Good morning.
You’d never now we’d won based on the backlash. I say backlash but it’s more a case that a third tier of fan that has emerged. To add to the ‘Arry ‘Aters and the ‘Appy Clappers enter …the ‘Ang On A Mo’s.
Those who were quietly letting Arry go about his End Of Days sketch in the sure and certain knowledge that come full time versus Fulham he’d be taken by a tinted window bullnose Morris to the ancient and royal tailor to be measured up for his England whistle.
But that cosy little outcome won’t seems unlikely to be occurring.
There is of course the possibility that Uncle Woy may yet spur the FA’s advances. He is after all still giddy from defeating the his Anfield demons. The Scousers treated him pretty shoddily and at West Brom it was an opportunity for him to regain his credibility. The indicators are that with a top ten finish very much still on the cards he’s done just that.
So what was the rationale in offering Woy the gig? Well, the most obvious answer is that the compo to the Baggies would be buttons compared to that which Levy & Co. might demand.
But equally, if not more significantly is that the FA didn’t buy into Arry’s griping about ‘bad luck’ and the ‘unreasonable expectations ‘ of fans or his media mogul garbage any more than we did. A child could see that his results went down the toilet from the day Fabio resigned. Coincidence? Who cares. A 13 point lead flushed *clicks fingers* like that. He’s the manager.
Arry has laughed off his inability to rotate. In the words of Mandy Rice Davies, ‘Well he would say that, wouldn’t he?’
This is hurtfully stupid for a number of reasons. His idea of rotation is to split the squad into two. His first choices in one camp and the ones he doesn’t get on with plus the kids in the other.
He alluded to Mooro and MacKay and Chivers all running themselves ragged on pitches that would be more at home on a Somme battlefield. A cheap and irrelevant remark for Redknapp to make. Greavsie’s not long had both knees replaced. It’s a different game now and thankfully so in that respect.
The view that that the players are some shiftless bunch of perfumed ponces is laughable. Who cares? Get on with it. You’re the manager Arry, so manage. You don’t have a dog and bark yourself, do you? If you can’t manage them, then transfer list the repeat offenders and have done with it.
We were being lauded by all and sundry as to how easy on the eye we were until Fabio walked. Then we are supposed to believe that on the very date some mysterious and mischievous force flicked the, ‘UNLUCKY’ switch on us. Yeah, that’ll be it.
The real question is …what now then? Arry has three games to show his mind is back on the task in hand. We need convincing. Most of us are far from convinced. We need less cobblers about who might leave, less damage limitation guff and more managing. More training, more coaching, more doing what we, the people who pay his extravagantly high wages expect him to do to the very best of his abilities.
But I don’t believe he’s able for making the changes. Forget his coasting on the his earlier good works waiting for the clock to run down before managing the national team. Forget all that. He’s a bloody minded old goat accomplished at deflecting blame but not one for instigating fresh ideas.
“Does the boy speak the Queens? Oh ffs, Bondy, get him to ran abaht a bit and get Crouchy’s agent on the blower.”
Champions League football isn’t just good for the soul. It’s the revenue stream that dramatically altered the landscape of accounts last year. The NPD project will be severely damaged without it. Players who believe they are better than us as we are now will be sorely tempted to fly the coup.
Levy & Co. will have been scrambling over that past few weeks looking for a suitable replacement and let’s hope they’ve found what we need. The trust towards Arry is gone and it’s time to flick the switch.
Chazer ..that is a good point..I just find it very distressing.
I’m still getting over the previous blog where I was introduced to the type of fan who thinks that we are doing great and that we are punching above our weight.
We were doing great. We have a wonderful squad and players other clubs covet. We were third and pushing for the top. We were not overachieving.
We’d been thrashed by both sets of Mancs and then we got some players focussed and back from injury. And we signed Parker and Ade.
Following the Norwich away game, when Bale scored by driving through the middle we more or less tried to play a different way, rather than maintain the successful tactics we’d employed previously.
It was here that the gentle rotation process should have begun…during a busy but successful Christmas period.
I wonder what those fans were thinking when we were third?
“This won’t last” or “let’s just get a ECL place”?
It strikes me as incongruous that fans condemn ‘Arry’s critics by saying that they have witnessed the best football and performances since the mid-80s and that ‘Arry has brought us up from the dregs to being a rather good team.
‘Arry had an opportunity this season to create something ALL ‘Spurs fans would have been proud to be a part.
We could have bought big in January. We were apparently going for Tevez (we couldn’t afford the wages) so we obviously had SOME money in the kitty.
Anyway. We “bought” Nelsen and Saha.
Then came February. And Newcastle apart, the wheels came off and we had nothing to add to the formula that had made us so good in the first half of the season.
So tell me, you “‘Arry is the best thing since sliced bread” types what should we have done to put things right again.
All I hear from you is “leave ‘Arry alone”. I don’t hear any constructive comments coming from your section. If you don’t blame ‘Arry, then who do you blame?
Failure to learn from last season is bad enough, but the real tragedy of all of this is that unambitious fans have missed the potential of our squad and have been happy to finish in the top six and rejoice in the Europa League.
Our squad is good enough to be top three. Next season we will lose some brilliant players because we were like rabbits in the headlights while Arse, Chelscum and Newcastle made the necessary changes to overtake us.
We are better than most fans think we are. I just wish the manager had realised the potential.
And the FA? They have behaved disgacefully toward us.
Balanced stuff as ever Bruxie.
Indeed, and does football really work like those types think it does?
If Man City don’t win the title, will their fans go ‘Ah well, we haven’t won zip in years, we were punching above our weight anyway’? Or are they going to be royally pissed?
We’ve mostly got the resources to justify our expectations of being a top 4 club. We might not have the stadium, but we’ve spent a whole truckload more than Arsenal for example, for a long time now. Bar our decades of failures – and that’s what they were, failures – where we’ve underachieved given some of the quality players we’ve had, we were beginning to be where we belonged, in the mix.
What really gets my goat is the fact that we’ll lose players if we don’t finish in tha ECL qualifying positions.
I cannot blame them for going, having witnessed the lack of ambition that the club have shown since Christmas.
If we don’t qualify for one reason or another – and I’m still optomistic – then we must cash in and spend properly.
Cahill, Samba, Jelavic and Cisse all came to english clubs in January.
Harry wanted Tevez and we got Saha.
Peinaar soon to be banned for drugs he’s putting in such great performances at Everton.
I think the big thing about this season is that Arsenal and Chelsea have been really poor – Man U are very much in a transitional season. Yet despite this we’ve managed to go from title contenders to nothing in three months. This was our best chance – and we blew it.
On top of that Harry planned everything so we wouldn’t blow it – we played b teams in the Europa and carling cup and may as well have not entered. We didn’t play a decent team until Chelsea in the FA cup.
For all those who think Harry’s the bee’s knees consider this – if our last ten games had been our first ten we’d be sitting firmly in the bottom three. Though the Europa and Carling cup might be proving a nice distraction!
I don’t recall anyone saying that ‘Arry was the bee’s knees to be honest, we all know his short comings. It’s just not everyone on here is as depressed as certain other posters with the thought of him staying on another season.
Well whatever happens, HR cannot use the “distraction” excuse anymore!
My bugbear is that not only did we have a decent squad for once, we were actually making huge progress, with every chance of automatic qualification for the CL, finishing above Arsenal for once, and a slight chance of winning the league. HR must be given some credit for this at the end of the day-We were playing fantastic football, with many neutrals waxing lyrical about the style of play…
What has happened since?
It has to be down to HR’s mis-management over the last period, while his head was turned.
Even while he was in front of the beak, the team performed well. But ever since the FA interest, HR was fluting around,trying new systems- in my view, to show just how tactically astute he was(not!).
If it ain’t broke don’t fix it…Now-suddenly its back to basics, everyone where they should be- result- a convincing win… just a month or so late HR!- result? HR’s ego and meddling has meant any ground gained has been pulled from under our feet.
It looks as if we are stuck with him for another season- but hopefully he will have gained some valuable experience- in that always play to your strengths, and keep your gob shut.
However whether Levy will forgive him for this massive lapse of concentration remains to be seen…
Bruxie makes some valid points there – which support the fact that (and most on this site recognise this) is that Arry has no vision and for all the ‘wheelin and dealin’ has a poor eye for the gaps that needed plugging. He doesn’t know how to manage at the top table – ‘cos we are the first attempt he’s had to do it. Our squad got weaker in January and for all his “we tried for Tevez/Cahill” nonsense ( were we ever gonna match Tevez’s wages? What is the point of asking Levy to get players we can’t afford. His job is to identfy better players we can afford!) Arry didn’t see what would make the squad better. And he clearly didn’t have the management tenacity or guile (a la Ferguson) to say to Pav, Corluka, Peanut etc ” don’t care we need you as squad members”.
The sad thing as Bruxie suggests is that we missed a golden oportunity to build on the first half of the season – I could blame Levy if Arry had asked him to try for affordable (even if a bit of a stretch) players and Levy had said ‘can’t afford’ – but there is a huge gap between Tevez/Cahill and Saha/Nelson. Wasn’t there anybody in between? Getting the latter smacks of a ‘it beats thinking’ answer.They are cetainly a step down from what we got rid of.
I just hope that Levy has had enough of Arry’s “not me guv” posturing and he’s got someone else lined up for next season…even if we do make CL Arry has had his day… he’s the last of the old fashioned ‘it’s a simple game’ managers ( which has its merits occasionally) but he has shown quite explicitly that he does have the thought proceesses to manage tactical change effectively, the press coherently, the players intelligently, his chairman tactfully, and the fans in anyway at all!.
One thing I would say about the FA and press re ‘Arry for England’. No one on this site should expect either of them to have behaved any differently than they have – the press with its ‘let’s sell papers ‘ populism ( what ‘fans’ have actually said that Arry is the ‘fans choice’ – it’s all been the usual media sensationalism and ‘has been’ players getting their names in the paper one last time that have been rallying behind ‘Arry for England’). As for the FA blazers – they actually haven’t said a word I don’t think – the decision makers have, unlike our glorious leader and all of his advocates, kept their gobs shut and their views behind closed doors. Which is what you’d expect them to do – and what Arry should have been doing for the past two months.
The only positive I can draw from the whole sorry saga is – that Arrys has been exposed as the chancer a lot of us thought he was when he was first appointed. Chancers take gambles which are fine when they come off – when they don’t you need someone with a bit more intellectual capacity. And it ain’t there.