Sunday 21 November 2010

And to think, we sacked 'Arry!

Arguments rage on here about the relative merits of Zola, Curbishley, Pardew and Grant but one thing is certain, Redknapp is better than the whole lot of them. Love him or hate him, and I can’t see that there’s a lot to hate, you have to admit that the guy knows how to motivate his players and organise a team to get the best out of them.

We sacked Redknapp back in 2001 after we finished 6th from bottom in the Prem. But that season, we enjoyed a good run in the Cup and after 22 games were sitting in 6th place in the table. It was only when the season was “dead”, that results fell away, with the team losing 6 of the last 9 games. But those games were largely irrelevant because, after the bitter disappointment of our exit to Spurs in the Cup, there really was nothing to play for. 6th from bottom sounds poor, but we were 8 points clear of relegation and level on points with the club in 13th.

Most importantly, Redknapp had lost the services of Rio and was blooding new youngsters: Joe Cole made 26 starts, Defoe came on as a sub, Frank Lampard played over 30 times at the still tender age of 21, and Carrick made 32 starts. The golden generation were coming through and even Roeder managed 7th place the following season with the nucleus of players that ‘Arry left behind.

Does anybody believe that we would be in this mess now had ‘Arry stayed? We still don’t know the full story behind his dismissal of course, and I’m not going to risk a legal action by reiterating what I have been told, but in pure footballing terms, his dismissal has proved to be shear madness.

Just watching the two televised games on Saturday was enough to show why ‘Arry should still be in charge at Upton Park. Two nil down at half time at the Emirates, Tottenham should have been dead and buried. But ‘Arry got amongst them, changed the tactics and Tottenham took Arsenal apart second half. But at Anfield, Grant watched as Liverpool tore us to shreds and left his tactical changes until the game was utterly beyond us. Waddle could see after 5 minutes that we had to revert to 4-4-2; Grant did nothing until we were three goals behind.

Traditionally, West Ham have stood by their managers through thick and thin. Lyall took us down but still was not sacked. Had we stood by ‘Arry who knows what might have happened? It could even have been West Ham playing in the Champions League this season, just as Eggert promised!

19 comments:

Anonymous said...

Relegated May 89 and Lyall was sacked in June. What do you know about West Ham anyway?

Anonymous said...

HF I love your blog - you talk a lot of sense and like me you know a lot about football - I think we should get brown to get him back!

Anonymous said...

Love this blog

Deane said...

2 things Lyall did get sacked after taking us down and in footballing terms the worst thing that ever happened to West Ham was Terence Brown
terry Brown killed West Ham and he sold the corpse for a personal fortune whilst totally ruining our reputation with the Tevez saga (and all to con the Icelandics into paying over the odds) His list of crimes against WHU is almost endless and now he's back helping Gollivan to pick the carcass clean

Hammersfan said...

Took us down in 77-78 Deane and was NOT sacked.

What do YOU know 2307? I quote from my article, "Lyall took us down but still was not sacked". Now please explain what was wrong about that statement. I did not say, "Lyall took us down twice and on neither occasion was sacked" did I? Learn your West Ham history before you try to take me on. Or learn to read!

Anonymous said...

This is the best tottenham blog on the net fact,If more of you trailer trash would listen to hf you know more about football,one last thing can any of you bottom feeders tell me were I can find any ars anal fans I can't find the cnuts anywere,if ever there is a team that is a reflection on there fans it is that one,heartless,soulless,ballbags.Kevtheyid

Anonymous said...

HF i agree you know shite all about west ham. ive forgot more then you know.

Deane said...

Lyall should never have been sacked and should have coached Bonds into the role like he was by Greenwood
Terry Brown is still the destroyer even if it was his inlaws that were the ruiners

Hammersfan said...

Erm 1153, you wrote:

"HF i agree you know shite all about west ham. ive forgot more then you know."

And you may be right! You have forgotten, it seems, that West Ham is the name of the club and, as such, requires capital letters. You also seem to have forgotten everything you were taught at school. But then who needs Educashion to unblock other people's shit?

This is what you should have written:

"HF, I agree that you know shite all about West Ham. I have forgotten more then you have ever known."

Had you written that, you might have had a modicum of credibility. Instead, you sound like an idiot. Too much inbreeding perhaps?

Anonymous said...

1153 I understood every word - it's a blog for Christ sakes and not an entry form to Mensa. That pedantic twat would do well to remember that sometimes.

Wise Monkey said...

HF - Correcting grammar hardly showers you in credibility either.

It's incredibly childish and a transparent defence mechanism that you use regulary when you've lost an argument or been made to look stupid.

Big Mike said...

Nice come back :)

Anonymous said...

HF, why do you even bother to rise to these idiots, you belittle yourself in the process. Just stick to what you do best; opinioned comment on West Ham.

Hammersfan said...

Because I enjoy it perhaps?

Anonymous said...

Harry's time was up at West Ham because he had the board in the palm of his hand in regards to an almost 'buy me this player or I'll go' attitude.... and the board did as they were told. The result left us in debt. The same happened at Pompey. It would also have happened at Southampton but their chairman would have none of it so Harry went back to Pompey.

He has got lucky at Spurs as he inherited a decent team who were doing badly because they appointed the wrong manager(s). He made crap footballing decisions at West Ham and he is still doing it now. The crap will hit the Totts fan soon enough and their chavvy Chas 'n Dave will deserve it - the filthly barstewards.

Hammersfan said...

And how, exactly, are we in a better financial state without 'Arry?

Revolver said...

I generally agree with most things you say but I can't let this go as it's factually incorrect and you're just using limited stats to back up your argument.

Our bad run of results in 2000-1 started long before we lost to Spurs in the FA Cup. Just how many games are classed as “dead” end of season games? Here are our league results from the 1st Jan 2001 to the end of the season:

L L D D L D W W L L L L D W L L L W L

That’s 4 wins in 19 games and 16 points out of a possible 57. Another 20 points – 7 wins - and we’d have qualified for Europe.

So the last 6 “dead” games weren’t dead at all. They were vital games we should have tried to win.

Also, we finished level on points (42) with the team in 14th (Middlesbro) and not 13th as you stated. The team in 13th was Leicester who had 48 points.

You'd be the first to moan if we didn’t try to win in so called “dead” games. You play to win in all matches no matter what, plus the fact that finishing higher up the table means more money so the club benefits.

If Redknapp couldn’t motivate his players to win end of season games then he isn’t the brilliant manager you think he is!

Hammersfan said...

You're spot on Revolver, but how much of that was down to the loss of Rio? He departed in mid November and the shock waves rocked the club. I was shocked when Redknapp departed and I am firm in the belief that the reasons for his dismissal were not strictly football related - but I'm not going to risk any action by clarifying beyond that. If Redknapp was "under a cloud" because of other matters, it may go some way to explaining the collapse in form. In which case it highlights, in a way, the motivational powers of the man. If on form, the team do well, if off form they don't.

Question, did you want him sacked at the time? I know I didn't. In fact, I remember hearing the news on the car radio as I arrived at Tesco and couldn't believe what I had just heard. There was some other headline story on that day so it did not take centre stage in the way you would expect. I sat in the Tesco carpark thinking, "What the fcuk?"

Revolver said...

There's no doubt that the sale of Rio stitched us up badly but if you believe what Tom Bower says in his book 'Broken Dreams', then Redknapp agreed to the sale and got £300k from the fee.

Whether you believe it or not there's no doubt that most of the players Redknapp brought in after Rio left were an unmitigated disaster, eg Camara, Song, Soma, Foxe.

Also, many fans - myself included - criticised Roeder and said that we only finished 7th in his first season because it was Redknapp's team, but under Redknapp that same team finished 15th!

But I have to be honest. You ask if I wanted Redknapp sacked at the time and I have to say that I didn't.

I also have to say that given a choice between Redknapp, Grant, Zola, Curbishley or Roeder then I'd have Redknapp back at West Ham anytime.

And under Redknapp we played some of the best football I've ever seen from any team anywhere.