Redknapp Out; Villas-Boas In

[Rout-Ledge]

I agree on the whole, From the Lane. I'm hoping that a summer's break, along with a couple of good signings, will reinvigorate us.

We desperately need a strong start to the season.

I think one quality that Redknapp has is that when we are playing well and getting results, he's a confident guy and this is reflected in the performance of the team. The trouble is when it's not going so well, he get's defensive and suggests that we never had much of a chance to get the top four anyway.

So, COYS, let's give Redknapp the freedom to make the signings he wants to make and have a great start to the new season come August.

 

[sloth]

My worry is that other teams have worked us out, as surely every opposing coach must try to do. It's Harry's job then to out-fox them. Has he got it in him? I don't know...

 

[guiltyparty]

I saw that as well and didn't think much of it. He obviously knows what the wage cap is and who will be the top earners but as he said it's nothing to do with him really.

He's the manager, it's everything to do with him. He should know what they're on, what other people's players are on, what the market rate is, what he can get for a certain amount of money, what players he has that are being under-paid, which ones are over-paid, which ones he'd lose at a push, which ones he wants rid of. He's not a coach, he's a manager. This, whatever industry you're in, involves financial management. He seems to know that Forlan is on £120,000 a week so we can't sign him. I'd say it's just as important to know if a very good squad player is being undervalued and could be nicked by someone else. To be a 'manager' in any other industry and not know these things would to be negligent

 

[Rout-Ledge]

I think you're probably right. The only way it would be affecting him is if he's actually already been promised the job and is now just whiling away the last year at Spurs. That almost certainly hasn't happened though so yes I think you're right about the England job.

The other issue is the court case which could feasibly be distracting him but again I think that's probably being overplayed.

The court case is something that comes up when we're not doing so well as a reason to criticise Redknapp. It's speculation, and I don't buy that as a reason either.

All I can do is watch the team, and listen to what Harry says to the media. I make my judgements based on what we can see in front of us, not what we can speculate. The reasons behind a perceived lack of motivation are of no interest to me anyway. He's either motivated to do well or he isn't. If he isn't, that's an issue, but not the issue behind the reason for this, if you get what I mean?

 

[Sp3akerboxxx]

We desperately need a strong finish to this season to show to prospective recruits that we are not imploding.

 

[talkshowhost86]

Yep Rout-ledge and FromTheLane are bang on the banana in my book.

Yes Harry has made mistakes and the blind support for Harry can be almost as annoying as those attacking him at every opportunity. The lack of a striker is his fault and he pretty much admitted that himself, and his continuing public policy of effectively calling us a small club is beginning to grate a bit. Every now and again he needs to lay into the players and try and get a reaction rather than making excuses, but on the whole he's done an excellent job.

Every manager makes mistakes and every team goes through rough patches. The fact is that we are a better team now than we were when Harry took over and have just gone into the last 8 of the biggest competition in the world. Yes it's been a disappointing three months and yes there's no guarantee that Harry can get us back up there.

But to sack him and replace him with someone who's major honour is winning the Portuguese league with the biggest team in Portugal? No thanks!

 

[elDiablo]

I'm frustrated too today. In fact this is a forst for me, my first negative Harry post. I was genuinely shocked by his management today. I dont even think the players like it. There was little evidence of team spirit, they looked so pissed off at Gomes and then there are the stats that dont lie.

We created little today for all our possesion, Modric was poor, VDV......., Lennon's final ball was terrible (how long have we been saying that) and the rest the same.
Apart from Sandro who is proving himself to be a very fine signing indeed, n=but he had nothing to do woth Harry.

Time for Levy to get ruthless, yes Harry has brought players on (Bale, Kaboul, Daws) but it may be time for a rethink.

Not sure if someone mentioned this, but Lennon entered the fray with the biggest chip on his shoulder known to man. He swaggered on with the air like he couldnt give a sh1t. For me, Harry Redknapp has alienated him, and thats poor management.

 

[thfc1989]

So who is to blame for the disastrous run of games over the last three months ?

If you think Ramos was right to be sacked for his failings, why aren't you happy to apply your criteria to Redknapp ?

How can you not see the differences in what Redknapp has achieved to Ramos?!

 

[Mr Pink]

My worry is that other teams have worked us out, as surely every opposing coach must try to do. It's Harry's job then to out-fox them. Has he got it in him? I don't know...

This is part of the problem, and he cant out-fox during the game either.

Harry has done well and there is no flipping doubting that but I do smell the end of the road. My biggest fear is that the same mistakes continue into next season and it becomes a write off, or euphemistically speaking a season of transition.

Most managers will have a sticky patch but its how they respond ie have they learnt from what hasn't worked?....are they attempting to try new things? are they addressing persistent repetitive problems?

This isn't a sticky patch anymore, its been going on for nearly 3 months and there hasn't been one change in approch or any signs of the same old problems being eradicated. Infact VDV off Crouch was working yet we havn't seen it in months, go figure.

All that aside the team dont look hungry enough either, ie just playing there way out of this through determination. We still lack some real leadership and balls.

When you're not prepared to shift your ideas and plans so to speak surely the only way is down?

 

[thfc1989]

Dan, i used to quite like you. I used to stick up for you (whether you needed it or not) when everyone was bombarding you.

You are actually indefensible, your ravings against Harry have gone beyond what i personally can put up with.
You have virtually no knowledge of football, or you are trying to be inflammatory in order to gain attention.
You are windup merchant and your dislike for harry is intolerable. I strongly dislike you!!

Wish I could rep you again!

 

[FromTheLane]

I agree on the whole, From the Lane. I'm hoping that a summer's break, along with a couple of good signings, will reinvigorate us.

We desperately need a strong start to the season.

I think one quality that Redknapp has is that when we are playing well and getting results, he's a confident guy and this is reflected in the performance of the team. The trouble is when it's not going so well, he get's defensive and suggests that we never had much of a chance to get the top four anyway.

So, COYS, let's give Redknapp the freedom to make the signings he wants to make and have a great start to the new season come August.

Absolutely, a strong start is imperative. To be honest, though, I think Harry is probably as frustrated as the next man at the moment, and will be itching to get his teeth into the squad in the summer. It is tremendously annoying, you have to admit, that we have O'Hara, Kranjcar, Hutton, Keane, Dos Santos and Bentley on the wage bill, to not even mention Pavlyuchenko, collectively costing us at the very least two hundred thousand pounds a week and worth about 25 million in transfer fees if we were to sell them, and yet doing absolutely nothing that is contributing to the benefit of the first team when realistically all that needs to be added to it is one or two tweaks that would make an enormous difference and make us without question one of the top teams in the world. Especially having Kranjcar, Bentley and Dos Santos, for instance, when we are crying out for a bit of pace in the wide positions, is immensely frustrating.

He can see this as much as anyone, but is having to cobble along with a squad which he knows is imbalanced; rightly or wrongly, I think this explains much of his demeanour in recent weeks.

Over to Levy to shuffle the pack effectively over the summer. Man U's season has been a perfect illustration of the importance of leadership in the dressing room and on the pitch-this is still the area where we fall down the most IMO

If we make the following changes then we will contend for the league IMO:

Out-Pav, Keane, O'Hara, Hutton, Bentley, Kranjcar, Van Der Vaart (controversial).

In- Neville, Parker (LEADERS), Young, ST, RF

Nothing Harry can do in the meantime, over to Daniel to sort it.

 

[Mr Pink]

I actually think some have a point regarding Ramos, yes not speaking the language was always going to be his downfall but this is a guy who couldn't speak the language yet he was attempting to change the culture at the Club for the better, now thats bloody ambitious if you ask me and some challenge.


What we needed was an 'English' Ramos :razz:

 

[sunnydelight786]

Yep Rout-ledge and FromTheLane are bang on the banana in my book.

Yes Harry has made mistakes and the blind support for Harry can be almost as annoying as those attacking him at every opportunity. The lack of a striker is his fault and he pretty much admitted that himself, and his continuing public policy of effectively calling us a small club is beginning to grate a bit. Every now and again he needs to lay into the players and try and get a reaction rather than making excuses, but on the whole he's done an excellent job.

Every manager makes mistakes and every team goes through rough patches. The fact is that we are a better team now than we were when Harry took over and have just gone into the last 8 of the biggest competition in the world. Yes it's been a disappointing three months and yes there's no guarantee that Harry can get us back up there.

But to sack him and replace him with someone who's major honour is winning the Portuguese league with the biggest team in Portugal? No thanks!

I think you will find Benfica are..... He has only won the Portugese title going the whole season undefeated (1 game to go), reached the EL final scoring goals galore along the way and reached the Portugese cup final in his first season in charge. I think that does deserve a bit of respect.....

 

[DEFchenkOE]

I think we all know that the simple answer to that is that it won't.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with the team that could have been rectified by Harry. We have a talented but hugely imbalanced squad full of surplus bulk, which for economic reasons completely beyond his control he has not been able to shift to raise the funds to get the players in with the versatility and experience to streamline the operation and run it how he wishes. We have an overload of midfielders who are impossible to accomodate alongside one another due to the fact that we don't have a striker who can reliably play on his own up front. This means that numerous compromised solutions have had to be thrown together throughout the season which have resulted in lack of continuity; this, allied to outrageously misfiring strikers and general lack of goal threat, have meant we have drawn numerous games that we have completely dominated. Moreover our quite brilliant run in Europe has taken its toll and we have faced some very resilient and tactically disciplined teams who have been fighting for their lives. We have also had big injury problems which have robbed us of the few genuine leaders that we have.

None of these are the fault of the management, and despite all the 'problems' we have had a great season for which we should be more than happy with and grateful.

If we address the issues that I outline above in time for next season, then we will be very difficult to beat, as we have been this season I might add. With a bit of luck in the transfer market, I see no reason why we can't challenge for the title.

It is a bit frustrating that we haven't been quite so successful in the final third of it, but if any fan of our club is not hugely thankful for the wonderful football and entertainment that has been served up for the most part then they might as well hang up their replica shirt and logout.

Do you not think that this is down to the manager though?? Why have an overload of midfielders, with no striker to play up top on his own, then still sign Pienaar and attempted to sign one of Adam, Neville and Parker in Jan. Surely it's Redknapp's fault for not getting in any striker capable of playing upfront on his own to complement that surplus of midfield talent?

If it's not Redknapp's fault then whose fault is it?

 

[thfc1989]

Do you not think that this is down to the manager though?? Why have an overload of midfielders, with no striker to play up top on his own, then still sign Pienaar and attempted to sign one of Adam, Neville and Parker in Jan. Surely it's Redknapp's fault for not getting in any striker capable of playing upfront on his own to complement that surplus of midfield talent?

If it's not Redknapp's fault then whose fault is it?

History would suggest Levy's

 

[midoNdefoe]

Not sure if someone mentioned this, but Lennon entered the fray with the biggest chip on his shoulder known to man. He swaggered on with the air like he couldnt give a sh1t. For me, Harry Redknapp has alienated him, and thats poor management.

As much as i like lennon, and really want him to be brilliant. It is perfectly understandable that Harry and the rest of the squad have alienated him slightly after he bottled it in Madrid. It did not directly result in us fucking up overall, but was a kick in the teeth right before the game, and we couldnt even use him as sub.

Therefore, that in no way shows poor man-management, but an understandable disappointment in a key player letting the team down...and i doubt that disappointment is felt solely by Harry.

 

[Mr Pink]

Absolutely, a strong start is imperative. To be honest, though, I think Harry is probably as frustrated as the next man at the moment, and will be itching to get his teeth into the squad in the summer. It is tremendously annoying, you have to admit, that we have O'Hara, Kranjcar, Hutton, Keane, Dos Santos and Bentley on the wage bill, to not even mention Pavlyuchenko, collectively costing us at the very least two hundred thousand pounds a week and worth about 25 million in transfer fees if we were to sell them, and yet doing absolutely nothing that is contributing to the benefit of the first team when realistically all that needs to be added to it is one or two tweaks that would make an enormous difference and make us without question one of the top teams in the world. Especially having Kranjcar, Bentley and Dos Santos, for instance, when we are crying out for a bit of pace in the wide positions, is immensely frustrating.

He can see this as much as anyone, but is having to cobble along with a squad which he knows is imbalanced; rightly or wrongly, I think this explains much of his demeanour in recent weeks.

Over to Levy to shuffle the pack effectively over the summer. Man U's season has been a perfect illustration of the importance of leadership in the dressing room and on the pitch-this is still the area where we fall down the most IMO

If we make the following changes then we will contend for the league IMO:

Out-Pav, Keane, O'Hara, Hutton, Bentley, Kranjcar, Van Der Vaart (controversial).

In- Neville, Parker (LEADERS), Young, ST, RF

Nothing Harry can do in the meantime, over to Daniel to sort it.

Thats papering over a good bit of the problem. Harry hasn't used the squad well enough and no matter what this squad was more than good enough to get top 4 again this seson if it had applied more work ethic, been more organised and more squad players had of been used where necessary...which has a bearing on workrate too well into the second half of the season.

We can all hang our hopes on new players, buts its akin to burying your head in the sand if the baffling decisions continue and the same old problems arn't addressed.

For instance if we sign two/three worldy players in the summer and they turn up for training what do you think they'll do? Do you think they'll just slot in and do what the others are doing and basically do what they're told? Of course they will and thats part of the problem. A very simplistic way to look at it, but it illustrates a point.

The underlying problem is that we dont work hard enough as a team, we dont press the ball enough, we dont close down the space enough.

Last season we were more solid and of course the team was better balanced for the most part. As a result we were more organised, had a better defensive shape and were harder to beat. On top of that we were scoring plenty of goals - again because we had a better balance.

Harry has struggled to revert to succssfull formulas, Christ even with VDV in the side off Crouch hasn't materialised for months and that worked.

Again getting players into the side seems more imorptant than the balance and dynamic of the team overall, and all this at the business end of the season.

Doesn't inspire confidence in me, even if last season certainly did.

 

[Mr Pink]

As much as i like lennon, and really want him to be brilliant. It is perfectly understandable that Harry and the rest of the squad have alienated him slightly after he bottled it in Madrid. It did not directly result in us fucking up overall, but was a kick in the teeth right before the game, and we couldnt even use him as sub.

Therefore, that in no way shows poor man-management, but an understandable disappointment in a key player letting the team down...and i doubt that disappointment is felt solely by Harry.

Lennon was ill, so in what way should he be alienated? Thats great man-management.

 

[talkshowhost86]

I think you will find Benfica are..... He has only won the Portugese title going the whole season undefeated (1 game to go), reached the EL final scoring goals galore along the way and reached the Portugese cup final in his first season in charge. I think that does deserve a bit of respect.....

Neither of those achievements are as impressive as getting Spurs into the top four and then into the final eight of the Champions League when we were bottom when Redknapp took over.

 

[midoNdefoe]

Lennon was ill, so in what way should he be alienated? Thats great man-management.

Depends what you class as ill. ill enough to not be in the team? then why was he in the matchday squad? why did he travel with the team?

In reality, he warmed up with the team, got changed and ready to play and then bottled it (pulled a whitey or whatever you want to call it), decided at the very last that he was not fit to play....

Rearranging the team at the 11th hour like this is very disruptive and made us go out in completely the wrong mind-frame. The disappointment is justifiable, he let the team down.