Is Redknapp the right man for Tottenham?

Is Redknapp a Portsmouth hero or villain?

Harry Redknapp talked yesterday about a comment I made on the radio a couple of weeks ago. Quite simply, I said that Tottenham Hotspur were heading for the drop. Nothing I’ve seen lately from Spurs made me doubt that prediction – until now.

I’d back Harry to correct the mistakes of the past few months and get Spurs up the table.

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• Is Redknapp the right man for Tottenham?

• Is Redknapp a Portsmouth hero or villain?

Multimedia

• Is Redknapp the right man for Tottenham?

• Is Redknapp a Portsmouth hero or villain?

It seems that Daniel Levy, the Spurs chairman, came to the same conclusion as I did. Sacking Juande Ramos was not pressing the panic button, it was facing up to reality: Spurs were in complete disarray and spiralling towards relegation.

The new signings had not worked, discipline had collapsed, the players were unhappy and confused about their roles and the team were not a unit, just a bunch of good players unable to gel. The worrying thing wasn’t just that Spurs were losing, but who they were losing to, hardly the top sides. It means they have plenty of tough fixtures ahead.

Harry must get Spurs into an organised unit that is hard to beat and if that means grinding out results, so be it. The fans will back him because of his track record and because he represents a move away from the failed continental set-up.

The transfer window will be the time to make changes. And wheeling and dealing is when Harry is in his element.

If anyone can salvage the situation, Harry can. Good players are usually fine in possession and the best managers, such as Harry, are organisers who make players know their jobs when they don’t have the ball. Tactics don’t have to be complex, maybe some simplicity is just what they need.

The deal unfolds: four days that changed two clubs’ fortunes

Thursday

Heurelho Gomes’s blunder sets Tottenham Hotspur on their way to a limp 2-0 defeat away to Udinese in the Uefa Cup group D match, prompting Jonathan Woodgate to launch a tirade against his teammates.

Friday

Tottenham contact Harry Redknapp to sound him out about the managerial job, before he returns from Portugal, where he was in charge of Portsmouth in a Uefa Cup match against Braga.

Daniel Levy, the chairman, tells the Tottenham staff that the board are supporting Juande Ramos and the club publicly maintain that they are supporting Ramos. Redknapp is likely to have agreed to take the job.

Saturday

Redknapp takes Portsmouth training on Saturday, when Ramos also puts the Tottenham players through their paces.

Levy and Peter Storrie, the Portsmouth chief executive, agree a compensation package worth £5 million to release Redknapp from Fratton Park. The Tottenham players are told to report to White Hart Lane in the afternoon and are driven to a hotel – they usually travel independently to the ground on the day of the match. Levy, who has held a board meeting, travels to the hotel and dismisses Ramos at about 10pm.

Sunday

Redknapp arrives at the hotel and addresses the Tottenham players, before joining them on the coach to White Hart Lane.

He talks to the players before the match and sits on the bench during the 2-0 victory against Bolton Wanderers, their first league win of the season.