I was going to go looking for that. Another favorite Harry quote, "Eating spaghetti doesn't make you a good footballer." Big contrast to the guy who banned ketchup and Tabasco (forget whether that was AVB or Ramos).
It was Ramos. Which reminds me of another thing that brought me quickly around to Harry being in charge at Spurs. For many years, I'd contended that Spurs had needed a sterner manager, more of a disciplinarian. We were always soft, and we seemed to always have players with a reputation for having gotten on big wages and thinking they'd made it. Players who wouldn't grind it out. "They don't like it up 'em", or whatever the popular criticism of us was. I thought we needed someone to tell 'em what's what and to not tolerate the complacencies of far too many. Well, we got one in Juande Ramos ... and the team collapsed. That was one of the most depressing things about the Ramos era for me: the players' response to a disciplined approach to professional football was to down tools. No ketchup? No effort. At that point I was thinking we'd be shit forever. But when Harry came in, it was clear that he related to players in a different way. There were reports early on - quite believable ones - about him having a go at the squad about their reluctance to get stuck in to a tackle. Someone (I think it was Jenas) pushed back a bit only for Harry to say something like, "you're the worst one!". But he was still telling all and sundry that he had a great bunch of lads (and some needs, too, of course - it's Harry). But the point was that in Harry Redknapp, you had a manager who'd tell the players what they needed to hear, both good and bad, and with good sense about how to deliver each. I'm really starting to wax nostalgic about the Redknapp era, amn't I? Good times, those.
I felt Ramos was doing well, until he let his guard down and allowed the players to go overboard in their celebration of the League Cup win against Chelsea. He had strictly changed the menu from the slop the lads had been eating prior to his arrival and had taken a dim view of the clubbing culture of the players, but allowed them to indulge this once. Now anyone who has children knows this is a fatal mistake. Our next game against a struggling Birmingham away was a total gong show as we were beaten 4-1 and the players looked like they had been partying all week. Meanwhile Chelsea, despite the disappointment of losing a final, came out and hammered West Ham away 3-0, even with Frank Lampard getting sent off in the 35th minute. The rest of the 07-08 season was a write-off as the players went through the motions and everyone knew that Keane and Berbatov were leaving. Ramos didn't help himself by refusing to learn English and the fact his wife wanted nothing to do with living in England meant it was just a question of time before he would get the sack. For about 4 months up to the cup win, we actually looked like a team that could kick on, but then we realized we were Tottenham and it all went pear-shaped in a hurry
Oh, for sure! After the Cup final, we all thought we were on the road to something big. A manager who actually got his tactics right in big games! As you said, it didn't take long to be disabused of that notion.
This is the one I remember. Graham was not the best, and certainly not Spurs, but I knew he could pull out that win. If only he had been there. Would you like to define "soon."
Has to be Tactics Tim, if ever a manager was out of his depth it was him. My favourite moment was when, after saying the squad needed no reinforcements in January, he described the team as "much of a muchness" and then wondered why the players rolled over and had their tummies tickled in 4-0 away defeats to Liverpool and Chelsea. Among his many tactical innovations was not playing with a holding midfielder, as he and the equally inept Les Ferdinand were convinced you didn't need one in the "modern" game.