by James Willis
As a Tottenham fan, I’m undeniably grateful for what Harry Redknapp has done for the club.
He picked Spurs up from the relegation zone and finished not far short of European football in his first season with the club. In his second season with Spurs, he helped the club qualify for the Champions League for the first time in it’s history. Well, since it was rebranded as the Champions League at least.
His Spurs squad narrowly missed out on repeating the feat the following season, but did manage to make it into the quarter finals of the Champions League, beating AC Milan and Inter Milan in the process.
After a few surprise summer signings he then helped guide Tottenham to 3rd in the Premier League, just behind the two Manchester clubs for a large portion of the season, almost running away from the rest of the league.
That was all well enough until this current run of form that has seen Spurs’ drop their lead over not only Arsenal, but also Newcastle and possibly very soon Chelsea.
A run of just one win in nine games has led to some Spurs fans calling for Redknapp to be sacked, while those fans who label themselves as the more sensible ones will call that a knee jerk reaction.
The fact of the matter is Tottenham aren’t in huge trouble. At least, not yet. Finishing fifth or sixth may not be what the club is chasing after, but it’s not a bad position to be in if you want to try and crack the top four again in the future. It’s hardly a Leeds-esque drop from the top.
Redknapp’s name has been constantly linked with the England job recently, rightly or wrongly, which is what some people have been putting this poor run of form down to.
There was a similar run of form last season though, after the AC Milan win in the Champions League. That was a run of form that was arguably responsible for Tottenham dropping out of the top four.
For whatever reasons, Harry Redknapp has seemingly found it tough to get Spurs to finish out the season the same way that they started.
Without it sounding like a knee jerk reaction, this is why it’s time he left. I appreciate all he’s done for the club and I have very much enjoyed watching Spurs increase in stature over the past few years but now it’s time to progress further.
Redknapp has a lot of controversial history behind him and that may be something that Spurs don’t want to be in the limelight for in the future.
All of the clubs that Redknapp has left have “coincidentally” fallen into debt or problems soon after. Tottenham, with the smarts of chairman Daniel Levy, still look relatively stable despite Redknapp having been at the club for over three seasons now.
It seems that, barring a billionaire investment, Tottenham have gone as far as they can with Redknapp at the helm.
As much as I appreciate what he’s done, I’d appreciate it even more now if there was to be a mutual departure before the club gets left in the toilet.
Much more work needs to be done before Spurs can be considered Champions League regulars, but the easiest way to go about that would be to move on. Thank Redknapp for his efforts and accept that the best way to go forward is by dropping the manager before another inevitable and miserable downfall.
Your a bit slow on that James, I have said exactly what you said,9 wks ago publically !!
if you read this you’d think there was some success story about to unfold. Jol had spurs fifth twice. He had a squad that was very much weaker than this one. Harry has actually weakened this squad with over the hill signings. Poor tactics and freezing players out when rotation was needed. He buys players at will if let to his own devices. We now know why. When corluka complained about playing time he was loaned out the same with pienaar. He doesn’t know any other way than my way or the highway. This season liverpool, chelsea and arsenal have had their worse seasons ever. Villa are a shell of their former selves. This has all but given spurs an advantage. Sadly arsenal and chelsea recovered some form. Newcastle have emerged as a threat and spurs have crumbled. Tired, crocked and I bet fed up players just can’t hold it together. Worse they needn’t. Had rednapp rotated the squad with some authority, we’d now be in a very strong position. Alas the guy is lacking greatly in many departments. Many a team come up from the old div one and excell for a season or two before sliding into obscurity. So why anyone can rate anything done by rednapp as a success is well beyond my understanding. He’s got one FA cup in a lifetime of management. No he isn’t a good manager and never was. England will struggle as rednapp will be stuck with no one to buy. Mind you he’ll feel at home when he’s assembled his dads army. Young players get no chance with this guy. yep goodbye Harry, thankfull no not me.
Great piece mate but the trouble is if Redknapp leaves Spurs he goes to England. Don’t listen to the media, he is not the fans choice, far from it. He is a one trick pony and will crash and burn like Keegan did. I hope he stays with you (makes City’s season easier!) and England pick someone like Rafa who has a bit of tactical knowledge.
piss off we dont want the bloody lemon what we need is a sugar daddy