Harry Redknapp-A man who divides opinion

You sometimes wonder in football why people make the decisions they do. Daniel Levy might be an astute businessman but his decision to sack Harry Redknapp, the former England favourite and transfer market specialist, borders on the ridiculous.

Redknapp's fortunes have changed dramatically since he was cleared of tax evasion in February. On that same day Fabio Capello resigned as England manager and the overwhelming favourite was Harry.

He was vocally backed by media pundits and players alike and it was supposed to be only a matter of time before the FA approached Tottenham. Unfortunately for Redknapp, Roy Hodgson's international experience paid dividends.

Now, a little over four months later Redknapp finds himself in a position of unfamiliar territory. Never a man to let a media appearance slip by, he spoke at length to Sky Sports reporters out of his car window, something that is he is now synonymous with.

The overriding feeling within the football fraternity is one of both shock and bemusement. Does Mr Levy realistically expect Spurs to challenge the Manchester clubs and a possibly resurgent Chelsea without spending in the transfer market?

The harsh reality for those at White Hart Lane is that the key components of their squad – Luka Modric, Gareth Bale and Scott Parker – have developed into top class players under the guidance of Redknapp. Will they feel the same loyalty to the club now?

Tottenham's fourth place finish was, to this writer, an achievement that should be rewarded. Despite this, there is an inescapable feeling that Spurs could have achieved much more had their form not stuttered. The rumours surrounding the England vacancy had, according to Redknapp, not adversely damaged his players.

A title challenge quickly turned into a battle for third position with rivals Arsenal. The 5-2 defeat at the Emirates, in which Spurs were 2-0 ahead, was a result that can now be looked upon as a season defining moment.

Defeats to Norwich and QPR in the league, and the FA cup semi final humiliation against Chelsea showed a shadow of the team that had played such attractive football up until February.

Some may point to the collapse in confidence and form as evidence for Redknapp's sacking. However, it should be remembered that Spurs were bottom of the Premier League at the time of Redknapp's appointment, and just as he had done with West Ham and Portsmouth previously he turned the club's fortunes around. 

At 64-years-old Harry will feel he has perhaps one more shot at managing a 'big club'. It is highly unlikely that he will want to drop down the Premier League into mid-table territory and any prospective club will have to meet his ambitions in terms of infrastructure and transfer budget.

This game needs characters and Redknapp is certainly one of the more divisive. He is liked and loathed in equal measure by Pompey fans with the latter taking prominence a little farther down the road at St Mary's.

No matter what area of football he inhabits next, it is probable we will be seeing Redknapp talking to reporters from inside his car soon.

Gary Peters

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Comments

[The Madscientist]

Just confirmed by me to myself and I is that Laurent Blanc has accepted a 3 year contract and that Commolli might well be coming back to oversee as the pair are fond of each other. The other part of this breaking news is that after the Euros it will be announced as is being reported today that Luka Modric will be sold to Real Madrid for an undisclosed fee plus possibly two players in exchange. The two players that me is rumouring to myself are Karem Benzema Lassana Diarra while I think its far fetched, myself believes it is possible as Laurent Blanc and Commolli influence could indeed encourage the afor mentioned players. Me have never let myself down before when making up ITK but I does have his doubts. According to me
We even have a back up plan to Commolli and Blanc and it is Louis Van Gaal as tech director and Frank De Boer as head Coach in either case Sherwood will be No 2.

[Keith]

What cost Harry his job was losing the 30 million revenue from the champions league

[Steambo]

As a spurs fan I am pleased to see the back of redknapp - not because I thought he wasnt good enough, far from it, but because of his desire to do all his business through the media and his inability to shut up when needed. To be honest I found his continuous contradictory statements and self serving attitude an embarrassment that I did not want associtated with the club I have loved for well over 30 years.

[cyril]

it does not border on the riduiculous; harry's behaviour made it inevitable, indeed if he has an ounce of intelligence he intended this outcome. if he did not intend this consequence, well then he is a stupid as he told the jury he is.
he made it impossible to keep him. spurs were unbelievably loyal, not just thro heart surgery and teh tax trial but even last summer when he was undermining the chairman every day about modric staying or going. and yet, what in return? on tv immdediately after the chairman suffers the loss of a close relative blackmailing the club in public with the threat that if you dont give me three years the players will want to go. back to the stupidity point, this is the same guy who insulted his players in march by saying they did not care who was the mnanager as long as they were getting paid. happy to discuss his terribly transfer dealings and also his inabilituy to get more than 5 points against the bottom four teams in '10-'11 season let alone the collapse this season. the question that every reporter and fan, other than those at spurs, west ham, portsmouth and southhampton seem to ask is the wrong one. the right one was did he do as well with this squad as he could have and the resounding answer is no he did not. pure and simple. if bill gates buys norwich and then the whole man city team it would not mean very much to say, well norwich finsihed 8th, assuming they did, and that is better than norwich can expect. extreme example, but sometimes needed for lazy journos who dont appear to be very smart and regurgitae the same pap as everyone else who has not watched things more closely

[longtimespur]

I fully agree with Steambo. Harry is what he is. Some people, especially the press, love him others, like myself, are more reticent. His apparent lack of concentration once the England job was vacant was very un-professional. Cost Spurs >£50 million revenue from losing 3rd place, not the Chelsea CL win.
Personally I would love to see someone like Frank Rijkaard at the helm with a DOF or similar in place to take the general affairs of his hands. He could just concentrate on the players with all his tecnical knowledge. After all he instigated the current Barca side before Pep took it over.

[ColinSC]

Errr he has gone can we move on to whats relevant now. The blogosphere/media is awash with boring drivel obviously written by folk that do not watch Tottenham play. Harry has made some horrible decisions this year and has through many wrong moves cost a very good team to lose a lot of money. he has insulted everybody from the fans to the chairman and proved himself entirely disloyal. Almost anyone would be an improvement and I am longing to see who we get.
In this last week i have seen so many lies from the various sites, i.e. Modders on the brink of signing for ... err no that's not his choice he has a signed contract, same for Bale. Already the press are writing articles specifically to disrupt the progress of a possible incoming manager. What the hell have these journos got against Spurs I do not see this kind of malicious gutter press directed at any other team. We have had insane refereeing the FA our own manager and the press at us this year and we still did well. Dont you love to be a Spurs fan.. the perennial underdog.

[DannyYiddoSince1979]

What a load of shit.I love what Harry did for Spurs but in the end we collapsed in such a shameful way and to Arsenal who beat us to 3rd by a point he only had to hold us together for the Norwich game at the Lane and we'd be in the CL.We had to have two pops at frigging Stevenage FFS and even at the Lane it weren't as comfortable as the 3-1 scoreline might suggest.All he gave a fuck about was England and as soon as Hodgson got the job we looked like Tottenham again and that is all ultimately down to Harry,as manager.Levy's job as chairman is get rid of people who aren't dedicated to our wonderful club.It must have been the hardest decision but we want to go forward and hard decisions are his job and specialty.Levy wants Spurs to progress which is why he put Harry there in the first place.He did a job and that is that.I am a yid,I love Tottenham,I loved Harry whilst he was a yid but now he's not.Levy wouldn't have made a decision on his own and you're twats for suggesting it.What's more is what if Hodgson fucks up and The Sun start another one of their 'have his head campaigns'.We'd have to go through it all again what with them permanently sucking Harry's old boy.We have seen what our players can do and ultimately it's down to them.With a competent manager (I'm sure Harry isn't the only one that can get them playing like that)we will be nursing semis at the sight of our sexy as fuck footy again.This article is as bad as anything I've seen on any Arsenal site,pure drivel.Also when you think about it what has he actually won as a manager apparently worthy of taking charge of our national team? 1 FA cup! with a team he more or less bankrupted.Everything he did at Spurs seemed to be for short term success,picking up fucked old players that aren't gonna last 5 minutes.I think all we were to him was an audition for the England job.As I said I appreciate the progress we made but I can't imagine he'll get us any further.Even after the City game we were in position where we actually could have won the league.Especially when you look at how many points both manc teams dropped.You all forget Bale and Modders are on contract for a few years yet and as it is all business,Levy won't let them go if he doesn't want to and that is that,although I think he'll cash in on Modders(hopefully to Real )and give us that extra depth we need in our squad as well as a decent replacement.Man utd have started the bidding and Real will probably finish it.But whatever happens,WE ARE TOTTENHAM,SUPER TOTTENHAM WE ARE TOTTENHAM FROM THE LANE!