4th doesnt even guarantee CL – and even so – they will never realistically challenge for trophies with us bar the odd cup run”
Smoked Salmon, TheFightingCock.co.uk…
“Get rid of him. Two post season capitulations. He’s not the messiah he thinks he is. One 4th place finish is not a f**king World Cup winning manager. We need an upgrade, and no, not Martin F**king Jol. Let’s have some f**king ambition please.”
AdamB, Glory-Glory.co.uk…
“We have some top class players, even a world class player or two. Harry doesnt have them playing to their potential because WE HAVE NOT SYSTEM OR TACTICS.”
Pyro_era, TheFightingCock.co.uk…
“Getting rid of him with 4 games to go is stupid, but I hope he leaves at the end of the season, then the FA realizes how shit he really is so instead offer the England job to some other fat cunt who can actually read and write, and doesn’t look like Prince Charles’s ballsack. I’ve said it before but I’d like Bilic to manage spurs after the Euros.”
SUIYHA, Glory-Glory.co.uk…
“I’ve thought of another key criteria that I want, given what’s happened with Harry.
A manager who can prove consistency over the course of a season. Doesn’t necessarily mean they’ve won titles or anything, but they’ve proven they understand concepts of squad rotation and how to avoid burning out star players.
For all the good work he’s done, it’s something Harry has failed to grasp here. In his first season he got away with it a bit because he re-signed Keane who hadn’t been playing at Liverpool and was able to rotate him, Defoe, Pavlyuchenko and Bent – he also had Woodgate and King as first choice defenders which naturally meant Dawson was in and out of the team and stayed fresh. He also played Zokora and Bentley a lot when he first took over as they were the established first choice players, but got fed up with them and by the end of the season he was picking Lennon and Huddlestone instead.
In his second season, his hand was also forced as Modric broke his leg and missed 3 months, meaning he wasn’t burnt out in the run in, he discovered Bale was a far better left-winger than left-back, Pavlyuchenko went on a goalscoring run of form in the second half of the season meaning he forced his way back into the side, and King spent time out but came back strong in the final few weeks. This season and last however, we’ve over performed up until February but then burnt out in the second half of the season.”
Kalyl, TheFightingCock.co.uk…
“we just cannot rely on a tactically inept manager (he’s even said it himself!). to compete at the highest level we need a man with a full on football brain, not only ‘man management.'”
NovTHFC, Glory-Glory.co.uk…
“I appreciate and thank Harry for what he’s done since he joined, but its time he moved on. He’s taken us as far as he can, but now we need someone who is far more knowledgable when it comes to tactics, and the ability to rotate the squad at crucial parts of the season.
I think the first 11 is a very good side, but I feel that as good as he has been, and a legend of the club, Ledleys days are over, he looks so immobile, seems like he’s losing pace every game, and its quite painful to watch. They’re are other obvious positions that need seeing to that have already been mentioned in other threads, e.g. GK, RM, ST x2 and so on.
As for the deadwood, when a new manager comes in I’m sure he could get something out of them players, they’re all very capable, but when Redknapp doesn’t like a player, he doesn’t want to know. Dos Santos for some reason I feel could of played a lot more this season under the right guidance.
The end of the season couldn’t come quick enough, hopefully we attain 4th spot, and Redknapp leaves.”
In his defence…
SpurMeUp, Glory-Glory.co.uk…
“Fucking el. Suddenly Harry is the devil incarnate, the Spurs anti-Christ. With what he has been given he has done alright. More than alright.
Since his court case and the England shite, he and the team has come unstuck, partly due to his management, but not solely imo. The constraints on the squad set by Levy has had an impact. The team is tired and would have faltered to some degree regardless. Had we had more quality players available, and dedicated focused management from Jan who could quietly go about their business under the radar as before, we would be in a better position. Not signing someone like say Mata in the summer, or another in Jan, eg that Juve player, while letting Corluka and Pinaar go (no doubt due to our need to sell to buy in the future which makes sense).
In Jan we were flavor of the month. That was the time for Levy to a) make a statement signing and b) offer Modric a 90K a week contract.
The 2 problems I do have with Harry are:
1) His Substitutions. He rarely calls it right. Reacts too late or doesn’t make the right change. What this means is his reading of the game, during the game, is not great. In hindsight he gets it. For example, Norwich – midfield was weak and we lost the game there. Today, gets VDV to drop into midfield more. But then, he just makes the obvious, and wrong move, weakening midfield again, probably a fatal move.
2) A lack of team organisation on the pitch. He could spend more time getting this right.
Motivating the team, bringing players on, transfer dealings (or attempted dealings) he has been excellent imo.
Its almost like he’s already in the England job: he’s capitulating under the spot light, but sadly while still at Spurs. I would be happy for him to stay on, especially if Levy can bring in another coach to work more on formation on the pitch with Harry. He said he would like lots of specialist coaches…”
boneycrisp, TheFightingCock.co.uk…
“The problem isn’t Harry, the problem is the players. Harry will go thats fine, I can cope with that, I’d rather him stay but he won’t.
I hate these knee jerk reactions from fellow yids, we always think that we are better then we are when we need to realise that to be successful we need to be as the Germans would put it ‘Uber Rich.’ Money speaks, so when you put that into consideration over the majority of the season we’ve been fucking good, you lot just don’t like the fact that our bad games have come at once instead of spread over a season. If the latter happened no one would be calling for his head, fact, because everyone wrote us off for the top 4 at the start of the season including every Spurs fan. The fact of the matter is, is that we have an average defence, a crap frontline and a brilliant midfield and every team has sussed us out and you lot are blaming ‘Arry? Give me a fucking break.
Adebayor lacks the work commitments to be World class, we all knew that, no dissapointment. Defoe isn’t good enough for champions league football, Saha has exceeded his sell by date, Bale is marked out of the game, as is Modric, Van Der Vaart and to some extent Lennon. We don’t have a plan B nor the players for a plan B, Redknapp isn’t in charge of signing players, the board are, so are we going to be calling to get rid of a board that have stabalised and progressed this club? I very much doubt it”
The Moonlit Knight, Glory-Glory.co.uk…
“If Redknapp leaves this Summer, he leaves us in a better shape than when he found us.”
So, how does Harry Redknapp square up on the Embattled-O-Meter?
Unpopularity rating…
72%
Derisive nicknames…
‘Crooked Harry’, ‘Crappy ‘Arry’, ‘Harry Red-crap’, ‘C**nty B*****ks’
Estimated number of games left to save his job…
Until end of season (5)
And those games would be…
Queens Park Rangers (a), Blackburn Rovers (h), Bolton Wanderers (a), Aston Villa (a), Fulham (h)
says…
It feels like only yesterday that the man could do no wrong. While the nature of Spurs’s collapse has been alarming, their lack of depth up front was always liable to count against them at some point. Nevertheless, there is more than enough talent elsewhere on the pitch to beat the likes of Norwich City, Sunderland and Stoke City, and that final day fixture against Martin Jol’s Fulham must be taking on an ominous light with each passing calamity.
However, Wigan Athletic’s win at Arsenal last night throws the race for 3rd wide open again, and if that can be achieved – along with the automatic Champions League qualification that it activates – then all this complaining will start to look a little churlish. That 5-1 semi-final defeat must be sore though, so it’s at least understandable in the meantime…
Harry Redknapp – in or out? Have your say in the comments section below!