We kick off with a nice pat on the back for the England boys, Burnley gets skimmed over, Windy talks, Villa previewed and Tim Sherwood talked about (again), Spurs' transfer policy, Mason, Pochettino and Lloris come under scrutiny, Danny Rose gets praised like he should. Movers: Flav, Alex from Bristol, Bardi & T
S4E35 – Move
All views and opinions expressed in this article are the views and opinions of the writer and do not necessarily represent the views of The Fighting Cock. We offer a platform for fans to commit their views to text and voice their thoughts. Football is a passionate game and as long as the views stay within the parameters of what is acceptable, we encourage people to write, get involved and share their thoughts on the mighty Tottenham Hotspur.
1 Comment
Would you like to write for The Fighting Cock?
08/04/2015 @ 4:44 pm
Just in reference to your discussion on the latest Podcast “Move” over Harry Redknapp’s comments, everything he said was true & has been confirmed in the past by Clive Allen. Clive has talked several times about that period under Harry (notably on TalkSport) & he said the same thing virtually verbatim – that that was when Harry and his staff felt we could’ve really pushed on for titles had we gone for the “right” players. Clive was also pressed for names on who those players might’ve been and he, rather cryptically, stated that he was unable to go into specific details for various reasons (which is no doubt the same for Harry, whatever those reasons may be), but he did reveal that 1 player they wanted, & that Harry thought he could get if Levy stumped up the cash, was Carlos Tevez, & that would certainly have been interesting given Tevez was desperate to get out of City at the time. Clive also bemoaned the fact that, rather than going all out for Tevez, Harry was instead forced to rely solely on the loan market. The reason why the likes of Saha & Nelsen came in, being “Harry-type” signings is because once Harry had been told he had to make do with loans, that is who he opted for (there is only so much experience & top-talent you can get in such a situation). Thing is, Harry has great experience in “making do” but, according to Clive, always felt Spurs was his chance at a “big” club, a club who would properly back him in the market over big name players. Other than the 1st January, where Harry was backed and bought certain players to help stave off relegation, it never really happened. Harry spent big on the likes of Keane & Defoe because they knew the club & it was a clever, quick means of rescuing us from the Championship (also bear in mind that, whilst the records show he spent some £20m on Defoe & £13m on Keane, we had only recently sold the pair of them & were actually still owed money from those clubs. Both deals, in the end, worked out well for Levy & made financial sense, as we recovered funds from Portsmouth who, within a short space of time, would be declared bankrupt, and we actually made money off of Liverpool). Then there was the Van der Vaart deal. Yes, he was definitely a “big signing”, but he was also bargain of the century. Again, it was a deal which made sense, & even that only happened with seconds of the transfer window remaining. Harry effectively went through that entire window, having just qualified for the Champion’s League and expecting us to “go big” thinking Levy was not going to produce anything whatsoever. For some reason, Levy never really backed Harry. In my opinion, I think it’s because he always saw Redknapp as a short term solution – he was brought in to fight the fire of relegation, but was already over 60 and was always thought to be close to retirement or taking up an international role. I never begrudged him the England job by the way, I thought that was a little crass of us Spurs fans because, really, the reason so many got upset was because Harry had done so well for us. Had we been floating around mid-table under him, nobody would really have cared had England come knocking. Yes, I understand that many felt he publicly pushed for the England job & lost focus on Spurs, something I’m not sure I fully agree with but far to a degree, but whilst the club supported him over his trials it would appear we absolutely failed to support Harry in the transfer market and, by that reasoning and combined with how well he did for us, I don’t see how anyone can be upset by him selling himself for the England job.