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The Redknapp Effect

3 min read
by The Fighting Cock
As a self confessed Harry hater, it irks me greatly that some fans seem to think that AVB is having success on the back of Redknapp’s squad. There are obviously some points to clear up with this thinking. In the beginning I was extremely wary having Redknapp as manager, a man that had never managed […]

As a self confessed Harry hater, it irks me greatly that some fans seem to think that AVB is having success on the back of Redknapp’s squad. There are obviously some points to clear up with this thinking.

In the beginning I was extremely wary having Redknapp as manager, a man that had never managed a top premier league/first division team, often flirted or achieved relegation and some would say, being the catalyst for the teams he managed to suffer financial difficulties. I was never confident in his purchases and because of his home grown reputation and lack of a Europe wide network, never happy about the players that were linked to him.

The notion that AVB is living off of Harry’s squad is a myth, it was and always will be Jol’s squad. Harry came into a team low on confidence having 2 points from 8 games (they should etch that on his gravestone) and bottom of the league. Harry managed to make changes in personal and moral and managed the team into finishing 8th that season. What some fans seem not to accept, is the squad that Harry inherited was mostly the team that finished 5th twice under Jol, and should have finished 4th if wasn’t for a dodgy lasagne cooked by a gooner (allegedly).

Harry inherited a team that won the Carling Cup and finished 11th. Harry signed 26 players (97m) in his 4 years in charge and sold almost all of them. Ramos was hamstrung by the sales of Keane and Berbatov at the beginning of the 08/09 season so all Redknapp did was repurchase Keane and Defoe who was sold by Jol the season before.

Lets have a look at these purchases and I’ll let you make your own mind up…

2011/12 Ryan Nelsen Blackburn Rovers Jan-12 free
2011/12 Louis Saha Everton Jan-12 free
2011/12 Scott Parker West Ham United Aug-11 £5,000,000
2011/12 Emmanuel Ade Manchester City Aug-11 On Loan
2011/12 Yago Falqué Juventus Aug-11 On Loan
2011/12 Souleymane Coulibaly Siena Jul-11 Undisclosed
2011/12 Brad Friedel Aston Villa Jun-11 free
2010/11 Steven Pienaar Everton Jan-11 £3,000,000
2010/11 Bongani Khumalo Supersport United Jan-11 £1,500,000
2010/11 Stipe Pletikosa Spartak Moscow Aug-10 On Loan 2011/12
2010/11 William Gallas Woolwich Aug-10 free
2009/10 Younes Kaboul Portsmouth Jan-10 £5,000,000
2009/10 Eidur GudjohnsenMonaco Jan-10 On Loan
2009/10 Niko Kranjcar Portsmouth Sep-09 £2,500,000
2009/10 Sebastien Bassong Newcastle United Aug-09 £8,000,000
2009/10 Peter Crouch Portsmouth Jul-09 £9,500,000
2009/10 Kyle Naughton Sheffield United Jul-09 £4,000,000
2009/10 Kyle Walker Sheffield United Jul-09 £4,000,000
2009/10 Jimmy Walker Unattached Jul-09 free
2008/09 Robbie Keane Liverpool Feb-09 £15,000,000
2008/09 Carlo Cudicini Chelsea Jan-09 Free
2008/09 Pascal Chimbonda Sunderland Jan-09 £3,000,000
2008/09 Wilson Palacios Wigan Athletic Jan-09 £12,000,000
2008/09 Jermain Defoe Portsmouth Jan-09 £16,000,000

For those of you that noticed, just to make my biased Harry hatred worse, I have removed two players from this list, as I believe that Harry had absolutely nothing to do with these purchases:

2010/11 VdV Real Madrid Aug-10 £8,000,000
2010/11 Sandro Ranieri Internacional Jul-10 £6,000,000

So, out of all those players purchased, including interestingly 3 goalkeepers, how many are first team players today, absolutely vital to the team and not needing replacing asap? Answer: None.

One could argue about the inconsistent Kyle Walker, and the young players Falque, Coulibaly and Naughton, but can anyone make a convincing argument about any of the others?

2011/12 Scott Parker West Ham United Aug-11 £5,000,000
2011/12 Emmanuel Ade Manchester City Aug-11 On Loan
2011/12 Brad Friedel Aston Villa Jun-11 free
2010/11 Bongani Khumalo Supersport United Jan-11 £1,500,000
2010/11 William Gallas Woolwich Aug-10 free
2009/10 Younes Kaboul Portsmouth Jan-10 £5,000,000
2008/09 Jermain Defoe Portsmouth Jan-09 £16,000,000

No, me either. In fact, judging by the vitriol directed at certain players this season, those players all seem to be on this list. The list I remind you, purchased by Harry.

So, in conclusion what is the Redknapp Effect? A bunch of players that are not good enough.

[author name=”Rick Desira” avatar=”http://chicagoultimatetraining.webs.com/ChicagoSkyline1.jpg” twitter=”ricksmg” website=”www.chicagospurs.org” tag=”RickDesira[/linequote]

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5 Comments

  1. Tot'nem Despur
    29/03/2013 @ 6:44 pm

    Good read Rick. I know how passionate you are about this subject.

  2. David G
    29/03/2013 @ 6:46 pm

    Decent start but the “evidence” you present is awfully weak.

    Spurs aren’t set up as where the manager and only the manager make all the personnel moves. Do you really think Harry had anything to do with moves for Coliby, Khumalo, or Falqué? And if you’re going to say every player brought in was Harry decision than you can’t just pull out the best two buys as non-Harry moves.

    Besides that is alot of the players you mention are pretty good. It’s debatable that Harry had much do do with some of them coming to Spurs, as AVB alluded, Spurs are not run like some old fashioned English club where one man makes all decisions.

    Let’s assume (like you did) Harry alone made all these moves

    010/11 VdV Real Madrid Aug-10 £8,000,000- Great player, sold for profit

    2010/11 Sandro Ranieri Internacional Jul-10 £6,000,000- Great player, will be sold one day for huge profit

    2011/12 Ryan Nelsen Blackburn Rovers Jan-12 free- I’ll assume Harry wanted actual money to spend but it appears he didn’t get any so Nelso for free…not bad

    2011/12 Louis Saha Everton Jan-12 free- Same as above

    2011/12 Scott Parker West Ham United Aug-11 £5,000,000- He played great and partnered with Modric extremely well. Great Move!

    2011/12 Emmanuel Ade Manchester City Aug-11 On Loan- Great move..signing him permanently maybe less so, but Harry was fired by then.

    2011/12 Yago Falqué Juventus Aug-11 On Loan- N/A

    2011/12 Souleymane Coulibaly Siena Jul-11 Undisclosed- I guess we’ll find out in years to come

    2011/12 Brad Friedel Aston Villa Jun-11 free- Massive upgrade over Gomes, free…yes please!

    2010/11 Steven Pienaar Everton Jan-11 £3,000,000- Didn’t play much behind Bale, Lennon, VDV, etc but sold him for a profit 18 months later. Good cover at the time, good move

    2010/11 Bongani Khumalo Supersport United Jan-11 £1,500,000-Guess we’ll find out in the future

    2010/11 Stipe Pletikosa Spartak Moscow Aug-10 On Loan 2011/12-Who?

    2010/11 William Gallas Woolwich Aug-10 free- Has played decently…free again!

    2009/10 Younes Kaboul Portsmouth Jan-10 £5,000,000- Great buy!

    2009/10 Eidur GudjohnsenMonaco Jan-10 On Loan

    2009/10 Niko Kranjcar Portsmouth Sep-09 £2,500,000- Sold for profit, and scored some great goals

    2009/10 Sebastien Bassong Newcastle United Aug-09 £8,000,000- Seems decent

    2009/10 Peter Crouch Portsmouth Jul-09 £9,500,000- Scored some big goals, sold for profit

    2009/10 Kyle Naughton Sheffield United Jul-09 £4,000,000- squad player, 4 mil ain’t much

    2009/10 Kyle Walker Sheffield United Jul-09 £4,000,000- Starting right back, possibly England starting Right-Back for the next decade. Another Great move!

    2009/10 Jimmy Walker Unattached Jul-09 free- Free

    2008/09 Robbie Keane Liverpool Feb-09 £15,000,000- Eh

    2008/09 Carlo Cudicini Chelsea Jan-09 Free- Free

    2008/09 Pascal Chimbonda Sunderland Jan-09 £3,000,000- Eh

    2008/09 Wilson Palacios Wigan Athletic Jan-09 £12,000,000- Not so good, lost money on

    2008/09 Jermain Defoe Portsmouth Jan-09 £16,000,000- Darren Bent went for more, Steven Fletcher was close. Not a world-beater but this is probably in line for a English goal scorer who’s in his 20’s.

    So if we’re assuming Harry made all these moves, which isn’t true, there’s only really one costly bad move total and even the loss on Palacios wasn’t more than 5 million.

  3. Rick
    29/03/2013 @ 7:32 pm

    My argument is based on the effect that Harry had on the team we have now. He made 26 purchases and almost none are beneficial to us now. Harry bought short term solutions for long term problems, like buying 3 goal keepers. The center back situation was another area that Harry either neglected or attempted to solve badly. Look at the purchases we made the moment he left, a world class goal keeper and a world class center back (Lloris and Vertonghen). Two positions which Harry did not solve in 4 years.

  4. TonyRich
    30/03/2013 @ 6:48 am

    Hate Harry or not, the guy improved Spurs. He took us further than Jol from where Jol left off. Harry is not great in the transfer market. But he is great in picking up a team that is dying on its arse like we were. Spurs fans still forget how close we were to relegation. We were in the bottom 3 in the final few months of that season. So basing your argument on signings is pointless. What Harry left us is belief that we could and should be fighting for top four each season. Plus not only can we turn up in the champions league, but we can get to the quarters, beating Inter, AC Milan on the way… He also improved the quality of our football. Every manager benefits for something. That is the definition of the word ‘manager’…. Someone who takes the resources at their disposal and deploys them in the best way possible in order to achieve the goals. So I do not get why people say Harry was lucky. Was he lucky to start from 2 points from 8 games? He was lucky to have Modric, but up until that point Modric was struggling. Bale was struggling. Bentley needed to be cut. He achieved these things. Jol was luckier, as he was a no. 2 and benefitted from the manager quitting early. Jol had Berba, and paired him with Keane. We lived off that partnership. We had no other way to win games. But Jol did well until when the wheels came off. AVB was the luckiest of all. He got the Chelsea gig, despite only having one full season of football management to his name. He inherited a squad full of internationals, and multi-EPL winners, who previously finished second. AVB could not assemble them to retain second, or even top four. AVB Is still lucky to be where he is with still just a single full season of management experience. The results are good however, and time will tell how much it is the squad, or AVB who is getting the results. Harry got two 4th and two 5th place finishes, so he gets credit for that. If AVB gets fourth, then I will give him full credit too.

  5. Rick
    19/04/2013 @ 6:59 pm

    Yes, Harry did well, with everything in his favor at Spurs. He lucked into the perfect situation, a fantastic squad low on confidence, at a club with decent finances.

    Harry the great manager, manages Portsmouth into financial ruin and relegated down to League 2, if not kicked out of the football league entirely after he left.

    Harry the great manager, spends more at QPR than any other team in January, signs two players that are frankly laughable Jenas and Samba, and is in exactly the same points deficit from safety than when he joined.

    Harry the manager has been relegated with half the teams he has managed, and by the way, he bought Jenas, what more proof do you need?

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