THE WILLIE GANNON COLUMN
HARRY REDKNAPP'S INFLUENCE AND CHANGING THE CULTURE OF TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR
Willie Gannon, 22 Nov 2009
Spurs sit in fourth place after getting off to their best start to a league
campaign in some time. But Harry Redknapp has indicated to his team that he
is not prepared to sit on his laurels, by lashing out at certain squad
members for complaining to the club's Chairman about not playing enough.
Tottenham's star has risen exponentially since Redknapp joined in October
2008. Sitting bottom of the table after their worst start to a season since
1912, Spurs moved to bring in the former Portsmouth boss.
And his influence is there for all to see, as Tottenham rose from the depths of
the Premiership to actually launch a concerted attack on the European
positions of the league. Only a final game defeat to Liverpool denied Spurs
what would have been one of the great feats of the Premiership age.
Column Continues Below...
With the wind in their sails, Spurs were expected to challenge for those
elusive European positions this year. As luck would have it, they would
entertain Liverpool in the first game of the season.
Spurs ran out comfortable winners over the team that finished second last
year, and the stage was set for a good start to the season.
Eleven games later and Tottenham sit in fourth place above challengers
Manchester City, Liverpool, and Aston Villa.
Much of this progress can be attributed to Redknapp's influence on the team,
but it is worth noting that he has spent £71.5 million in only one year at
Spurs.
For the most part, the money has been spent very wisely. Spurs were lacking
firepower since the sales of Dimitar Berbatov, Robbie Keane and Jermaine
Defoe. So, when Harry went looking for new strikers, it came as little
surprise to see him re-sign both Defoe and Keane, before adding Peter Crouch
to the mix.
These signings were quite significant, but perhaps his most important
signing has been that of midfielder Wilson Palacios.
The Honduran was added to give Spurs some steel in midfield, as Redknapp
reckoned that Spurs "lacked character in a battle." He was right.
Over the years, players have come in at Tottenham with the attitude that
they have made it to the big time because Spurs are such a massive club and
have then gone on to produce little on the pitch. This attitude has been
endemic throughout the club over the years.
However, that attitude has begun to change since Redknapp came in.
Palacios bolstered midfield and, all of a sudden, certain players who had
always thought that their position was unassailable were under threat.
There has been a massive culture change at Spurs in a little more than one
year, and Harry deserves much credit for actually making these players work
for the right to represent their team on the pitch.
Over the last 30 years, Spurs have gone through too many managers who were
not equipped to tackle the culture of underachievement that had become part
of the fabric at White Hart Lane. Redknapp has now moved into the second
phase of this culture change at the club.
Whenever a culture changes in an organization, it is normally met with fear,
trepidation, and a general level of mistrust.
Changing your organizational culture is the toughest task you will ever take
on. The organizational culture has been formed over years of interaction
between the participants in the organization, and changing it can feel like
rolling rocks uphill.
Knowing that Spurs were burdened with players who were sitting on fat pay
cheques and contributing very llittle, Tottenham Hotspur changed the player's
working conditions to try and force some of them into leaving.
In the summer, Spurs pulled their team out of the Reserve Squad Premier
League.
All of a sudden, players were looking at going through a season without a
game of football.
The focus was placed on Tottenham's ever-improving academy side and many
young squad players were sent out on loan to get experience.
Others were left to fight it out for the first team.
This obviously had a huge impact on players as some were not getting games. Now Harry has
lifted the lid on how some disgruntled players have decided to complain to
the club's Chairman rather than the manager.
"What I found amazing is that agents will ring the chairman [Daniel Levy]
and complain about their player not playing, you know, 'What is your manager
doing, why is he picking this player?'" Redknapp said.
That's something that's new to me and I find it strange and very difficult
to deal with-if a player hasn't got the courage to come and see you himself
and ask why he's not playing and get his agent, who would know nothing about
football anyway, to ring.
"He [the agent] is only there because [the player] is a money-making
machine. He's got no interest in the player when he finishes his career
probably, but will ring up the chairman and ask why you're not picking this
particular player.
"I'm lucky that the chairman doesn't take any notice and he tells me about
these idiots who ring him. But I just find it amazing that they have the
nerve to do that, and I'm amazed that the player is weak enough to let his
agent ring up the chairman and ask why he's not playing.
"He should be coming to see me, knocking on my door. But that is what's
going on and I've come across it more and more in recent times."
The broadside seems aimed at players like Roman Pavlyuchenko, Jermaine
Jenas, David Bentley, Giovani Dos Santos, and Alan Hutton, who have all
found their chances limited this year. In this modern age of football where
agents are king, it comes as no surprise to see them taking this approach
regarding their players.
Looking at this from above, you could almost believe that Redknapp has chosen
to use these agent's methods as a further message to the players that he does
not want at the club.
At least two of those five are expected to move on in January after AS Roma
and Zenit St. Petersburg announced their interest in Pavlyuchenko, while
Bentley has been linked with a swap for Manchester City's Martin Petrov.
There needs to be many components in place for clubs to change. For a start,
it's participants actually have to want to change.
It then begins with the chairman, who has to understand how the current
culture works and how it can be changed. He then puts together a team to
bring in his vision of how the organisation should be structured.
Levy made one massive mistake with Juande Ramos as manager and Damien
Comolli as Technical Director, so he went back to traditional methods and
chose the most traditional of managers for the task.
Redknapp has been in management since 1984 and is one of the few managers to
have reached 1000 professional games.
His history is there for all to see, and now he is the key influence on
Tottenham's future.
So far, he has done a very good job.
But the progression off the pitch will only be recognised if he can make
progress on the pitch.
To do that, Spurs must finish in the top seven. So far they are on course,
but as any Tottenham fan will tell you, they're used to false dawns, and
hope that this is not another.
DAVSPURS, November 22, 2009 at 2:00 pm This is my assessment of Harrys second season in charge so far.On players in and players out all these marks our out of ten. 7 most of is signings are good ones but the one that loses him 3 points is Bent to rivals Sunderland and Keeping hold of Palyuchenko and not using him.Fitness is not up to standard of our opponents but this is not Harrys Fault and he loses 2 points for the Drinking culture even if he called for it to stop it was on is watch. 8.Tactics has been guilty of being over cautious with is team selection when we have injury\'s and not playing the right team this is why players have complained via there agents and is other fault is bringing the right subs on when we are chasing the game 6.Man management is very good from is fist Eleven but very bad after that and this is all to do with is job at the sun and all is arguments are played out in puplic instead of in house. The most famous are Bents miss Pavs agent and his lack of English and is latest on agents going to Levey .This could be because he has got in to trouble with agents and Transfers with the Police and its affecting is media skills and now because of our links to FOSTER now our Wizard Moderic is being liked with a Man Utd Swop with Carrick somthing i mentioned two days ago and got called stupid. 4 The sacking of most managers starts with losing the dressing room and Harry has lost nearly all the reserves.Lets hope he gets back on track because i like him a lot in spite of is links to Man Utds paper the Sun rich, November 22, 2009 at 2:03 pm good story but the end summed up one of the clubs problems.
All this promise and aiming for 7th!
Come on, if we don\'t aim for top 4 what is the point.
We have the squad and maybe a few changes in January.
We have to start believing it is possible and Arsenal and Liverpool are not unbeatable.
