- Dec 3, 2004
- 15,506
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OK, RE Ramos take a look at this post/thread:
http://www.spurscommunity.co.uk/forums/showpost.php?p=1231503&postcount=22
What it demonstrates is for me the biggest single factor in our downfall at the start of this season. The difference that having Berbatov & Keane available for selection and not.
Now we can argue about how we may have got the best out of what we had, and I agree Ramos didn't always get that right this season, but I think he would certainly have got there, but the crucial thing is the vast difference in interaction that we had last year and this. And this was not Ramos's fault. This was Comolli's fault.
Other factors played a part like the new personnel bedding in and us generally not getting the rub, but these were secondary for me.
We lost the ability to play football in the final third of the pitch and are still struggling in this area which is why we haven't scored morte than 2 goals in the league and haven't won in 5/6 games.
This was not a problem of Ramos's making. Nor was it Redknapp's for that matter, but Ramos chose not to come out and blame everyone else. Perhaps he should have.
RE Redknapp
My opinion of Redknapp is that he is a poor and unimaginative coach and a poor tactition. I think he has had some of this leagues most exciting players under him at varios clubs at various times but has singularly failed to make any of those teams to enjyable to watch or achieve league success. Because to do this you must be able to do more than buy good players and pick good players. You must teach them how to play the game in the style you require and you must tell them exactly what is required of them every game and make sure they understand this.
In my opinion Redknapp buys good players, lets wankers like Bond "coach" them then gives them a bit of a gee-up pre match and hopes that they - being good players - will dig him out a result. This does happen but it is not a philosophy which works on a sustainable basis. It is an ad hoc approach with ad hoc results.
Like Terry Venables, I feel Redknapp's greatest skill is the ability to sing a song for the media. Keeping them happy is half way to keeping your job despite how shit you are at it.
Ok let's put aside the rumour that Ramos was happy to let Keane go, the very fact that Rednapp managed to get results with the same team disproves the theory that without Keane and Berbatov we could have expected to do no better than the worst ever start. Ramos had time to prepare a team certainly without Berbatov and without Keane. He didn't, they weren't a team. Under Rednapp, with all the mitigation that comes from taking over such an awful team, he has done well- not spectacularly Keane-first-season well but well nonetheless reflected in performances and results.
We scored four goals against Arsenal. That's the second time I have pointed out a pretty memorable fact. And we have scored more than two in cups. We didn't do that under Ramos against a crap Newcastle team and an ordinary Polish team. So in all your subjective polarised posts, let's get basic facts right ok?
Blaming Comolli is a red herring. He didn't assemble a team that could fight for top four, though whether it is player for player weaker than Villa is a moot point, but he certainly assembled at Ramos' request a team capable of challenging for the top half. Ramos failed to squeeze any juice out that lemon. He failed. Drastically. Undeniably.
Claiming Rednapp has not achieved league success with the players he has had and has not made them enjoyable to watch is debatable. For the size of club they are, West Ham and Pompey didn't do too badly under Rednapp. Pompey is especially a case in point as it is more relevant because it is more recent and more impressive. If we think we are in trouble this season and we are, what about Pompey when Rednapp returned? What about getting them up in the first case? If taking a team, a club like Pompey from the Championship to the top half of the premiership is not league success then what is? Pardon Rednapp please for not winning the league.
The only managers I can think of that have done better with similar budgets and constraints are David Moyes and Sam Allardyce. Now I like the former a lot and who knows maybe Levy tried to speak to him in October but plenty of people, maybe yourself, would not like us playing like Everton and I know they wouldn't Allardyce. So you are grumbling that Rednapp didn't take teams with of Pompey's and West Ham's size and make them CL league contenders playing champagne football. Maybe he hasn't done that because no one has. Not even Moyes' Everton in 2005. You even said earlier in this thread that with the squad they had Pompey should have been challenging for the top four.
First of all that is inadvertent praise for Rednapp for assembling that squad from relegation certainties months earlier and secondly are you serious, CL contenders? I think the fact that Rednapp's teams don't play the very football you and maybe a few others wants says more about you than it does him. As Joey said a few weeks ago, you can't blame a manager for not wanting to do things on or off the pitch that you want. You can disagree and say I would prefer he do x,y and z but it is absurd to go the extra mile or 1000 miles and say 'he's a prick' and then think you know how he operates on the training ground. You don't so leave it.