What characteristics and attributes would you choose for your manager if you owned a football club? Disciplined, Private, eccentric or any others?
Personally the main characteristic I would like a manager to take would be one that would not be on the television for non club reasons, being the face of newspapers, products or turning up on football chat shows on a regular basis. Fortunately these managers are few and far between.
Unfortunately there is one high profile manager who adorns the media tidal wave on a regular basis and that is Tottenham Hotspur manager Harry Redknapp. Tottenham are a big London club who have a good European and FA Cup history to their name (two UEFA Cups and eight FA Cups respectively) and they do not need their managers name advertising products that have no link with the brand of Spurs. Surely he does not need the sterling in his back pocket as he is in the top bracket for U.K. population earners.
Harry “Houdini” has been the face and voice of long campaigns for the sun newspapers fantasy football, sky sports fantasy football and also advertisements for Nintendo! As well as appearing on the above mentioned adverts Harry constantly says that he is awaiting the big call up from the F.A. to take the England job, completely disrespecting the Spurs fans by saying it is not his primary goal in life to lead them, for me this is beyond good behaviour.
Harry in the past has kicked up a fuss after other clubs have mentioned they would like one of his players yet at times he is heard waxing lyrical about players his clubs are linked to.
After all loyalty is a big part of fans relationships with their clubs employees. Harry has walked out on clubs on numerous occasions blaming others when in reality it is his own greed and thirst for the big buck that drives him. He is the manager who managed to unite the fans of Portsmouth and Southampton in one common goal, hating Harry Redknapp! That takes some doing with those two clubs who are bitter to say the least and yet for some unfathomable reason, this is all forgotten.
When Englands stock was probably at an all-time low after their calamitous World Cup exit Redknapp could be seen delivering slimy one liners in the BBC studio to an array of fawning sycophants. Asked whether Spurs were interested in the Japanese striker Keisuke Honda, Harry Replied “We asked Moscow about a swap for Bentley, but we didn’t think it was fair… A Bentley for a Honda, you know!” very funny Harry, how amusing.
I believe because of his cocky laid back attitude and willingness to answer almost anything journalists hang on his every comment. Before a live England friendly against the Czech Republic in 2008, he had the cheek to criticize the England Manager Fabio Capello, simply for having the England job he assumes he should rightfully have because of his passport origins. After all, what do titles in Spain, Italy and a Champions League really amount to in the face of one FA Cup victory with Portsmouth and a good Champions League run with Spurs?
Harry Redknapp is the man who is seemingly never punished for his poor approach to football management, each mistake somehow brings reward with an even bigger job and all of his misdeeds somehow manage to disappear from our consciousness. I am not a fan of Cappello at all but talk about living with a bubble around your head.
Always just a quick call away from the sky sports studio or waiting in his car to roll his window down outside the training ground and answer any question that is diverted his way about whatever the subject of the day is. If he does not get Spurs back into the Champions League in the coming seasons he can kiss his England aspirations goodbye and maybe his Spurs job too. Although maybe I am wrong and all his actions are that of a complete modern football manager?