Dissection of Tottenham's somewhat wayward season by a Spurs fan

(This is written by a die hard Tottenham fan. So, “we” , “our” = Tottenham Hotspur)

Whilst our fight for fourth place is not mathematically over, it now lies out of our hands and with Manchester City beating Blackburn tonight, even a victory at Eastlands will not suffice to restore the balance. I cannot help but feel apart from some isolated results our leagues season has been one of failure to reach our potential. The run of league form since that glorious night when we beat Milan at the San Siro has been shocking. The worrying thing in all of those games: We should have taken all three points (with the possible exception of Wigan where the performance was below par). But we didn’t and you have to then question both the players and ultimately the manager.

All fingers pointing at Harry Redknapp

When Harry Redknapp came in as Spurs manager in autumn 2008, I was not particularly enamured. This can be put down partly partisan reasons (Ex West Ham manager and Arsenal fan as a boy), his “wheeler-dealer” image and scatter-gun approach to football management and of course that I didn’t consider him good enough to manage a club with the size, sense of expectation and history that Spurs have, given his previous experience ranged at clubs like Pompey, Southampton and West Ham. There was of course the incident only a few weeks earlier where Harry had labeled our fans “a disgrace” after alleged racist chanting aimed at our former captain Sol Campbell during a 2-0 defeat to his Portsmouth side. This is not the time and place to go into the ins and outs of the Sol Campbell debate but there was no racial undertones to the chants directed at Campbell that day and the stigma that the Spurs fan base (one of the most multicultural and racially tolerant in English football) has had attached to it since that day by the Media can be traced back to that incident which Redknapp did his best to stick his oar into. However as fans we had to accept a change was need, as Harry never ceases to remind us we had ” 2 points from 8 games” and were stuck at the bottom of the table. A reasonably long unbeaten run ensued which ended at Craven Cottage and we ended Harry’s first season in 8th place and also got to the Carling Cup final, losing to Yoo-nigh-ted on penalties at Wembley. I still had my doubts about Harry but as we reached fourth last season, I had to concede that he had surpassed my admittedly low expectations and had returned us to a level that I have not witnessed as an adult Spurs fan. However the big question, Is this the farthest we can go with Redknapp at our helm?

The club as we all know has the potential to reach for the sky if the chairman and management are in place but can we achieve this with Harry? Sadly the doubts and reservations I have had about Harry have crept up again this season. The first thing is to identify and change situations when something isn’t working. One of Harry’s key strengths alongside his man management was his ability to pick players in their right positions. So why the insistence of playing Lennon or Luka on the left, Rafa on the right wing. What next? Gomes and Sandro up front? He has it in him, he made positive contributions in the Arsenal game so why doesn’t he do it on a consistent basis. When it became clear on Saturday we were getting overrun on the right hand side, why did he not place Lennon there, move Rafa forward and sacrifice one of our strikers for an extra midfielder like Jenas? In these crucial games there was no need to go gung-ho looking for a third goal.

The other thing that grates me is his indifference to the fans, we should celebrate being fifth because we haven’t had it this good for ages! What tosh. A club needs to grow, whereas before he was talking up our title chances and now its almost a resigned acceptance that fourth may not happen. There are consistent little digs at Spurs fans, every time we don’t have a good result, pointing to where we were a few seasons ago. Harry would do well to remember what this club represents, the pride of one of the world’s greatest cities, a tradition that he is a custodian off and a rich history of glory glory days laced with greatness.

We are not West Ham, who still tell all and sundry that they won the world cup for England.

We are not Chelsea, who forget that they are an artificial club who without their sugar daddy would get crowds of under 20,000 and still get tickets on general sale.

And most of all we aren’t Arsenal, the choice club of the Jonny Come Lately football fan, in a Nike replica kit, sipping a caramel latte and deluding themselves they are as good as Barcelona but trying to forget their history as the club that did its best to kill English football with their defensive long ball game and cynical tactics.

We are Tottenham, English football’s glamor club. The Glory Glory boys with a swagger and a flamboyance that none of our neighbors can match. Instead of pointing back to our recent history and looking at where the club had fallen to, he should embrace the opportunity he has been given to take us back to where we belong.

But my biggest worry is, does Harry himself have the courage to really go for it? Does he truly believe that he is a manager capable of taking a club to the highest echelons? I doubt it. Recently, he has been seen as being more and more defeatist. A point at home to a mediocre Arsenal side wasn’t to be celebrated, whilst the comeback was great, the start was inexcusable. Harry failed to address that in public and lo and behold we started sloppily again against West Brom. What are the odds that against a rejuvenated Chelsea next week, we’ll concede a stupid goal within the first ten minutes?

He has shown a startling inability to beat what can be termed the lesser sides this season

Wigan (H) 0-1

West Brom (A) 1-1

West Ham (A) 0-1

Blackpool (A) 1-3

Wolves (A) 3-3

West Ham (H) 0-0

Wigan (A) 0-0

West Brom (H) 2-2

From a situation where we should have had a minimum of 20 points and could have gained a maximum of 24, we have a paltry 5, and Harry’s inability to learn from this has seen us now fight off a poor Liverpool side for a scrap for Europa League Football.

Pavlyuchenko: unable to silence his critics

The striker situation has to be laid at his door as well. It was plain to see we need an upgrade. We have no one who can hold the ball up at all, and Harry didn’t address that in any shape or form. Instead we have to suffer the sight of Peter Crouch doing some sort of weird ritual waving his arms around in the air before eventually being reprimanded and a foul given against us. We have two talented goal scorers in Defoe and Pav, who for all intents and purposes useless at everything else but he fails to bring in a partner who can utilize their merits and they are left looking like park footballers. He has a talent like van Der Vaart but doesn’t know how to utilize him.

To top it all off its the incompetent manner we seem to start games, we seem to need to go 4 goals down before we even start playing, it might be exciting for the neutral but its plain incompetence.

3-0 down to Young Boys

4-0 down at Inter Milan

4-0 down at Fulham

Players sent off in the first ten minutes in three crucial games. Its shambolic…and through it all Harry just has that same sullen expression.

My gut feeling and it can’t be shaken, is that this is a man who got lucky. He’s a decent manager who inherited the makings of a very good side and with asking players to believe in themselves he got them playing well. He has harnessed a team spirit which is the envy of others but unfortunately at the highest level he is left floundering. In time he could learn but time is an option unfortunately neither Harry nor Spurs have.

We have to carry on progressing. Harry has given us a hell of a lot of positives and proud moments but a club, especially a club like Tottenham Hotspur, cannot afford to sit still, if we sit still we go backwards. Liverpool are now hot on our heels as well, if they overtake us it is unacceptable given the season they have had and the quality of the players at their disposal compared to us. This may be termed as knee jerk but as a regular at the lane, I am voicing the concerns of many. I’m not advocating sacking him now, but his position must be reviewed at the end of the season, regardless of whether we finish 4th,5th or 6th. Is taking Spurs to the next level a step too far for Harry Redknapp?

After the miserable general tone of my post can I give a shameless plug for the Lillywhite Cup, we are entering a team for the tournament which takes place on 20th May at the David Beckham Academy next to the 02. Its a great chance to meet Spurs legends and compete in a 7 a side tournament against fellow Spurs and the winner goes to compete in the London Cup against West Ham, Chelsea and Arsenal fans. Though having seen the average Arsenal fan play football I wouldn’t term that as any form of competition…!

??Please find the original post at my Spurs blog The Glory Game