Certain fans go on about Harry Redknapp and how they would like him back or how he is a great manager. But on a closer look at his record he certainly isn’t of title winning material.
Voice, I started reading this thread and thought, this may be the time to challenge some of your points. As you may know I am not a doom and gloomer and have been very honest with my views on AVB and shown realistic and respectful support. However, I am and always will be a supporter of HR, I feel his sacking was unnecessary, unprofessional and unpredictable. Putting the stats to one side for a moment, the story read as follows. Played attractive, attacking football. Best consistent league positions in my lifetime, hope for the future.
A team can only have the amount of league success that is available in the current year. By this I mean that in some years the league will be harder, or more even than others. The second point is, what do we consider to be the measure of success? If achieving champions league is deemed success then we have been extremely successful. 2 years out of 3 is extremely good. (I do not accept that last year counted as not qualifying as this is a separate issue of Chelsea taking our place, down to small print and a heap of circumstance out of our control). Or is success only obtained in the winning? If this is the case then any position, any win percentage that is below that of the winner is quite frankly, losing!
The problem I have faced when actually breaking apart what you have said in regards to Harry, is that there is not actually a lot wrong with it. I was expecting to defend Harry as my personal opinion of him is so high, but aside from the personal respect and the story of watching and enjoying Spurs more than ever, my heart talks a different language and my head was willing to join in the fun while it lasted.
One more thing before getting into the numbers, which I actually quite like, is some of the things you have said about Harry and some of the viewpoints you have expressed I think are inaccurate or are inconsistent.
1. Talking about win% at other clubs is irrelevant, he can only work with what he has.
2. His being or not being title winning material, is only a factor if we are saying that success is measured only by the actual winning.
3.If above statement is true, then making a statement like 'not able to challenge for the title' is inadmissible. Either he is able to challenge but not win and be successful or if he does not win then he loses, he cannot be accused at failing at both.
4. Redknapp being liked by the media has no bearing on my opinion of him, I am not a sucker and I resent the accusation.
Right now for the fun part, but first Mr Finch...
Voice as per usual YOU ARE TALKING OUT OF YOUR F--KING ARSE, anyone can make stats suit their argument, how can his win % at Spurs be as low as you say when at his arrival we were bottom, finished 8th that season, then went 4th,5th,4th in the PL, or as per usual are you using other comps to validate your argument. You use the PL and CL as your yardstick when it suits you and every other comp when it enhances your argument. Do you really think that everyone that reads this forum is stupid and gullible enough to believe you. YOU F--KWIT.
I agree that statistics are not completely reliable as evidence, as there is always more to a story than the numbers they can produce. Therefore I have looked into your claim and I agree, Voices numbers are not accurate. So let us keep to the facts.
Harry's win % in the premiership reads as follows:
2008/09 - 46.6% (obtained in 30 games as manager)
2009/10 - 55.2%
2010/11 - 42.1%
2011/12 - 52.6 %
Average win % - 49.1% (oops this is lower, wasn't expecting that)
Now let us look at the premiership since 2000/01 and see where we fit into the grand scheme of things. If Harry was able to produce his best, every year we could expect to have a win % of 55.2%. With this percentage we would approximately have ended in the following league positions.
2001 - 2nd
2002 - 4th
2003 - 3rd
2004 - 4th
2005 - 4th
2006 - 4th
2007 - 3rd
2008 - 4th
2009 - 4th (if harry from the start)
2010 - 4th (this was our best year with Harry)
2011 - 3rd (we were actually 5th)
2012 - 3rd
So if success is ending up in CL spots Harry, has the potential to reach it every year. However, if 2nd counts as losing he is a long way off. If this is the case we need to look at what would be necessary to achieve that aim. Since 2000/01 the average win % for the title winning side is 70.01%. With the highest being 76% (Chelsea 05/06 and 06/07) and the lowest being 60.5% (Man Utd 10/11).
It is at this point that I am able to return to my initial belief that I would be able to challenge your position. The facts remain as follows
1.If we measure success by getting into the CL (challenging) then Harry was more than capable of achieving this.
2. If winning is the only acceptable goal, then Harry with the resources he had, either was incapable or unable to obtain this target. If this is the target, then it is not only the manager that is responsible for achieving that goal.
If levy wants point 1. then Harry, AVB or a number of other managers could reach this aim. If point 2. is the goal, then different players would be needed and most probably one of only a few managers would be up to that task.
Having done my best to raise some points to your comments Voice, I would just like to finish with a small request. Please stop using silly insults as a way to make out that your view is more intelligent or more worthwhile than anothers'. It kind of weakens your position and shows a lack of respect. Stick to the arguments you want to make and let others counter them.