Our old friend 'Arry certainly divides opinion. I have no idea if there is any truth in it, but I was once told on a flight back from the States that he left West Ham under a cloud of financial irregularities. I was told, and I found it very hard to believe, that he and Lampard Senior had built a property empire funded by ancillary activities related to transfer deals. Now all sorts of nonsense is spouted by people who claim to know somebody who claims to know somebody who claims to know something. I am sure, personally, that this was a case of Chinese Whispers. The guy who told me this was a West Ham fan and we were in the Championship at the time so there was good reason to hold a grudge. I do not believe a word of it.
The departure of 'Arry from Upton Park has never been fully explained however. The club, as a rule, do not sack managers without a very good reason to do so. We had not been relegated and 'Arry was bringing through a golden crop of young talent. Yes he had bought some rubbish and yes he had spouted off about the sale of Rio, but we were in a position to kick on and progress the following season. Let's face it, even Roeder took us to seventh place! So why did 'Arry have to go? Why did a club that stands by managers even after relegation (Lyall and Roeder) and after failing to secure promotion despite being favourites to do so (Lyall and Pardew) sack a guy for finishing sixth from bottom? We had made it to the quarter final of the FA Cup after all and, before falling away once we had nothing to play for, had actually enjoyed a goodish season in the Prem. Eight defeats in our last 11 games shows how that season was undermined by that "tail off". 42 points was very disappointing but we were 8 points clear of the relegation places at the end of the day. Remember that epic 1-0 victory in the Cup at Old Trafford? Remember the 5-0 thumping of Charlton? Remember the 1-0 victory away to Leeds? When we beat Southampton 3-0 in the penultimate game of the season we had Di Canio, Kanoute, Carrick and Cole in the team - the prospects for the following season looked good. I was disappointed at the end of the season but far from downhearted. The defeat to Spurs in the Cup hurt but the draw for the semi final was made before that game kicked off and I, for one, held out no hope of making it through to the Final once the winners had been tied with Arsenal. I'm sure the draw was a kick in the testicles for ourselves and a great motivator for Tottenham. I well remember telling my Tottenham mate that the result was a foregone conclusion as soon as I heard the draw. So why did 'Arry get sacked?
The signings of Song, Camera and others certainly left a bad taste in the mouth. But 'Arry's transfer deals overall were not the disaster some would have us believe. Di Canio, Kanoute, Hartson, Kitson, Sinclair, Pearce, Lomas, Foe, Wright, Wanchope, Berkovic - they weren't all bad were they? So why did 'Arry get the sack?
And it wasn't as if there was an heir apparent waiting in the wings. I know Roeder stepped up but I don't think that was a done deal when 'Arry was shown the door was it? Didn't we try for Turds? So why was 'Arry sacked?
Now let's look at what has happened to other clubs that 'Arry has managed. Some managers are said to have the Midas touch, but in 'Arry's case, the opposite seems to apply. I would say everything turns to lead, but 'Arry might have that stripped off the roof before he departs! Bournemouth? Receivership. Southampton? Receivership. Pompey? Who is that knocking at the door? Quick, hide behind the sofa and pretend we are not here! West Ham? The banks will soon be running us apparently. All a huge coincidence of course, nothing whatsoever to do with 'Arry. Police raids at Pompey? BBC enquiries into transfer dealings at Pompey under 'Arry? Coincidence, all coincidence. Surely. 'Arry is probably more of a saint than an Arthur Daley. 'Arry is probably 100% straight, in the business as well as the heterosexual sense. 'Arry has probably never done a dodgy deal in his life. And Carlsberg is probably the best lager in the world. Isn't it?
So what can we expect at Tottenham? They may end up with a pot next season, but in the years that follow, will they even have a pot to piss in? They are fitting the revolving door to the dressing room as we speak, ready for the summer. A larger than normal order has been placed for brown Manila envelopes. 'Arry's twitch, turning a blind eye to what is otherwise staring him in the face, is revving up. What's that under the table 'Arry? That's a big bulge, I didn't know you were so happy to see me!
One thing's for sure, under 'Arry, watching Tottenham on and off the pitch certainly will not be boring. My money is on him being sacked before the January transfer window - based entirely on the results of course!
32 comments:
....you lot are obsessed. Focus on your own club for once so you stop looking so small-time. Jeez man.
Just the conversation I have been having with myself ever since he went to Spurs. Do you know during his tenure at WHU he bought and sold 147 players! In fact a previous conversation I had with myself pondered where Spurs get all the money they habitually lash in transfer windows.. yes I know Joe whatisname in Barbados is a billionaire but maybe not so flush now! A car crash waiting to happen methinks, especially if they push ahead with plans for a new stadium
Im a spurs fan and west ham fans seem more concerned with seeing spurs fail rather than their own club achieving. Its embarassing.
Anon 1231, you use the word obsessed so you obviously know Hammersfan well then?
LOL There's a lot about our club there! Your club appointed him, you've got to expect us to talk about him!
Anon1235, you are back! Do you ever leave the site? LOL. How about a name so we can identify he guy with the obsession?
Good article.
I've often assumed that 'arry must be bent using the looks/smells/taste's argument but the fact is he's never been found to be as bent as he looks.
The departure from West Ham (from my perspective) was not all that strange. WHU played good stuff, had a decent team and had underperformed. Like any club who had become used to mid table obscurity, they felt it was time to "kick on" up the table and a manager who happened to have had a poor season (though far from disasterous) was now the wrong man. It was one of a long spate of poor sackings which led to the team getting relegated soon after.
I also think Harry was probably getting a little stale and was no doubt amenable to a payoff (a legal one this time).
As for Spurs, I think we are probably too well run and profitable to find ourselves in difficulty. The real question we are all wondering about is; what does a wheeler deeler do when all of a sudden he has his hands on the league's fourth biggest transfer budget? Does he continue to buy cheap African imports at a 20% success rate or can he make a number of Palacios level signings?
Btw, Ledley is saying,
"I now pronounce you man and wife".
For a start Spurs are bigger and richer than any of the other clubs.The biggest factor in this is one person Daniel Levy.Harry just says who he wants then Levy does the deal so there won't be a problem.Levy has his eye on the ball financially hence the constant profits.Spurs have had a DOF spending money for the last god knows how long(often poorly) yet still profit.Wishful thinking from you spammers I'm afraid and again it just shows the ineptitude of some other clubs chairman.....
To Anonymous 17 April 2009 12:33
re. where we get our money.
Spurs have one of the biggest fan bases in the world... we have had two of the best, business-minded chairmen running us (Sugar then Levy) and consistently among the top earners in world football and way WAY above anyone else who doesn't have Champions League income.
I hate to say it on a West Ham site but we are.... a....
...
...
big club. XD
To know why Spurs have so much more money than West Ham, one only needs to look at the demographic of fan bases and they will soon discover that Spurs have a varied demographic consisting of a majority of middle class, well to do supporters and excellent business contacts with a world wide fan base and expansive retail outlets & great income from advertising & sponsorship revenue's, with our fans having a decent portion of disposable income to spend and a pretty big waiting list for season tickets.
Whereas West Ham fans have slowly been forced out of their traditional habitats, in what could be described as 'white flight' moving from the East End of London to new town developments around Kent & Essex and occasionally some Gypsy camp sites if they're lucky!
West Ham aren't a bad side and have produced some decent players, it's just their fans are just petty, pathetic and moronic, especially equating the financial shortcomings of these clubs that Harry has been at with Harry himself........If you want to talk about dodgy dealings then let's talk about Tevez & other fella...or how stupid your old chairman was to give Curbs all that money to spend on a load of shit players, I mean Luis Boa Morte PLEASE...You must be having a laugh you pathetic bankrupt gypo's!
All of the comments on this article seem to be from Spurs fans professing how west ham should concentrate on their own club- might want to take a good look at yourselves!! A lot of the comments are about how much money spurs have, true it is a well run club that has no debt but it doesnt fund its massive spending on players through profits and you are sadly misguided if thats what you believe! Tottenham funds large transfers (or appears to) through lease purchase deals and thus the club never actually spends out more than a proportion of the final figure, this is then negated by the sale of players- so it amounts to a transfer merry-go-round and is the reason if spurs had gone down the club would have imploded financially.
Spurs fans - Have you noticed how many West Ham fans post on this blog? About 3 - that is the main man himself, his best mate and himself posing as 'Anonymous'.
Why do you think that is?
Maybe its because this blog is such inveterate crap. He tries to be an agent provocateur and you do yourselves no favours by responding to him.
As with all nutters - leave them in the corner with their Balti pie and don't establish eye contact.
He seems to get high up on search engines, etc but my advice is ignore - walk away there is nothing to see here.
LOL 1309, very funny even though it is at our expense and is not really pc. Sorry, have to cut this short, the kettle is boiling in the caravan!
i just choked in laughter drinking my tea and biscuit....since i came here we only had two points and we,ve even beat my old club twice this year...
cant wait for me hols !!
Anon, he keeps noticing how often you post! Keep it up mate, my hit rate is going through the roof and you are part of that. Now receiving requests to run advertising on the site. You are part of that too! Brilliant stuff! And as you are out of work, if you keep looking in, I might be able to put some work your way should the advertising revenue start to build up. You know how good you are at reading the market! That's why you're now over here instead of over there! Unless you are my favourite hole digger sunning yourself in Spain? How about leaving a name?
No use on speculating on what might be. Harry might be hit by a bus tomorrow. I rather focus on the now. And in that space, ol Harry is doing a good job. West Ham made a mistake getting rid of him. I remember being happy when you did that, in the same I get happy when a team competing with Spurs hires someone like Souness.
The above comment has been removed because of foul language and racism. Get a life 1436. The F word isn't clever!
Pompey Fans are saying the same as you Hammers fans, but we also feel Harry has a habbit of jumping from ship to ship just before things go wrong, so that the media believe the clubs downfall is all due to 'Arry's Departure... Good ol' 'Arry, where as he is actually not big or good enough to face the music, as the failings that are to follow are due to 'Arry in the first place.
At Pompey he bought us an FA Cup, but the wage bill was so high, we had no chance of sustaining that and therefore had to sell more player in the long run to cover the debt built up. This happened After 'Arry left, as opposed to while he was there, But its 'Arry's doing at the end of the day.
Sorry if you are all 'Arry fans, as i appreciate what he can do, and achieve, but i think he only looks after number ! and the £7m from Spurs as a signing on fee may explain the real reason he is now a yid.
Anon 1347 you are spot on BRUV!
LOL Hello Bruv, how you diddlin? Is the Klan moving across here Lock Stock and Two Burning Claret & Blue Crosses? You do love your Fanno don't you?
To the Pompey fan, doesn't Milandric have to take some of the blame like Brown at West Ham?
The issue is not so much with Mandaric, because he saved the club from administration, turned us into a premier league team, and sold us to a wealthy investor. The problem at Pompey was trying to keep jamie's dad happy. As he was seen as some kind of hero for getting us up, the board did everything they could to keep him and keep us up. All he wanted was cash to spend to boost his reputation, irrelevant if the long term future of the club could be in jeopardy as a result of relegation. Then he buggers off when we can't spare anymore money and surprise surprise we're facing relegation. So yes it was bad management by the board, but his selfish desire to increase his own image is also a massive factor in our problems. My opinion is as soon as somebody at Spurs says 'You can't spend that', he'll be gone before he can say 'Pompey till I die'... (Again)
Hammersfan - Pompey Fan here lol....
yes you are right, Milan saved Portsmouth from obscurity, and for that he will always be a hero.
He also brought in Harry, and for what Harry did under milan we must also be thankfull, as Milan held tight rains on the money (Hence Harry walking out the first time, as he accused Milan of being a scumbag and a lier).
But yes, he made the mistake of taking Harry back as we had survived the drop the first year under Perrin. Harry came back but under a cloud, and full of apologies, and although he may have given us the best years for years, he left us in debt and with aging players. I feel sorry for Adams, as he picked up the pieces, and failed... but i really think this would have happened even if Harry had stayed, so he jumped at the right time to keep his name as a hero.
But getting back on track, a bit of me does think Milan, should have left 'ol Harry in the past, and moved forward with someone else, as we are now left with No Milan, No Harry, lots of Debt (Cheers Harry), and an owner who made hi money in property (Whoops didnt see that housing slump coming lol)
But now we are stabalising, and hopefully can move forward at a sensible pace, that the club can sustain, as opposed to a glory season followed by doom.
My only hope is we caught the rot intime so we dont follow Southampton down the drain.
All the best to the Hammer, even if we do or dont see eye to eye on Harry (Maybe we do more than i previously thought), i hope you do well, i hope we do well, and i hope Spurs.... well lets see what happens when 'Arry moves on again.
LOL I hope you know your history with regard to what happens to clever little dicks like you that attempt to take on the Klan. You are out of your depth and we are just playing with you at the moment but those hoods can be dusted down at short notice for that short ride to Guildford, keep looking out of that window Trev!
Good post, I personally don't like Harry and feel that he did far more for himself at West Ham than he did for us. I will admit that it was NEVER dull while he was the boss and the football was usually attempted in the right way. As you rightly point out he bought us great entertainers like PDC and Kanoute and turned huge profits on the likes of Bilic and Hartson. However, his wheeler-dealings went too far and he was very clever at saying "look at the profit I made on so-un-so". However, moving players, like moving house is an expensive business. Players demand signing-on fees, and pay rises when they arrive, loyalty (lol!) bonuses for leaving, agents fees for everything and a whole raft of other payments for all sorts of things. Harry did a decent job at a difficult time but I think it could have been better with a more honest, reliable manager at the helm.
Is this a Spud site? Have you bn below our small club for 95% of the last two years in the league?
The answer to the second question is yes. Harry or Zola? hmmmmmmmmm. I know who I'd have. COYI. Tottscum Muppets. I know this isn't constructive but neither is arguing with planks on t'interweb.
So anonymous, courtesy of your last submission we can narrow the field down to the German and the hole digger. There I was, digging this hole, hole in the ground, it was big and sort of lager shaped, no round! There's a hole in my pint pot, my pint pot my...no bucket! Show me the way to go to the pub...no home! Cheers mate, remember that water hydrates in that hot sunshine! The lager in Spain falls mostly...no water!
Redknapp was sacked because he badmouthed Brown to someone that was interviewing him, expecting it to stay confidential.
It didn't and the rest is history.
How Pompey fans can blame a manager for overspending is beyond me.
A manager can only spend what he's allowed to.
If you couldn't afford it then your owner/chairman should have said so.
As a saints fan there is no love lost from me for Harry. He should never have come to our club after his association with pompey, but once here he shouldn't have walked out the way he did.
BUT our current financial mess is not Harry's fault, yes he was backed, and yes he spent money trying to keep us up in the prem - which he very nearly did - but had he been backed in the ccc the way Burley was and stayed for longer I beleive we'd be back in the prem by now.
Our financial mess is down to the recent board upheaval and the ridiculous gamble to spend more money on players AFTER loosing the parachute payments. Not because Harry fleeced us.
I don't think 'Arry was responsible for any of the clubs getting into a financial mess Saints fan. He can only spend what the directors let him spend after all. The questions that are repeatedly asked is whether the clubs were paying the true value for some of the signings and if all the money paid out was actually going to the selling club / the player / the agent. I am sure it is pure coincidence that the four clubs 'Arry has managed have hit very troubled financial waters.
We're obsessed?? Say you lot reading a West Ham blog.
LOL, it is a bit rich isn't it?
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