- Jun 7, 2004
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I really think we need to place more emphasis on intelligence when signing players. These players couldn't understand what AVB wanted & now they're struggling to understand what Poch expects. They did well under Harry, who kept it simple & gave them quite a bit of freedom. Mind you Harry did have VDV, Modric & Bale to provide the x factor ....
You're oversimplifying, as so many do when considering what Redknapp did. It isn't just about 'giving them freedom', implying 'doing nothing except cheering them on'. Team-building is a skill and a bloody difficult one. It's especially difficult when you are dealing with febrile, touchy egos, men at the top of the international tree as far as skill and esteem goes. You have to give them confidence individually, make each one feel valued and, at the same time, induce each one to make his ego subservient to the team ethic, without inhibiting his individual flair.
It's incredibly hard to do. Ferguson did it. Clough did it. Redknapp, whilst not in the same class, was able to do it on the one occasion in his career when he had players whose abilities were up to rewarding his skills with something other than 'avoiding relegation'.
Harry is is own worst enemy. He's so full of blarney that no one takes him seriously. What he achieved, in welding disparate, strong-character players like King, van der Vaart, Modric, Bale, Lennon, Huddlestone, Assou-Ekotto, Crouch, Defoe and Keane into a unit that could not only win enough matches to get to the quarter-finals of the Champions League, but also have a good time together doing it, is so chronically misunderstood and underrated by our own fans that it aspires to the status of a Greek tragedy: the hero undone by his fatal flaw. He's such an arsehole that no one gives him credit for what he does so well. And he was so unable to keep his mouth shut that he lost the only job that could have cemented his reputation and his legacy.
Everything we hear about Pochettino suggests that he has similar abilities, but he's right at the start of his managerial career. Those skills require decades to be honed. Either we're going to persevere with this guy and go through some frustrating years, or we're going to lose patience again, sack him and hire the Next Big Thing for the 4th or 5th time. In the short term, it's a no-win situation.
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