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I'm just going to come out and say it. I really don't care who manages Tottenham Hotspur next year. I don't care if it's David Moyes or Andre Villas-Boas. Hell, to be honest, I don't even care if it's Tim Sherwood, Kevin McCauley, or Daniel Levy himself. Am I frustrated that the club still doesn't have a manager? Of course I am, but I stopped caring about the oddsmakers, the agents, and the he said (s)he said non-sense about two days after Harry was fired.
I know what you're thinking: "Why don't you care? Is it because you hate America?" I'll take the second part first. No, that has absolutely nothing to do with this. Unless of course Jurgen Klinsmann or Bob Bradley ends up in charge of Spurs. The main reason I don't care is two-fold. First, just about anything, in my opinion, would be better than Harry Redknapp. Second, I don't think managers, in the grand scheme of things, have much impact on club performance.
Harry Redknapp was pretty successful at Tottenham Hotspur. He was, allegedly, a great man manager and a great motivator. However, he often failed to manage the egos of the men outside of his choice 11. Just ask Vedran Corluka, Steven Pienaar, or Giovani dos Santos. As far as him being a motivator, what kind of motivator allows a win only one of nine games, to squander a 10 point lead on Arsenal and finish a disappointing fourth?
Basically, we saw Harry's strengths weaken. Maybe it's age. Maybe he's just not in touch with the modern footballer. Who knows? I certainly don't. What aggravates me more was how pronounced Harry's weaknesses became. Lack of discernable tactics, very little squad rotation, and poor in-game decisions. All these things became increasingly annoying to many fans as the season progressed.
Now, we don't have Harry around. Daniel Levy has been tasked with finding a new manager and I couldn't care less who it is. I know many Tottenham purists want someone that will keep the attacking flair that the side is known for. These are the people that despise the possibility of David Moyes joining the club, but would welcome Roberto Martinez. Others want a big name, a man who has a great pedigree. These people want Andre Villas-Boas, or in some cases Didier Deschamps.
Honestly, fine. Hire one of those four guys. Hire Laurent Blanc. Hire anyone, just hire someone because the club needs players and we can't buy players unless we have a manager. To me there's no mystery in being a great manager. If you have great players you win. It's as simple as that. Is Pep Guardiola definitively better than Ian Holloway? Probably, but one thing we definitely know is that Pep had way better players at Barcelona than Holloway ever had at Blackpool. If you don't think that I or you could have managed Barcelona to a second place finish in the league with the players they have then you're just wrong.
Great players make great managers. Plain and simple. I'm not of the opinion that managers have much influence on the game of football. Does having better players guarantee results? No, look at Liverpool. However, it's certainly never hurt. So, that's my message to Tottenham Hotspur and its fans. I don't care who we hire, but for god's sake, let's buy some good players.