Thorpe Groyney
Open your mind
It's taken about 10 years but finally someone working in the media has articulated the same opinion I have held about professional cockney loudmouth Harry Redknapp.
From today's Mirror.
I watched an old fella suffer badly the other night.
My 71-year-old father-in-law has followed Burnley since he was a boy and as he saw his Wembley dream snatched away I felt his pain. So did our dog, and half the street.
But he quickly calmed down, reflected on how the Clarets had done their fans proud, and said: "Eh, that's football".
I then watched another old fella suffer. A 61-year-old twitching at the Sky cameras like Kevin Keegan in head-explosion mode, slagging off his players and announcing he would send out his weakest team in the up-coming FA Cup tie.
Surely that's not 'Appy 'Arry Redknapp, ace motivator and English patriot, who attacks anyone who doesn't give Her Majesty's FA Cup the respect its history demands? Could you imagine the stick a foreign manager would take if he'd said he was throwing an FA Cup tie at Old Trafford? Particularly if he continued to refuse to speak to Her Majesty's BBC?
Imagine if he'd weaseled out of all blame for his side's poor display by publicly roasting his players and the previous management? What would have happened if he'd humiliated a reserve goalkeeper, days after slaughtering a confidence-sapped striker?
He would have been accused of insulting British institutions and not having the character or bottle to succeed in English football, that's what.
"This is a team put together by I don't know who and I don't know how. It's scary," is Redknapp's new mantra. Yet this wasn't his tune when he took over at Spurs, drew with Arsenal and twice beat Liverpool. "We have a lot of good players," he said in October. Now it seems he's working in a talent-free zone. His whine is not without truth. Spurs' squad is unbalanced and lacks leaders.
But with the likes of Modric, Pavlyuchenko, Lennon, Bentley, Woodgate, King, Bale and Jenas, plus the £30million he's just been allowed to spend, most coaches in Europe would willingly swap places. So why, as his players suffer a dip in form, and they need confidence boosting does he put the boot in on them? It's because their form brings his managerial skills into question, and Harry can never let that happen.
He's got previous. When he failed to keep Southampton in the Premier League he blamed the mess he'd been left. And only this week he was reminding everyone that the players Alain Perrin bequeathed him at Portsmouth were "useless". Redknapp's top priority is convincing the outside world that he's a class act who's been prevented from running a big club (and his country) by foreigners. Well he doesn't look too classy right now.
He didn't last year, when England scraped a draw with the Czech Republic and he put the boot in on Fabio Capello. "They're not the same players we see in the Premier League. What's happened to them?" he told TV viewers. The implication being that this foreigner can't handle our boys. But as Capello has proved, big coaches don't waste time cosying up to the media or slagging off their players. They quietly work out how to get the best out of the talent before them.
Harry's finally achieved his ambition of managing a big team. But he's finding it takes a bit more than wheeler-dealing, pats on backs, and a wink at the cameras. It takes broad shoulders to carry the blame, a cool brain to work out how to put things right, and an indifference to currying favour with your critics.
The question is: Has Harry got what it takes, or is he cracking up under pressure?
Redknapp's priority is convincing the world that he's a class act who's been prevented from running a big club by foreigners. He doesn't look classy now.
Well said Brian Reade. Couldn't have put it better myself.
From today's Mirror.
I watched an old fella suffer badly the other night.
My 71-year-old father-in-law has followed Burnley since he was a boy and as he saw his Wembley dream snatched away I felt his pain. So did our dog, and half the street.
But he quickly calmed down, reflected on how the Clarets had done their fans proud, and said: "Eh, that's football".
I then watched another old fella suffer. A 61-year-old twitching at the Sky cameras like Kevin Keegan in head-explosion mode, slagging off his players and announcing he would send out his weakest team in the up-coming FA Cup tie.
Surely that's not 'Appy 'Arry Redknapp, ace motivator and English patriot, who attacks anyone who doesn't give Her Majesty's FA Cup the respect its history demands? Could you imagine the stick a foreign manager would take if he'd said he was throwing an FA Cup tie at Old Trafford? Particularly if he continued to refuse to speak to Her Majesty's BBC?
Imagine if he'd weaseled out of all blame for his side's poor display by publicly roasting his players and the previous management? What would have happened if he'd humiliated a reserve goalkeeper, days after slaughtering a confidence-sapped striker?
He would have been accused of insulting British institutions and not having the character or bottle to succeed in English football, that's what.
"This is a team put together by I don't know who and I don't know how. It's scary," is Redknapp's new mantra. Yet this wasn't his tune when he took over at Spurs, drew with Arsenal and twice beat Liverpool. "We have a lot of good players," he said in October. Now it seems he's working in a talent-free zone. His whine is not without truth. Spurs' squad is unbalanced and lacks leaders.
But with the likes of Modric, Pavlyuchenko, Lennon, Bentley, Woodgate, King, Bale and Jenas, plus the £30million he's just been allowed to spend, most coaches in Europe would willingly swap places. So why, as his players suffer a dip in form, and they need confidence boosting does he put the boot in on them? It's because their form brings his managerial skills into question, and Harry can never let that happen.
He's got previous. When he failed to keep Southampton in the Premier League he blamed the mess he'd been left. And only this week he was reminding everyone that the players Alain Perrin bequeathed him at Portsmouth were "useless". Redknapp's top priority is convincing the outside world that he's a class act who's been prevented from running a big club (and his country) by foreigners. Well he doesn't look too classy right now.
He didn't last year, when England scraped a draw with the Czech Republic and he put the boot in on Fabio Capello. "They're not the same players we see in the Premier League. What's happened to them?" he told TV viewers. The implication being that this foreigner can't handle our boys. But as Capello has proved, big coaches don't waste time cosying up to the media or slagging off their players. They quietly work out how to get the best out of the talent before them.
Harry's finally achieved his ambition of managing a big team. But he's finding it takes a bit more than wheeler-dealing, pats on backs, and a wink at the cameras. It takes broad shoulders to carry the blame, a cool brain to work out how to put things right, and an indifference to currying favour with your critics.
The question is: Has Harry got what it takes, or is he cracking up under pressure?
Redknapp's priority is convincing the world that he's a class act who's been prevented from running a big club by foreigners. He doesn't look classy now.
Well said Brian Reade. Couldn't have put it better myself.
