Written before the sensational result at Stamford Bridge yesterday and Spurs’ win over Blackburn on Saturday, guest blogger Thomas Rooney casts an eye over one of the contenders for the England job after Fabio Capello leaves the post. We’re not completely convinced Harry Redknapp is the right man for the job either…
Harry Redknapp is a man who appears to polarise opinion among football fans. Some can’t imagine a better candidate to replace Fabio Capello as England manager, while others simply can’t stand the sight of him. This probably wouldn’t be a massive problem for the Spurs boss if the Tottenham faithful were entirely won over by him. However, that seems not to be the case.
On Tuesday Spurs slipped to a 1-1 draw against Sunderland at White Hart Lane. In the latter stages of the game, Spurs played the sort of desperate hit it and hope football usually reserved for lower league teams chasing the game in the 90th minute. With Redknapp for some reason seeming reluctant to make any intelligent tactical moves, with many question marks still hanging over the long-term presence of David Bentley for example, Spurs fans were left feeling bewildered at how their team had managed to let another league game pass by without a win in matches the Betfair Football odds suggested they should win.
Tottenham, for all their Champions League glory over the past couple of weeks, have failed to win a domestic league game in four tries now and, after a dismal showing against Bolton at the weekend, can rightly expect to be judged harshly by their fans.
Redknapp, however, wasn’t having any of that, lambasting the Spurs faithful after the game for what sounded like a few boos ringing out around the ground after the final whistle. The Spurs boss did his usual job of painting his side up to be world, simultaneously mounting the pressure on his players and distancing himself from the club’s fans in the process. Digs at the referee, again, didn’t help matters and neither did Redknapp’s sarcastic retort that the supporters are used to watching their side win the league every year.
With Redknapp having ambitions to manage the England side one day, he needs to be wary of who he makes an enemy of in English football. Football fans are a powerful bunch, even though it doesn’t seem like it sometimes, and turning on a club’s faithful when they dare to voice an opinion doesn’t go down too well in any quarter. The football rumourshave linked Redknapp to the England job, but it doesn’t mean he’ll get it.
Steve McClaren felt all too keenly the effects of an English manager of the national side not being embraced by the fans across the country due to a perceived character flaw and we all know how that turned out. A similar fate could befall Redknapp if he fails to take a more modest attitude when it is needed.