C_T_I_D said:
Spurs fan here. Out of 400+ votes on an SC poll 85% were either positive or very positive on the appointment. Having said that, you're always going to look at the positives when a new man comes in. What it tells me is that there's not much residual love of Harry colouring people's opinions. In fact that's the weird thing about a lot of the press coverage and also stuff you read on fan sites like this one, people seem to think we all loved 'Arry, and thought our success was down to him.
He's got to take a good proportion of the credit of course, but ultimately we arguably had the third or fourth best squad last year. For every good signing Levy allowed through (Parker, Gallas) he blocked other poor ones (Joe Cole, Philip Neville), yes Harry wanted Adebayor, but who secured him? He also came out and said he wanted Tevez and Ballotelli. Brilliant. He probably wanted Messi and Ronaldo too! The thing about 'Arry was he's a master self-publicist, he's one of those ones who'll say a million and one things, like," The Chairman musn't sell Modric, what will he look like if he does that, what will it say about the club?", and "In all honesty I know where the player's coming from, if he doesn't want to stay, maybe we ought to sell him and get three or four other ones in!", and "I don't think it affects the players, they don't care who the manager's going to be next year, all the care is that they get the pay-cheque at the end of the month!", and "It's not about me, it's for the good of the club, it's not ideal if a manager goes into the last year of his contract is it? What does that say to the players? If you think a players any good you sign him up to long contract don't you... it's no different with managers!", then at the end of the year, he'll remeber the stuff he said which fits with what happened, and let the press know all about the fact that he said it, but will somehow forget to mention all the other shit he came out with which was completely wrong. All of which is a long-winded way of saying, this is why I think lot's of other people rate him higher than they should have.
Truth is before Redknapp we'd got 5th, 5th - Ramos fuck up, then after him - 4th, 5th, 4th, and his team was muc better than the one Jol enjoyed.
The reason Levy got rid however, imo, is that Harry was all about the here and now, and a team like ours can't work that way. We have to make money from football, because that's the only way we can afford to improve our squad, Harry's purchases and ethos was all short-term. Levy's gone for AVB because he hopes he'll make use of the £35m training facility we've just built, and all the sports scientists and conditioning experts Levy's hired up, he wants a man with a philosophy for developing the squad from the kids up, and who will buy into the get them before they're famous and sell them on at their peak strategy that we'll need if we're going to afford to build our stadium. All of that, and bring success on the pitch. Like I say, I'm not sure AVB's the man, but who else was? It's a definite gamble, but if you don't roll the dice now and again, where would you ever get in life...?