Who is the best Spurs manager/coach of the Premier League era?

[Gutter Boy]

Ramos and Graham - the only two that actually achieved something (silverwear)

 

[Jurgen the German]

Redknapp hands down. Yes he had the best squad, but he took a club with a history of bottling it and letting you down to the top 4 of the premier league at a time when it was dominated by the big 4, he then won the group in the champions league at the first time of asking and then took won at the ground of seven time European champions AC Milan and into the quarter finals of the competition. Look at how Mancini has struggled with Emirates Marketing Project despite spending hundreds of millions and having a far superior team.

Did any other Spurs manager win at Arsenal? Or beat them 3 times in the league?
Did any other Spurs manager win at Anfield?
Or have an away record that even comes close to our record under Redknapp?
We had the best defensive record at home in the league for two seasons running, that blows the myth out of the water that he's clueless when it comes to tactics.
We played the best football of my lifetime under him.
We were most neutrals favourite team to watch last season.

He also wasn't backed to the full extent by Levy. If we had bought a striker in any of the last two January transfer windows, I'm confident we would have had 3 straight CL campaigns. Our insistence on leaving deals to the last minute in last summer's window was a big factor in why we didn't finish above Arsenal. When you are aiming to finish in the top 4 every year, you simply can't give your rivals a head start like we do by leaving it late to get deals done rather than getting the, done early and thus having a settled squad from game 1.

 

[Howard Webb]

Jol for me.

 

[glorygloryeze]

This is a split on for me.

Purely on final results and league finishes, it has to be Redknapp. But if you take an overall look at things like ability to improve league position, quality of squad compared to top 4 rivals, money spent, ability to integrate young players into squad, then Jol would just pip Redknapp due to our 2nd half season collapses in the last two years. Redknapp had a lead over Arsenal that no other Spurs manager in the Wenger era could even dream of.

Hmmm, too close to call...I abstain..

 

[diego_maradona]

Harry. Some of my best memories as a spurs fan has come under his reign. City away, Inter home, Milan away, Arsenal, Chelsea home, Arsenal away... Great memories, fantastic players at his disposal, but credit due, he gave me belief as a spurs fan for the first time that we could almost win the league

 

[Modric THFC]

I think a lot of people mistaken this poll for "which is your favourite Spurs manager/coach".

I loved Jol when he was here but we failed to beat the big teams again and again under him.

 

[Spur of the moment]

Jols my favourite and was very good, but Harry was brilliant. Harry wont be fairly judged and never was due to not fitting the profile most wanted in a Spurs manager. But he was easily the best and as good as any Prem manager. There should have been riots when he was sacked, but amazingly many of our fans were happy. For some reason lots of fans seemed to think that he in some way under achieved and made extraordinary excuses to support this way of thinking. Now the same fans will be make similarly extraordinary excuses to defend AVB if he continues to struggle, in order to suggest he isn't under achieving.

Jol was a far better manager than he was given credit for. When you look at the wage bill Arsenal had compared to ours at the time and the quality of players we have, it shows how utterly ridiculous the criticisms of Jol were. Fans should be banned from trying to talk about tactics and fitness etc. I'd love to have seen how Wenger would have fared with the squad Jol had in 2005/6, yet most of our fans and the board thought that the difference between us and Arsenal was the coach. Unbelievably the same happened this summer. Wake up, this game is about money and it's damn site easier to attract top players when you pay big wages.

Wow. Wish I had written that.

 

[Jurgen the German]

Harry. Some of my best memories as a spurs fan has come under his reign. City away, Inter home, Milan away, Arsenal, Chelsea home, Arsenal away... Great memories, fantastic players at his disposal, but credit due, he gave me belief as a spurs fan for the first time that we could almost win the league

Me too. I went to almost every home game under Redknapp confident that we would win.

 

[Spursalot]

Redknapp took a team that had a history of bottling it, and continued that history with an array of world class talent.


Whilst Jol took a side more in need and made it work.

 

[joey55]

The fantastic players at Harry's disposal either weren't so fantastic before he arrived, or were bought under his reign. Both if these things (buying players and improving players) are a key part of a managers job. Anyone who uses the quality of Harry's squad to criticize him are just looking for a reason not to vote him the best. I love Martin Jol and he was a great manager for us and I'd take him back in a shot. But his 5th doesn't compare to Harry's 4th. To finish 4th we had to beat Arsenal, Chelsea and City away in the closing weeks and we actually did it, which isn't something Spurs fans are used to, so should be eternally grateful. Virtually every pundit and fan was urging Harry to play a defensive line up in all those games, but he did something very clever, in playing 2 passing CM's, but asked them to sit deep and look to play the ball to set up counters. That season we didn't finish 4th due to other teams being weak, but because with a lesser squad, we had a manager that made the difference.

 

[spitshine]

Jol for me. Although, our record against the top 4 was much better under Redknapp,
breaking our duck against Chelsea at the lane was significant. Still have the images of Lennon's winner in my mind...
Although, not related to this particular debate - the atmosphere at the lane during those years and Jol's persona wins hands down

 

[chicken_badge]

I do think that we are in a particular era of our club, and that we have to owe a lot of that to Martin Jol and what he achieved.
The guy was robbed CL football too in 2006. Would have put him level with Redknapp, maybe?

 

[billyiddo]

went from a mid table - lower mid table side to two consecutive 5th place finishes and a dodgy lasagna away from Champions League football with Jol, which is arguably a bigger turnaround than taking a Uefa Cup team to the Champions League (for a season)

obviously Redknapp achieved at higher level than Jol, but there is a very real case for Jol doing the better work.

both done great jobs really and we're lucky to have had them both, no matter how it turned out

saying "oh well Redknapp is better than Jol because he beat XY and Z" isn't really a fair comparison in this thread as you have to look at where they came from and what were their expectations, as i said above Jol took us from mid table so he would have lesser expectations in these fixtures than someone who took over from a side who had been acclimatizing to that level for a couple of seasons.

 

[Jurgen the German]

The fantastic players at Harry's disposal either weren't so fantastic before he arrived, or were bought under his reign. Both if these things (buying players and improving players) are a key part of a managers job. Anyone who uses the quality of Harry's squad to criticize him are just looking for a reason not to vote him the best. I love Martin Jol and he was a great manager for us and I'd take him back in a shot. But his 5th doesn't compare to Harry's 4th. To finish 4th we had to beat Arsenal, Chelsea and City away in the closing weeks and we actually did it, which isn't something Spurs fans are used to, so should be eternally grateful. Virtually every pundit and fan was urging Harry to play a defensive line up in all those games, but he did something very clever, in playing 2 passing CM's, but asked them to sit deep and look to play the ball to set up counters. That season we didn't finish 4th due to other teams being weak, but because with a lesser squad, we had a manager that made the difference.

We weren't favourites to win any of those 3 games either.

Lets not forget that Jol's teams bottled it in games as frequently as we did last season. We had a 3-1 lead at Chelsea and got pegged back. We conceded lots of late goals in the lasagne season too.

 

[Hashegotthesackyet?]

Voted for wheeler dealer, dislike him big time, for many reasons, but overall he did a pretty decent job over a reasonable period of time, other than the collapse.

 

[billyiddo]

The fantastic players at Harry's disposal either weren't so fantastic before he arrived, or were bought under his reign. Both if these things (buying players and improving players) are a key part of a managers job. Anyone who uses the quality of Harry's squad to criticize him are just looking for a reason not to vote him the best. I love Martin Jol and he was a great manager for us and I'd take him back in a shot. But his 5th doesn't compare to Harry's 4th. To finish 4th we had to beat Arsenal, Chelsea and City away in the closing weeks and we actually did it, which isn't something Spurs fans are used to, so should be eternally grateful. Virtually every pundit and fan was urging Harry to play a defensive line up in all those games, but he did something very clever, in playing 2 passing CM's, but asked them to sit deep and look to play the ball to set up counters. That season we didn't finish 4th due to other teams being weak, but because with a lesser squad, we had a manager that made the difference.

but the flip side to that argument is that we had to beat those teams because we didn't do as well in the more bread and butter games - a better way to compare would be to look at the basic point tally for both those seasons because once the season is over it doesn't matter who you beat to get those points, just that you got them - beating those teams IS an achievement, but beating them doesn't make finishing 4th better because of it

not sure if that makes as much sense as i wanted tbh lol

 

[Baleforce]

went from a mid table - lower mid table side to two consecutive 5th place finishes and a dodgy lasagna away from Champions League football with Jol, which is arguably a bigger turnaround than taking a Uefa Cup team to the Champions League (for a season)

obviously Redknapp achieved at higher level than Jol, but there is a very real case for Jol doing the better work.

both done great jobs really and we're lucky to have had them both, no matter how it turned out

saying "oh well Redknapp is better than Jol because he beat XY and Z" isn't really a fair comparison in this thread as you have to look at where they came from and what were their expectations, as i said above Jol took us from mid table so he would have lesser expectations in these fixtures than someone who took over from a side who had been acclimatizing to that level for a couple of seasons.

good post, agree with all of that

i'd also add that if Harry was great for beating Chelsea and the goons then how about AVB winning at Old Trafford

 

[SUIYHA]

Redknapp beats Jol for me because whilst I loved Jol, he just couldn't win the big games. Other than the win over Chelsea in 2006 and I suppose the Pedro Mendes game, we had a horrible habit of choking every time something important came up under Jol. Just one win over the then big four in three years as manager was poor. It was hugely frustrating, and I've still got vivid memories of letting that two goal lead slip at Stamford Bridge, Liverpool's last minute equaliser at Anfield, all those "brave defeats" against Man Utd, the UEFA Cup quarter-final with Sevilla, the penalty shoot-out defeat to Liverpool's reserves with Watford awaiting us in the semi-final, conceding that late equaliser in the last derby at Highbury where victory would have all but secured Champions League football, and of course...that horrible Carling Cup semi-final.

Now you could argue that Jol was over-ruled in what he wanted to do and didn't get to sign experienced players, which meant he didn't have leaders like Parker, Gallas and Woodgate in the side, but nevertheless, it holds him back down in 2nd spot for me. That, and because Redknapp massively overperformed here by getting us to 8th in his first season after 2 points from 8 games, 4th above City and Liverpool in his second season, into the CL quarter-finals in his third when everyone thought we'd go out in the group stages, and 4th in his third season above Chelsea.

 

[Mumorn]

Anyone not saying Redknapp is chatting complete bollox and clearly has hate for the guy.

 

[billyiddo]

^ 3 goal lead at Stamford Bridge :lol: #-o

tbf you (and several others) are glossing massively over the bottling we have experienced the past couple of seasons - it's funny actually - Jol is getting rightly criticized for being bottler but when you suggest the same for Harry you get everyone jumping on your back

did Jol really bottle it more than Harry ?

league cup final v man utd second string
10/11 second half of the season
fa cup semi v portsmouth
11/12 10 point gap
Arsenal 5-2
11/12 Villa Game
out of form Chelsea fa cup semi

:-k

Anyone not saying Redknapp is chatting complete bollox and clearly has hate for the guy.

care to address any specific points people have raised?

some valid arguments being put forward imv