Harry Redknapp resigns as QPR manager.

Blatter

I think Harry for the most part was good at playing players in their correct positions and was a good motivator. If you have an ability to keep players happy and motivated allied to playing them in their correct positions, you're generally going to do somewhat well.

He could never really organise a team properly when it came to defensive shape though. That and his selfishness (putting himself and short term success above long term planning) is what held him back from becoming a very good manager.

Paully D

COYVB wrote: »

'Arry and Martin O'Neill seem to get away with absolutely everything without a negative word being said

I'd also like to add Steve Bruce to that list. How he is escaping any form of criticism from the media for his performance in the Premier League with Hull is astonishing IMO.

£65m + and counting spent in the last season and half, yet finished 16th (only 4 points off relegation) last year and is well in the relegation dogfight this year. Yes, he reached the FA Cup final but they had arguably the easiest ever run to the final and then proceeded to get knocked out of Europa League by the Dog and Duck (though that was probably an advantage if anything). He is just buying player after player at Hull hoping each one will offer a quick spark without any real sort of plan.

Zero, if any, media talk about him being under pressure or questioning him because he's "Brucie", their mate.

Dirty Dingus McGee

Paully D wrote: »

I'd also like to add Steve Bruce to that list. How he is escaping any form of criticism from the media for his performance in the Premier League with Hull is astonishing IMO.

£65m + and counting spent in the last season and half, yet finished 16th (only 4 points off relegation) last year and is well in the relegation dogfight this year. Yes, he reached the FA Cup final but they had arguably the easiest ever run to the final and then proceeded to get knocked out of Europa League by the Dog and Duck (though that was probably an advantage if anything). He is just buying player after player at Hull hoping each one will offer a quick spark without any real sort of plan.

Zero, if any, media talk about him being under pressure or questioning him because he's "Brucie", their mate.

At the start of the season on Soccer Saturday I remember Jeff Stelling asking one of the panel why Bruce wasn't considered for the Man Utd job.

Addmittedly Soccer Saturday is a light hearted show and shouldn't be taken too seriously but it was probably the daftest question I've ever heard.It just shows that being British and being friendly with the media really helps inflate managers and players reputations.

Oranage2

When the going gets tough, the Harry gets going.

Corholio

Paully D wrote: »

He is just buying player after player at Hull hoping each one will offer a quick spark without any real sort of plan.

Zero, if any, media talk about him being under pressure or questioning him because he's "Brucie", their mate.

This.

This is something I've always noticed about Bruce, while I'm sure you'd know better about his Sunderland signings, but at Hull it seems he's just buying players and then deciding where to fit them in. Ben Arfa, Ramirez, Hernandez and to an extent Long, where he played him out wide sometimes.

Talk about Hull replacing him with Lennon too, in the last few hours.

Paully D

Corholio wrote: »

This.

This is something I've always noticed about Bruce, while I'm sure you'd know better about his Sunderland signings, but at Hull it seems he's just buying players and then deciding where to fit them in. Ben Arfa, Ramirez, Hernandez and to an extent Long, where he played him out wide sometimes.

Talk about Hull replacing him with Lennon too, in the last few hours.

Despite his constant digs at Sunderland fans, I don't think he was half as bad as many of my fellow fans will have you believe. He did a decent enough job overall IMO, but the same sort of problems we are discussing now were evident near the end and were his ultimate downfall. A key feature of almost all Steve Bruce teams is that they start well when he first arrives, stutter and go on long winless runs, and then he doesn't really seem able to snap them out of it so goes and buys player after player hoping to achieve the aforementioned spark at the expense of any thoughts towards a plan.

When he started off he had Darren Bent who was one of his first signings. Pretty easy to build a team with Bent in it, you don't necessarily have to be a managerial genius to know how to get the best out of him and utilize him properly, which in fairness to Bruce he did very well. Though as soon as Bent left he did his usual. Sessegnon came in and he had no idea what to do with him. He played him left, right, centrally, up front with a partner, up front as a lone striker. And that summer transfer window was an absolute disaster - just signing as many numbers as he could with no thought about what he was going to do with the players and how the fit into his system. I suppose even when Bent was there he brought in Asamoah Gyan with no real plan. He played him out wide and up front, ultimately never really quite knowing exactly how he wanted to utilize him.

His last two transfer windows at Sunderland (Gardner, Wickham, Ji, Elmohamdy, O'Shea, Brown, Larsson, McClean, Gyan, Riveros, Bramble, Sessegnon, Vaughan, Westwood, etc) feel eerily similar to his last two at Hull (Livermore, Dawson, Hernandez, Huddlestone, Jelavic, N'Doye, Elmohamady, McGregor, Snodgrass, etc).

I have no doubt in my mind that in his next job he will do the same. Start well, stumble, long winless run, numerous purchases hoping for a quick spark at the expense of any thought, depart - wash, rinse, repeat.

blueser

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El Weirdo

blueser wrote: »

Spotted this on a forum in the UK that I'm a member off. Apparently, it's been posted on a QPR blog, any Rangers fans out there will probably be able to find the exact source.

...<snip>...

Seems some Rangers fans are none too impressed with 'arry.

That's the article I posted further up the page.

Clive Wittingham runs the loftforwords website and it's great to see him get some recognition for that piece. I've heard it mentioned a few times over the past few days on the Football Ramble and Football Weekly podcasts.

Always enjoy reading his stuff.

blueser

El Weirdo wrote: »

That's the article I posted further up the page.

Clive Wittingham runs the loftforwords website and it's great to see him get some recognition for that piece. I've heard it mentioned a few times over the past few days on the Football Ramble and Football Weekly podcasts.

Always enjoy reading his stuff.

Sorry about that; never spotted your post. Any mod on duty, please do the honours and delete the post. I'll edit it as best as I can.

El Weirdo

blueser wrote: »

Sorry about that; never spotted your post. Any mod on duty, please do the honours and delete the post. I'll edit it as best as I can.

Ah, don't get rid of it all. The only reason I didn't quote it myself was because I was on the phone at the time.

Everyone should read Clive's stuff, QPR fan or not.