This is the first in what I hope will be a series of guest articles. First up is Rob Handworker. Rob is in his mid 30′s, says Glenn Hoddle is the best player he’s seen at The Lane and won his child’s team loyalties thanks to Woody’s head. This is Rob’s first venture into Spurs blogging.
I know Rob as a calm influence, a mediator. So I was amused when he said he wanted to talk about Harry Redknapp. What was he thinking? Mediator? Twisted firestarter more like! Has this been discussed enough? Maybe so, but I’m hearing murmurs everyday, so clearly some want to say more. Anyway, Rob keeps his cool and looks at it from both sides. We’d love to hear your take on it.
——————————————————————————————————
Harry Redknapp. Discuss!
No I am not going to wait here for the air to turn blue and mass arguments to ensue. The season is over and the real debate is on, should Mr Redknapp still be managing our club come August?
In all my years supporting and discussing our club on various social networks and in real life, I have never seen a topic that is on everybody’s lips and at the forefront of their minds straight after a season has finished quite like this.
Your own personal view on the season, good, bad or indifferent is one thing, who you attribute the success to or whose door you lay the blame at is totally different.
From what I have seen and discussed it’s split right down the middle with fans getting quite agitated and angry whatever stance they have.
Harry has become very vocal in recent months and has alienated a lot of supporters with his ‘idiot’ tag and ‘this is the best it gets’ comments amongst others. So much so that I have seen the campaign started for ‘Harry Out’. Low key, yes, but the musings and doubtings have nevertheless begun.
Others say although he was wrong to say such things and continue to say them, Harry is just being Harry and seeing as football is a high pressure job maybe the strain of a truly terrible end to the season is beginning to take its toll. Plus we all know he loves to indulge the media and keep them onside with controversial statements.
Some also seem to think that HR is walking, nay strutting, around WHL like he is the messiah and the saviour of our great club! Really? Yes, we all know what he has done for us under and where we came from, but we have had better managers before him and will hopefully have better after he has left (for Chelsea or most likely England in a years time). The flip side of this argument is that he deserves his swagger as 4th along with CL qualification, QF in the competition a year later with 5th place is outstanding for the level we are at presently. I don’t think anyone is taking these achievements away from Harry and maybe the against camp have taken offence to his attitude rather what he has accomplished with us.
Do a lot of supporters think that Harry has disconnected with the fans? Yes they do, but others say they never connected with him in the first place.
Did he make poor decisions in the transfer market? Well, on the whole no but we all knew we desperately needed a high class striker in January, but not getting one might not have been his own fault, but rather Levy’s.
All football fans have a voice in the game and so they should with the amount it costs, but as we know this voice is rarely taken into account these days. Having little or no respect for the fans along with name calling and insults surely can’t be the way for a manager to act though?
We al have our thoughts on this one and some will be happy if he goes, some won’t, but we are ALL Spurs and want the best for our club. So if you have strong views on this or any other subject when discussing it please remember that any nastiness or rudeness is not needed.
Of course this could all be a moot discussion pending the outcome of the case against HR from the revenue this summer.
Whats my view I hear you ask? Well, its simple really. When he joined, I was surprised, he’s done fantastically well and given us great nights and memories during his tenure, but taking all into account, with all his recent comments, action and demeanour I think his time at the club has come to an end.
Two quotes stick in my mind though ‘you never know what you have until it’s gone’ and ‘the grass is always greener on the other side’
We shall see!
Hey, what do I know though?!
COYS
Rob Handworker (@RAH13 on twitter)
Related posts:
Spurs News 24/7
He may not be a great manager, but he is a good one, charismatic and great for the club
He deserves his praise, let’s see what he does in the transfer window and next season to judge 100 percent
You are right!!!! What do you know?????
This is truly Harry’s make or break season. By the end of the summer, he’ll have had enough time to access which players he wants to keep, sell and buy.
From mid-August – if he’s still there – we’ll see the true work he’s done.
It’s all very well and good churning out the ’2 points from eight games’ line but if Chelsea had got a new manager in January he could have claimed to have taken them into the CL positions, from a Europa position.
But Harry likes to work in the shadows and is still more praising of West Ham than he is Spurs.
What I would like to see clarified is how the process of buying and selling players work. How much is down to Dan Levy, how much is the scouting network and how much is Harry? How does the whole process work?
I have seen that some blame Harry for the lack of a new striker in Jan. Was it down to him, or elsewhere? Remember we did put in some sizable bids for strikers but were knocked back. The problem is, Jan is always a sellers market. I am interested to see what we do during the summer.
Unless you know how it all works behind the scenes it is difficult to lay the “blame” on anyone in particular.
One thing that can be levelled at Harry though is that he talks, a lot, to the press. I am not a fan of this, others may be. I wish he would not offer so many soundbites to the press but sometimes I am glad for what he says to the press. I think he is more dignified than most when it comes to talking about referees “the ref has got a hard job, he doesn’t make bad decisions on purpose…” and when some players talk out of line “Defoe would be on the pitch more if he scored more goals”
I expect spurs to play a certain way, that’s why I support them. Harry has them playing that way. If Harry does leave who would be the next manager that would keep the same style of play?
Do I think Harry is perfect? Definitely not. Do I think there are better managers out there? Not many. Do I think he is a good manager for Spurs? Yes.
@Sarge – I hear where you are coming from
@Sirled – was it worth logging in to make that productive comment? If you can do better let me know & I’m happy to look at your work & put it up if its good enough.
@Christospur – Maybe you are right about this being the season to decide. You are definitely right about how much he likes us v other clubs though.
My own view is I would shed no tears if he went and we got someone like Carlo Ancelotti. The disdain with which HR talks about us fans is completely out of order and he has managed to alienate me and many others.
there is no discussion to have, he’s our manager and the best one we have had since the 80′s. He’s also correct to say our club has been infested by delluded idiots whos expectations are ridiulous. They need to wake and up and face reality or go support another club who can match their lofty ambitions. Pathetic.
The bit that amazes me in this debate is how many of the ‘like’ camp seem to have no tools but abuse at their disposal. I can’t stand the man and pray daily for him to leave. This does not make me fickle, a shit fan or a gooner.
@Bentlysbird – I’m in the ‘like’ camp and I do not resort to abuse. Out of interest, why is it that you can’t stand the man?
@Jim answer me this: who last season said we could win the title? Thats right, Mr Redknapp. So when we fail to beat WBA, Wolves, West Ham and Blackpool and get told its as good as its gonna get, I tend to feel that I have the right to say I’m not overly pleased. If we’d beaten those teams once plus turned one other draw into a win, we’d have been 2nd.
I give you your 2pts 8games argument and raise you 1 win in 13 at the back end of last season. Haven’t heard HR churning that on repeat have we?
The form I could probably excuse if he was as willing to take blame as he is praise, but his downright abuse of fans, US, you know the people that were here before him and will be here long after he’s gone, is completely and utterly unacceptable.
Its also forgotten that he is still favourite for the England job, he’s off in a year, which will lead to upheaval, how about we deal with the upheaval on our terms rather than when he’s ready?
As for best manager since the 80′s?? Hmm. How many trophies has he bought home to The Lane? Yeah, none. Unlike Venables and for gods sake Ramos and the man in the raincoat!
Finally as BB rightly says the ‘pro’ camp have only one weapon, and thats abuse at their fellow fans. Thats not cool is it? We are all Spurs and all want what is best for us.
Well, the Friedel signing is pure ‘Arry not Levy
So here ends my point – ‘Arry is not building a team for the future
well harry has done well since coming to the club,as for buying player`s his hands have been tied by levy as all other manager`s that have come to the club, what I would like to see is some of that dead wood still floating around the field just to bring one player to mind can anyone tell me why jenas is still there, And no I can not play better but I know that passing a squer ball never goes anyware.
@ Studub – I hear you. For someone who loves to talk to the press he wasn’t too keen to talk about his record at the end of the season! The England job I also hear you on but let’s be honest as an Englishman I would also jump at the chance to manage my own country. I think I remember him saying he would be interested but it is still a long way away and things change quickly. Not many people are talking about Roy Hodgson getting the job now are they?
Harry has said before that we need more characters at the club and I think he is right. If you want to blame Harry for the results to the lower teams (I can understand that) but you can’t deny the forwards let us down last year?
Some games need taking by the scruff of the neck and dealing with. That’s how you win against lower teams and turn draws into wins etc. I don’t think we have enough people with that character. Good players yes, characters no. Brad Friedel is one, good signing. Parker would be another. The truth is there aren’t many of them out there. The only man for me that currently shows that character is Dawson (not even King or Gallas, good players that they are) Keane used to have, but that time has gone.
Like I said before, he ain’t perfect but I can’t think of anyone I would rather have at the moment.
I am not getting into the Arry debate as my opinion changes daily! Just wanted to say well done Rob – summed up everything I feel about the man! Can’t take away what he has done for the club but he is not 100% Spurs in my opinion! That does not sit well with me. COYS!
Make no mistake, the reason for our recent success is down to Harry Redknapp and to actually want him to leave at this point is madness. Look at the team. It is basically the team that Martin Jol had with the exception of Modric, Crouch and Pavluchenco that got us into the champions league. If it weren’t for injuries to all our first team players this season, some long term injuries as well and I do mean all our first team players have been injured during the course of the season bar Crouch, we would have got top four this season also. You can’t say it’s a squad game and the players coming in should have been good enough to take over. What other team in the premiership has had every first team player injured at some point during the season? Also make no mistake, the likes of VDV, Bale and Modric staying at our club is down to Harry Redknapp.
I think Man Utd and Arsenal would disagree about the amount of injuries Pete, they had it as bad as us.
And you can say its a squad game cos we were told repeatedly how good it was. Although someone maybe should have pointed out the squad thing to Harry so that he actually used players like Kranjcar.
Martin Jol got us to 5th twice with a weaker squad in a much stronger PL than now. Just saying.
nicely written Rob. My point of views is widely known. I respect everything Harry Redknapp has achieved at Spurs but I’ve said since the beginning that the team he inherited should be achieving top5 finishes and therefore there are a lot of managers who could’ve done what he did. That’s not to take away from what he managed to do because there’s no way of knowing that any other manager could’ve done it.
However, a manager should attend every training session or at least the vast majority of them. Harry Redknapp doesn’t.
A manager should be the face of the club and stick by the players, fans and board, at least in public. Harry Redknapp doesn’t.
A manager should have the clubs best interests at heart and not their own. Harry Redknapp doesn’t.
A manager should have ambition that far outshines any players and equals the fans. Harry Redknapp doesn’t.
A manager should have an ability to scout and know good players to sign. Harry Redknapp doesn’t.
The tricky thing is he doesn’t deserve to be sacked but I feel his time has come to an end and he’s taken the team as far as he can so what should happen? Personally, if he was found guilty his position would be untenable and we’d be able to appoint one of the few good coaches available at the moment, without his buddies in the press slagging us off right, left and center.
To want to get rid of someone finally making you have success is total madness. We have been STARVED of success, so when it comes along, YOU GRASP HOLD OF IT. Yes, we have had one better manager – Ramos is a “better manager”. BUT he is not better in every department, and it just so happens that Harry’s strengths have been better than Ramos’s strengths. For example Vdv is better for us than he is for Real madrid – he is still the same player. What ASTONISHES ME is the assumption that getting rid of Redknapp would result in something better – because I KNOW it will be something WORSE. Why? Because this is what we have been used to for 20 years. We have tried soo many managers, and each one has FAILED. The only one yet to fail is Harry, and some people want rid! Wierd. The guy has turned the expectation of Spurs on its head. We CAN finish top 4. We CAN survive in the CL. We CAN beat the “big 4″. We CAN put on a consistent sequence of results.
HOW on earth can Harry’s time come to an end? It has been 2.5 years!! The first season was a write off too. So basically a 4th place and a 5th place + quarter final of CL (all for a team that has NEVER done better than that in the Premiership). There is nothing that states that his time has come to an end….
There is a danger that rather than appreciating what you’ve got you will always look to the new. For those that want Harry out who would you replace him with? and it has to be someone that realistically would come to us. I can think of some names but none that would carry on playing the spurs way. (OK maybe Klinnsman or Joachim Low).
HR has done wonders at WHL: it’s fans like some of the idiots above that are forcing him out.
1. He has built well on the work started by Martin Jol, and turned Spurs around from being a team facing a relegation battle to a team competing for the Champions League each season.
2. His signings have been adequare – you have to walk before you can run – lets see what happens over the summer.
3. He has not broken the bank like Man U or Man C who will face tough decisions in 2014/5.
4. He has motivated players by saying they can compete for the PL title and set his sights high. Remember the likes of VDV, Modric and Bale are paid a lot less at spurs than they would be in any of the other top 6.
5. All clubs suffered this time around with fixtures and injuries, we finished 5th, 6 behind arsenal and 9 behind Man C. Thats pretty good going in my book. Yes we suffered some bad results, probably due to over confidence and a lack of potent strikers, but we got some huge scalps, notably the gooners IN THEIR OWN HOUSE!
End of the day, he keeps saying it’s a work in progress… lets see the work over the summer and the progress next season.
No argument to have here really.
Harry should and will be manager for at least another year.
He’s the best manager we’ve had since the ’80s as someone above has mentioned. 4th and 5th finish in 2 years when we’ve only ever finished 5th or below. Cant argue with that. Yes, disappointed we didnt finish 4th, but this isnt Football Manager 2011. No results are given. Look what happened with Villa this season..
For us, 5th is solid. Sign 2 strikers if we can trim the squad where possible. This Leandro Damiao could be the business and we seem to be acting early to complete this. Maybe a Drogba / Klose as a proven 2nd striker, or Romelu Lukaku as one for the future and we would look very solid indeed.
As poor as Keane/Defoe/Crouch/Pav have been this season, we wouldnt have expected them to be SO bad. You would have put your house on Defoe getting 10-15 alone if fit all season. They are all established internationals, if not quite on the level of Tevez, Rooney, Messi etc.
Also, the strikers may not be World Class, but they are all good players in their own right. The problem is none of them entirely match what we need from our main striker anymore as we play 1 up top. They all seem to be able to play well and score under a 442, but that’s not how we play. Crouch is the nearest we have to suitable. Defoe (or keane) doesnt have the physical presence, Pav has the right attributes, but never seems to perform when up top on his own.
There are some good points being made.
@Benn, you make some really really good points, but make them almost completely null and void by calling people who disagree with you ‘idiots’. Learn that from HR did you?
Remember folks we are all Spurs fans, we are all entitled to opinions and they will seldom be exactly the same. Lets try and show a little respect eh mate?
Firstly let me say what a wecome change it is to read a polite, well thought through article. I posted my thoughts on this subject recently. Below is a “copy and paste” of them.
I don’t think I like him anymore. He’s been slowly winding me up fo a while now. He call’s us idiots for expecting us to beat teams like Wigan, Westham, Blackpool and Wolves? Teams that everyone else seems to beat. 17 points dropped from those four teams alone. Those points would have had us finish just one point behind Man U. It was him bigging us up in November, I didn’t read any of the “Idiots” posts then about us being champions or winning the champios league, we were just enjoying the ride. It’s obvious to all that he would snap up the England job or even the Chelsea job. And to be completely honest I couldn’t give a monkies if he does leave, in fact I hope he does. COYS
And now he’s saying that none of the strikers that he’s looked at are better than Pav, yet he never played him. The way he treated Kranky was disgusting, yet he played Pienaar who never did anything worth mentioning. You don’t say in one breath that we are good enough to win the league and then say 5th is as good as it gets.
we have a bit of a problem here. i firmly believe, and the evidence is there, that stability brings success. the problem i have is that i do not see a way to achieve stability with harry. if he is convicted in august we will likely fire him even if the sentence is a suspended one. maybe we would keep him if it is a non-custodial of any sort but a conviction for defrauding the taxman is likely to expose the club to criticism if he is kept on.
suppose he gets off, well we all expect to do well next season, and that would almost inevitably lead to the england job. so we have just delayed the change for one year, have to start from scratch in trying to build up the stability, but do it with a lot less cash, namely without all the money harry spends this summer; every new manager wants to buy.
one might conclude that the best thing, therefore, is cut your losses and get rid of him now. lots of logic there. BUT, the players like him and keeping them will be harder if he has gone. But if he goes in august well what a crap way to start the season. as i said, we are in a tough place with a really hard issue.
what has annoyed me is his shameless self-promotion. i think he is more ambitious than thinking this is as good as it gets. i think he is smart enough to know very well that had we beaten blackpool and west ham in both games we wd be in the champions league, would have finsihed second and arsenal would be in the europa league, now that would be a good season harry. but he keeps telling everyone he has done all he can because 1. he wants more money to spend, and 2. it is a pr exercise in marketing himself to the FA. he hardly wants the FA to focus on lost points against poor teams, altho some might say that is a particularly apposite quailification for the england job.
what i can say is that after the idiot comment i could empathise with darren bent a little more, and we got it collectively whereas darren got singled out. he must learn to forego the cheap laugh and respect the fans who pay his vast wages.
@mikey – thanks for the comments, I’m sure Rob will read it but I’ll be sure to pass it on. You make some excellent points that are very much in line with my own thinking.
@cyril – also thanks, some more really good points. I would say if he is convicted whether custodial or not he’ll have to go, would not be good for the clubs image to have a convicted tax cheat at the helm.
Thanks to all of you so far that have contributed in a (mostly) thoughtful and intelligent way, its great to see a range of opinions.
I wont bore you with a long winded statement i will just tell why he should stay and why we failed to repeated our top four season again just like Fifa has become corrupted by money so has football. This is why we finished 5th Injuries to King Huddlestone Defoe Dawson Bale Lennon Modric Palacios Kaboul Wooggate . Too many loaned players and fringe and promising kids Rose Townsend Caulker Walker all could have filled in for some of the injuries like Rose did. with youthful surprise. The Van affect i also believe disrupted our way of playing and it worked when we had Huddlestone playing but sadly failed when we had no one to pass to switch play with speedy passes the stats proved when Hudds was absent we struggled or lost and he was playing on one ankle for months hidden by injections to most fans till it required surgery . We also had players who played while not 100 percent fit through long term injuries like Lennon who is still not cured of groin problems and shies away from heavy contact still lets hope he fully recovers without surgery add to this list King and Bale who got another injury on top of his mystery back injury that he was still being affected by with every heavy tackle dished out to order by coaches. I have left the most damming statement for Harry must stay till last Man City where lurching from one bad result to another and we where being tipped to finish in the top three by every punter by me. The appointment of ex City chairman David Bernstien ex Man City chairman meant City had a friend in high place and when Kolo Toure failed a drug tests was when i knew we would not finish in the top four and the reason his test and sentence was left till City qualified and won the cup they also had no drug tests before and after the FA cup why? Stoke had testst before and after also the defining week that saw City go seven points clear five points changed hands with linesman’s flags with three bad calls leaving us with a mounting to climb with no ropes. Harry is not blameless but out of 100 percent he is only 15 percent at fault thriugh sticking with 4411 without Huddlestone was no use and his media gaffs but he also raised our profile because he his liked by the Media and lastly our shock results by teams raising there Tempo can be explained by Kolo Toure and Paddy Kenny one had a cold the other had weight problems this is why Harry must stay and the FA must get tough along with UFA and stop false illegal Tempo .
davspurs
i understand your points but i just cannot get beyond the fact that with our squad, regardless of injuries, with the right set up and the right motivation, much of which comes from the manager, we beat blackpool and west ham twice. so close to a glorious season, with arsenal in the europa. i wonder if harry cares a lot. he used to. a friend of mine was playing a charity round of golf with him about ten years ago and he fled at the 7th hole explaining that while west ham were in the relgation zone he needed to spend every waking hour trying to keep them out and not playing golf. he got older, he has made life style work balance decsions and we can respect them, but is there some drive lacking? we laugh at wenger and the throwing of the water bottle, but boy did he care, he was angry and he likely did not sleep that night. and that passion comes thro to the players, and harry doesnt have it. fergie does, in spades, but harry? well he is half retired in his mind i sometimes feel. and he wd not worry about spurs in the top four in the way he worried about west ham in the bottome three. maybe he would have at one time.
Cyril, I think you may have hit the nail on the head. Harry’s never liked, let alone loved us, perhaps if it was the Hammers he’d be more up for it. Perhaps the semi retirement that the England job brings is exactly what he needs.
Davspurs – I’m not sure I get how Kolo Toure’s drug test has anything to do with our performances against Wolves, Blackpool, WBA etc? I also don’t subscribe to the City’s £££ theory either. Again, how has their money affected our games? It hasn’t.
that is exactly the smoke and mirrors harry likes “how can we compate with city” he asks. beat blackpool and west ham i answer, got nothing to do with city. they are irrelevant
@steve I’ve never liked him. I dislike his media whoring and self aggrandising. I dislike the fact that he called us all scum over the Tottenham 6. I have never found anything to admire in a man who screwed Billy Bonds the way he did & his move from Pompey to Southampton & back. I dislike the fact that he talks about us as though we were Rushden & Diamonds instead of the biggest job he has ever had and the way he likes to write Martin Jol out of our history. He has now added the litany of comments he has made about us, the fans, to the reasons I don’t like him. I hate the fact that such a shoddy man is the public face of my glorious club. Is that enough to be getting on with