It was. No doubt about it.
But managers feel pressure and make mistakes like we all do. It seems some people though think that such mistakes and slips of the tongue are so out of order that they are the opportunity for hostility and personalised abuse. Twitchy old prick and such like. That's a simple loss of perspective.
I think Harry just has trouble articulating himself. Maybe it could have come across better, but I don't think he meant any maliciousness by it. I think it's clear what he meant - what Golfball and Polski have said, and in any case it's true! But because he speaks without thinking of the perfect phrase to say before hand, and because he always tries to talk candidly, that comment came out. But (without wanting to be offensive towards him) I think his grasp and articulation isn't top notch, and that's why it came out that way. It's obvious what he's trying to say, but people have taken it the wrong way.
I say this because in the post match interview yesterday, he said something, I think it was about how Kean and Blackburn have done this season, and he sort of set himself up so that to finish the sentence the way he did would have taken a very 'articulate' word to do so, and I would have been surprised if he did it that way. But what actually happened was that he paused, and then basically started a new sentence to finish off his line of thought in a longer winded way. But it's because he couldn't find the word and still wanted to give an answer.
I've calmed down a bit after yesterday. Thinking back, I think Harry hasn't actually said that much different to Roy, it's just that the media, fellow managers, coaches and players all decided Harry was the right man for the job. Therefore the speculation was a lot harder for him to deal with. It could have been nice had he declared his alleigance to Spurs and rejected the notion outright, but he would have been fooling no-one. Basically it was the speculation that de-railed us, and Harry did his best to focus on Tottenham but he just wasn't being allowed to do so. I thought it would be tough for him to say when he so clearly wanted another job, but maybe it can give him renewed focus now that he knows this is where he should be.
I say get behind Harry, he has done extremely well for us and doesn't deserve the complete disrespect he is being shown by a few on here. Even people say they are just commenting on his obvious failings - well yeah, every single manager in the world has certain failings, a style they choose which brings some positives and negatives, but it doesn't mean that when things are going badly the failings prove he is such a bad manager. We need to get behind him and the team now and maybe we can still be in the Champions League next year and this club can keep moving forward.
