Followers

Sunday, October 26, 2008

Harry Redknapp replaces European style management team at Spurs


Well, as a loyal Spurs fan I must admit that I am completely speechless afer this weekend's developments. The madness started with Daniel Levy sacking Juande Ramos, Gus Powet and Damien Comolli being sacked late last night (26th October 2008) after a series of tragic results underpinned from some tragic player acquisition at the Lane. I awoke to a text message at 8.15am from an old friend who is a Bradford City fan telling me that Harry Redknapp was our new manager. With a mixture of shear disbelief and excitement I scrambled for the trusty Sky Digital remote control to go on to SSN. Then the news unfolded. After taking 2 points from a potential 24, this premiership campaign had gone terribly. The disharmony from Ramos and Camolli was so blatant; here was a Spanish coach who wanted to demand his player choices stuck but then had more than a thorn in his side with Levy having a bias towards the Sporting Director's views.

After a decade of trying to force a square peg into a round hole with the Director of football two-tiered management structure, Daniel Levy has hit rock bottom and ate Humble pie at the lowest ebb of Tottenham Hotspur's Premiership history. Ramos was the man that Levy and Camolli both gambled on with great confidence, prizing him away from Spanish side Seville after Martin Jol's results took a downwards turn. With relegation staring Gus Poyet and Jaunde Ramos right between the eyes, something had to give.

"The results are what counts in football and we all know how this world works," Ramos said. "Now we just have to see if this decision is the best one for the team to recover and have a good season."

Harry Redknapp joins Tottenham Hotspur from a very successful second spell in management at Portsmouth. After winning the FA Cup and getting Pompey into Europe, Redknapp hinted that the £5 millon that Levy offered was too tempting a payment for Portsmouth to take. However, emotionally this move to Spurs had been on his mind in previous years and his willingness to succeed came from connections with the club on many levels.

"I could have come here maybe 18 months ago, in all honesty," said Redknapp. "I nearly came here, it was a long story but things happened.

"I nearly went to Newcastle and people said I didn't want to take on the challenge of a big club. I felt that once this happened (with Spurs again), I would have regretted it for the rest of my life.

Whatever will happen at the Lane next? A great start today with a 2-0 victory against Bolton with Pavlichenko and Bent scoring, but relegation is still a huge threat to Tottenham Hotspur - the table does not lie. Either way, today was a huge step forward for the Spurs. Harry Redknapp is the best English manager that we have and shows the strength and resilience that Tottenham need to either get out of the bottom three or to bounce right back into the big time.