Tottenham make a wise choice with Redknapp

“David Bentley crosses from the right for Roman Pavlyuchenko to head firmly home.”

That’s a phrase that Juande Ramos would have love to have heard at some stage over the past few weeks. He didn’t get close. Then, wouldn’t you know it, seventeen minutes into Harry Redknapp’s first game in charge, the two recent signings combine to put Tottenham ahead.

Excellent lone striker

OK, Ramos didn’t always play Bentley, and when he did, he wasn’t always on the right. OK, Pavlyuchenko didn’t always play as Ramos seemed to be the only man in the world who thought that Darren Bent would make an excellent lone striker. I heard a joke the other day. David Blaine has lost his former record of standing around in a box doing absolutely nothing for forty hours. Darren Bent is the new record holder.

So, maybe Ramos was his own worst enemy in his team selection, but I still feel a little sorry for him that these highly paid players quite simply failed to produce the goods for him.

Dismal fortunes

In my mind, there is no doubt that Harry Redknapp will turn around the team’s dismal fortunes. He will have the team organised and working hard. Two things that seemed to be sadly lacking under the previous incumbent.

The sacking of Juande Ramos and the appointment of Harry Redknapp all seemed to be done with unseemly haste. There was no shock in the fact that Ramos was sacked, but the speed of the unveiling of his replacement was slightly shocking.

Difficult decisions

A statement from Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy on Sunday read: “I have made an important judgement call and in doing so I have taken some very difficult decisions. Relieving Juande Ramos, our head coach, and Juande’s assistants, Gus Poyet and Marcos Alvarez, of their posts is not something I have undertaken lightly. Unfortunately, our record of just three league wins since our memorable Carling Cup victory against Chelsea last February, combined with our extremely poor start to the season, led the board and I to determine that significant change was necessary as a matter of urgency.”

I can’t disagree with that statement. It is a shocking statistic that their excellent young left back Gareth Bale has been at the club for eighteen months and has never played in a Premier League win for them!

Dire situation

Speaking about his new club, Harry Redknapp spelled out the dire situation they find themselves in at the moment. “It is a club that has massively underachieved this year – to be sitting there with two points and, let’s be honest, in a real desperate situation, a relegation battle. There’s a lot of quality players there that obviously haven’t done as well as they should have done. You don’t end up with two points from eight games if you’re doing what you should be doing. So they need to start performing as I know they can. Whether it’s confidence or whatever, it’s up to me to go in and try to get the best out of them players.”

Redknapp regards this as a last chance to manage a ‘big club’ before he retires from the game. He will relish the opportunity of working with the big name players at Tottenham and his infectious personality will certainly rub off on the team. He has done a magnificent job at Portsmouth, and with the possible exception of Southampton fans, he is widely liked and respected within the game.

Active in the transfer market

He will see his first job as halting the slide and getting them out of relegation trouble. In January, I have no doubt that he will be active in the transfer market and he certainly won’t have anybody else telling him who he is buying! As Daniel Levy said, Tottenham have opted to revert to a more traditional style of management.

When it come to traditional management, there are few better than Redknapp. I think Tottenham have done the right thing and made an excellent decision. His success at Portsmouth has been astonishing. He masterminded the rise of the club from the relegation places in the Championship to three top ten Premier finishes in a row and an FA Cup win. He leaves behind a strong club with a decent team.

Rag bag outfit

On his return to Portsmouth for his second spell at the club he inherited a rag bag outfit much like Tottenham have become. He turned that situation around almost immediately and he will do the same again now.