Harry Redknapp Leaving May Not Be a Disaster for Spurs

For so long Tottenham Hotspur's season looked like being easily their best for years.

At one stage they were 10 points clear in third place, and there was even excited talk in some quarters of them being an outside bet for the Premier League title.

A run of three straight defeats in the Premier League has changed all that.

The gap between them and fourth-placed Arsenal is now down to just one point. The Gunners can overtake their local rivals on Wednesday if they win at Everton and Spurs fail to beat Stoke at White Hart Lane.

A major factor which has been attributed to Spurs' alarming recent slump is the intense media speculation linking Spurs manager Harry Redknapp with the vacant England job. 

Since Fabio Capello resigned from the role in early February, Spurs thrashed Newcastle 5-0 but then lost consecutive league fixtures to Arsenal, Manchester United and Everton.

It was the first time they suffered three league losses on the bounce under Redknapp, and it took a replay for them to beat League One side Stevenage in the FA Cup.

Redknapp has made no secret throughout his time at Spurs of the high esteem in which he holds the England job. All of the journalists and media pundits with whom he shares such a chummy relationship have the 65-year-old down as the de facto successor to Capello, the top man on the FA's shortlist of one.

The ideal outcome for the vast majority of Spurs fans would of course be that Redknapp stays. The minor blip the team has suffered recently in the face of suddenly heightened expectation is nothing compared to the almost unblemished upward trajectory the club has been on during his time in north London.

But should Redknapp leave at the end of the season—or indeed before—to take charge of England's Euro 2012 campaign, it may not necessarily be a disaster for Spurs and their fans.

The former Portsmouth manager engineered an exceptional rescue job upon arriving at the club three-and-a-half years ago.

Juande Ramos was sacked after leaving the club bottom of the table in October 2008, and Spurs responded by poaching the FA Cup-winning boss from Fratton Park and, to all intents and purposes, handed him the keys to White Hart Lane.

Spurs chairman Daniel Levy abandoned the management structure of a head coach and a director of football in which he had previously held so much stock.

Redknapp was given full control of the club's transfer policy and brought in a vast team of his own people to be his backroom staff. Levy's faith was repaid as the club went on an inexorable rise all the way to the quarterfinals of last season's Champions League.

Now that Redknapp has elevated the club to the status of a top four club, is he the man to take them a step further?

In his near 30 years of management, the FA Cup is the only major trophy he has ever won and he has never before enjoyed such success in the top flight.

Now may be the perfect time for Spurs to hire a man experienced in taking Spurs to the next level, both domestically and in Europe.

Jose Mourinho's name has been one of those mentioned most often when potential successors are listed. Such speculation is based on the assumption that he will leave Real Madrid in the summer, something he has in part fuelled by his own volition.

But even if he does leave the Bernabeu, his former club Chelsea would also be a likely destination.

Even if hiring Jose is a flight of fancy, Spurs would not be short of candidates for the position come the summer. As with every major international tournament, there will likely be several top managers leaving their jobs with national teams after this summer's European Championships.

With varying degrees of probability Laurent Blanc, Joachim Loew, Bert van Marwijk and Dick Advocaat are just some of the coaches who could be leaving their posts after the finals in Poland and Ukraine, either in blazes of glory or by mutual consent in the face of failure.

That is without even mentioning the coaches currently out of a job, such as Louis van Gaal and Rafael Benitez, who have experience of winning both domestic championships and the Champions League.

Most of the aforementioned managers coming to the Lane would be a step up from the current incumbent, either in terms of top-level experience as players of coaches, silverware won or the style of football which their display.

If Spurs are to truly become a club fighting for the major honours on a regular basis, they will most likely need a manager whose tactical nous extends a better further than telling a substitute to "just f******run about a bit," as Redknapp famously said to Roman Pavlyuchenko before the Russian striker came off the bench and scored the winner against Liverpool in one of his first games in charge.

While Redknapp is a manager for whom players love to play, a more worldly wise coach would perhaps be better suited to help the long-term development of young stars such as Gareth Bale, Kyle Walker and Sandro, while also convincing the likes of Luka Modric and Rafael van der Vaart that they should remain at a club making a concerted step up to the next level.

A side effect of Spurs being so grateful to have Redknapp and let him call the shots is that he has got very comfortable at the club. It has reached the point where his pre-match press conferences at the Spurs Lodge training ground have become opportunities for journalists to ask questions on almost any subject, knowing that Redknapp will happily offer up a choice soundbite. 

Whether it be players contracted to other clubs, a recent managerial sacking or the England job, there is nothing that Redknapp won't broach from the perceived safety of his press room. And why shouldn't he, when every slight joke or homespun turn of phrase is met with guffawing from the assembled pack? 

Of course, it's nice to have the media on side, but the extent to which Redknapp has become a one-man quote generator rests a little uneasily with fans who would rather their club did not court such attention, and could just carry on with its business in a more slick and professional manner.

Another manager, more used to working at that level, would know how to balance keeping on the right side of the press but not get too cosy with them.

Spurs supporters should not be ungrateful for what Redknapp has done for the club, and the vast majority would understandably rather he didn't leave.

So much so, that many have taken to chanting "Harry Redknapp—England are s***!" during matches, in the hope they can do their bit to convince him to stay.

But, if the worst case scenario should transpire, it may not be all doom and gloom for Tottenham.