‘My missus could have got Tottenham up the league’ – Ex-boss on his time at Spurs
Harry Redknapp was relatively successful in the three and a half years he spent in charge at White Hart Lane. […]
The post ‘My missus could have got Tottenham up the league’ – Ex-boss on his time at Spurs appeared first on Spurs Web - Tottenham Hotspur Football News.
Harry Redknapp was relatively successful in the three and a half years he spent in charge at White Hart Lane.
While Tottenham maynot have won any trophies during his reign, he did manage two fourth-place finishes in his three full-seasons in charge and even guided the team to the Champions League quarter-final in 2010-11.
That is quite an impressive record considering he was brought in just eight games into the 2008-09 season with the sole intention of keeping Tottenham in the Premier League.
Tottenham were adrift at the bottom of the table when he arrived with just two points from eight games but he managed to guide them to an extremely impressive eight-place finish that season.
However, the 73-year-old has played down his achievements and insisted that it was all down to the players.
He said on the latest episode of That Peter Crouch Podcast: “Listen, it ain’t rocket science, being a manager. Some would kid you that it is.
“The most important thing you need to be a great manager is great players. I mean that.
“I went to Tottenham and they had two points from eight games but my missus could have got Tottenham up the league.”
The former Spurs boss also recalled a funny incident about his difficulty communicating with striker Roman Pavlyuchenko when he first arrived in North London.
Redknapp said: “I remember my first day at Tottenham. I’m on the training pitch and I keep shouting out to Pavlyuchenko, ‘Pav Pav, bend your run.’
“There was a geezer who kept sprinting on to the pitch to have a word with Pavlyuchenko and I was like ‘Who the f**k is he?’ He was the interpreter.
“I will be honest. He ran about more than Pavlyuchenko. We should have a heart-rate monitor on him.”
Spurs Web Opinion
Football management has evolved so much tactically in the last decade or so, which is why old school managers like Harry who don’t get into the nitty-gritty’s of opposition research and specific tactical drilling, aren’t really prominent in the game now.
However, that isn’t meant as a criticism of Harry. His arm around the shoulder, old school approach was just what we needed back in 2008 when we had so many top players who were simply underperforming.
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The post ‘My missus could have got Tottenham up the league’ – Ex-boss on his time at Spurs appeared first on Spurs Web - Tottenham Hotspur Football News.