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Good Work 'Arry
I'm sure you'll get a load of 'how can 'Arry expect to get 3rd' or 'it's your own fault you dropped points, not anyone else's' but these will probably come from smirking Gooners or Scousers.
As a Spurs fan, I'm glad he's come out and said this... I don't even mind the backlash we'll get when we end up 6th after losing some more winnable games at home. I'm glad our management is aiming high. Too often, clubs are always playing down their potential - Martin O'Neill always says that 4th is a really tough ask at the beginning of every season, for example - and I like the optimism coming out of the club.
True, we probably won't finish 4th. True, we almost definitely won't finish 3rd. But can we get 3rd if things go our way? Of course. Would we currently be in 3rd if we'd not lost those winnable games (Wolves / Stoke) and cut out the draws (Hull / Everton)? Of course. So why not say so!
Tony B (Good work 'Arry) THFC
Laughing At 'Arry
It's time methinks for a Redknapp rant! Firstly Harry...I really don't understand the media love-in with this man. His team took ONE point at home from games against Wolves, Hull and Stoke and yet he is still adored. I dread to think what the media would do to Wenger or Benitez if their sides had that record!
Every club he has touched has gone in to financial meltdown (West Ham, Southampton, Portsmouth) afterwards, so let's hope he keeps up the good work at Spurs. We won't even mention the criminal charges he faces, yet still he is touted as the next England manager...setting an example for the lads there eh?
As for Rednapp junior...why does the otherwise excellent football coverage by Sky involve the man with nothing intellectual to offer..why? why? why? Did you see Graeme Souness cringe every time he knew he would have to respond to something ridiculous that Jamie had said! There must be an ex footballer with more insight than him surely...god even Perry Groves makes more sense!
Chris (Spurs deserve to be above Arsenal because, er, well, um, it's their turn!) Charteris
...Isn't it time the media started giving Harry 'wheeler dealer' Redknapp a hard time? I mean I know he has the main red top in his pocket by having a column with them but it's beyond a joke. His brilliant dealings with Robbie Keane, Ledley King should be in the England squad (yes, when you play two games a week you really want a player that struggles to play one - without training), his mismanagement of David Bentley and Pavlychenko are just for starters!
The amount he has spent and the amount of absolute rubbish he spouts (should be above Arsenal?! Really?), his run-ins with the law and yet still Wenger and Benitez get dog's abuse while he seems to get away virtually scot free. Why is it the media gives him this free run?
Ian (our season starts - AGAIN - tonight) Dorren, Essex
The Anti-Midas Touch
I saw old melted candle face on f365 and I got thinking of who he has managed and where they are now. In particular:
Southampton - now third tier, nearly went bust.
Portsmouth - probable relegation, may go bust.
West Ham - relegation places, similar financial woes.
I put it to you F365 mailbox readers that 'Arry has the anti-Midas touch. That is, everything he touches eventually turns to sh*t.
Yeah?
Phil, AVFC (looking forward to seeing Spurs in a relegation battle in three seasons' time)
Berbaflop And Terrible Times For United
So after reading Mr Whitehead's email this morning and seeing Berbatov miss that chance against Portsmouth (I didn't see his goal and no matter how good his pass for Valencia was, it wasn't scored so it doesn't count as an assist and means nothing), I must agree. Dimitar Berbatov is a flop.
And it's not just Berbatov.
We've seen that Ferguson is tactically inept and hasn't bought any good players for ages. We have the useless Nani and Anderson and their numerous false dawns, Darren Fletcher, who brings nothing to the team other than running around a lot, and Carrick, who is almost as bad.
People say we're being carried by Rooney but he's just a flat-track bully and never scores in the big games. Evra is consistent but he hasn't achieved the glorious heights of Ashley Cole.
Kuszczak and Foster will never be good enough and VDS is starting to show he's past it. Wes Brown is an embarrassment, Ferdinand is past it, Jonny Evans is so average, Giggs, Scholes are both past it too.
Valencia still looks like a Wigan player.
When Berbatov hasn't got the goalscoring or assisting ratio of Kuyt, Rooney is clearly not a big-game performer like Gerrard or Torres, Vidic is a complete liability and a poor man's Skrtel, and our midfield is just an embarrassment compared to the all-action performances of Lucas (who has the highest pass completion ratio in the league, by the way), it's no wonder that we've had such an awful season, being knocked out of domestic cups early, going out of Europe at the group stages, and now we have to fight for 4th whilst Liverpool battle it out with Chelsea for the title despite having their entire defence and first-choice keeper out for a quarter of the season. Depressing times.
Wait, what's that you say?
Oh.
Callum, MUFC, London
An Apology To Arsene Wenger
With the following line in today's papers Mr Wenger, in his unquestionable wisdom, made me realise how we all had been misinterpreting football for the past century:
"If somebody can prove to me that the purpose in football is not to try to pass the ball, then OK, I will believe it."
I think as of today the Premier League should be awarded to the team that makes the most passes and not the team who score more goals than their opposition, with the eventual aim of accumulating more points than any other team in the league over the course of the season.
How stupid I feel for not realising this all along.
Nick Parker, London
You Could Have Spent Something, Arsene...
I'm an Arsenal fan who doesnt want Wenger to leave the club. I think he's doing a very good job given the circumstances, but he can do better given the resources that he has. And therein lies the criticism. His recent comments about the inability to spend big is uncalled for, as he stretches the argument to the extreme, talking about 'losing 150M' and 'an artificial footballing world'. And he does this whenever he comes under criticism for his spending policy by diverting the discussion.
No reasonable Arsenal fan wants him to spend big, but could he not have signed two players for 7-8 M during the summer itself, let alone January, given our terrible injury record? I'm sure he can afford to spend 4-5 M more in wages (despite being the 3rd highest wage spenders in the PL) and he has a decent transfer kitty (from the sale of Toure & Adebayor). He points to the Jan window and claims there was not one big move. Well, it need not have been a big move, but couldn't his scouts from all over the world not find one single player who could improve this squad?
Prithvi
Why Maybe He Knows After All...
Just a quick point to all those moaning Gunners fans who want Arsene Wenger to spend some money and let the board deal with the financial fallout:
Well, when three of the daily top stories on Football365's website pertain to 'winding up orders' and financial issues (Portsmouth, Cardiff, Southend), I think it's time to seriously consider Wenger's arguments for his youth policy.
And let that be compounded with Crystal Palace's recent issues, Liverpool and Man United's debt-ridden situations, West Ham's 'saved by the skin of their teeth' bailout by the two Davids, Hull City's debt, and the countless others we've heard about, then sit back and think...'Maybe Arsene knows after all.'
Mark, Canada
Why You Wouldn't Want M'ON
Ridzwan makes a good point apart from one thing. The fact that he makes no sense. O'Neill's team cost more to assemble than Wenger's, and has finished sixth for the last two years. How is having less money to spend at Arsenal going to equate to him building a better team?
If I was going to pick someone to replace Wenger, I'd pick someone who knows how to win in the big European leagues, and there aren't many of those going spare. Which is the whole point of the argument about therenot being many suitable replacements for Wenger.
Adonis (We better bloody win tonight) Stevenson, AFC
Villa Fans Hit Back...Again
I just had to reply to John (HOOOOOOF) Painter, because of his ridiculous assertion that Aston Villa have no midfield, and that Spurs use theirs a lot more in beautiful artistic ways.
I'm sorry, mate, but that's laughable. Yes, Villa were dull and dour and defensive at the Lane, but Spurs were hoofing it up to Crouch all day long, and the commentators were constantly going on about it during the match, so this isn't some horrible West Midlands revisionism! To then state that Spurs use their midfield while Villa don't...well, let's compare:
Spurs:
Bentley (fair enough)
Modric (great little player, fair enough)
Palacios (Makelele style 'enforcer', not known for his range and delicacy of passing. Defensive midfielder)
Huddlestone ('Big man', plays largely defensively before straying forward to hit the ball like a thunderbolt, likes a long ball)
Villa:
Young (Pacey winger, excellent crosser)
Downing (Slightly less pacey winger, but with better control)
Milner (Hailed as 'most improved player' in the league, firm favourite of Capello, attacking player, clearly not an exponent of HOOFBALL)
Petrov (Villa's Player of the Season and the best passer in the team. Former attacking midfielder converted into a holding player)
Both teams have two wingers, which is fine, but the Villa midfield is set up to be FAR more attacking than Spurs, and indeed the Villa quartet there have 15 goals this season, as opposed to the Spurs players scoring just 8.
But of course, Villa are dull and show no ambition against the top clubs. Apart from when they deservedly won at Anfield. And beat Man United. And Chelsea. At a combined goals for/against ratio of 6/2.
Yep, no ambition whatsoever.
Crikey, Villa have played a few tough games lately and their players look a bit tired, but let's lay off the LSD please John!
Andy, Villa, London
...I have to admit that our football has gone a but dodgy recently and we're not even countering at speed at the moment. But we've had some tough fixtures (and not done too well) since Xmas so give us a f**king break. We're on a bad run, it happens, although even Conor Byrne will have his patience tested if it carries on until May. We just need to find a bit of form in our next six games and we'll start to play a bit again. We'll never play like Arsenal with our current team so I don't see the point of all the criticism really.
Anyway, watching the Spurs-Villa game I saw one negative team and one mediocre team so don't get carried away Spurs fans. You didn't play particularly well - Fulham and Blackburn have technically outplayed us in recent weeks don't forget. If we sit back, you will have lots of shots, and we'll get lots of blocks in, it's not a hard one to predict. You're definitely the better passing team, but the league suggests you've not yet earned the right to slag us off.
Lets all wind our necks in for a while eh?
Matt Sweet, Manchester
Villa Not Boring, Just Predictable
Villa vs United tonight. Nobody knows what kind of formation United will play, what players will start and how they will approach the game. Just like me and every other Villa fan, Alex Ferguson will know Villa will play Fridel, Ceullar, Dunne, Collins, L Young, Downing, Petrov, Milner, A Young, Agbonlahor and Heskey. That our only form of attack is on the counter or the wingers getting at their full backs!!
This is the reason we are not scoring goals. It's not that we are plain and simply boring. In recent years we've had 4-4 draws with Chelsea and Spurs or some classics against Everton. It's that we are so predictable and so easy to defend against. Villa are very lucky we have such a solid back four and keeper. If Davies and Knight were at the center of that defence then we'd be 10th - 15th. There is no little inter changing passing at the edge of the box. No nice moves put together in the game. As quick as Gabby is, he never goes by a player with skill. His only hope does be balls down the channel that he runs on to.
MON is a great man manager but not a tactician in any way. To stop Villa you stand of Agbonlahor when he has the ball at his feet and smother the life out of Ashley Young and Stewart Downing. It's going to be a tough one tonight but please, no boring boring Villa e-mails in the morning.
Dave Ainscough
Bongo Merchant Getting On Wick
Is David Sullivan becoming the most annoying chairman the Premier League? There doesn't seem to be a day that goes by without him opening his mouth about what he has done with Birmingham, what he's doing now with West Ham, and what he's going to do in the future.
First it was the maroon blazer, then it was talk of the financial shambles he had inherited, then he was talking about strikers he wanted to sign although this is surely the manager's decision, and yesterday he was talking about his West Ham-supporting mother looking down from heaven.
Even Dave Whelan doesn't go on with this sort of nonsense.
Do us all a favour and get on with your job.
David Joyce, Blackpool
It's The Mancini Way
I can only assume, what with these Man City fans decrying the three defensive midfielders played by 'Mancio', that they never EVER watched one of his matches as a manager before he joined? Even in his time at Inter, his favoured 4-3-3 line up usually consisted of Vieira, Cambiasso and Zanetti.
Jamie Halus
The Irish Question
Let me speak for my nation about our 'on paper winnable' group.
Ireland only succeed against established nations that our squad's footballers actually know exist and could direct you as to the general location of on a map.
*The squad (excepting Paul McShane if he makes the 22) will have heard of Russia, and due to its land mass can probably point you in the direction of it.
*Some will be old enough to remember being beaten by Macedonia before, though most are still sure that it is a make-believe country and won't have a breeze where it is.
*Slovakia and Armenia are definitely made-up countries. My guess is the Armenia away game will be the most turgid 90 minutes of football ever played.
*Andorra, the team, are probably known, only because of their whipping boy status, but the Irish squad certainly doesn't believe it is actually a country, will have no idea where it is, and I guarantee we will be lucky to scramble to a 1-0 away victory, probably via an unfortunate o.g.
Of course if Stephen England returns to the squad, all that will change considering his 160+ IQ Mensa status. We might actually qualify, but to be honest I'd rather not with that **** involved.
Mot (already dreading those International Breaks 2010-12) Dublin
