For Harry haters, it's personal

[Geng]

Classic 'Arry mythmaking:

"That criticism of Harry smacks of desperation, and yet I can’t quite work out why people seem to be so anxious for Redknapp to fail. His teams try to play decent football, and at Bournemouth, Portsmouth and Spurs he achieved unprecedented success in the modern era."

He spent unprecedented amounts at Portsmouth and Spurs.

He quite literally bankrupted Pompey to get them that FA Cup. They'd never been big spenders before, so once they were spunking £80k a week on John Utaka of course they would do better than ever.

Spurs had the 4th highest budget in the PL and Arry got them into...4th. About what you would expect. Yes the CL run was great, but there's really nothing too special about his record.

And Martin Samuel clearly didn't see us much last season - or he's just blinded by his HR love/kickbacks - as he doesn't mention our godawful dull tactics, instead falling back on the freewheeling attacking good-old-arry stereotypes

[stanistheman]

Sorry, this is ridiculous. The four players I've bolded will all be on Premier League wages. We were constantly outplayed by the likes of Yeovil or Bournemouth whose entire starting XIs will be paid less than Krancjar and Dunne put together.

This isn't the 1990s anymore. Wages are far, far more important than transfer fees. And signing experienced for "free" on high salaries is a lot more expensive than spending a few mil on 22yr olds with resale value.

How do we know what wages they were on?

Dunne had hardly played for 2 seasons and was out of contract, he might have taken a massive drop in pay just to prove himself again.

O'Neil was released by West Ham and was not inundated with offers, likewise Benayoun, and we don't know what the deal was with Krancjar either.

and signing unproven 22 yeard olds for £2-3 Million plus wages would have been more costly than giving out £1.5-2M one year contracts or less in Benayou's case. So sorry, but I think your point is wrong.

[zeberdee]

Credit were credit is due, Redknapp did what h e had to do with the players he had,

Thanks to the FL's 'unfair to relegated clubs' FFP rules QPR did not have much money to spend last season.
Having released, sold or loaned out 19 players, he had to supplement the squad with free, slow but experienced, players like Dunne, O'Neil, Krancjar and Benayoun, to add to the likes of Hill, Barton, Johnson which resulted in QPR defending deep and playing a negative keep ball style of play.

Had those injuries to Austin and Phillips not occurred, QPR would almost certainly have remained in the top 2.

Some of the football QPR have played under Redknapp, has been mind numbingly boring, but that in no small part has been down to the squads available to him (the 1st lot seemed to be disjointed, unbalanced with a number of them only interested in collecting their pay each month), the 2nd, as stated above, were slow and often uninspiring, but experienced and effective.

I would rather judge Redknapp on what he can achieve next season, if he at least gets to assemble a squad of players that can defend and attack in a more enjoyable style of play.

Good post.
I would add that I just dont think there were lots of goals in the squad whatever was tried - probably if bobby had been fit all season that might have smoothed things out a bit, but the rest had enough chances and just didn't often hit the net for various reasons - something to look to fix in the summer

[Pal]

I've always said that it takes a different kind of manager to get a team promoted to the type that will bring premier league security.
I didn't think Harry was the type to get us up, I always thought of him as the latter type, and that we needed a Warnock/Bassett type manager to get us promoted. So I'm more than happy that he has gained promotion, and think he will bring us a few years of calm in the middle of the Prem table.

I think he's always been open, honest and transparent in his dealings here, and as long as his hands aren't tied with FFP penalties, expect us to stay up next year and push on from there.

I'm not too sure what some people are expecting of him, we have got promoted, whilst having a very decent champ team on the treatment table. We didn't take anyone to the cleaners, and it wasn't open and expansive flowing football at times, but I'm pretty sure you won't get far in the Championship playing Barca style ticky tacky on a wet Wednesday in Burnley, with some hairy a****d CB waiting put you in row Z.

If you are to judge a manager on what he has done for the club, then I can't see much room for criticism.

[Bluehoop]

The Mail article, and most of the people in this thread, are being far too results-based.

Had Keogh kicked the ball into row Z and Derby won in extra time, would you all still be saying the same? I know my opinion on the job HR did last season wasn't changed by one goal. Obviously it changes things moving forward, but if you think he did a great job you should have been prepared to think that even if we lost at the weekend. I think he did a poor job, and one last minute winner with our only shot on goal doesn't change that.

Football is a results based business and that is a fact.
Keogh didn't kick the ball into row Z and Derby didn't win in extra time - 2 more facts.
The "job" was to get us promoted back at the first attempt, something only ever achieved once before in PL history - and that was what happened. The result of the job was achieved - fact.
One last minute winner with our only shot on goal is inaccurate - only one shot on target is a fact and that fact is all that matters - one goal to Derby's no goals = victory, promotion and job done

[CroydonCaptainJack]

I've always said that it takes a different kind of manager to get a team promoted to the type that will bring premier league security.
I didn't think Harry was the type to get us up, I always thought of him as the latter type, and that we needed a Warnock/Bassett type manager to get us promoted. So I'm more than happy that he has gained promotion, and think he will bring us a few years of calm in the middle of the Prem table.

I think he's always been open, honest and transparent in his dealings here, and as long as his hands aren't tied with FFP penalties, expect us to stay up next year and push on from there.

I'm not too sure what some people are expecting of him, we have got promoted, whilst having a very decent champ team on the treatment table. We didn't take anyone to the cleaners, and it wasn't open and expansive flowing football at times, but I'm pretty sure you won't get far in the Championship playing Barca style ticky tacky on a wet Wednesday in Burnley, with some hairy a****d CB waiting put you in row Z.

If you are to judge a manager on what he has done for the club, then I can't see much room for criticism.

Hard to disagree with any of that mate. Good post.

[Shepherds Mush]

Not sure how correct that article is about the mental £100k a week player signed in Jan 2012......we signed Onuha, Zamora and Cisse......oh...Cisse

[bushcelt1]

Football is a results based business and that is a fact.
Keogh didn't kick the ball into row Z and Derby didn't win in extra time - 2 more facts.
The "job" was to get us promoted back at the first attempt, something only ever achieved once before in PL history - and that was what happened. The result of the job was achieved - fact.
One last minute winner with our only shot on goal is inaccurate - only one shot on target is a fact and that fact is all that matters - one goal to Derby's no goals = victory, promotion and job done

[Geng]

Football is a results based business and that is a fact.
Keogh didn't kick the ball into row Z and Derby didn't win in extra time - 2 more facts.
The "job" was to get us promoted back at the first attempt, something only ever achieved once before in PL history - and that was what happened. The result of the job was achieved - fact.
One last minute winner with our only shot on goal is inaccurate - only one shot on target is a fact and that fact is all that matters - one goal to Derby's no goals = victory, promotion and job done

You haven't grasped what results-oriented thinking is or why it is bad. Ask a poker player!

The short answer is you can't take an unlikely outcome and then go backwards from there.

After 89mins on saturday Harry had maybe ~30% chance of achieving the "facts" you mention. 70% of the time this forum would have spent the past week moaning about signing Maiga, letting McClaren go, stuff like that.

[Geng]

Going back to poker for one sec...

This is like going all in with the worse hand and fluking the perfect river card. Were you right to shove your chips in with two pairs when it turned out the other guy had a straight? Even if you won?

Not if you want to seriously analyse how to improve your performance you aren't, even if you won the hand. Keep going in with the worst hand and you'll go bust soon enough.

Zamora's goal was no more predetermined than the perfect poker card coming up.

[dsqpr]

The flaw in that thinking is that football is random. It isn't. The result is determined by the players on the pitch and the referee. In poker, the cards that come up are random if the deck is well shuffled: if 50% of the cards remaining in the deck will give you a win on the river and the other 50% will give you loss, you chances are 50/50. Where did your "30% chance" come from for the odds of us winning when it was 0-0? Out of thin air!

I'm not a fan of HR and in particular the way he has us playing, but I give credit where it is due: he got us up and that was the objective, so I credit him with a successful season. But not a perfect one mind!

[stanistheman]

QUOTE=Bluehoop;1269483]Football is a results based business and that is a fact.
Keogh didn't kick the ball into row Z and Derby didn't win in extra time - 2 more facts.
The "job" was to get us promoted back at the first attempt, something only ever achieved once before in PL history - and that was what happened. The result of the job was achieved - fact.
One last minute winner with our only shot on goal is inaccurate - only one shot on target is a fact and that fact is all that matters - one goal to Derby's no goals = victory, promotion and job done[/QUOTE]

How so? Newcastle, West Ham both recently won promotion at the 1st attempt. Didn't West Brom also do it and Bolton back in 1997?

[stanistheman]

The flaw in that thinking is that football is random. It isn't. The result is determined by the players on the pitch and the referee. In poker, the cards that come up are random if the deck is well shuffled: if 50% of the cards remaining in the deck will give you a win on the river and the other 50% will give you loss, you chances are 50/50. Where did your "30% chance" come from for the odds of us winning when it was 0-0? Out of thin air!

I'm not a fan of HR and in particular the way he has us playing, but I give credit where it is due: he got us up and that was the objective, so I credit him with a successful season. But not a perfect one mind!

I agree.

he was tasked to win promotion and he achieved it. Style was not the objective and given that for much of the season the centre backs were Dunne and Hill, it really meant QPR had to defend deep which resulted in the often dull football we witnessed where QPR mostly played keep ball.

[QPRDave]

Classic 'Arry mythmaking:

"That criticism of Harry smacks of desperation, and yet I can’t quite work out why people seem to be so anxious for Redknapp to fail. His teams try to play decent football, and at Bournemouth, Portsmouth and Spurs he achieved unprecedented success in the modern era."

He spent unprecedented amounts at Portsmouth and Spurs.

He quite literally bankrupted Pompey to get them that FA Cup. They'd never been big spenders before, so once they were spunking £80k a week on John Utaka of course they would do better than ever.

Spurs had the 4th highest budget in the PL and Arry got them into...4th. About what you would expect. Yes the CL run was great, but there's really nothing too special about his record.

And Martin Samuel clearly didn't see us much last season - or he's just blinded by his HR love/kickbacks - as he doesn't mention our godawful dull tactics, instead falling back on the freewheeling attacking good-old-arry stereotypes

Classic making a t**t of yourself
Martin Samuel?...typical newbie doesn't appreciate what we have.... nothings good enough

[Stilts]

When you hear Bircham, various Gallens & others who really knew just how bad it was giving big praise to HR, it should carry more weight than it seems to with some fans.
They know, and they care about QPR. They're not just blowing smoke up Harry's backside for the sake of it.

It ain't perfect now, that'll take more surgery. But it's 100 times better than it was.
He walked into an absolute shambles. A total c**tfarm.