Leeds Spur
Banned
You defined the argument. You were wrong. Get over it.
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New England manager = Roy Hodgson
- Thread starter Kingdawson
- Start date
You defined the argument. You were wrong. Get over it.
Spursalot
Jimmy McCormick
If we finish fourth, we had the fourth best team. If we finish fifth, we had the fifth best team. etc.
Leeds Spur
Banned
If its debatable then it's subjective. Most people however concede we have the best midfield in the league.
chancer
Gudni Bergsson
Unless you think Spurs should be Champions, then there will inevitably be some distribution of bad results somewhere through the season.
Would it have been better if our poor recent performances were dotted through the season evenly instead? Or, if this run had happened in the first 8 games of the season and not the last 8? Maybe, whatever. It's impossible to say. But at the moment we're pretty much bang-on par for 35 games - by Wednesday perhaps just a point away from 3rd, with heat from behind, but a live possibility that we can finish 3rd. Bottling that with 3 games to go by ditching the manger and generally having hissy fits doesn't show enough backbone. Slaughter the guy when we fail, not when we're close to succeeding.
Here's a list of names:
- Rodgers
- Martinez
- Ancelotti
- Lambert
- Capello
- AVB
- Moyes
- Mancini
- Hodgson
Can anyone say, hand on heart, that any of that lot would certainly have brought more success and/or better football than Redknapp? You might be able to say it of Ancelotti, who's a wily fox who's been around and plays reasonably good ball. The rest? I simply don't believe it's possible to say any of them would have done better than Harry. You can argue it if you like (and I've got a massive horn for Martinez at the moment), but you can't argue it so compellingly that you'll definitively win the argument.
We're doing fine. Hitch the wagon at Rancho Relaxo.
thfcsteff
Garth Crooks
It's really, really simple.
Harry's single greatest gifts were his ability to man-manage and his ability to rotate within the squad. Last season, thanks to preparing for the court case, he forgot how to rotate his squad properly and took his eye off the ball. We slumped. We missed the CL spot. Oh well, no worries, with the chairman telling everyone Luka wouldn't go, we were keeping the nucleus of our squad intact for a third season running, thus THIS time we can do it. Harry, rather bizarrely, shows the first wobble when he single-handedly tries to help Modric and his ****-agent get the player to Chelski for 40 million in the third week of August. We get coated by both Mancs and Harry is trying to move Modric on; why? No-one ever asked. Hmmm. He gets Parker (a fine signing and one I thought was wrong but have been proven very wrong on) and marshals not just the squad, but the youth players too, superbly. The likes of Townshend, Livermore and Carroll are all fully-blooded and get several games in the Europa League. He has the squad in good spirits so as they can "do what they do" and his "style" of management is going great guns. He still talks too much, but it's charming at this point because everything is rosy.
Then comes the trial. He survives. FINALLY, you feel, we will see this man FULLY relaxed thus LAST season's collapse will NOT be allowed to happen THIS season. The FA then sack Capello. Disaster. Because from that moment on, Harry hitches his skirt for England. His friends in the press, er, press him. He won't deny his interest, he won't request a stay of absence, he won't even force Levy to release him to talk on the grounds he cannot focus. No. He knows he is NOT the prime choice within the corridors, but wants to force their hand by getting public support. Even John Terry comes out supporting him as a choice. Bizarre.
In the meanwhile, harry is more about Harry than ever before. His "day job"? Well, they can take care of themselves can't they?
Harry stopped doing the two fudging things which were uniquely his. He stopped doing them. And for me mate, he deserves to be at the very least questioned about it whenever possible. Instead he is now doing his teflon Harry routine. He has the press in his hands. He used them superbly during the trial, and he is using them superbly right now. Mario Balotelli wore a shirt which read "Why Always Me?"
I think Harry should wear one which says "Why Never Me?"
I was appreciative of Martin Jol, but also felt he had taken us as far as we could go with him. But one thing he always did was admit if he got something wrong tactically, or at least entertain discussions about the dubious use of Stalteri without exploding into a flustered angry reposte.
I hope to christ we crawl over the line into the CL, but my trust in him will never, ever, ever be there. And if you admit it, deep deep down, neither would yours be...because we will not be allowed to forget this collapse of form until we surge through this period in time another season...
thfcsteff
Garth Crooks
I second this...have enjoyed Mick's posts for a long time, and know that even if we disagree, there's a respect and desire to discuss it with passion without being personal.
thfcsteff
Garth Crooks
Ha ha, what? I support the team when in the ground. I also discuss whats going on out there with my mates. We can be critical but actually, when the chips are down, we sing louder.
And who is going to give someone a "battering"? They're not are they! No, they're just going to be told to shut the fudge up. When I used to have to sit next to/stand next, people who saw fit to sing the Campbell-tree song or the Adebayor-elephant song, I would not "batter" them, I'd turn around and tell them to shut the fudge up. Only arseholes who are tinkled out of their heads actually start fighting their own, and tell me, how many times have YOU seen it?
thfcsteff
Garth Crooks
At what point should you start believing then?
And if our "lack of depth" was the issue, I'd agree. But it wasn't. We had depth, it was mis-managed. We have the players, they were mis-managed. We WERE in with a shot at the title, but that was mis-managed (albeit we did also suffer some awful luck, I won't deny that). And finally, we had 3rd place comfortably in our traps, we simply had to keep putting round pegs in round holes and playing the football we play. That was mis-managed. Look, it's not even a case of " 'e's a caaant' it's a simple case of seeing it with your own eyes.
On what basis do you think Liverpool should be 6th? Expenditure? Absolutely NO gel-time at all. I said in August they'd be lucky to finish 6th, let alone sniff it. No, this side is in it's third year together, and that set of 'gel' you cannot put a price on. It was (sadly for all of us) mis-managed, and if we do get 4th, it will now be a stroke of fortune, one I will gladly take, but a stroke of fortune nonetheless.
Again, let me be very very clear. My disappointment is in what I've seen Redknapp NOT do that I know he CAN do when HE wants to do it...
thfcsteff
Garth Crooks
You've hit another area of confusion for me...I liked how he blooded young players in the tournament, but then, come January, "bye bye - forgotten" when Townshend and Carroll could've provided some interesting options in certain games. Simply their energy alone might've been a spark. Fergie's been a master of it in the past even when the player has gone on to not much (macheda springs to mind)...it really confused me that we did not find space for Townshend, a player who might be raw but who had the sort of pace we could've used for 20 mins in games when Lennon was injured...
I don't think he was 'blooding' young players like other teams have done. He was simply using those players to complete fixtures that he didn't want to play, with minimum impact on the first team.
If we didn't have those fixtures then the players would have been out on loan from the start of the year.
The Moonlit Knight
Banned
They shouldn't require it. Redknapp overhauled Spurs in the first transfer window and no gel time was required to get us performing.
I say it again, I think you over rate our squad players. Hell as far as I am concerned we have a defence that is more akin to a mid to lower Premiership side, and that's our first team! The reason why we've done so well defensively is that we keep possession so well that our defence is rarely under prolonged pressure to be able to collapse.
January 2009?
metalgear
Luka Modric
but lets not forget that we do have a pretty talented squad - arguably even better than Arsenal's. Then you see how Saudi Sportswashing Machine has done so well with - in my opinion - a slightly less talented squad ....
...its harsh to say that redknapp hasn't done any good, but the real question is how much more do we expect out of our current talents/assets?
...its harsh to say that redknapp hasn't done any good, but the real question is how much more do we expect out of our current talents/assets?
The Moonlit Knight
Banned
Was it that long ago we signed Palacios, Defoe and Keane and completely changed the way we played overnight? Where does the time go!
The Moonlit Knight
Banned
Once again I think that is very subjective. Most fans over rate their own players, and I think we often take it to the next level. I don't think our squad is all that.
Full backs = New set all round please. First team and back ups aren't good enough
Centre Halves = Same as the full backs. Sadly King seems to be through. None of our current first team centre backs are good enough and need to be replaced. Dawson could make a good back up, sell the rest.
Wide men = Lennon and Bale. Sell the rest and bring in some more. The back ups aren't good enough.
Central midfield = the one area we are OK both first team and back up
Forwards = Keep VDV, keep Defoe if he is willing to be back up. Get rid of the rest, and don't sign Ade.
PochettinoPochettinoPochettino
Serge Aurier
I'm with you on this mate. We haven't get the 2nd or 3rd best team/squad in te league and we are doing amazingly well considering.
I'm going to draw a line under it all now that redknapp is our manager and Hodgson is England so that I can support the team and our manager. Redknapp has taken us where no other manager has in 20 years
Re-signing 2 existing players is hardly an overhaul. I'd give him Palacios though
Not really. The manager makes a massive difference to where the team finishes.
Swansea without Rodgers would probably not have got promoted yet alone have stayed up. Man Utd are still in with a decent chance of the title despite not being able to compare their first 11 to City. Conversely, City had all the money in the world but were comparatively dogbrick under Hughes.
Armchair Expert
Vedran Corluka
=D> Great post