Three games played, two against ‘Big Four’ teams. Seven points gained altogether, which is pretty much title-winning form rather than that of a team at the foot of the Premier League. While Tottenham’s late comeback to draw 4-4 with Arsenal was bordering on the inexplicable, the 2-1 win over Liverpool was more easily understood as the team plugged away until the final minute and got their rewards. One of the Spurs forwards is loving every minute of it under Harry Redknapp.
The Guardian reports that Darren Bent admits it wasn’t always easy to understand the instructions of Juande Ramos, and that he and the other players seemingly feel more at ease under their new gaffer. Once again, we hear that the training ground wasn’t a happy place to be under the former manager, which explains why Daniel Levy took such decisive action.
“Harry can talk to people one-to-one, have a proper conversation and know what he’s going on about,” said Bent. “Harry has made people believe … whereas Juande, with the Spanish, it’s a bit hard. At one stage, the training ground was a horrible place to be. Everyone was down and there was no team morale. Harry seems to be able to work these miracles.”
“It wasn’t nice before,” said Bent. “Ramos banished a lot of players to the reserves because he didn’t want them but Harry has made everyone welcome and that’s the respect you’ve got to show to people. If we can put in performances like we did [over the last week] then there’s no reason why we can’t push right up into Europe again.”
The debate about Tottenham’s striking options concerned whether Bent and Pavlyuchenko could prosper as a partnership. Ramos and his assistant, Gus Poyet, had said that they could not. “It was a bit of a silly thing to say,” said Bent, who felt that Tottenham were livelier in the second half with Pavlyuchenko on alongside him. “It is strange that you pay £16.5m for Bent, then you pay £14m for Pavlyuchenko and you realise that they can’t play together,” added Redknapp.
Surely even Redknapp can’t believe the start he has made at his new club, with the honeymoon period set to continue for at least another week. Are Tottenham fans amazed by the turnaround at White Hart Lane, especially as everything seemed so grim a fortnight ago?
Discuss the latest transfer gossip at the Brand New COS forum!