Harry Redknapp – Love him, loathe him or leave him?
Once again, our manager is high on the sports news agenda, even in the domestic football close season. Mind you, we have got the Euro 2012 tournament in full swing, and of course Harry Redknapp has already been on duty as one of the BBC’s pundits. Gary Lineker & Co took the opportunity to probe “Our ‘Arry” on the subject of the England manager’s job, and not being the sort of person to refuse to answer a football question, Harry apparently indicated that he would have taken the England job had it been offered. That said, Harry also declared he was more than happy to carry on doing what he loves at Tottenham.
However, since then rumours about Harry’s status as Spurs manager have been rife. In fact such rumours were around Spurs Odyssey more than two weeks ago. Harry was supposed to be “getting sacked on Friday”. The only trouble was we didn’t know which Friday that was supposed to be!
The power of t’Internet and that there Twitter being what it is, the latest acceleration of the Harry rumours reached the official media yesterday (Tuesday 12th June, 2012), and Harry was invited to respond on ESPN, making it very clear that he wasn’t going to resign and that such a suggestion was an outrage.
We are led to believe that Harry will be meeting the Spurs board today for “showdown talks/a clear the air chat” depending which way you look at it, or at the very extreme, the sack!
Harry’s problem, in this age of social media, is that he has always been so, so willing to talk to anyone with a microphone in their hand, or his phone number in their directory about not only Spurs, but any football-related subject. It could be a reporter from ESPN, a journalist from the Sunday paper, or an author on finance and investing. Harry has been the media's star forever and a day never failing to give them a story.
However today’s talks with Daniel Levy go, there will be mixed feelings amongst the army of Spurs fans, who have had the taste of Champions’ League football, and even saw their team touted as title challengers briefly during last season.
It cannot be denied that under Harry, Spurs reached the Champions League for the first time, and even graced that league, deservedly reaching the quarter-finals in 2011, after beating European giants such as Inter and AC Milan. Under Harry, Spurs have even beaten two of the former “top four cartel” on their turf in that 2010-11season. Arsenal were beaten 3-2 in November 2010, and Liverpool lost 2-0 at Anfield last May. Mind you, Liverpool of course, no longer belong to the Premier League elite. Harry’s other achievements include finishing above Liverpool in his three full seasons at Spurs.
I have often stated that we have more high days under Harry in his three and a half years at Tottenham than under any other recent Tottenham manager for many years proportionately speaking. To the above-mentioned, you can add beating Man City at their place to secure that Champions League season, some great away form, reaching the Carling Cup Final in 2009, and two FA Cup semi-finals in 2010 and 2012. Then you could add that record-breaking 9-1 win over Wigan and other exciting high-scoring wins over decent teams such as Liverpool and Newcastle.
On the other hand, a perfectly reasonable argument against Harry can be put forward (and I often lean towards this side of the fence) by stating his failure to win those Wembley Cup games listed above, especially that under par defeat to Harry’s former side Portsmouth in 2010. Over the course of his tenure, there have been many games, when Harry has lacked the tactical and strategic nous to deal particularly with some of the big opponents. I feel he has often been guilty of trying to match his opponents’ style, rather than focussing upon his team’s own game, which would usually have been strong enough to get a positive result. Spurs fans have even chanted advice to the manager at least three times last season about the position of players such as Bale and Modric.
Over the course of the last season, it is fair to say that Harry did not have the best of luck with injuries to important, if not key players, such as Michael Dawson, William Gallas, and Tom Huddlestone. Most of the time, when he was able to play, Ledley King performed to his usual high standards, but Harry has had to rely upon the player’s own judgement, rather than making a decision himself. By his own admission, Ledley’s form was poor in his last three appearances of the season, which were the 2-1 defeat at home to Norwich; the Chelsea semi-final debacle, and defeat at relegation strugglers QPR. A win in either of those two shock defeats for Spurs would have been enough to have secured third place and Champions League football next season.
Yes, Harry has also been unlucky because despite finishing fourth, Chelsea actually won the Champions League final, and took our place. However, his biggest failing in his time at Spurs has to be the loss of that commanding grip we had on third place at the end of January this year. We should not have had to worry about Chelsea’s progress in the Champions’ League.
Harry’s biggest problem at this specific time could be his loose tongue. He has made comments to the press regarding his contract which expires next year, suggesting that he should be treated like a good player and have his contract extended. Such talk will have riled Spurs chairman Daniel Levy, along with rumours that Harry may be entranced by a big money offer in Qatar. That’s a long way to commute from his beloved home in Sandbanks though, and I doubt Harry would take such a job. Bear in mind that he turned down Newcastle in the summer before he came to White Hart Lane, because of the distance from home.
I’ll be honest, my view on Harry is that he has done great work at Tottenham, and as stated he has given me many high days during his tenure. His failings though do lead me to feel that if there was someone better out there for Spurs, then he should be appointed, and we should say “Thanks a lot, Harry, but goodbye”. Having said that, I am not aware of that “someone better”, so I suppose I sit on the fence until such a time comes.
I’ve loved Harry, but I could leave him. I certainly do not loathe him, as a minority of Spurs fans do. Daniel Levy has surprised us in the past with the sacking of Martin Jol, so it would not surprise me if those “showdown talks” do turn into a departure for Harry Redknapp.
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