I think we had the squad last season to achieve 3rd. Bale? Modric? VdV? Adebayor? Parker? And a vastly improved goalkeeper in Friedel? I could go on. With our squad and especially with developments with competitors, I have not changed my mind
I suppose this is the crux of it. I'd say Modric, Bale and Parker are our key players but all of them are overrated to some extent. Outside of that, and this is where Redknapp does deserve some criticism for not really building strongly on what he inherited, we'd be fighting it out down there with Everton and Liverpool for 6th-8th at best. It lacks quality outside of a few players and it lacks quality in depth. That does not translate into a comfortable 3rd place finish, for me. Fighting it out with Chelsea and Arsenal for 3rd-5th seems about right. And we fought one of them off very comfortably. Remember, they are no mugs. They're in the European Cup Final. Yes, we benefited from the manager fiasco but there is nothing you can do but beat what is front of you.
A better manager would have done far better with the squad that Redknapp has at his disposal, IMHO. (If only Jol had this squad)
This forgets that he arguably had a similar squad to the one Redknapp finished 4th with the first time around - but which Jol had in the bottom 3. So not sure why he'd do any better than 4th with this squad? Bale, BAE, Kaboul, Assou-Ekotto, King, Corluka, Huddlestone, Lennon, Defoe, Dawson... they were there under Jol plus Berbatov and Keane. There was also Chimbonda, Boateng, Taarabt, Lee, Bent, Malbranque, Tainio. Only Modric, from the 09/10 4th place team, is the player of real quality that wasn't there under Jol. Redknapp ended up inheriting a stronger midfield but a weaker attack and a defence that was largely the same. Yet with most of that lot Jol was nowhere near the top 4 and then in the bottom 3 at the start of the following season. Some of those players had regressed badly under Jol or stagnated, others had been handled poorly, especially the young players and others had just been frozen out/ignored. It is taken as read now what a good squad Redknapp inherited but it is forgotten now Jol had written off half of it and so had we!