Thomas Frank - Head Coach

[Gutter Boy]

I won't answer you individually but yes I was obviously being provocative with the Harry thing. It interests me that we hired a manager who had only ever known wheeler dealing at lower clubs. He had never understood the full breadth of football management at a "big" club where you shop in different stores and lay down long term foundations when building. In his entire tenure at the club he never built a "SQUAD" to compete. He just stopckpiled players, took the wage bill up by 35%, when we had one season of CL, and it never came down. He burnt his transfer budget on wasted wages on guys that had absolutely no first team impact. Shame on Levy for letting him. We ended up with several 25-30 year olds out on loan and the write-downs on the balance sheet of players was horrible. However, because he's a cheeky chappy and a good coach, he was never really challenged about his "management" like we do with Frank. That's remembering Harry wasn't working with a DoF because apparently he wouldn't work with one. Then he brought Toxic Tim back to the club after Hoddle had kicked him out in his playing days. Another great call in management by Harry......NOT.

To me, Harry was always junior at things other than the tracksuit stuff. Way more junior than the guy we've currently got in charge. He's a senior leader in football and carries himself really well. We should really respect that and give him the runway he deserves to build this thing out. It is nothing to do with what happened in the sixties or whether he's won a single trophy in his career. It's about looking forward.

Redknapp's issue was also ageing players. Bringing in Gallas when we already had King and Dawson; freshening up our frontline with Gudjohnson etc. The first thing we had to do when he left was overhaul the entire squad - Verts, Lloris, Dembele and Sigurdsson all arrived in the first few weeks after he'd gone, who were players he would never have dreamed of signing

 

[Bedfordspurs]

100% this. The issue initially was no evidence of improved performances and results. No apparent steps in the right direction.

If we revert to a Palhinha and Bentancur midfield, or create less than 1xG then I expect some will sound off. However if we put in a strong performance then, even if we lose, I would expect less noise.

I’m fine with the midfield changes if the football is still positive. I’m not sure how he would get that working but he may
The key is the performances as you say

 

[Bishop]

Redknapp's issue was also ageing players. Bringing in Gallas when we already had King and Dawson; freshening up our frontline with Gudjohnson etc. The first thing we had to do when he left was overhaul the entire squad - Verts, Lloris, Dembele and Sigurdsson all arrived in the first few weeks after he'd gone, who were players he would never have dreamed of signing

Vertoghen signing was initiated the previous January whilst Harry was still at the club. The deal was largely done in January but not completed until the summer.

 

[Bedfordspurs]

Vertoghen signing was initiated the previous January whilst Harry was still at the club. The deal was largely done in January but not completed until the summer.

And I’m sure he would have loved those played mentioned by GB

 

[Bishop]

And I’m sure he would have loved those played mentioned by GB

Harry was a liker of good players. I don't understand the slander. If there's one thing that can be said about Harry across all his managerial jobs, he had a fudging good eye for a player and he was always ambitious and wanted to buy players above the station of what whatever club he was in at the time.

 

[Bedfordspurs]

Harry was a liker of good players. I don't understand the slander. If there's one thing that can be said about Harry across all his managerial jobs, he had a fudging good eye for a player and he was always ambitious and wanted to buy players above the station of what whatever club he was in at the time.

Yeah I don’t get it
He did say things that I wasn’t keen on
But he played good football everywhere he went and he signed good players
Comparing Frank with other managers is fine but the choice of who to compare him with is key… Redknapp wouldn’t be one though

 

[El Dante]

Vertoghen signing was initiated the previous January whilst Harry was still at the club. The deal was largely done in January but not completed until the summer.

Imagine if we had signed Vertonghen instead of Ryan Nelson and Suarez instead of Saha. I can’t help but feel that lifetime costing bit us hard there.

 

[Lemonade Money]

Redknapp's issue was also ageing players. Bringing in Gallas when we already had King and Dawson; freshening up our frontline with Gudjohnson etc. The first thing we had to do when he left was overhaul the entire squad - Verts, Lloris, Dembele and Sigurdsson all arrived in the first few weeks after he'd gone, who were players he would never have dreamed of signing

Would have been interesting to see what Redknapp could do with the current spending power. Apart from buying Chimbonda another three times of course.

 

[Gutter Boy]

And I’m sure he would have loved those played mentioned by GB

In their prime. But not picking them up as green early 20 somethings

 

[Bishop]

In their prime. But not picking them up as green early 20 somethings

You're talking quite a bit of nonsense. Harry in his career brought through young versions of Lampard, Cole, Carrick, Hartson, Unsworth , Defoe and Ferdinand. He also signed Krancjar (22), Muntari (also 22) and Glenn Johnson (23). At Spurs he signed Walker, Naughton and Bassong all under 23 iirc as well.

Harry wasn't against young players at all, his limitation was that preferred players whose game he knew well over those that he didn't. Add to that Levy's preference at the time for less risky additions and you get the squad that Harry was able to build.