Spurs: Andre Villas Boas and Gareth Bale owe it all to Harry Redknapp?
HOW much does Spurs wonderboyo Gareth Bale owe Harry Redknapp? Bale is having a fantastic season. He’s a match winner whose getting better. Redknapp didn’t sign him for Spurs from his old club Southampton (corrected). Martin Jol did. Adrian Durham tells Daily Mail readers:
“There are some Spurs fans who refuse to credit Harry Redknapp. Instead they point to Harry’s alleged wish to send Bale out on loan.”
Well, he did want to.
“After a serious ankle ligament injury, and then a knee operation, a loan spell would have made sense, but Harry was forced to put him in the first team when Benoit Assou-Ekotto suffered injury. Under Harry Redknapp, Gareth Bale became a star player dominating games in the Barclays Premier League and in Europe.”
Maybe Spurs fans don’t credit Redknapp because it was chance that saw Bale’s career salvaged at Spurs? The player was played out of necessity. His talent did the rest.
Durham isn’t finished:
“So I hope after the win at West Brom on Sunday, in which Bale scored a brilliant winner, Spurs fans and Villas-Boas remembered Redknapp for turning a weakling who couldn’t win a game in a Tottenham shirt, into one of the most feared and sought after players in Europe.”
No. They won’t.
“Spurs, and Villas-Boas in particular, owe Harry Redknapp a huge debt. Thanks to Harry, Villas-Boas is rebuilding his reputation in the game.”
Eh? Thanks to Redknapp, Villas-Boas’ team is doing well?
As for Harry, well, as Bale gets better, he gets bigger:
Harry Redknapp, August 2012: “I can’t think of a better left-sided player [in Britain], really. That left foot of his is amazing, he can run all day and he can head it – he’s 6ft 2in. He’s got everything. You couldn’t even put a value on him. Almost any club in the world would want to buy him – in fact, I know they would.”
Harry Redknapp, April 2010: “He came here and it was difficult. To have gone 23 or 24 games without being on a winning team, that’s not easy to have hanging around your neck. ‘He’s growing up fast and he’s got everything, really. He’s a 6ft 1in left winger who can score goals”
Posted: 9th, February 2013 | In: Sports Comments (11) | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed: RSS 2.0 | TrackBack | Permalink
February 10th, 2013 at 12:48 am
Durham is illiterate as far as football goes, one day he winds up Arsenal fans, the next day Chelsea and this time it’s our turn. If not enough listeners phone in the object of stupidity is changed, it’s all about listeners phoning in and making the radio company money.
Don’t listen to his tripe opinions and most importantly ignore your phone while he is on air.
February 10th, 2013 at 12:27 am
Doesn’t Durham himself prove that Bale and Tottenham don’t owe anything to Redknapp?
“Harry was forced to put him in the first team when Benoit Assou-Ekotto suffered injury”
Redknapp didn’t want to play Bale, he wanted to loan him out. He just had no other option but to play him. He also kept saying that he will be a left back when it is obvious to everyone that Bale is a left-winger now.
February 9th, 2013 at 8:48 pm
It’s all been said. Harry didn’t sign him and wanted to sell him; he stagnated initially under Redknapp who did not know what to do with him. AVB has improved the team; the shape; the defending inidvidual players in a way that Redknapp never could. And, as everyone knows, Durham is an idiot who knows nothing about football and has to be controversial so that people listen to his pathetic radio show.
February 9th, 2013 at 8:33 pm
Martin Jol now credited. Thanks.
February 9th, 2013 at 8:20 pm
Durham is a gigantic knob who seems to have a serious problem with Tottenham.How anybody would take his views on football seriously mystifies me.A grade one cretin
February 9th, 2013 at 8:16 pm
redknapp never signed bale,martin jol did,redknapp could’nt lace avb’s boots,his a ginger mug
February 9th, 2013 at 8:15 pm
Harry did not buy him please get you facts right Harry joined us in 2008 Gareth joined in in 2007
February 9th, 2013 at 8:12 pm
Harry didnt sign Bale!
Bale was signed and used whilst Jol was in charge!
February 9th, 2013 at 8:00 pm
Redknapp did not sign Bale, who came to spurs in 2007. He certainly was not a weakling, and, in fact, had already produced some outstanding performances for Wales against teams such as Russia and Germany, before becoming a star for Spurs. I would not expect Adrian Durham to be aware of this.
February 9th, 2013 at 7:55 pm
Durham’s love of all things ‘Arry and wish to see AVB fail sees him come out with some absolute rubbish.
He claimed the day Harry signed for QPR he would lead them to finish above Spurs this season.
Harry didn’t sign Bale he was already at the club when Harry arrived, Harry WAS forced into playing Bale, he didn’t fancy him at all.
Bale was extremely talented before he joined Spurs, he had a run of bad luck and was emotionally and physically immature. He picked up a quite serious injury but then ran scared from most challenges.
As he matured and filled out he rediscovered his form, maybe Harry told him to “man up” I am unaware of this, but really Harry was extremely lucky to inherit Bale and the rest of the Spurs squad he did.
And Harry blew it so unlucky. ANd shut up Durham you are absolutely full of it.
February 9th, 2013 at 7:52 pm
Harry owe it all to Bale, the reason why he stay in the spurs job that long, Andre has improve Bale and Lennnon 100%, they were Ineffective when played out of they usual position, but effective every where now.