Redknapp: Players dodged international duty

[double0]

I think the club should take action against Harry Redknapp for defamation of character unless he comes out to name the players.

 

[vigospur]

I think the club should take action against Harry Redknapp for defamation of character unless he comes out to name the players.

I think they should just ignore him. He is "Harry the gob" and always will be. Probably got the hump because he is not on the telly. Pity, because all this rent-a-quote rubbish detracts from his talent as a manager.

 

[whitesocks]

Gerrard is a serial loser, and is just trying to deflect the attention away from his pathetic performances. Just retire.

Hodgson is taking a cheap shot here and it is disgraceful that he did not point out King and Dawson both had career limiting injuries playing for that shower. Also that Parker more or less ended his career at the top by putting back surgery until after the euros for Hodgson himself.
Huddlestone turned out again and again for the U21, yet got few full caps for his trouble. Defoe was dropped from the England squad in favour of some twerp who had not played a prem game.
Capello did not rate Lennon, so he was never picked.
Crouch was one of England's more prolific scorers, yet fell out of favour.

Hodgson has missed the target.

What is pretty poor, is that tottenham could not provide 1 player for this competition. And he would be fully within his rights to question that.

 

[tottenham28]

Funny thing is as soon as I saw this article I knew we would see a certain person write 'he got us 4th twice'. So fkn predictable.

Ha ha, you're not the only one. When Harry's man juice is being spouted about, I often pop in here simply to see one man bathing in it.

 

[Annabel]

Just read Gerarrds comments. He needs to wind his neck in. Damn fool.

 

[Gaz_Gammon]

What turned me off to Harry was publicly demanding a new contract the day of Levy's mothers funeral and after his flirtation with the FA for the England job cost us 3rd and CL.

Yup, as well as the PL title, CL and Super Dupa Cup. Stop hating what you don't understand.

 

[jolsnogross]

Another opportunity for Harry derangement on here again I see. He says something blindingly obvious and the haters use it to launch their spite.

There is no shortage of England pull outs who turned up the following weekend to play for their club. And if ever there was a club who'd have soft players living in the comfort of their high earnings but mediocre achievement and wanting to stay away from the England camp it's Spurs. Bentley couldn't even be arsed playing for Spurs, for Christ sake, let alone England.

And Hodgson goes on to say (a) the players seem a lot more enthusiastic about playing for England now than 3 years ago (confirming Harry's statement) and that he could make an intelligent guess about who dodged England squads (confirming Harry's statement).

And the only reason to criticize Harry here is his 'innocent Englander' tone when he surely took full advantage of it and didn't want his players leaving anyway.

Those who have utter faith in the integrity of England players might want to wake up and smell the coffee. All the more amusing for us foreigners who get to enjoy the highly entertaining epic failure every four years, even though we knew it was coming anyway.

 

[Buggsy61]

You would have thought that at his age he might have learnt to know when to keep his trap shut. I am sure there are players at every club who have dodged an England game (especially friendlies) and not just Spurs, but why provoke a media witch hunt at a time when once again we have been bombed out of a tournament and the media are in recrimination mode. Its a breach of trust with the players concerned - what went on behind the managers door should stay there as there might have been all sorts of reasons for them wanting to pull out.

 

[Gaz_Gammon]

Context is all GG.
I'm talking about Harry as a media whore
not as our undoubtedly successful manager.
It would be just a minor irritation
if it didn't happen so frequently.
I applaud the man's work at Spurs
but find him embarrassing.

Why should anyone be embarrised by the fact the he's speaking the truth? Guess if it came from another source people would accuse him of a cover up. Interesting to see that Taylor has come out and stated the same in todays papers.

 

[Gaz_Gammon]

......so why did he bring it up then?

Because he was asked about the plight of the English game.

 

[jolsnogross]

You would have thought that at his age he might have learnt to know when to keep his trap shut. I am sure there are players at every club who have dodged an England game (especially friendlies) and not just Spurs, but why provoke a media witch hunt at a time when once again we have been bombed out of a tournament and the media are in recrimination mode. Its a breach of trust with the players concerned - what went on behind the managers door should stay there as there might have been all sorts of reasons for them wanting to pull out.

Unlike a majority on here, lots of people don't want to bury their heads in the sand and would like to hear a debate as to why England are so crap, despite the outrageously well-funded effort that goes into getting top of the league Premier players to the tournaments every 2 or 4 years. When you compare the level of detail and expense that the FA put in to the national side having every possible advantage over much poorer associations, with players of much less quality than England's, then you have to wonder.

As a direct comparison, surely ye should be doing as well or better than Costa Rica. It's too easy to say the players are over-hyped and not that good. But they are better than a lot of sides who turned up to the World cup, and yet again they stunk the place out (not as badly as in South Africa, but still). It's not that they should be winning it, but Italy and Uruguay wont be winning it either. And certainly not Costa Rica.

All Redknapp is doing is offering one explanation - which is the players don't have the same desire as England teams of the past or other weaker teams of the present.

 

[chico]

Destructive , 'Arry. Can U Not Talk.

 

[yankspurs]

Yup, as well as the PL title, CL and Super Dupa Cup. Stop hating what you don't understand.

I understand perfextly well. Harry is a selfish twat who cares about no one but himself. Proven it time and again. Fuck Harry. And fuck his son too.

 

[Buggsy61]

Unlike a majority on here, lots of people don't want to bury their heads in the sand and would like to hear a debate as to why England are so crap, despite the outrageously well-funded effort that goes into getting top of the league Premier players to the tournaments every 2 or 4 years. When you compare the level of detail and expense that the FA put in to the national side having every possible advantage over much poorer associations, with players of much less quality than England's, then you have to wonder.

As a direct comparison, surely ye should be doing as well or better than Costa Rica. It's too easy to say the players are over-hyped and not that good. But they are better than a lot of sides who turned up to the World cup, and yet again they stunk the place out (not as badly as in South Africa, but still). It's not that they should be winning it, but Italy and Uruguay wont be winning it either. And certainly not Costa Rica.

All Redknapp is doing is offering one explanation - which is the players don't have the same desire as England teams of the past or other weaker teams of the present.

Fair point but just think Redknapp should not be digging up the past re dealings with him and his players. Generally I get fed up of his gob going into overdrive every time a microphone is put it front of it. Tend to think the demise of English football has deep rooted reasons other than just players pulling out of a few friendlies. Technically we are not at the level of other nations and there must be a reason why. I think there is a lot on the theory that kids are rushed onto full sized pitches before they can trap and pass properly and hence we evolve into kick and rush without developing properly, but what do I know!!

 

[zepstar]

Fair point but just think Redknapp should not be digging up the past re dealings with him and his players. Generally I get fed up of his gob going into overdrive every time a microphone is put it front of it. Tend to think the demise of English football has deep rooted reasons other than just players pulling out of a few friendlies. Technically we are not at the level of other nations and there must be a reason why. I think there is a lot on the theory that kids are rushed onto full sized pitches before they can trap and pass properly and hence we evolve into kick and rush without developing properly, but what do I know!!

I completely agree with you. On the continent, Spain especially, the children play on smaller pitches, so they have to rely on technique to get themselves out of situations. I also believe they are encouraged to 'want the ball'. Growing up, I was put on an 11 a side pitch at 12 and told to run and launch it.

 

[jolsnogross]

Fair point but just think Redknapp should not be digging up the past re dealings with him and his players. Generally I get fed up of his gob going into overdrive every time a microphone is put it front of it. Tend to think the demise of English football has deep rooted reasons other than just players pulling out of a few friendlies. Technically we are not at the level of other nations and there must be a reason why. I think there is a lot on the theory that kids are rushed onto full sized pitches before they can trap and pass properly and hence we evolve into kick and rush without developing properly, but what do I know!!

Fair enough, the man annoys you. But if we move past the bile (not from you), then there's a decent debate to be had.

Harry points out one reason for concern - there are too many players richly rewarded for very little achievement. It provides an enormous case of billy-big-balls in England, players who are ambivalent about the national side or actual achievement, and the rest of the world laughs while 'Team England' flounders depite unbelievable organizational resources. That's an interesting conundrum because you can point to other countries (Eastern Europe, African and South American sides) who maybe have a bond through childhood adversity or something (Sanchez said as much before the Chile friendly). But Irish lads absolutely love putting on the national shirt and having a go, even though the squad is much weaker. If Ireland played England 10 times, I'd say ye wouldn't win the majority. And the Germans and Americans have little problems with desire or a heavy cloud over their tournament sides.

You also mention player development. My understanding is that the situation you describe is gone, and the newest players on the scene haven't been brought up that way. Nor have some of the current crop been brought up that way - surely Rooney, Gerrard etc learned by playing on the streets as much as any kid in Sao Paolo? There seems very little wrong with Lallana's technique. Or Barkley's?

But they weren't picked, which bring me to a final point: England are afflicted with managers who can't seem to make a decision. Previously and for many years, it was a question of how to get Gerrard, Lampard, and Scholes into the same side, with the laughable outcome of putting Scholes on the left. That's just shooting yourself in the foot. At this tournament, it's been Rooney and Sturridge - there's a refusal to play two up front, so some shoe-horning had to happen because it appeared neither could be dropped for the system. For shame.

 

[DJS]

Harry should have kept his damn mouth and now is saying it isnt fair to name them??

Maybe he should have thought about that before opening his fat mouth, did he not think people would want to know who the players were??

Fucked me redknapps is annoying.

And so's Jamie too with his uneducated crap opinions about spurs...

 

[JoeT]

You say it's stupid and bullshit but don't give any indication why.
In the context of Harry's quotes and interviews
I usually found Harry glib,and superficial.
Anything for a laugh and to suck up to to his fellow journalists
no matter how contradictory his remarks were.
Another example of Harry being controversial and headline grabbing
for the sake of it and I simply don't believe it.

Our team played some of their best football ever under Redknapp Jimmy; when you said "Harry was an embarrassment when he was with us" just maybe you forgot that.
I suspect that was what drew out Gaz's response.
How soon we all forget......

 

[elDiablo]

Quite frankly im appalled. Why hasn't anyone blamed Jenas?

 

[JimmyG2]

Our team played some of their best football ever under Redknapp Jimmy; when you said "Harry was an embarrassment when he was with us" just maybe you forgot that.
I suspect that was what drew out Gaz's response.
How soon we all forget......

Harry was a media gobshite, and still is
while managing us to some good football and success.
Geddit?
He's not one or the other, he's both.
It's not either or, it's and.
We were talking about his media utterances, the latest of which
is his claim that some Spur's players asked him to invent excuses for them to avoid being involved with England.
That was the context in which I said Harry was an embarrassment.
He was and still is.
He won't name them because it would be unfair to the players.
Actually it's the opposite. It's unfair not to name them.
I suspect this is a gross exaggeration from maybe one unfit player.
It's all part of Harry's 'it should have been me' agenda.
It's tiresome and yes embarrassing.
But he was a good manager for Spurs.