This was a point made by a caller last night as i drove home from the game against West Brom. Although he was given short shrift by the presenters on 606, although I don't think many journalists out there are objective when it comes to Redknapp as he seems to be their darling. I am sure many Spurs fans are thinking the same thing.
We have all heard that we were bottom when he took over, The fact was we were not exactly a bottom three side at the time. In fact we had finished 5th only a year before. We were left in a state due to the departures of Robbie Keaneand Dimitar Berbatov. The new summer signings of that season were not gelling and there was discontent over Juande Ramos' attempts to change the culture through the club.
Furthermore there was confusion over recruitment due to the triumphate of Chairman, Coach and Sports Director all having cross purposes. So we threw out the baby with the bathwater sacked all the staff and brought back a traditional manger in Redknapp with his own coaching staff.
Redknapp then brought back to the club Keane and Defoe as well as adding Palacios.After such an appalling start to the season we only finished a Gomes fumble away from a Europa League place.
Last season we added Kranjcar, Crouch and Kaboul to the squad and managed to finally achieve Champions League qualification. Besides winning the FA cup this was probably Harry Redknapp's finest achievement in management.
This season has been a landmark for Tottenham. On our first occasion we managed to reached the quarter finals. Although our loss in the Bernabeau was disappointing, it was an occasion we would not have dreamed of in the days of Christian Gross. This past week Gareth Bale was awarded the Players Player of the year, remarkable achievement as only 18 months ago he could not get into the side.
However, our league form this season has been patchy. I cannot remember ever feeling comfortable in any game. We have only won by more than a goal on a handful of occasions and have not had an easy win all season.
We have amassed a total of 13 draws this season and yet have only lost on six occasions which is less than Chelsea, the same as Manchester City and only one more than Arsenal. I look back at our solitary defeat at Home to Wigan and our draws to Sunderland, West Brom, Everton, Chelsea, Manchester City, Manchester United, Arsenal and West Ham.
Ultimately these games may have decided our fate for this season. Our inability to see off games where we should be winning is our downfall this season as much as any other season. All Tottenham fans knew where our weakness was at the beginning of the season. We failed to sign a striker of quality in the summer and again failed in January. Redknapp can sight wages but I don't buy that at all. We apparently had £30 million in January to splash out and if you add another £15 million in wages over five years that adds up to £45 million available.
I am sure that with a bit of creativity we could have managed to sign the quality striker that we need to finish teams off.
However if Redknapp has to work with the players now at his disposal, the question is does he use them effectively. Most teams we play will play with eight men behind the ball and rarely over commit. We play a slow tempo and play usually breaks down on the edge of the box. When the opposition pushes up we don't use Defoe's pace to get in behind opposition defences and we don't have a player strong enough to win the ball in the air consistently from long kicks or set pieces.
We need to play a side and formation to create as many chances as possible and to get Defoe on the ball. So many times yesterday Defoe was in a good position it would have only taken a decent chip over the top to play him in, otherwise he will be restricted to shots from the edge of the box.
At times this season we have played some attractive attacking football if not naive at times. Redknapp has been slow to make changes when needed and spends much time with his hands in his pockets whereas his assistants seem to be more vocal.
Overall though it would be hard to doubt his qualities in that his man management amongst his favoured players is second to none. He has got the best out of Bale, Modric, Lennon and Huddlestone. On the other hand he failed to use Bentley, Keane, Taarabt and Dos Santos effectively which has lead to their departures.
It is questionable if another manager could have done better this season and if another manager will be able to deliver the league title to Tottenham in years to come, hindsight is a wonderful thing but had we made the right decisions both on and off the field this season perhaps it would be Spurs and not Chesea and Arsenal chasing Manchester United this season.
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