Happy Harry Anniversary
Tuesday, October 13, 2009 at 10:59AM 12 months of Harry Redknapp at Tottenham this weekend.
Two points from eight games,
Two points from eight gaaaaaaaames,
When Harry took over,
We had two points from eight games.
Read 'em (stats below) and weep non-believers. Spurs have the R-Factor and 'arry has proven the doubters wrong and even managing to appease the free-flowing purists. We play football. We play with players in their correct positions. Square pegs in square holes. Nothing overly complicated. No need for head-scratching. And the fans actually believe in the team. It's not perfect, not yet. But it's better than what came before it by several country miles. The stats:
League games P38 W19 D8 L11 F59 A45 Pts 65
Others games P14 W8 D 3 L3 F34 A17
Joyful reading.
We've been on the up since he arrived. He turned a squad of misfits into a unit that work hard for each other. Got the simple things right, driving forward consistency and pride. Yeah sure, we all know there are still questions to be answered and the squad still lacks depth in certain areas - but considering what he's done with the current set of players - any additional ones will only make us stronger.
Happy days.
So, what's remaining on the fix-list?
The '4th' striker issue
Pav is sitting in the abyss at the moment. If sold, then its time we either promote one of our young lads from their loan or we buy a new striker (nothing more than £5M-£7M) who has the potential and patience to break into the first team.
Cover for Wilson Palacios
It's still a massive problem for me this. If he gets injured we don't have anyone to slot into his place. Jamie O'Hara will be back with us in January if you believe what you read and there's also the possibility of the Brazilian Sandro signing for us - although I'm uncertain how much of a midfield enforcer he actually is. We need cover here. A young understudy or possibly, if Harry really wants to mix it up, an alternative. Anyone know any players with the qualities of Carrick? Apart from Carrick himself.
Heart of the Defence
Ledders will only ever play one-game-per-week. Woodgate is still lost on the sidelines (does the club have a comeback date for him?) which means Bassong and Dawson are the only two remaining central-defenders with Huddlestone as cover. It's not ideal, and its all a bit fragmented. Is Troy ready (or good enough) for a promotion? Or do we look for another CB in the Championship that might be able to grow in stature at our little Prem club? We need to eliminate the potential for ready-made excuses here. Lose Bassong - without King and Woody - and I wont be getting much sleep.
David Bentley
Will he ever manage to make it beyond 20 Prem league appearances for us? He isn't even making much noise about the fact that any remote chance for an England place has evaporated into non-existence and his lack of league games is almost certainly the final nail in the coffin. Not that he ever really had a chance anyway, but as a player, you always think (and hope) you do. At least you should do. Either he's given up or he knows he is on his way in the new year. I guess he has no control over his destiny at the moment as he can't actually play football to prove to himself and Harry that he can offer us something. Sadly, Bentley can only play on the RW. He's not component enough to play in the middle or anywhere else. Either way, something has to give on this. It's embarrassing and frustrating for all concerned.
There's more (feel free to suggest) but I think many of the other fixes come with natural progression (like bossing teams when we go 1-0). The goalkeeper conundrum needs sorting, which can be resolved by playing Gomes, IMO. Set-pieces have been forever in a state of flux and hopefully these will improve. And of course, every season is the season we await for Jermaine Jenas to finally come of age and discover self-belief and confidence. Sigh.
Anyways, thanks Harry for a more than decent 12 months at the helm.
COYS.
Reader Comments (26)
Harry = Godsend.
And thanks to shropshire yid for being the inspiration for this latest artical.................................. :o) lol
wow, not only 65 points from a full season but we would've finished a season with a +14 goal difference. Can't remember the last time something like that happened. good old 'arry. Keep it up lads. COYS
Shropshire Yid. Cheers buddy.
;)
He's proved me wrong has Harry. Didn't think he had it in him but seems the better set of quality players he has the better the performances. Well done, long may it continue.
I just have this feeling that something outside of football will once more fuck it all up for us. We are Spurs. It's what we do.
Well done to Harry.
And well done to Daniel Levy for appointing him.
Sign a DM in Jan along with a CB and clear up the deadwood and we might be a strong position to push for 5th.
Or better.
There. I said it. Out loud. By text.
Congratulations to all concerned. Our progress has been mighty fine, steady and productive. Didn't think he'd do it tbh and was one of those doubters early on. I'm happy to be wrong.
Who do you lads reckon is our best set-piece taker?
David Bentley.
Congratulations to Harry for a great first year, and may there be many more of them. As Hazard said, Levy deserves a pat on the back for appointing him, after all Harry carries a little baggage (no not Sandra!) Let's hope he can strengthen and push on from an impressive beginning, and give two fingers to those ar*eholes at HMRC and City of London plod. It's a great thing to have expectations that don't look like pipe-dreams.
I like Harry so much more because those maggots at Pompey and West Ham are so irrationally bitter about him.
We have 4 experienced centre backs, all good enough to play every week, and 2 part timers that can do a fair job when needed; it is just not realistic for us to have any more. No club does - even those with CL and plenty of games to spread around.
If you're saying we cant rely on Woodgate and King then one of them would have to go before we bring anyone else in - not that i want that.
Not sure I agree with that North.
King - Injury prone
Woody - Injury prone
Bassong and Dawson - are they strong enough to carry us forward when Ledley and Jon are no longer available? I know I'm looking ahead but I just think we need more cover/depth here and we should start with promoting the reserve players we have to see if they are up to the job.
Harry redknapp visited his pet shop to buy a rare Christmas parrot due to himself sounding like one ocasionally
The pet shop owner explained that the strings attached to it's legs were to signal it to sing.
By pulling on the left string, the parrot sang Jingle Bells.
By pulling on the right string, the parrot sang White Christmas.
harry asked "wot would appen if I tugged both strings at once?"
The parrot replied "I'd fall of my perch!"
BOOM BOOM
A guy tells his friend he's got excruciating pains round his arse.
His friend says he's probably got 'the farmers' and advise him to apply Anusol.
The guy uses Anusol but still has the awful pains.
He tells another friend who says that creams don't work and that he should brew a pot of tea, take the tea leaves and pack them around his arse like a poultice.
The guy makes a pot of tea every day for a week, stuffing the leaves up his ring every time but he's still in terrible pain.
He makes an appointment at the doctors and after he's told the doc about the pains the doc asks him to drop his pants and bend over.
After looking at his arse for a few minutes the doctor says yes I see you have piles and I see you're going on a long journey.
How can anyone say we dont need cover for the back four? We are desperate for some consistency back there. I'm wondering whether we will have the pleasure of a King/Woodgate centre this season.
Two points from eight games,
Two points from eight gaaaaaaaames,
When Harry took over,
We had two points from eight games.
I like this.
Harry saved us all, wahey, meh.
Hang on though, does that not show how a) far we've fallen from being close to 4th under Jol or b) how we overperformed under Jol, that our expectations are still 6th place plus.
Levy, credit where due for putting in our 'fit for purpose' manager, but to be honest less credit for spending too much on over priced talent receommended by comolli (his appointment) who spectacularly failed in ousting jol for ramos and disrupting the club when out Spanish flirtation turned out to be more of a holiday irritation than a blosoming relationship between fans, manager and club.
And so we find ourselves in a situation whereby we have an average to decent squad, we are higher up the table than we will be come the new year (and I'd take wagers on that one) and IF we get to 6th come may we have the benefit of Europa league football (which Harry has said he doesn't want as it is a distraction).
So let's all just be thankfull we didn't end up with amanager who suffered the ignomy of sending us down, but recognise that it is stability that we need, not the media hype about us 'potentially breaking the top 4'.
After all I have the 'potential' to fulfill that left sided midfield problem, all is required is some atheleltic ability, top flight footballing skill, knocking about 10 years off my age on my passpost and a youtube 'montage' endorsed by george weah.
If I ever manage it then I'll let you know, 'til then I'll keep my 'potential' to myself thank you very much and I hope (most probably in vain) that all associated with the club does the same, until that day (far, far in the future) when we can say 'we've done it'.
Now, if we can manage 9 points from the next three games, then we have an interesting scenario on our hands, but even then it won't be a third of the way through the season. May is a long time away you know...........
We were good, we turned to shit, we then got shitter and Harry has taken us back a a level not that far behind the 2006 season under Jol.
I think the damage limitation he achieved was great and the progression greater. Slowly, slowly, no need to rush.
Ramos left on 25th October.
Good point that. But lets not be too pedantic. I think the weekend is the anniversary of his first game in charge.
one point....
i think pav is pissed off at all the leaving blah blah in the media....
he does likke being at spurs so he should feel secure etc on his role .....
it serves us to keep all the forwards positive etc
Congrats Harry!
It's a very good return for the first 38 games in charge. Judging by our recent managerial longevity, its good to just to make 38 games. I do believe that the performance is positively weighted towards the last 19 games as well so even further reason to be optimistic. As for improvement, getting Woodgate/King healthy is of utmost importance. We can't do anything until we know what we can expect from them, not only in the 2nd half of the season but beyond. I don't think we can carry two players that can't be counted on to be healthy regularly but in Woodgate's defense, he has made 3 straight seasons, King not so much. As for midfield, I see agree another 'Palacios' is a nice thing to have. Probably means we need to move Jenas, O'Hara, and Bentley on. I think Kyle Naughton showed enough to provide depth at RM. Kranjcar/Modric at LM & CM. Up front, I don't see the need to add a 4th striker if Pav goes. Can play Modric off the lone man if we really get pushed and GDS can easily fill the 4th striker role. We're good enough to finish 5th to 7th. To get to 4th, and I'm talking 2010-2011 season, we need a better partner for Palacios in CM, a better RB and a healthy King and/or Woodgate, and by healthy I mean 30+ league game from each although Bassong's presence might mitigate that somewhat.
A quick look back comfirms that. In the last 15 games of last season, we captured 28pts (8 wins, 4 draws, 3 losses). So for the last 23 games, 44pts (13 wins, 5 draws, 5 losses). This puts us on the fringe of the top 4. I agree with a poster above though. 9 pts in the next 3 games, we may have something here but thats a big ask.