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The Irony Of Harry Redknapp
Just a thought, but with all this talk of it costing 8 million, billion pounds of public money, isn't a little ironic that Harry Redknapp will have funded some of the investigation against himself? After all he does pay too much tax.
Well, that's the hope anyway...
Andrew Elliott
Time To Stop Demonising Harry Now...
Pleased for Harry, although in the longer run its probably not that great a result for Spurs as he is in the clear for England now. Next season is a worry!
I do want to pick up on the whole 'not guilty' thing. For months now, friends of mine who have mates/are in journalism have been reliably nudging and winking that Harry's going down, that he is as guilty as hell and that he has been caught out and tried to give the money back and pleaded for leniency from Her Maj. I've listened to Guaridan podcasts where they do that giggling and tittering but not saying why thing every time the talk turns to Redknapp. I tried on one occasion to last a whole John Nicholson article - not easy! - where he referred to Redknapp not by name but by 'the accused'.
Look. This isn't a victory for me. Or for Spurs. It's just Harry (and to be fair probably England too even if they don't all realise it). So I am not coming over all valedictory. But I have found the way that coverage of this whole affair has been prejudiced by the literati's anti-hero take on him, how at every turn the sneers have been only partially obscured by the injunction. I wasn't a massive Redknapp fan pre-Spurs, I'm not his biggest even now, but I think it is a good time for everyone to move on from this determination to pan Harry. He is a bit of a character. He is a bit of a panderer to the hacks. Maybe he isn't the most popular 64-year old in the world. But, before England gets the luck to take the best manager we have had in at least 20 years off our hands, I think England as a whole should have the good grace to accept, however grudgingly, that the England team will be a far stronger outfit with Harry.
I see this whole 'last time there was an English manager we were rubbish' stuff, but you can't really compare. This man has made us one of the best teams in Europe in less than four years. Before that we weren't even one of the best teams in Tottenham. I am sure people reading this will retort that Capello's got a better record over three decades - fair point. However, please cast your minds way back to, ooh, how about July 2010. Remember how we played in the World Cup? That was fun wasn't it? Capello had been boss two-and-a-half years by then, he had been in the job long enough to have made his mark. Sometimes the job isn't the right job, it doesn't have to be that the man isn't the right man.
As much as it will pain you all, because Harry is Harry, your summers are going to be better with him leading the national team. And our winters are going to be a lot colder and harder unless Daniel Levy can pull a massive rabbit out of the hat. (one that looks like Mourinho!)
James O'Flaherty, Spurs
Who Next For Spurs?
So, Redknapp was found not guilty. As a Tottenham fan, I'm glad that this is over.
Now Tottenham can finally focus on who they want to come in and replace him this summer.
Mourinho, Hiddink or Klopp would be a dream and I still believe Jol deserves the chance to finish what he started only this time to be in full control. But I'd happily settle for Rodgers or Lambert as both have proven themselves to be successful playing the right way.
What I don't want to see is a promotion from within, especially since Redknapp will most likely take his crew of assistants with him to the England job leaving us a choice of ex-Tottenham footballers with no management experience whatsoever.
Lloyd Stiles, THFC, Watford
Wanting Harry Out, Actually
I am a silent Spurs supporter (mainly cos ye never print my emails) and on my drive to work this morning was deep in dream about Harry and what happens to Spurs after the trial. I was really hoping he would be found not guilty and wohoo it's happened. The main reason I wanted Harry to walk is now he can bugger off with himself and take the England job.
How many millions worth of damage has he done to our squad. The bench for Monday night's game was something he picked up at B&Q. When the next manager comes how much cash will he need to rebuild Harry's mess, we used to have four strikers now we got one, are we really gonna compete in the PL and CL next season with one striker? What does three strikers cost? 50/60million?. Not to mention all the millions loaned out to other clubs, ok I mentioned it.
During my ponderous drive I imagined him seeing Kyle Walker getting selected for England while on loan at Villa and saying to Joe, "Do you think we should stick in a bid for him?"
I hope I'm not coming across as the Spurs Stewie, it just ain't good.
Dave (EIRE)
Even Some Arsenal Fans Are Glad He's Free
Just thought I'd like to say, as an Arsenal fan, in the spirit of magnanimosity(?), good luck to Redknapp. It always felt a bit wrong 'hoping' a man would go to jail for the sake of his team dropping points.
If he's been found innocent by a jury, that's that as far as I'm concerned. Hopefully now he can get on with the business of cocking up Spurs' season.
Name withheld (I've got a reputation to uphold), North London
Capello v Redknapp?
I don't suppose that two men could be more different; the urbane Italian and the East End barrow boy. However they are both employees. If any of your readers wants to look at their own contract of employment they'll probably find that they are forbidden to talk to the media about their job or their employers without first getting clearance from HR (that is Human Resources not the other HR) or the PR department. I would suppose that is the situation in which Fabio finds himself. However I would have thought that the FA should have consulted him before making the decision on JT. Why on earth pay a man £6m quid a year if you then decide to freeze him out of the decision-making process. Obviously it wouldn't have made any difference but Capello should know that you can't go around criticising your employers in public, be it a foreign news site or the bloke from the local rag.
I have found Mr Redknapp's speeches from the witness box quite entertaining; and hate to think what F365 would do if their favourite bogeyman was muzzled. What would you find to print? If it weren't for people like him your site, and the media world in general would be fast asleep from official verbiage of the 'no comment' variety. They may have to make the news up; or even worse hack into private emails or mobile phones to find out when the next match kicks off. More of Harry please; he obviously has the full support of the Spurs board when it comes to the media and I for one will feel life will be all the more brighter if he does become the next England manager. Might not win anything but it might just be fun.
John Barber
Is Suarez Or Downing To Blame?
The statistics of Liverpool's failure to convert chances, in particular, Luis Suarez', has been well, and accurately, documented.
Stewart Downing's lack of assists has been well, and accurately, documented.
Which stick is the better one for beating Liverpool? You can't rightly use them both, can you? (I've come to hate Downing though, I must admit. Do ye think he is actually any use?)
Hope all is well in the towers...
Peadar Clancy
More Wingers Talk
Tom Wilson - I was kind of focusing on clubs who endlessly complain about their current wingers. City fans rather sensibly don't complain about anything much at the moment, you may be the only happy fans anywhere in England. I'd ruled out Hulk because apparently he'll cost 84 million pounds, although that is probably not an issue for City.
I'll give you the first four, although I struggle to recall a single Italian winger who has settled well into the Premier League. Perhaps my memory is clouded by images of Dossena on the Liverpool left. I had also put a bit of realism into it, so Navas and Menez were considered but probably not in budget for most of the top six, but again City are not really worried about such trivial matters.
Matt Jarvis? All very subjective of course, but Matt Jarvis is the next David Bentley if he moves to a top-six club.
Reyes I'd pretty much ruled out because I thought he'd sworn off England.
dos Santos is out because Spurs are a top-six club (same reason Gutierrez is out who I rather like). And can't get a game ahead of Pienaar or Kranjcar.
Of course, we both forgot Ribery and Robben.
So, maybe six or sevenwingers. Two positions from scores of professional clubs across the globe. I'd call that a scarcity.
Jeremy (relieved I am not alone in my weird Riise love) Aves
The Managers Are To Blame? Really?
Matthew Stanger's piece about managers short changing the fans because they are getting tetchy with the media rather ignores the media's inability to report the truth in the first place. Just this week the papers are just plain making s**t up about Capello, telling us that he said something that he didn't in fact say, and using these lies to elicit quotes from commentators to spin the story out for as long as possible.
Mediawatch has commented on it, but thanks to Gab Marcotti we should all know that what Capello in fact said was in answer a direct question (not making a statement off his own back) saying that he wouldn't have stripped Terry of the captaincy when he hadn't been convicted of anything but he appreciates that the FA are responsible for questions of ethics and he accepts that it was their decision. He did not say that Terry is still his captain, that he was unhappy with the FA, or lay it down as any sort of challenge to his employer's authority in this matter. I assume that everybody is in fact aware of this and is puzzled at why the papers are reporting a rather different story, yes?
Oh hang on, nobody seems to be reporting what Capello actually said because there's no story there and they can't use it as a stick to beat him, so there's probably a fair percentage of you who think that Capello in fact told the FA to f**k off and would be re-designing the England badge to feature a picture of Terry with 'captain for life' stitched below it.
Graham Taylor gives his opinion. Graham Taylor! Who gives a f*** what Graham f**king Taylor thinks about anything, let alone some deliberately mis-translated quotes designed to stir up a controversy that isn't there to begin with? So Graham, what do you think about an England manager agreeing that the FA was well within its rights to strip Terry of the captaincy?
But don't dare suggest to a journalist that they are reporting a story that doesn't exist or making things worse because of their coverage. They both want to be at the centre of things and take no responsibility - just take a look at egg-chasing and the hounding of the England team in last year's World Cup. Rather than let a fairly dull and unspectacular incident drop (after desperately trying and failing to make an even less dull and unspectacular incident where the players did some bungee jumping into a huge issue) they instead continued to drag up and berate the team for having a few beers, and then blamed the players and management for the incident creating unwanted pressure that led to their poor performance. So the press aren't responsible for what the press do, the team is responsible because they gave the press something to exaggerate and over react to. Brilliant!
Five Live excels at discussing issues based on the media furore and misrepresentation rather than the actual incident itself (Marcotti aside).
Perhaps if the sports journalists actually paid attention to Leverson and tried reporting the truth then managers would trust them to do their job properly instead of grumpily making brief statements that can't be misinterpreted. I'm all for the freedom of the press, but the press have to act responsibly to deserve this and the more they behave like s**t stirring playground bullies the more I'm on the side of the club managers here.
Monkey Steve
...I think that managers get prickly when they can see that the interviewer is trying to write tomorrow's headlines with a pathetic attempt to trap said manager into saying something inflammatory.
If the journalists kept to footballing matters alone then they would get proper answers. The fact of the matter is that the drama is what's important to them, the soap opera surrounding the game that enables them to fill content in the downtime between matches. Seriously, if you watch the postmatch analysis following any game you'd be hard pressed to know who won half the time because they just focus on the controversial decisions.
Dalglish was given stick for wanting to concentrate on having just won a football match rather than an erroneous red card (for Rodwell in the derby this season). Sure, that's a talking point but his view on the red card was the first question asked of him.
I recall Liverpool beating Aston Villa away in Rafa's last season with a late Torres goal. Villa were a competitor for fourth at the time. Following this victory, the first question asked of Rafa in the post-match interview: 'Will you be sacked if you don't get fourth?'
I'm sorry but when journalists put football as a secondary interest to the soap opera, it's no wonder that the men who live and breathe the game treat them with contempt.
James Outram, Wirral
Golden Generation, My Ass
A few points on the England captaincy. I love the idea in football that you cannot punish someone if they have committed a crime serious enough for the police to get involved and there be a court case. Does that mean a referee cannot send off a player if they do some proper GBH on the pitch? Two-footed tackle is a red card, but charge onto the pitch with a sledgehammer, take out some opposition players and you can't even get a free-kick given against you.
Secondly, do we know of any international managers with experience going into a major international tournament with their captain being John Terry? Possibly a manager who stripped him of that captaincy when he has committed no crime and with no court case looming? Where could you get a manager with that sort of experience to make the decision on how very specifically stripping John Terry of the captainy might affect preparations? Also on the widely reported angle to the breach-of-contract case, just how much interference in team affairs are the FA allowed?
I can't even stand John Terry and I can't bring myself to care/have an opinion about the Gerrard vs Parker for captain debate. I still wake in a sweat thinking about the very existence of a Gerrard vs Lampard debate. I feel like I am turning into my dad but neither are particularly good players. Lampard is just a much worse version of David Platt. A player not even held in anywhere near as much regard as Paul Gascoigne was as a midfielder. Look at his England record, or just his record in general and take off Lampard's penalties and what is the fuss about? He's not even a great penalty taker. Presumably Graham Alexander is/was a great goalscorer when he chipped in with 19 goals in two seasons? Or was he a good professional who scored 18 penalties? Golden generation my ass, get the monkey in.
Chance G (The England team that is, not my ass)
Exactly
England Captain, blah, blah, blah
This just in from the rest of Europe: "You go ahead and fret over the next England captain. We'll worry about winning."
Mark, Canada
The Last Word On Play-Offs
Play-offs? A splendid idea! But we need to add a frisson of risk and help the smaller clubs out. After all, if you are bottom of League Two and facing demotion from the League, there's nothing much to look forward to. So here's the idea. The Premier League champion plays the team at the bottom of League Two in a Winner Takes All Extravaganza. The winning team gets the Premier League trophy, a place in the Champions League and the privilege of playing in the Premier League the following season. The loser gets relegated to the Blue Square.
How much fun would that be?
Gordon Stokey, Ely
One Of Very Many
Just to quickly clarify one thing from this morning's Mailbox; Zameer, Long Beach, CA says Stevie G should be made England Skipper because he's one of the 'Hungriest players on the England squad'.
No, my friend, that's Franky Lampard.
Ba doom Tish.
Avant
