Harry Rednapp's Autobiography

[Spurger King]

Yeah that Harry was such a **** saving us from relegation then getting us to the quarter-finals of the Champions League, along with two FA cup semi-finals and one League cup final.

 

[Spurs_Bear]

Extract here, speaking about Mourinho:



What do we reckon? AVB?

Wenger apparently, commonly mentioned that Wenger gets on with very few other managers. SAF said something similar when talking about his famous 'wine sharing' post match.

 

[L-man]

Wenger apparently, commonly mentioned that Wenger gets on with very few other managers. SAF said something similar when talking about his famous 'wine sharing' post match.

Good shout. HR also mentions in the book about how he can count on one hand the amount of post match talks he's had with Wenger and that he's never there after a game

 

[michaelden]

Good shout. HR also mentions in the book about how he can count on one hand the amount of post match talks he's had with Wenger and that he's never there after a game

in truth WTF would those 2 have in common, and don't say football cos they both play very different games.

 

[mattstev2000]

Yeah that Harry was such a **** saving us from relegation then getting us to the quarter-finals of the Champions League, along with two FA cup semi-finals and one League cup final.

The others I can give you, but 'saving us from relegation'? Seriously?

 

[Marty]

The others I can give you, but 'saving us from relegation'? Seriously?

I genuinely feared that we would go down when we had 2 points from 8 games and absolutely no fight or spirit whatsoever. Anybody who said they didn't were kidding themselves.

 

[Spurger King]

The others I can give you, but 'saving us from relegation'? Seriously?

Completely. We were rock bottom because we deserved to be. A gap was beginning to open up between us and the safe positions, and confidence throughout the team was in pieces. I have absolutely no doubts that we would have been relegated if we'd stuck with Ramos.

Harry's target when he was appointed was to keep us up. It's one of the main reasons he was hired in the first place. He achieved that target.

It could be argued that any other manager could have turned the situation around just as well, but it's obviously impossible to know one way or another. All I know is that we deserved to be rock bottom of the division at the time of Ramos' sacking, and Harry did what he was brought in to do...keep us up.

I'm not sure how anyone could possibly say he didn't save us from relegation, considering he clearly changed the mood of the players, the atmosphere of the club in general, and ultimately the results we started to get.

 

[mattstev2000]

Completely. We were rock bottom because we deserved to be. A gap was beginning to open up between us and the safe positions, and confidence throughout the team was in pieces. I have absolutely no doubts that we would have been relegated if we'd stuck with Ramos.

Harry's target when he was appointed was to keep us up. It's one of the main reasons he was hired in the first place. He achieved that target.

It could be argued that any other manager could have turned the situation around just as well, but it's obviously impossible to know one way or another. All I know is that we deserved to be rock bottom of the division at the time of Ramos' sacking, and Harry did what he was brought in to do...keep us up.

I'm not sure how anyone could possibly say he didn't save us from relegation, considering he clearly changed the mood of the players, the atmosphere of the club in general, and ultimately the results we started to get.

Wow, I can't disagree more. To credit him with saving us from relegation as if we were on the brink staring into the abyss with only 30 odd games left to play is an unfortunate reflection of modern football fans.

It's why so many managers get sacked without being given a chance and why players are written off after 6 games with little thought for the fact that they need time to adapt or gel.

 

[Spurger King]

Wow, I can't disagree more. To credit him with saving us from relegation as if we were on the brink staring into the abyss with only 30 odd games left to play is an unfortunate reflection of modern football fans.

It's why so many managers get sacked without being given a chance and why players are written off after 6 games with little thought for the fact that they need time to adapt or gel.

Thanks for the patronising reply£ been supporting Spurs through thick and thin (mostly thin) since 1990, but yeah I guess that makes me a 'modern football fan".

Are you forgetting our shit league form after we won the league cup? Ramos had lost the dressing room - the players said as much. If you think there wasn't an extremely high likelihood of us going down if we'd stuck with Ramos you're deluded and must have a very naïve understanding of the game.

Levy sacked Ramos and brought Harry in to save us from relegation, which whatever way you look at it, he did. Why else do you think he was brought in (being a manager well known for knowing what is required to fight for survival)? For a laugh? To clean the dishes?

 

[Skye Sauces]

We were in greater danger of relegation under Terry Neill & Christian Gross!

It is a fact that Redknapp kept Martin Jol's side in the Premiership and also that Redknapp took Martin Jol's side into the Champions League.

 

[Spurs_Bear]

We were in greater danger of relegation under Terry Neill & Christian Gross!

It is a fact that Redknapp kept Martin Jol's side in the Premiership and also that Redknapp took Martin Jol's side into the Champions League.

Even if you wanted that to be true it couldn't be. Ramos had nuked Jol's team after the League Cup Final.

 

[hughy]

I genuinely feared that we would go down when we had 2 points from 8 games and absolutely no fight or spirit whatsoever. Anybody who said they didn't were kidding themselves.

Unless you weren't aware, we were 8 games in to the season, not 28. I think any manager could have taken over from Ramos and "saved us from relegation".


Also, I can understand if you feared we could have gone down, but to fear we would have gone down is a bit over the top.

 

[Mr Pink]

my biggest gripe with Redknapp was the fact that you were just not ever allowed to criticise him. his whole "you've never had it so good" defence whenever there was any criticism really annoyed me. aside from anything else, it just wasn't true. yes we'd been crap for ages, but we finished 5th twice and won a cup before he arrived. if anything, HE had never had it so good. he'd spent his whole career managing two-bob clubs like Pompey, Southampton, and West Ham, and we were BY FAR the biggest job he'd ever been given. a little humility and gratitude wouldn't have been out of order, but no there he was telling us how lucky we were to have him at every opportunity. I was so glad when he finally got his comeuppance.

Exactly. Harry ultimately did very well for us overall and that's what counts at the end of the day but what you've just described was so true and certainly didn't go unnoticed from large sections of our support.

It never sat right with me in truth.

All that being said, I certainly respect what he achieved here but that old defensive attitude took some of the gloss off - IMHO of course.

 

[CJMurray]

Yeah that Harry was such a **** saving us from relegation then getting us to the quarter-finals of the Champions League, along with two FA cup semi-finals and one League cup final.

It all looks so pretty like that. I don't see how you can list the two semi final's as 'achievements' with the rest of them, especially as we lost to fucking Portsmouth and were trashed by Chelsea.

 

[Misfit]

The others I can give you, but 'saving us from relegation'? Seriously?

Exactly. We all know Robbie Keane single-handedly did that. According to some.

 

[Misfit]

Say what you like about H, thank fuck he wasn't Ramos. What an abortion of an appointment that was.

/throws up violently

Shut it, BC.

 

[dagraham]

Say what you like about H, thank fuck he wasn't Ramos. What an abortion of an appointment that was.

/throws up violently

Shut it, BC.

Yep, its easy to forget that the only reason we had to hire Redknapp in the first place was to clean up the mess Levy and Commolli made with the Jol/Ramos fiasco.

Levy practically admitted it himself (without actually directly implicating himself).

 

[mattstev2000]

Thanks for the patronising reply£ been supporting Spurs through thick and thin (mostly thin) since 1990, but yeah I guess that makes me a 'modern football fan".

Are you forgetting our shit league form after we won the league cup? Ramos had lost the dressing room - the players said as much. If you think there wasn't an extremely high likelihood of us going down if we'd stuck with Ramos you're deluded and must have a very naïve understanding of the game.

Levy sacked Ramos and brought Harry in to save us from relegation, which whatever way you look at it, he did. Why else do you think he was brought in (being a manager well known for knowing what is required to fight for survival)? For a laugh? To clean the dishes?

Sorry if you found the reply patronising, I don't think it was but if that's the way you read it fine. I would say that I don't think it necessitated you getting quite as pissy as you did but whatever.

Having said that, after 8 games there was no chance that you or anyone else could say with any certainty we were getting relegated and therefore HR didn't 'save us' from anything.

It's the equivalent of saying that Lamela should be binned because he hasn't performed that well in his first 10 games, West Brom were going to be fighting for the title after the first 6 games of last season just because they had a good start, Man Utd haven't got a hope of finishing top 4 this season because they've had a slow start etc. etc.

Also, I don't think for a second that Levy was scrabbling around trying to find someone to save us from relegation and, let's be honest, the so called reputation you attribute to Redknapp for saving teams from relegation seems a bit thin on the ground - was it one season at Portsmouth and one at Bournemouth? I think he's been relegated more times than he's saved teams.

I think Levy realised things weren't working as they were, he wasn't sure that the continental structure was working so he replaced it with the best 'typical English manager' candidate that he felt was around at time.

This is all said as someone who didn't want Ramos to replace Jol in the first place, wasn't impressed with the time he was here and was pleased when he was replaced by Redknapp.

 

[mattstev2000]

Exactly. We all know Robbie Keane single-handedly did that. According to some.

It wasn't entirely Robbie. I think Chimbonda had a hand in it also...

 

[Spurs_Bear]

Sorry if you found the reply patronising, I don't think it was but if that's the way you read it fine. I would say that I don't think it necessitated you getting quite as pissy as you did but whatever.

Having said that, after 8 games there was no chance that you or anyone else could say with any certainty we were getting relegated and therefore HR didn't 'save us' from anything.

It's the equivalent of saying that Lamela should be binned because he hasn't performed that well in his first 10 games, West Brom were going to be fighting for the title after the first 6 games of last season just because they had a good start, Man Utd haven't got a hope of finishing top 4 this season because they've had a slow start etc. etc.

Also, I don't think for a second that Levy was scrabbling around trying to find someone to save us from relegation and, let's be honest, the so called reputation you attribute to Redknapp for saving teams from relegation seems a bit thin on the ground - was it one season at Portsmouth and one at Bournemouth? I think he's been relegated more times than he's saved teams.

I think Levy realised things weren't working as they were, he wasn't sure that the continental structure was working so he replaced it with the best 'typical English manager' candidate that he felt was around at time.

This is all said as someone who didn't want Ramos to replace Jol in the first place, wasn't impressed with the time he was here and was pleased when he was replaced by Redknapp.

No that's not true, he appointed Redknapp, someone who he had also approached previously, confirmed by both men as well, because he was the man he wanted. Redknapp was the one who didn't want to wok with Comolli or a DOF and that was why it was binned. People seem to think we were looking for any manager but that wasn't the case. Like it or lump it Levy had wanted Redknapp to be Spurs manager before he actually appointed him.

I also think it's disingenuous to say that 'anyone' could have got us out of the relegation zone. 2 of out next 3 games were against Arsenal and Liverpool, with our sorry bunch of individuals and abomination of a strikeforce, I could name you 20 managers that would not have been able to even get our side looking like footballers. Mark Hughes for one. Then all of a sudden we're 11 games in with 5 points and even further from safety.

It's disappointing that we can't all just accept the credit that Redknapo deserves and just stop talking about him, but he makes it difficult too by the things he says. Even now. Personally I don't understand why people get so wound up by him, he's not the first person to not accept his failures or weaknesses.