Harry Redknapp is certainly one of the best managers to have been in the Premier League. His exploits with Tottenham have not gone unnoticed. He took over the reins at White Hart Lane at a very tough time, when the club were close to the relegation zone and made them genuine contenders for the Champions League spots.
At the time, the Spurs squad wasn’t the greatest, but it still had stalwarts like Gareth Bale, Adebayor, Modric and a few others, but it comes nowhere close to the kind of squad quality they have now. Redknapp really performed wonders with the London club and he, in fact, laid the foundations for the kind of performances we’re seeing from them now.
Redknapp has in fact come out and said that his Tottenham squad could’ve challenged for the title, only if they had capitalised on the opportunity to sign two premier world class players of today, Eden Hazard and Luiz Suarez. The former was still at Lille, whereas the latter was plying his trade successfully in the Netherlands with Ajax. Both were also the captains of their teams and definitely lead from the front.
Redknapp has stated that he had the chance to sign both these world class players, but it was Daniel Levy’s reluctance to spend big that came back to bite the Lilly Whites. Spurs were good at the time, but the additions of these superstars would have surely taken the club to the next level. Hazard ended up being prized away by Chelsea, despite Redknapp’s Tottenham being the favourites to sign him. Suarez went to Liverpool following Fernando Torres’ departure and established himself as a real stalwart before getting a dream move to Barcelona recently.
Harry still regrets not being able to get them both on board and it would’ve surely made a world of difference. Several other stars such as Modric, Bale and Rafael Van der Vaart might have been persuaded into staying at the club if Hazard and Suarez were only brought in.
The Spurs side would’ve looked very different now and they could’ve been title contenders way earlier than last season, when they made a real hash of their efforts in the last moment, losing out to Leicester and ultimately finishing a disappointing 3rd in the league standings.
Here’s how the Tottenham line up might have looked now if Luis Suarez and Eden Hazard were signed by Harry Redknapp during his time at the club.
Goalkeeper – Hugo Lloris
Defenders – Kyle Walker, Toby Alderweireld, Jan Verthongen, Danny Rose
Midfielders – Erik Lamela/Son, Christian Eriksen/Dier, Victor Wanyama/Dembele, Eden Hazard
Strikers – Harry Kane and Luis Suarez
The prospect of Harry Kane and Luis Suarez playing up front is a rather mouth-watering one and it is only a pity for Tottenham fans that they could never get to see such gracious stars don their colours. Things have worked out very differently for Tottenham and on the evidence of last season, as they are a club that is well on their way up. They just need to stop choking at the important moments and need to get more consistent with their performances.