Not So Wild About Harry

Robbie Keane may well believe that Spurs have a better squad than Arsenal and whilst he might also be playing some poor mans mind games with the Gunners, the fact of the matter is that Spurs will do well to get a point at the Emirates tomorrow.  They have not won there since 1993 and only the really partisan Spurs fans will expect anything other than their second road defeat of the season.

Yes, Keano might have a point about their squad.

Yes, Spurs have had a fairly decent start to the campaign.

But a Top 4 side they are not and the way that Man Utd. and then Chelsea brushed them aside with ease earlier on this term really confirms that Spurs are Top 6 at best.  Not that there’s anything wrong with that but to be a Top 4 side you really need a Top 4 manager and Spurs just don’t have one.  Yes, yes, yes, Harry’s a lovely bloke, a mans man, a warm, cuddly darling of the press and all that but he knows as much as anyone that he is incapable of motivating a team to beat a Top 4 side.

What about Liverpool on the opening day of the season you cry?  Seriously does anyone consider Liverpool a Top 4 side anymore?  Seriously?  Their day is done.  It was fun whilst it lasted and all that and sure they turned United over last week but no-one least of all their manager knows their best XI and they are so reliant on you know who and the other one that they will be fighting it out for a UEFA Cup spot at most this term.  Just like Spurs really.

And whilst Spurs, unlike Liverpool, have a cracking set of strikers for Harry to rotate, we all know that his preferred combination is Crouch and Defoe leaving him the unenviable task of trying to find a spot for his captain!  Great management, Harry!

Now let me just clarify my stance over Harry.  I’m a Southampton fan and what Harry did to us still leaves me with a sour taste in the mouth.  So am I biased against him?  Heck, yeah!  But folks when you are the manager of a club that gets relegated you have to shoulder some of the blame for that!  Right?  I mean if you pick the players, motivate the players, pick the tactics, make the substitutions during a game for SIX MONTHS then you have to admit you are in some way responsible for the plight of that team, right?

Not Harry whose words at the time were along the lines of -

‘Relegation?  Nothing to do with me.  They were down before I took over’.

No we weren’t Harry.  We may have been struggling but you came in to do a job and you failed.  And if you had the decency to hold your hands up and take some of the blame (you don’t have to take all of it…Lowe, Wigley they can take some too) but at least admit your mistakes then I would think better of you.  But as we all know when it goes wrong it’s not Harry’s fault and when it goes right it’s all down to his brilliance.  He is his biggest fan and maybe having such a large ego isn’t such a bad thing, his inability to see where he has faults is.

Tottenham will lose tomorrow because he will fail to get his players to believe they can win.  He knows Spurs aren’t Top 4 and that will come across.  Sure, they’ll start brightly.  Spurs always do.  But when Arsenal’s passing game clicks in he will be powerless to stop it.  He does not have the ability to change tactics during a game to counter what the opposition are doing.  He does not have the ability to tell Keano that you don’t have to shoot everytime you get the ball.  Of course Keano thinks he’s Mr. Tottenham and that he needs to prove that every week but lest we forget he failed at Liverpool and he will ultimately be a bit part player at Spurs this season in their quest to break the top 6.  And Good Luck with that, Spurs!