A game of two halves

[David Johnson]

On the one hand, I suspect that in pure footballing terms, 'Arry has a good record overall, particularly in coming in and motivating sides that are under-performing. His time at Spurs is an example of that.

On the other hand, trouble does seem to follow him around. So clubs that he has spent time at such as West Ham, Bournemouth, Portsmouth, Southampton have all had big money problems. And if as looks likely, QPR go down this year, they will have a lot of really tough decisions to make given the spending spree that occurred under Hughes and to a lesser extent Redknapp.

Admittedly, Redknapp isn't responsible for the purse strings or writing the cheques but it is a bit of a coincidence. Redknapp gives the impression of being a wheeler/dealer, ducker and diver in the transfer market and seems to be very good at convincing owners to cough up the dosh in the hope of the promised land.

What he definitely doesn't seem to be is a David Moyes at Everton who can get success in terms of Premiership position year after year on a very limited transfer budget. Or indeed an Arsene Wenger who has had Arsenal in the top four of the Premiership year after year after year, despite having a net transfer spend far, far lower than Man United, City and Chelsea.

[David Johnson]

Meant to add this to the Redknapp thread. Apologies.