Tottenham need to start preparing for life after Harry Redknapp
This is a strange time for Tottenham fans.
The team is as good as it’s been for as long as anybody can remember, Chelsea and Arsenal are currently playing second and third-fiddle to the Lilywhites, and the club’s manager is in court facing potential jail time.
Or maybe he’ll be the next England manager. A stark contrast, or maybe metaphorically one in the same.
What’s becoming clear, is that Redknapp’s tenure is under-threat. Harry himself has, as much as he can, made it perfectly clear that he’ll consider any offer that the FA make him – and he’s not really in a position to refuse whatever terms are handed down by the Crown Prosecution Service.
Regardless of where he goes, Wembley or prison, Daniel Levy needs to start planning for what happens if his manager moves on. As the Tottenham Chairman knows, the key to building a club’s stature is repeated success, and repeated qualification for the Champions League.
That continuity can’t be allowed to break if Redknapp does leave.
I’m going to throw a name out there: Jose Mourinho.
Rumour had it that Levy made a rather panicky call to the Potuguese around the time of the Martin Jol/Juande Ramos clusterfuck, and you would have to believe that he would do so again should he suddenly find himself managerless. Although this time that call might not be quite so panicky.
The Tottenham that exist today are very different to that of 2007. They’re an elite team, stuffed with world-class players. There’s no Pascal Chimbonda, Alan Hutton, Teemu Tainio, the Carling Cup is no longer an achievement, and the Champions League is not just a pipe dream.
Combine that with Mourinho’s very public desire to return to England, and his current troubles in Madrid, and Levy could put together a very attractive proposition for the former Chelsea manager at the end of the season.
If such a situation ever presented itself, Spurs should offer a Kings Ransom for Mourinho. Can you imagine the effect he would have on the club – you could kiss goodbye to the threat of Luka Modric wanting to ‘play for a bigger clubs’. Players don’t leave Mourinho, Mourinho tells them when he doesn’t need them anymore. And Mourinho wins wherever he goes.
It’s all based on several hypotheticals, of course, but it’s not as unrealistic as you think. Either way, that’s the level of ambition Tottenham would need to show to retain their momentum – no David Moyes, no other over-hyped, won-nothing British managers, shoot for the stars.
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Posted on January 24, 2012, in General, Hypothetical and tagged Crown Prosecution Service, Daniel Levy, Harry Redknapp, Jose Mourinho, Tottenham. Bookmark the permalink. 13 Comments.
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It’s a win win situation, arry goes down we get the special one, if arry gets a fine then he stays! whats the prob?
If pep of barca was to ever call it time at barca as it is rummoured he wants a new challenge..well if he was available we should try for him!
It’ll never happen. It’s no biggy either way. Spurs are up for it right now but come the end of this season Modders et al will be asking “wot big names are we getting”. the answer will be…”none”. We might visit the champs league breifly but the odds of doing a blackburn and winning the prem are way out there. Spurs should have reinforced by now but we haven’t. therein lies the problem. We are not big enough. We have a very decent 11 then it’s a bit of a worry. We could sell pav, kranky, pienut, corluka, Bassong and hopefully Dawson and make a few quid but we won’t. We hear rednapp has 60 mil to spend but I doubt that too. So spurs fans enjoy this season and the good football at these dizzy heights it wont last.
Old hat.
Mourinho doesnt suit Spurs flair and guile, if you want to see a team process a win, by all means, but Id rather finish 4th playing a beautiful game, than 1st playing Mourinho’s sleeper tactics
Maureeno, I’d wager, likes a club with bigger spending power than ours. We may be doing exceptionally well but moving on from where we are is a challenge Maureeno probably has no inclination for. It will be a lot easier for him at a billionair club; the difficult route is not for him methinks. I’d like to be wrong though.
i do agree that we would be a very attractive prospect to mourinho! he loves England and would see us as a chance to reawaken a sleeping giant! (ok maybe not sleeping anymore but definitely still snoozing) and in one foul swoop stick 2 fingers up to Mr Abramovic and his 5 managers in 5 years or whatever its been since mourinho left! and those doubters who rubbish mourinho’s brand of football, have you actually watched Real Madrid recently? they might be diving cheats, (but thats not mourinho’s fault, thats the fault of spanish football accepting that sort of behaviour as natural!) but Madrid play with style & swagger, much like we do! his only problem is Barca make them look ordinary, and lets face it they do that to just about everyone! the man breeds confidence and wins trophy’s, something we have been sorely lacking in recent years! id like to see how many spurs fans are still rubbishing the guy after he wins the league or the CL with us! with the players we have that is a distict possibility! plus signing the 25/30 goal a season striker will be piece of cake! top players want to play for mourinho! having said all that i am a firm believer that David Moyes would do a fantastic job for us. if we dont go for Moyes then im convinced Utd will when Fergie decides to call it a day!
mourinho is a fantastic manager and his record speaks for itself , but he also likes way too much control of which ever club he is at, i cant see levy giving him the sort of fiscal/transfer control and quite frankly i wouldnt want him to. we have a well run club with some world class players and one of the best chairmen in the world who i would much rather have runnin the show. as for moyes id be very happy to have him at spurs, he has had no money for years but i for one never assume that we will get three points off them in a match
Jose is not motivated by money!! I should think he has more than enough by now fo it not to be his overriding factor when choosing which club he wants to manage. For those that dont want him at WHL and the possible success he could bring because they dont like him, get real!!! A lot of the Pikey fux down the road cant stand Fat Sam, but you dont hear them complaining now the Pikeyfux are top of the Chumpionship!! If you want to see your team winning, then who the manager is shouldnt be a problem!!
Wasn’t Arry an “over-hyped, won-nothing British manager” until he came to Spurs? I’d be happy to go with Moyes.
bring in the special one to spurs levi
I was watching the Real v Barca game last week praying that we never have mourinho as manager. I dont want the footballing anti christ anywhere near my club. We play with freedom, expression, class and guts at the moment and that would all be beaten out of the players under a mourinho reigime. I would be genuinely gutted if mourinho became spurs manager, have a look at Real’s situation, top of the league and still the fans/board arent happy with him. that says something.
A few things …… there’s this old saying: a man is innocent until proven guilty. As of now we have heard the prosecution case. Next, IF Harry did the deed, he didn’t pay tax of £40K – this is small beer by comparison with the sums that lots of city bankers get away with not paying tax on (legally we are told), and my sympathy which is rarely extended to the rich would be more with harry than with bankers businessmen politicians and other crooks. Finally, Spurs have a ground holding 36K and a wage structure to match. They can’t afford the self-named special one, and would never get him. Besides, why would we destroy what we have – IF Harry loses, he can’t manage England (great) and he will probably get a fine. So what??!!