'Arry Redknapp

[LowerzBWFC]

Is it just me or does Harry get far too much credit for the job he has done at various clubs.

The guy just seems to leave a trail of destruction behind him everywhere he goes! I was listening to the radio on the way in to work and a Spurs fan phoned up pleading that Levy should give Harry the cash he wants for the 3 "World Class Players" that he is interested in. I'm pretty sure that if I got a job at Pompey or Spurs, and was given stupid amounts of cash to blow on full backs I could probably deliver a cup or two, especially if I kept drawing Championship sides nearly every round.

We are talking about a guy here who signed up John Utaka on 80k a week, yes that's right 80k a week! Add this to 40k for Nugent amongst others and its not hard to see why Pompey capitulated when the cash dried up. A look at his former clubs says it all, Bournemouth, Southampton and Pompey have all suffered massive financial difficulties in the last 15 years or so, surely this is no coincidence.

I have to admit he did a good job last season, but he has spent a lot of money turning Spurs into contenders and they must have one of the higher wage budgets in the league, pretty sure they would be 4th behind Utd, Chelsea and Citeh. He has already spent multimillion's on midfielders and full backs.

The other thing about him that gets me is the way he claims to have "always liked [insert name here]". Its quite obvious to me that he waits and see's who David Moyes/Steve Bruce wants to get in from some unknown South American league, then just outbids them, claiming that he's been following the player since he was kicking a cabbage round in Bogota.

[azreal88]

We are talking about a guy here who signed up John Utaka on 80k a week, yes that's right 80k a week!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/teams/p/portsmouth/8519800.stm

[Jamster26]

A bit harsh really Lowerz. He gets the best out of players, you hear them come out time and time again praising Harrys' managerial abilities.
You are right he has spent allot of money but surely you can't argue that he has spent the right money wisely and for the right areas; Palacios being a good example.
I think Utakas' reported wages are a load of tosh. Harry and Utaka himself have come out denied that.

EDIT: See the link from Az

[LowerzBWFC]

I just can't understand how Tottenham fans can criticise their chairman if he doesn't buy him another 3 players before the window is done. Take a look at their squad compared to most in the league, they have 38 first team members at the minute, granted about 10 of those have been nowhere near the first 11 yet, but for every Palacios there's a Kyle Naughton, Alan Hutton etc.

Plus the fact he puts these lads on ridiculous wages, meaning whoever comes in his place has trouble getting rid of them, hence the likes of Nugent struggling to find anyone willing to meet his current demands. When he's actually with a team its no surprise they like playing for him, if I could move to a different job and get paid a massively overinflated wage I'm sure I'd have plenty of time for my gaffer as well.

Point taken on the Utaka thing, but i'm sure £35,000 is still too much for some Pompey fans, when you consider what similar teams to Pompey are paying their stars.

[Bwfc4eva]

Point taken on the Utaka thing, but i'm sure £35,000 is still too much for some Pompey fans, when you consider what similar teams to Pompey are paying their stars.

Taylor, Petrov, Jussi, and Kevin Davies are all on 30k+ a week.

[LowerzBWFC]

Taylor, Petrov, Jussi, and Kevin Davies are all on 30k+ a week.

So am I taking this to mean you think Utaka is as good as Jussi, Petrov or KD. He's probably not even as good as Matt Taylor. Pretty sure Jussi has earned his wages over the 10+ years he has been with us, as has KD. I would imagine the pair of them were on a fraction of that when they signed.

[dh1985]

Plus the fact he puts these lads on ridiculous wages

But he didn't put them on ridiculous wages. Peter Storie and the other money men at Pompey will have. Redknapp will have given them a list of transfer targets and will have spoken to the players granted, but I very much doubt he would be able to negotiate contract terms with them. No manager does. The Pompey money men risked the clubs future by backing Redknapp with money they didn't have. It was their choice to sign the players and it was their choice to pay them the wages you describe. Plus, I'm pretty sure there was a rumour going round that Redknapp didn;t even want Nugent so there seems to be a £6m deal and £40k a week deal which went above his head. taht's no way to run a football club.

Had they acted like Levy has done and not signed everyone on his list, they wouldn't be in his situation. Redknapp cannot be lamed for the men above him spending what they didn't have.

[Jamster26]

When he's actually with a team its no surprise they like playing for him, if I could move to a different job and get paid a massively overinflated wage I'm sure I'd have plenty of time for my gaffer as well.

Haha, although I am sure that is one side of it, the fact that he turned players like Gomes and Modric from nervous recks to brilliant, shows me that he knows how to instil confidence in players and gets them motivated.

[aarons2009]

Haha, although I am sure that is one side of it, the fact that he turned players like Gomes and Modric from nervous recks to brilliant, shows me that he knows how to instil confidence in players and gets them motivated.

He is an excellent man manager, take the russian striker who's name I can't spell (Roman Pav), their was alot of rumours in January that he was on the verge of leaving as he was getting frustrated with not being able to get a chance in the 1st team, so what does Redknapp do....puts him in a cup game, Pav gets a couple of goals then went on a run of games looking awesome until the end of the season in the league.

[DaveBWFC]

I've never liked Redknapp since comments he made about the supporters on Manny Road North during the 95/96 season. Twitching (unt.

[azreal88]

So 'Arry was given a budget and told the club which players he wanted.  The club's chairman got those players and 'Arry then got them to play well enough to win the FA Cup, but 'Arry is a bad manager because the budget the club gave him was too high?  He then goes to Spurs and gets them CL football for the first time and has their players playing better than under any other manager, whilst their net spend is lower than the sides around them, and he is again a bad manager?

Is that really the argument?

[aarons2009]

Surely it's the football teams board's that are the problem for giving him all the money in the 1st place to get all the players he wanted, he wasn't going to turn around and say ''no I only want a £500k transfer budget''

If someone offers you millions to make a team better no manager is going to turn it down.

[LowerzBWFC]

Modric was a class act before Harry signed, he just obviously couldnt fit into the Ramos set-up. I'm not arguing with Harry's tactical ability, or his man management, i'd put him well within the top 10 in the league for both. My main point was the fact that he puts pressure on chairmen to get a club operating well out of their depth. When Mandaric told Harry to do one, he pished off to their local rivals, so while I take your point about him not being the guy that signs the contract, i'm pretty sure he has a big influence in transfer dealings.

My other point was that the Media/Tottenham fans/People who "know" Football all seem to be siding with him whenever he makes the soundings about spending even more cash on players, they seem to forget about the cash he has already spent at Spurs. He seems good at entertaining the media with his cheeky chappy, cockney wideboy routine, and namedropping players in front of the sky cameras, which then whips the fan into a frenzy (Just look at the Joe Cole one recently) and puts pressure on the board to go after these players.

[LowerzBWFC]

So 'Arry was given a budget and told the club which players he wanted.  The club's chairman got those players and 'Arry then got them to play well enough to win the FA Cup, but 'Arry is a bad manager because the budget the club gave him was too high?  He then goes to Spurs and gets them CL football for the first time and has their players playing better than under any other manager, whilst their net spend is lower than the sides around them, and he is again a bad manager?

Is that really the argument?

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/tottenham-spending-eclipses-big-four-1817972.html

I would hardly say they have spent less than those around them. Granted, the Berbaflop sale raised a lot of cash, as well as Robbie Keanes farcical move to Liverpool and back, but im pretty sure these players were both sold under Ramos. Therefore to look at Harry's net spending during his time in charge i'm pretty sure its massively bigger than that of Man Utd & Arsenal .

[azreal88]

Spurs have sold a players for huge amounts (Keane, Berbatov, the combined deal taking Kaboul et al to Pompey) accounts for nearly 60mil right there.  Hence why I said "net spend".  Whether under 'Arry or not is not the issue as it's available money, money that would have been available whoever was manager - as Levy said on numerous occasions.

[LowerzBWFC]

So to conclude, Ramos is instructed to sell 2 of his better players by the aforementioned prudent Mr Levy, one of which leaves in the last hour of the transfer window. He is then given the boot before he has a chance to re-invest the cash.

In comes Harry, fresh from his F.A cup glory with Pompey, on the promise of getting most of this back (with added extras) to get Spurs to roughly where they were before the great "Food Poisoning" debacle a couple of years before.

Tottenham did very well last year, and probably did overachieve slightly, which Harry can take credit for. However, can you honestly say they should ever have been lower than 6th in the league with their current playing squad? Therefore he has finished about 2 positions above where they should have done.

If we are giving managers credit for this then Tony Pulis and Holloway must be demi-gods.

[Big_Sharps]

I've never liked Redknapp since comments he made about the supporters on Manny Road North during the 95/96 season. Twitching (unt.

What he say?

[Chris Rabz]

Tottenham have over-spent for years though. They've done it under every manager I ever remember since Jurgen Kilnnsmann came across the water in the mid 1990s. I've always said that with the money they spend year in year out, they should be no lower than 5th every year. It was also why I took great pride in seeing our loan stars and OAPs riding high above them in the mid 00s when their millionaires just couldn't keep pace or beat us head-to-head.

Redknapp is just another man in a long list to spend a lot but since they've done it for so long it's my guess that they can afford to do so. If you are a Tottenham fan though Redknapp will be a hero right now. He's spent the money same as everyone else, but he's the first to actually turn it into a concrete achievement with the Champions' League qualification so he now has the club in a position to really start mixing it with the elite now.

I've always quite liked Redknapp. I know quite a few people who hate him but to me he's always done a good job wherever he's been. I can't remember much at Bournemouth but he made West Ham a perennial top-half Premiership team that sometimes graced Europe, he dragged Portsmouth from the depths of the First Division to a long stint in the Premiership, and while he didn't save Southampton I don't think any manager could have when he joined.

[DaveBWFC]

What he say?

Most vile, disgusting, worst behaved supporters he'd ever seen and Bolton should be ashamed. Or something like that.

[Jamster26]

What were we like back then though Dave?

[azreal88]

Tottenham have over-spent for years though.

I used to think the same thing until I made friends with a guy at Spurs a few years ago whilst at Uni.  They actually tend to break roughly even under Levy in terms of sales and spending, at least in the medium term.  Some seasons they will bring in a bit more and some seasons they spend a bit more.....they also usually make a profit on players when they do sell them or at least don't make a significant loss.  When you examine the dealings over Levy's time at the club it's very impressive.

[DaveBWFC]

What were we like back then though Dave?

Pretty much how he described us actually.

[Jamster26]

Haha fair enough.

[Manny]

You can't really deny he's good at his job, but he does cause a mess too.

He spent big at both Southampton and Portsmouth, who have both gone into administration in the last five years. He put players on big money at West Ham before he left and then they ended up getting relegated.

I see him as a successful Kevin Keegan. Stays around while the going is good, but as soon as things start to get tough, he runs away.

[pfk]

Is it just me or does Harry get far too much credit for the job he has done at various clubs.

...

Top fcuking post, I agree with every word.  I hate that twitchy bastard and I hope he burns Spurs to the ground with his ridiculous spending.  He should be England manager (but is likely smart enough to never take the job).