NFR - The Last Man In England Sees Through Harry Redknapp

[White Noise]

http://www.people.co.uk/sport/football/news/2012/06/17/why-daniel-levy-wasn-t-wild-about-harry-redknapp-as-tottenham-manager-102039-23897272/



Why Daniel Levy wasn't wild about Harry Redknapp as Tottenham manager

Jun 17 2012 By Dave Kidd



IT is widely regarded as probably the most bizarre managerial sacking in Premier League history.

Harry Redknapp's dismissal by Tottenham, after three full seasons which brought two top-four finishes, was as shocking as it was harsh.

But as chairman Daniel Levy searches for a successor, his blueprint seems to be to look for a manager who is the polar opposite of Redknapp.

Levy believes Redknapp under-achieved by finishing fourth last season and reckons a younger man with a more scientific approach is needed to get the best out of Tottenham.

Talent The Spurs boardroom supremo now wants a studious coach who will promote young talent and who would be willing to work with a director of football, or some similar role.

Andre Villas-Boas fits the bill, France boss Laurent Blanc is an intriguing prospect and ex-Schalke chief Ralf Rangnick is a serious contender, known to have met Spurs chiefs.

Redknapp's public declaration that Levy would have sacked him even if Spurs had finished third and made the Champions League is correct.

The decision to pull the trigger seems to have been taken before Chelsea's European Cup success.

Levy would have been happy to see Redknapp appointed England manager, as long as the FA had coughed up significant compensation, as he was already doubting his veteran manager's ability to improve the north London club's players.

Contender Brendan Rodgers was certainly a serious contender, but when calls were made to check whether the Spurs job may fall vacant, Rodgers heard that Redknapp was going nowhere and took the Liverpool job instead. Rodgers, in fact, played a major part in the intrigue surrounding Redknapp's departure - as both Tottenham's manager and chairman seem to have been courting his services.

While Redknapp largely kept a public silence about his candidacy for the England job, between Fabio Capello's resignation and Roy Hodgson's appointment, Levy believed he was putting plans in place for a possible future Three Lions backroom team.

And Rodgers is said to have been sounded out about becoming Redknapp's righthand man with England. Before a match between Tottenham and Swansea at White Hart Lane on April 1, Redknapp even publicly urged the FA to find a senior role for Rodgers in the next England set-up.

At the time Redknapp, like most of the country, believed that he would be heading that new regime.

Yet by the time Hodgson was appointed England manager on May 1, Spurs were losing the race to finish third and less than three weeks later, Chelsea's Munich triumph sealed slide from Champions League into Europa League.

There are strong indications that Redknapp's fate was sealed at least a month ago. Redknapp - so often seen as a canny footballing politician - made a couple of unusual errors which did not help his slim hopes of survival.

Bullish He appointed Paul Stretford, the bullish agent of Wayne Rooney, to help handle negotiations with Levy - a move seen as inflammatory by the chairman.

Redknapp had leant heavily on League Managers Association chief Richard Bevan during the court case which led to his acquittal on tax evasion charges in February. And Bevan would have been seen by Levy as a more conciliatory and diplomatic figure.

Then Redknapp went public in an interview a fortnight ago with his claim that Spurs would hand him a new deal if they thought he was 'any good' and his insistence that the issue was not about his own security but to make matters more certain for his players.

While there is no suggestion that Redknapp meant to be insensitive, Levy's mother was about to die after a long illness and it was not until after a period of mourning, always strictly observed in the Jewish faith, that the chairman was ready to talk to his manager.

By this time, Levy was minded to part company with Redknapp immediately, despite having to pay up the final year of his contract.

Levy and Redknapp were always an odd couple, the hard-nosed businessman and the wise-cracking blue-collar football man with a copy of the Racing Post at the ready.

The chairman tore up his favoured two-tiered management in desperation so as to appoint Redknapp in 2008, with Spurs bottom of the table, having taken two points from eight matches. Now this system could be reintroduced - although Tim Sherwood, development coach under Redknapp - is set for a promotion.

Sherwood has long been admired by Levy, who believes he will champion the club's younger players in a way he feels Redknapp did not. He is likely to be No.2 to the next manager, a situation which Rangnick would accept as would former Chelsea boss Villas-Boas, though perhaps not Blanc.

Wigan boss Roberto Martinez, the early bookies' favourite to replace Redknapp, is being considered but is not Levy's first choice.

Ludicrous Of course, many still believe it is ludicrous that Tottenham are searching for a successor at all.

They tell us that football management is a results business.

Yet sometimes even three and half years of largely excellent results is not enough.

[Me-ate-Live, innit??]

http://londonist.com/2012/06/tottenham-reject-redknapp-review-replacements-rafa.php
Tottenham Reject Redknapp, Review Replacements – Rafa?
BY LONDON_DUNCAN · JUNE 14, 2012 AT 1:30 AM · 5 COMMENTS · MISCELLANEOUS · REPORT AN ERROR ·


Be careful what you wish for, part 164. Just as we imagined almost four years ago when Harry Redknappp arrived as manager, Spurs fans will have been fine over the morning papers, munching some toast while reassuring themselves that next season will definitely bring Champions League football. And then they'll switch on any of the broadcast or online media and, once again, the effect will probably be similar to that famous shot zooming into the face of the shocked and uncomprehending Police Chief in the classic film Jaws (which, incidentally, is also coming around again imminently).

At least Harry's predecessor, Juande Ramos, had actually won something: the League Cup in 2008. Harry's lasting achievement at White Hart Lane was... a run in the Champions League. Wonderful as that was, it was still a one off and, in retrospect, Harry seems to have delivered more or less the same thing that David O'Leary brought to Leeds around the turn of the century. One memorable, but ultimately unsuccessful, European campaign and otherwise a set of league finishes that were always just that one point, that one game, that one goal from further qualification for the competition that clubs in Tottenham's regular position long for to the point of near obsession.

O'Leary was unlucky that he finished fourth when England only had three places. Redknapp was even unluckier this year, steering Spurs to fourth place only to watch helpless as Didier Drogba's heroics in Munich snatched away his prize at the last possible moment. That result suddenly wobbled Spurs security, casting doubt over the future of key players and causing Daniel Levy to hesitate over renewing the contract of a manager who, in the wake of his court acquittal and almost universal recommendation to be the new England boss, had seemed unassailable. But then Spurs stalled violently and limped to the end of the season badly enough to make Harry's recent public impatience on the subject of his new deal just that one misjudgement too far for his chairman.

So, with the Premier League's new television gazillions about to land in his coffers, who does Levy turn to now? The knee jerk speculation is that David Moyes will welcome the chance to spend plenty of that after years of comparitive austerity at Everton, but their board deny it. As usual, somebody's already claimed to see Wigan's Roberto Martinez on a plane back from a trip abroad, but, having summarily dispensed with Fulham's Martin Jol and Redknapp as well as the double UEFA Cup winning Ramos, why would Levy turn to someone who couldn't get the Liverpool or Villa jobs? Jurgen Klinsmann sounds great, of course, but he's only one year in to his post in charge of the US national team, a job that took him years to get in a country where he loves living. Assuming Barcelona's Pep Guardiola can't be tempted to North London from his sabbatical so soon, here's a list of other managers who might even do the trick and might not make Tottenham fans weep uncontrollably.

Rafa Benitez – Well, if you want someone who's not only qualified for the Champions League, but actually won it (with Liverpool, of course), not to mention the FA Cup, which has eluded Spurs since Terry Venables's time, Rafa's currently available and apparently even still has a home in England. His most recent job ended in tears as Internazionale of Milan let him go, but not before he'd won the World Club Cup. A lot of Liverpool fans weren't entirely unhappy at the idea of his reappointment until Brendan Rodgers got their job. Spurs fans would have to get used to a more defensive style, but, like West Ham fans and Sam Allardyce, would they be willing to put that to one side if success came with it?

Guus Hiddink – In case you were wondering where the manager Chelsea tried so hard to hang on to can be found these days, he took over in February at FC Anzhi Makhachkala. The project he's undertaking involves overseeing the rebuilding of this Russian Premier League club with funds provided by a local billionaire. Admittedly, he's barely started there, but we wonder if he's already growing a little tired of the need for him and the team to travel 1,250 miles by air fifteen times a season... to play their home games. Makhachkla is in the Republic of Dagestan, but the club staff live and train just outside Moscow for security reasons. If the opportunity to manage Roberto Carlos and Samuel Eto'o in the twilight of their careers and marshal the defensive talents of former Blackburn captain Christopher Samba and ex-Stamford Bridge wing back Yuri Zhirkov doesn't make those journeys positively zip past, maybe he could be tempted back to London to manage the only team to beat Chelsea while he was there.

Brian McDermott – the up and coming manager is in vogue in the Premiership these days and Tottenham seem to have some informal links with Reading, so, maybe, if Levy was quick, he could snap up his very own version in McDermott. Sure, McDermott played for Arsenal thirty years ago, but George Graham was much more attached to the Gunners than that, and he won Tottenham a trophy. More importantly, Brian has recently beaten Sir Alex Ferguson in a football management competition, the Castrol League Managers Association Performance Table. He edged the Manchester United supremo into third, but was himself pipped by Dave Jones's exploits at Sheffield Wednesday.

Slaven Bilic – His stock isn't what it once was, but the former West Ham defender is still the man responsible for consigning Steve MacLaren and his umbrella to the ever-growing England scrapheap at Wembley not long ago and has earned much admiration in his six years as manager of Croatia. That, of course, makes him Luka Modric's international manager and that might mean he's the only man who could realistically persuade the dynamic midfielder to give Spurs that one more season.

André Villas-Boas – Admittedly, Daniel Levy doesn't appear to be impressed by winning the UEFA Cup, or perhaps by the competition at all given Tottenham's perennial dismay at qualifying for it and having to play in it, but surely a man this apparently talented is worthy of another try somewhere soon?

David O'Leary – He's still available, you know...

Photo of Harry being interviewed by daughter in law Louise Redknapp via curiouslypersistent's Flickr stream. And yes, we believe that is Bryan Robson's head at the bottom left...

[LBNo11]

...question is now where would he go? No vacancies at the top of the table teams, he will have to find another club with more money than sense (whatever you do don't suggest/mention qpr [who we obsess about for their comedic value], I did once but I think I got away with it) and that post is already taken!

The ideal scenario is that Sam Loaded dice ups stick and goes to spurs and redknapp goes in the opposite direction to hopefully complete the bankrupting of the gold & sullivan enterprises.

I would have though it extremely unlikely he would be a target of a major European club so he needs to go where he will fit in best with his financial lifestyle and values, the emerging Chinese/Russian multi-billionaires are his best bet, and I'm sure their players must need the experience of his agent mates...

[TonyGilroy]

Imagine that every Premier League club had a vacancy. Which might want Redknapp?

QPR, West Ham. Conceivably Reading or, er, us. None of the others I would have thought. Can't see him going north or to Europe as he doesn't speak the language.

I reckon telling a Court that he was essentially illiterate killed his management career.

[White Noise]

Very strong rumours of going to an Arab country for a big pay day.

[Senior Supporter]

Very strong rumours of going to an Arab country for a big pay day.

I think his present home, lifestyle and family are very important to him (I understand a major factor in his last minute decision not to take the Newcastle job), so I would be very surprised if he went abroad.

[Willard]

Does a media career beckon? Perhaps he can appear on Sky with his son?

[HatterDon]

Does a media career beckon? Perhaps he can appear on Sky with his son?

My thoughts exactly. It beats working, after all.

[RidgeRider]

Does a media career beckon? Perhaps he can appear on Sky with his son?

Probably, but I could never take him seriously as he is such a dirtbag in real life.....so I hope he doesn't see the inside of a studio, be too nice of a fate for him.

[Me-ate-Live, innit??]

The Spurts are crying in their cups .............and anything else they can get hold of

''Why does this always happen to us '' they wail 
They were very sure their new manager would be AVB  but  hoped it would be Carlo Ancelotti
now the doubt has set in and there is mumblings of Tim Sherwood 064.gif


As for Harry ................ he'll be back (somewhere)