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Rafael van der Vaart exclusive: "Leaving Tottenham was the most stupid decision of my career"

Sweetsman

Well-Known Member
Jan 30, 2011
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I don't there is any inconsistency between that and what VDV (and everyone else) is saying. Only a fucking idiot would have "wanted" Rafa to leave and AVB is not one of those.

But AVB wasn't a sufficiently skilful manager of deliciate footballer-egos to induce VDV (a) to stay, (b) to feel valued and important and (c) to fill a useful role in his intended team formation and tactics.

The whole squad was coming off nearly four years where they had a manager who knew how to make footballers feel good and feel part of a team. The camaraderie and team spirit of that lot, as VDV says in that interview, were off the charts. It was AVB's signal failure that he did not know how to preserve and augment that - I'm not even sure he could see the value of it.
You're last sentence is based on nothing.
 

davidmatzdorf

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Jun 7, 2004
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You're last sentence is based on nothing.

Of course, it is based on having watched the players interact during 50+ matches after AVB took over, as well as careful reading of the subtly-changing tone of players' ostensibly positive comments on "team spirit" under HR, AVB, TS & MP.
 

davidmatzdorf

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Jun 7, 2004
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I'm sure you're comforted by the hagiography.

I'm not sure how you read that interview as a hagiography. He comes across as semi-inarticulate, vain, egotistical, obstinate ("I won't change my way of playing"), slightly self-destructive, a bit of a throwback and someone who didn't make quite as much of his career as his ability might have merited.

He's also revealed as a genuine enthusiast, a man who plays for the love of the game, who has/had a huge talent, valued teamwork and teammates, responded with enormous positivity and warmth when the fans gave him the admiration he craved and prioritised the beautiful game over success. And, of course, he was a key part of the most exciting team we have had in the past 25 years, perhaps in the past 50 years.

His flaws and brilliance are equally on display in that interview, I think.
 

Sweetsman

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Jan 30, 2011
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Of course, it is based on having watched the players interact during 50+ matches after AVB took over, as well as careful reading of the subtly-changing tone of players' ostensibly positive comments on "team spirit" under HR, AVB, TS & MP.
This is ruining my main course. I suggest you think about why articles are written and the agenda behind them, especially in the tabloid press. AVB is an easy target. The question is whether HR would have still indulged VDV had he not been sacked.
Anyway, the powers that be have said I should "watch it" for reasons best known to themselves. It's a lovely warm evening in Crete, so I'd rather enjoy that instead. Kali niti.
 

davidmatzdorf

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Jun 7, 2004
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This is ruining my main course. I suggest you think about why articles are written and the agenda behind them, especially in the tabloid press. AVB is an easy target. The question is whether HR would have still indulged VDV had he not been sacked.
Anyway, the powers that be have said I should "watch it" for reasons best known to themselves. It's a lovely warm evening in Crete, so I'd rather enjoy that instead. Kali niti.

There is nothing in my comments about AVB that is based on that interview. They are my considered pre-existing opinions about his merits and failings as manager.

He was greatly disadvantaged by taking over from someone who made the players feel good about themselves as a way of getting them to perform. If he had taken over from a disciplinarian hard-case like (say) Fabio Capello, I don't imagine that his handling of certain players would have caused such abrasion.

And the players whom AVB didn't abrade, Tim Sherwood did...
 
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Sweetsman

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Jan 30, 2011
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"I'm not sure how you read that interview as a hagiography. He comes across as semi-inarticulate, vain, egotistical, obstinate ("I won't change my way of playing"), slightly self-destructive, a bit of a throwback and someone who didn't make quite as much of his career as his ability might have merited."
That just describes your typical Dutch international.
 

Stavrogin

Well-Known Member
Apr 17, 2004
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Reading that article and some of the comments on here about how we passed on Suarez, Cahill and Dzeko has made me realise we really are the Sisyphus of football.

But how many great players do we sign and then ruin?

I prefer to imagine all the ways signing Suarez would have turned into a terrible, heinous disaster; one that would leave us physically and mentally scarred, too afraid to sleep yet too broken to face the waking world...
 
May 14, 2007
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still blame Levy for sacking redknapp
sold pavlychenko, rafa, to aid his need for a profit and pick up his bonus
might redeem himself with the new stadium
but we all know that when the team is on the verge of something the board fuck it up -- sack the manager or sell a top player
rafa -- we all respect you and thank you for those 2 years
 

talkshowhost86

Mod-Moose
Staff
Oct 2, 2004
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still blame Levy for sacking redknapp
sold pavlychenko, rafa, to aid his need for a profit and pick up his bonus
might redeem himself with the new stadium
but we all know that when the team is on the verge of something the board fuck it up -- sack the manager or sell a top player
rafa -- we all respect you and thank you for those 2 years

This may be one of the most wayward things anyone has ever posted on here.

Kudos.
 

benny

Well-Known Member
Jun 14, 2012
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However optimistic I am about the new era with the way of doing things and the new philosophy, when I read stuff like this, I can't help thinking about what might have been...

If only Levy had invested in the squad more in January, If only Harry hadn't got so distracted with the England job, or if the whole Capello/Terry thing hadn't erupted - we could have kept that team together for a few more years and added to it - with those players we should have been able to mount a serious challenge for the title in the years ahead. The final nail in the coffin was Chelsea winning the CL, but by that time plenty of damage had been done.

The way the team played made it a great time to support the club, but it felt like it went far too quick!
 

kelloggs

Well-Known Member
Dec 23, 2006
1,255
809
I loved Rafa! He threw me his shirt away at Blackburn and someone behind me lent over me and plucked it from beyond my grasp. Gutted. Worse for me was I filmed it and have a perminent reminder of it haha.
 

ginola007

Well-Known Member
Aug 31, 2012
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This makes me sad, even the players knew how close we were to really doing something great with that side. You truly felt we could beat anyone with that team. If only we had signed a striker the year we got into the CL, both Suarez and Dzcko were available that year We baulked at 26m for Dzeko and instead decided to spend the same figure on Soldado a few years later. Sad, sad, sad. The following year when we were challenging for the title we signed Nelsen and Saha when Cahill, for one, was available, Jesus wept.
We don't look back. We move on. We will surprise a lot of people with our energy, endeavour and enterprise this coming season.
 

ginola007

Well-Known Member
Aug 31, 2012
880
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That was one great team, and you can now see why. Often ridiculed Redknapp knew how to gel a team.
Problem is Rednapp passed on Suarez because he thought the Uruguayan would be too similar in style to VDV. That was history, however, and we should be looking forward to building a new and even more exciting team.
 

Tomdon

Active Member
Jul 27, 2012
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Huntelaar was available either...Season 2010/11 was a great miss - Suarez, Huntelaar and Dzeko were available at reasonable prices.
That year could have been a major turn point in our club....
 

degoose

Well-Known Member
Jul 3, 2004
2,832
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I loved it when VDV was at spurs, he was such a classy playing, had a hell of a shot and some amazing technique. For some reason though i always remember his goal against Watford. Also how good was Crouch and VDV together,
 

TottenhamMattSpur

Well-Known Member
Aug 31, 2012
10,925
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Huntelaar was available either...Season 2010/11 was a great miss - Suarez, Huntelaar and Dzeko were available at reasonable prices.
That year could have been a major turn point in our club....

We could have signed those players. But we didn't.
Reminds me of this:
98dd52129624f42e6a7e26b0836bd777.jpg
 

davidmatzdorf

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Jun 7, 2004
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I always diverge from the consensus when considering that season. I think our missed opportunity had virtually nothing to do with transfer business in January 2012 - or the lack of it.

The team was on a roll, right up to the point where Capello resigned. From that point, or rather one match later, results collapsed. After beating Newcastle, we won 3, drew 4 and lost 6 of our next 13 matches (+1 abandoned). Then Hodgson got the England job and we won 3 and drew 1 of our remaining 4 matches. It wasn't subtle, it was as black-and-white as that.

I can't see how different transfer business would have affected the damage to team morale and managerial concentration caused by the England-manager circus (the incident with Fabrice Muamba arguably didn't help, either).

Despite the slump in results, we still finished 4th and were looking forward to another season in the Champions League. Eden Hazard was announcing in interviews that he wanted to join Tottenham. We were still the fashionably exciting team to watch.

Then Chelsea won the CL final. That single, semi-flukey event was what really did for that team and four years of Redknapp's management. There was little doubt that Levy was fed up to the gills with Harry's bullshit and self-promotion by that point, but I do not reckon that he would have been able to terminate his employment if we had qualified for the CL. He just wouldn't have dared.

And who knows: if we were in the CL, we might have signed Hazard...
 
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AllSeeingEye

YP Lee's Spiritual Guide
Apr 20, 2005
3,084
426
I always diverge from the consensus when considering that season....

There should be a depressed smiley to tag onto that post. Possibly the most gutted feeling I ever had at the end to a season - more than when we got edged by a lasagne...

We could have scored Hazard and kept Bale. Conjecture takes the mind in all sorts of what-ifs....

I have to take comfort in that we stayed top half and continue to knock on that door despite the tribulations.

As for the VdV article - what's more telling is that Spurs didn't want him back. Him and Keano at the Live Room probably says he deserved to not be AVB's No1. Six of one....
 

h2005

Well-Known Member
Jan 19, 2011
604
1,536
Should be no place at spurs for players that hit women. No matter how good they were/are.
 
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