Harry Redknapp’s quotes about the merit of Europa League qualification are fairly old news, but they’re worth opening for discussion. When the manager arrived at the club in 2008, Spurs were bottom of the table and Harry pointed to European football as a distraction. It was also the time when he coined the phrase that it was ‘harder to get out of the competition than it was to get in it.’
Nearly three years later, London’s Metro newspaper reproduces some very similar comments: “Teams get in and then want to get out of it.
“It’s amazing, half the teams put reserve teams out in the early stages as it’s difficult playing every Thursday and Sunday. It disrupts you.
“Last year we didn’t have European football and we ended up finishing fourth, and that was a big advantage to us.”
Whereas he may have a point, it doesn’t seem to have done Manchester City any harm this year and there’s the other question of trying to attract new players when you have no European football to offer them.
While Spurs continue to get results befitting of a team that doesn’t want European qualification, is there any value in Harry’s comments?
Spurs need the Europa league as practice so they get used to playing in both Europe and the premier league in the same season otherwise they will just go round in a vicious circle.
I TOTALLY AGRRE WITH YOU MATE 🙂
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Of course I understand that with less games, it SHOULD give us a better chance to perform in the PL.
But i will always argue that Europa is better than no Euro football at all.
With the current state of affairs, where chances of CL qualifications is zero, Europa league seems to be the only option. I cannot see any logic in Harry not happy about qualifying.
Europa league could be a good chance to play the younger players in our big squad, unless they get farmed out again. Bostock, Rose, etc… could all be involved, and make up the majority (numbers depending) on a “european” squad, and then leave the main first team to play in the league? It would give the usual 1st team a rest, plus involve the youngsters in the first team, get them part of the overall plan, and then hopefully squad rotation in general would be much easier throughout the season.
Playing thursday nights and Sundays. No thanks. It’s a two bob competition against obscure opposition and doesn’t make the club a penny relative to the CL.
Yes and try to win it.
It would be great achievemnet. Who the F**k are we to say we’re to special for it
Agree, blood young and reserves for experience and also try and win it! Trophies are nice aren’t they!?
that is a classic rednapp statement. When the likes of Valencia – MIlan amongst others are still in it.
Rednapp is a 2 bob, one trick pony….the bame of the game is to: Improve -learn and win, in any walk of life. Uless of course you write pointless articles in a pointless shi* rag and then make it on the BBc on time incase your profile is lost in the forest of failure that has made up a fairy tale carereer. get us someone who either: wants to win by using’match winning players’, wants to connect with a fan base that ‘pays his wages’ or even knows that the best right winger in the country over the last 4 years, needs to play (on the right wing). For me he’s done his bit, I cannot see the next level with this guy, his ego obstructs my view!
*aim*
Or does his dilluded sense of grandure lead him to believing that we will win the Cleague, which means that the biggest trophee in our recent history, ((35 years)is no longer a challenge….and if he’s such a genius, how the F*** does : Gio dos / kranjcar / Bostock / Rose / Pav /Tarrabt not benefit from his greatness. he bought JDefoe through when he was at Bournmouth and tried to sale Bale cos ‘ he wasnt good enough ‘. I will always have a entrenched love/hate relationship with my beloved spurs, but this guy is eyeing up the other fellas and has a history of sleeping with the enemy. Do not trust him with what awaits us….
Regardless what Harry says we need European football. Granted the Europa League will not quite attract the quality players the Champions League will but it can be the difference to one of our targets signing for us or not. We stand a better chance than most to win it, especially if we reproduce CL form! Any European trophy would be nice to win and like previously mentioned it is good practice to travel and play in another country then play in the Prem afterwards. Why do we seem to have a snotty attitude towards a competition that was the bare minimum a couple of seassons ago because we qualified for the CL once! Also good to blood some youngsters is it not?
Your statement about City is not accurate because of two reasons Spurs and Liverpool where both also in Europe and if we had not bean in the Champions league then we could have bean home and dry before City got got knocked out . When City and Liverpool where knocked out there Tempo increased twofold and this is where we suffered Plus Harry’s policy of loaning half the squad has backfired through our injury’s Woodgate King Huddlestone Bale Lennon Defow Dawson Modric Kaboul Hutton Palacios have all bean missing. Also Van has upset the balance of the team who got us into 5th. Spurs biggest loss to me has bean Huddlestone we lacked any one who could pass any distance and playing teams who upped there tempo meant we was struggling to get the ball in to the attacking half. My hopes for the new season are the new rules stop some teams buying all the top players and we can build a team to challenge for years to come or the same teams will keep winning and the others will use other methods to gain precious points like this year raising your game has gone to anew shock season of high Tempo with dirty tackles the norm all the teams who won had less of the ball but won with energised defending plus attacking and all the winners had committed more fowls
A yes to Europa from me.
Ok – Sunday fixtures are a bit annoying, but I really don’t see that it is much different from the teams point of view to the CL spacing.
The competition may not be as lucrative for the club as CL, however I am sure that it generates extra sponsorship and limited broadcasting revenue. It also generates gate receipts, and with some season ticket holders skipping cup games, gives opportuities for other fans to attend WHL, the occasional fan being more likely to spend in the shop etc.
It provides experience for the players of different styles and arenas and some european exposure will be more of a draw to players than none. I may be wrong, but I also think appearing in Europe (and winning games) improves our UEFA “co-efficient” so if we do get CL again, it gives us a chance at a better group draw.
I think Harry did a great job at picking the team up, and we had a great run for a while, I am becoming increasingly concerned about the direction that Harry’s management is taking the team now however.
Champions League is not out of reach just yet. It all depends on Tuesday’s remainder of the season when Spurs travel to Manchester City and they could close the gap to three points on City with two games remaining if they manage to win this crucial game.