Harry Redknapp: Man on a Mission to Eradicate Sporting Directors from English Football
By: Daryl | October 27th, 2008
If there’s one thing Harry Redknapp hates, it’s a sporting director. Or a director of football. Pretty much anyone with a vague title who tells him what to do in the transfer market.
‘Arry famously quit as Portsmouth manager when Velimir Zajec was appointed director of football, and has taken the Tottenham job on the understanding that there will be no one breathing down his neck:
“I wouldn’t let anyone else buy my players,” is what he said yesterday.
So is Redknapp’s appointment at Spurs the beginning of the end for sporting directors/directors of football in the English Premier League? I think it might be.
Spurs have stuck with the model for a few years and it hasn’t done them any favours at all. First Martin Jol and now Juande Ramos – two managers who’ve proven themselves more than capable elsewhere – struggled under the system, and now Tottenham have abandoned it seemingly for good (and if you read this article by Sam Wallace, you wonder how Damien Comolli got the job in the first place).
Redknapp also got rid of the role at Portsmouth, first by resigning and then by returning as director of football himself only to step back down into the dugout. It’s like he’s on a one man mission to eradicate the position from English football.
It’s not necessarily a bad model – it definitely worked for Ramos at Sevilla – but the stats are against it in the Premier League where the more successful clubs (eg Arsenal, Man Utd) are built around a dominant manager. Even Chelsea did better under Jose Mourinho before Avram Grant got involved.
So all Redknapp has to do now is bring success to Spurs without anyone interfering and he’ll prove once and for all that you don’t need a sporting director, a director of football or anyone else to success in English football. You just need a good manager.
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Category: English Premier League
Tags: Damien Comolli, English Premier League, Harry Redknapp, Juande Ramos, Portsmouth, Spurs, Tottenham HotspurSubscribe
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Comments
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This is bound to stir up discussion; there’s a lot of food for thought in the notion that a manager should manage on the field and someone above him buy the players. The key is how they co-exist. Not a simple proposition.
http://startingeleven.blogspot.com/2008/10/starting-eleven-football-blog-roundup_27.htmlPosted from
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It’s not the role itself that’s the problem, it’s when you have a complete arse running it I.E. Comolli/Dennis Wise
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“Spurs have stuck with the model for a few years and it hasn’t done them any favours at all. First Martin Jol and now Juande Ramos – two managers who’ve proven themselves more than capable elsewhere – struggled under the system”
I don’t know about Jol, but Ramos didn’t struggle under the system at Sevilla. It’s always a matter of how the coach and director get along and are able to work together and build a team.
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