firing.
He does pick the oddest times to fire the manager does Daniel Levy at Spurs. With one it’s half way through a UEFA Cup match the next it’s last thing on a Saturday night just before a “must win” Sunday game.
Was he doing it to piss off the Sundays or did he like the symmetry of firing Juande Ramos on exactly the same day the booted Martin Jol out a year earlier.
Well it had to happen sooner or later and better sooner, whip that plaster off in one quick pull, with the added bonus that it gets shot of that useless individual Comolli in the process. How many years have we had them telling us the continental style Director Of Football is the only way to do things? Now thankfully someone has figured out that having one individual who ignores what the manager needs and wants instead buying players the type of which we already have in abundance all while backstabbing and trying to undermine the manager’s position. No wonder Whinging Wenger was so happy with his friends part in the fiasco and no surprise he was whinging on about a club other than his own.
The players had lost any confidence they had in Ramos, it’s hard to say how much they really had in the first place. Of course they lifted themselves for the first few games he was in charge but players always do that don’t they. They did play up in the Carling Cup which did mean they didn’t bottle it in the semi or when they went behind in the final but for the whole of 2008 in the league there was nothing to say they wanted to play for the ex Seville man.
So Levy gets in a bunch of senior players, Woodgate, Ledley and for some unknown reason Jenas, OK we really know it’s cos he’s Levy’s little favourite, and we’ve seen over the last few years how much our little bald chairman knows about the game. And that signalled Juande’s departure along with his assistants, Gus Poyet and Marcos Alvarez, shame to see Gus go.
And then before you know it old ‘Arry “twitch twitch” Redknapp is in the front door, after walking out on Pompey again, this time because this is probably his last chance to be in charge at a big club. The £5m transfer fee was too much for Portsmouth to turn down he gladly told everyone, a view which surprise surprise Pompey aren’t exactly agreeing with.
Now what to make of ‘Arry’s appointment, well there’s a few pluses, firstly being the end of the DoF due to the fact he wouldn’t work under one. Secondly I’d rather have him than some of the other names mentioned for the job, especially those mentioned by Graham Roberts, now as much as I like old Graham and remember him fondly running through brick walls in a Spurs shirt, for him to come out with Sam Allardyce and Graham Souness as the ones he’d have for the job suggests Roberts might have headed one too many balls over the years. They are two of the worst managers around, their only plus point is that they are currently unemployed by other clubs so wouldn’t cost any compensation.
One thing a new boss needs coming in is the backing of the fans, I don’t think either would have got this, Allardyce is associated with a style of game that is alien to the Lane and Souness is a joke of a manger really. Yes he had a little success with Rangers but that came with a huge investment while his main competitors floundered, Aberdeen had lost Fergie and Celtic struggling financially. After that he went round a bunch of clubs and failed, bar one promotion to the Premiership and one decent season in it with Blackburn.
It’s not saying a great deal that a positive for ‘Arry is that he isn’t someone else. So it’s a wait and see situation, he has made good signings in the past but there have been a number of complete shockers and now he’s going to have a load of cash to splash.
He’s reinvigorated some players careers down at Pompey, signed a lot of ex-Spurs, but he’s also been a touch tactically naive and made some strange choices with regards players and their positions at times, he’s also been a touch Keggy Keegle style fragile and walked out when things didn’t go his way. He took West Ham down, couldn’t save Southampton from the drop but did come back and do a remarkable rescue job with Pompey in his second stint there.
One plus is he’s a media darling, the telly and the red tops love him and that’s something that will help as they are very quick to pounce and try to undermine someone in the Spurs top job, from the likes of Christian Gross where it started before he even did through to Ramos, though the latter probably didn’t help himself with his command of the language but saying that was his English any worse than ‘Arry’s?
His main job will be as a man manger with a team low on confidence and you could see that with the game against Bolton yesterday, they looked a different side, though of course Clive Allen picked the side and he did pick players in their actual positions and somehow got another 90 minutes out of Ledley just three days after his last outing.
But ‘Arry his a past master at putting an arm around a player and giving them the type of guff they need to play the way they should. Modric was a prime example against Bolton, a player that’s looked all at sea, in the wrong position on the park with a manager who didn’t know what to do with him, ‘Arry had his arm round him after a stellar performance telling him and then later the media how good the little Croat was. That kind of stuff is required with many of them such as Bentley and Lennon.
He needs to do something with the ‘keeper though as he was the only one who didn’t play up for the new boss but decided to increase his one howler a game to many, most coming from flaps and weak punches. He could be an outstanding ‘keeper as he has the presence to command the box and take charge of situations instead of leaving it to others but he needs to execute better when doing so. But maybe it shows the ‘Arry effect as none of the mistakes led to conceding a goal, what chance that would have happened under Ramos?
The other thing he needs to do is get shot of Jenas, I’m sure he could palm him off to Pompey, for Diarra or Defoe or Crouch. Don’t be fooled by all that running around ‘Arry, he only does it to cover up his lack of ability elsewhere, it blinds some to those shocking passes to the other team or some bloke in the stand wearing a Spurs shirt, and once he’s assured of his first team place there’ll be less of it and more hiding behind opposition players.
Most fans seem to quite happy with the new man in charge, get anything away to the wanderings cum on Wednesday and then get us out of the relegation mire and that number will increase but if it all goes tits up will Levy take any blame for yet another manager he’s hired and fired now he can’t pass the buck to a DoF and what now are the chairman’s league expectations?