Sir Alex Ferguson

[Spurslove]

Seriously?

He didnt want it!

By his own admission he even tried to get Brendon Rogers on his England staff during a game of ours vs Swansea

He wanted to be somewhere else and made no mistake about showing it or letting his concentration get away from him - Redknapp himself did not properly finish the job he started.

I'm sorry but he has no one at all to blame but himself.

It's an interesting view and one I've heard many times before, but I think, like many others who hold this view, you could be in danger of mentally re-writing history to suit your own anti-Harry prejudice.

Harry didn't seem interested in bringing on young players when he was here. He would almost always go for older experienced players unless we were playing a cup game that he was not interested in.

Well yes, that's probably true, but let's be fair, we are being spoilt by a manager now, who bases his philosophy on promoting youth , which is in complete contrast, although at the time, we were all ecstatically happy with the way things were going on the pitch.

 

[dudu]

It's an interesting view and one I've heard many times before, but I think, like many others who hold this view, you could be in danger of mentally re-writing history to suit your own anti-Harry prejudice.

Im neither Anti or Pro Harry - why on earth do you try and brand me as either???

he had a great team and I got to watch some of the best of spurs i have in my lifetime under him. I also got to watch a lot of dross and very poor decision making too.

Either way - Its not a view mate - its his own words. Do these words (his) sound like someone who had Spurs interests at the forefront of his mind at the end of that season?

Im not saying he maliciously screwed us - but he took his eye off the ball and has no one to blame for doing so but himself - no one asked him to think we was going to get the England Job....

So when Tottenham played Swansea on April 1, 2012 I pulled Brendan after the game and said that if all the speculation about me and England was true would he consider coming to the European Championships in the summer as my part-time coach?

I told him I wanted England to play with as much technical ambition as Swansea. He was up for it.

If I got the job, he said, he would speak to the people at Swansea to get their permission. ‘It would be a great experience for you, Brendan,’ I told him. ‘I want England to play like you play. Pass the ball, play and play and play.’

Some Tottenham fans might think I was distracted from my club job, but I can assure you the conversation took five minutes. And we beat Swansea 3-1 that day, by the way.

It didn’t work out. On April 1, I was contemplating the way forward for England with Brendan Rodgers — and on April 29 the FA offered the job to Roy Hodgson.

I’ll admit, I thought it was mine. Everyone seemed so certain, everyone I had met from all parts of the game seemed utterly convinced it was my job.

I went to a dinner and Gareth Southgate got me up on stage and interviewed me as if I were the next England manager.

I began to think it was almost nailed on if I wanted it. And I did want it.

 

[dudu]

Im neither Anti or Pro Harry - why on earth do you try and brand me as either???

he had a great team and I got to watch some of the best of spurs i have in my lifetime under him. I also got to watch a lot of dross and very poor decision making too.

Either way - Its not a view mate - its his own words. Do these words (his) sound like someone who had Spurs interests at the forefront of his mind at the end of that season?

Im not saying he maliciously screwed us - but he took his eye off the ball and has no one to blame for doing so but himself - no one asked him to think we was going to get the England Job....

So when Tottenham played Swansea on April 1, 2012 I pulled Brendan after the game and said that if all the speculation about me and England was true would he consider coming to the European Championships in the summer as my part-time coach?

I told him I wanted England to play with as much technical ambition as Swansea. He was up for it.

If I got the job, he said, he would speak to the people at Swansea to get their permission. ‘It would be a great experience for you, Brendan,’ I told him. ‘I want England to play like you play. Pass the ball, play and play and play.’

Some Tottenham fans might think I was distracted from my club job, but I can assure you the conversation took five minutes. And we beat Swansea 3-1 that day, by the way.

It didn’t work out. On April 1, I was contemplating the way forward for England with Brendan Rodgers — and on April 29 the FA offered the job to Roy Hodgson.

I’ll admit, I thought it was mine. Everyone seemed so certain, everyone I had met from all parts of the game seemed utterly convinced it was my job.

I went to a dinner and Gareth Southgate got me up on stage and interviewed me as if I were the next England manager.

I began to think it was almost nailed on if I wanted it. And I did want it.

And just to show exactly how "distracted" he was while planning his and Brendons new England Job between April the 1st and April the 29th - here are our results From that period.....


1st Apr - Spurs 3 -1 Swansea (W)
7th Apr - Sunderland 0 - 0 Spurs (D)
9th Apr - Spurs 1- 2 Norwich (L)
21 Apr - QPR 1 - 0 Spurs (L)

 

[guate]

Great story Sir Alex tells when they are 0-3 down to Tottenham at WHL and at half time in the dressing room he doesn't say a word to them, not a word, until just before they are going back back out he says to them 'Next goal wins it!'

Those of us that were there and those of us that remember it will never forget what happened next and as Sir Alex quite brilliantly and correctly observed was that when Andy Cole scored within the first 5mins of that 2nd half there was only going to be one winner

Going in at half time I turned to my mate and said that I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall of Untd's dressing room as I was sure he would lay into them but in my wildest dreams I never, never expected Untd to turn the game around so easily and the rest is history.
Very Spursy

 

[Spurslove]

Im neither Anti or Pro Harry - why on earth do you try and brand me as either???

he had a great team and I got to watch some of the best of spurs i have in my lifetime under him. I also got to watch a lot of dross and very poor decision making too.

Either way - Its not a view mate - its his own words. Do these words (his) sound like someone who had Spurs interests at the forefront of his mind at the end of that season?

Im not saying he maliciously screwed us - but he took his eye off the ball and has no one to blame for doing so but himself - no one asked him to think we was going to get the England Job....

So when Tottenham played Swansea on April 1, 2012 I pulled Brendan after the game and said that if all the speculation about me and England was true would he consider coming to the European Championships in the summer as my part-time coach?

I told him I wanted England to play with as much technical ambition as Swansea. He was up for it.

If I got the job, he said, he would speak to the people at Swansea to get their permission. ‘It would be a great experience for you, Brendan,’ I told him. ‘I want England to play like you play. Pass the ball, play and play and play.’

Some Tottenham fans might think I was distracted from my club job, but I can assure you the conversation took five minutes. And we beat Swansea 3-1 that day, by the way.

It didn’t work out. On April 1, I was contemplating the way forward for England with Brendan Rodgers — and on April 29 the FA offered the job to Roy Hodgson.

I’ll admit, I thought it was mine. Everyone seemed so certain, everyone I had met from all parts of the game seemed utterly convinced it was my job.

I went to a dinner and Gareth Southgate got me up on stage and interviewed me as if I were the next England manager.

I began to think it was almost nailed on if I wanted it. And I did want it.

Fair do's, that's the first time I've read that and to be fair to Harry, it's pretty obvious that even with all that speculation which was flowing around at the time, almost from every source inside and outside the game, he didn't 'take his eye off the ball' with the Tottenham job, as so many people still believe, and are still blaming him for it. He's too professional for that.

The only thing he might be accused of, is being more than a little naive in believing what everyone was telling him, (everyone except the people it should have come from) but anyone in that situation would have felt the same as he did, so I don't blame him.

But I still blame Levy for sacking him after Hodgson was made England boss. That was inexcusable.

 

[dudu]

Fair do's, that's the first time I've read that and to be fair to Harry, it's pretty obvious that even with all that speculation which was flowing around at the time, almost from every source inside and outside the game, he didn't 'take his eye off the ball' with the Tottenham job, as so many people still believe, and are still blaming him for it. He's too professional for that.

The only thing he might be accused of, is being more than a little naive in believing what everyone was telling him, (everyone except the people it should have come from) but anyone in that situation would have felt the same as he did, so I don't blame him.

But I still blame Levy for sacking him after Hodgson was made England boss. That was inexcusable.

I hear you - i mean - who else are you going to blame but the guy who did the sacking. Right?

While i do understand where you are coming from......

I personally dont think tapping up a manager during a game to convince him to come work for you at a job you dont actually have is a very professional way to behave - if you do - then perhaps you are used to that kind of thing going on in your industry or whatever but for me - until he was officially offered the job - to do anything other than focus on getting us as good a position as he possible could - is deemed as unprofessional..

He was not 100% focused on us - he admitted it - Its his fault if he was being naive about something when he had been in the industry for longer than most and quite frankly should have know better and just got on with his own job.

Getting 1 point from a possible 9 vs Sunderland, QPR and Norwich during the period when England hadnt appointed a manager kind of disputes your claims too in my opinion.

Ultimately though - Even with another season there, I dont think Redknapp was the answer to our long term success - what we are trying to do now is and while i am grateful for the memories that Redknapp helped bestow upon us - I am also very pleased with where we are now and with the plan we seem to have in place trying to make us great again in the long term.

 

[Spurslove]

I hear you - i mean - who else are you going to blame but the guy who did the sacking. Right?

While i do understand where you are coming from......

I personally dont think tapping up a manager during a game to convince him to come work for you at a job you dont actually have is a very professional way to behave - if you do - then perhaps you are used to that kind of thing going on in your industry or whatever but for me - until he was officially offered the job - to do anything other than focus on getting us as good a position as he possible could - is deemed as unprofessional..

He was not 100% focused on us - he admitted it - Its his fault if he was being naive about something when he had been in the industry for longer than most and quite frankly should have know better and just got on with his own job.

Getting 1 point from a possible 9 vs Sunderland, QPR and Norwich during the period when England hadnt appointed a manager kind of disputes your claims too in my opinion.

Ultimately though - Even with another season there, I dont think Redknapp was the answer to our long term success - what we are trying to do now is and while i am grateful for the memories that Redknapp helped bestow upon us - I am also very pleased with where we are now and with the plan we seem to have in place trying to make us great again in the long term.

Some very good points. I wouldn't change where we are now under Pochettino but nonetheless, those Champions League nights under Redknapp, with Bale, VdV, Pav and the boys were magical and will always live with me.

No doubt those nights will return soon enough under Pochettino but as brilliant as they'll be, they won't be quite the same.

Go on then Pochettino...prove me wrong!

 

[Imnotacticalgenius]

I Think Rednapp at Spurs showed this, if only he had AF hunger I think we would have really built something.

Sorry, i have to disagree on this and its just my personal opinion. If we look at SAF and his career, he has been very consistent throughout (albeit the difficulties he had during the first 2-3 years at Man U). His Footballing philosophy remains the same throughout (consistent in all the clubs he managed). IMHO, Redknapp got lucky with Tottenham highly talented bunch of players, who just needed "a pat on the shoulder" after a very strict and regiment liked Ramos, to play better football. Redknapp whole career showed that he is more consistent with battling relegation. So IMHO Redknapp got a lucky break with Tottenham but Portsmouth, Southampton, West Ham and recently QPR showed that he is more prone of not doing well. And it is also interesting that Redknapp has more than once left his sinking club, when they are struggling with relegation fight. That to me, showed negative mentality. No wonder he only won 1 trophy, from a long "illustrious career" managing football.

But i have to qualify that under Redknapp, Spurs sometimes played very beautiful progressive football......But is it due to Redknapp coaching abilities or the massive talents the club had under him?......Ponder time...

 

[Borks]

Comparing Redknapp to SAF? I'm off for a lie down.