Redknapp>Wenger? Would Harry lead Arsenal to glory?

Paul Merson has controversially claimed that Arsene Wenger would win the Premier League with Arsenal if he had ‘Harry Redknapp’s tactical nous’.

The former forward played under both managers during his playing career, although the player decided to leave the Gunners shortly after the Frenchman taking up his role in North London.

Merson surprisingly opted to leave the club after Wenger completed his first season as coach, despite being offered a two-year extension, and left to join relegated Middlesbrough, becoming the record signing for any non-Premier League side in England at the time.

This could tell you something about his opinion on the Arsenal boss, and the former Gunner has now claimed that Redknapp is more astute tactically then the long-standing Arsenal manager.

“People say he (Redknapp) is a wheeler-dealer and it’s so disrespectful,” said Merson, who played under both Wenger and Redknapp during his career.

“Tactically, he’s one of the best I’ve worked with. If Arsene Wenger had Harry Redknapp’s tactical nous, Arsenal would win the league.”

These comments have provoked the obvious reaction from Arsenal fans, who have been hysterical in their criticism of their former player, although this is hardly the first time he has come out with an outrageous comment, or more been overly biased against Wenger’s side.

The comments seem even more outrageous when you consider that Redknapp has recently been sacked from his role at Birmingham, while the Arsenal boss has shown year on year that he can achieve with our underspending club year on year.

Does Redknapp have any advantages over Wenger? Surely even the #WengerOut fans wouldn’t choose Harry over Arsene?

Pat J

Tags Arsenal Merson Redknapp Wenger

13 Comments

  1. No. No way. Not old Harry
    1st. he Managed Spuds. That’s a big one
    2nd No English manager. English managers don’t win PL or CL. (I wasn’t even born the last time an English manager won Premier League).
    3rd. He managed Spuds
    4th. He is older than Wenger, so not realistic anyway. He has health problems
    5th. He managed Spuds

    BTW- My heart goes out to Jamie and the kids. Louise can be a singer and be wife/mum at the same time. It’s not impossible.

  2. while I defend drugs on individual basis, i got to ask, WTF was they smokin?
    Who hasn’t tried a bit of weed… but to accept what Merse is saying, it is like accepting that the sky will fall down because rainbows….

    You got to be on some serious shit before that makes sense XD lol

  3. When you have a two bit brain made up of two tiny wires and a diode like a cheap Chinese toy robot, you’ll probably say the same. Players that talk about Wenger’s lack of coaching should really be ashamed of themselves, our teachers stopped giving us notes at about age 12 and expected us to come up with something on our own, all they did was oversee and grade what we came up with, gave us a bit of insight and perspective or just asked pertinent questions to provoke critical thinking, they are no longer there to hold our hands but we have become or even mastered the art of coming up with solutions on our own. The season before Fabregas left, on the final day of the season, Wenger handed him a video compilation of how many times he got into scoring positions in the box with him choosing to pass instead and asked him how many goals he thought he could have scored if he chose to shoot in 50% of those cases, that was all he said, the next season Fabregas went on a spree, intelligent players don’t need to be given step by step instructions, not even kindergartens need that much instructions these days, Merson needs a book called tactics for dummies. The only reason why the invincibles went the season unbeaten was that there were eleven brains on the pitch collectively thinking their way out of situations and guess who brought them together? Dein and Wenger.

    1. You’re dead on. They big up lower league managers and ones over half way down the table. But because Wenger also doesn’t reach the summit, they talk like he’s down where they are and they’re up where Wenger is. Short memories too, the cup was a big deal for those pundits but now they talk like they know exactly where Mourinho is coming from. Wenger has achieved allot compared to the vast majority of managers, Merson of all people should be allot more respectful. He doesn’t have to champion the man but he needs to think before he acts. Redknapp said that one of Wenger’s earlier teams was the best side he ever faced, and he wasn’t alone in saying that..

    2. Its absolutely unnecessary for ex-players to keep making these strange remarks about Wenger.

      Almost anything about Wenger would make headline i.e. “Wenger didn’t teach me anything”. “Wenger is playing XYZ out of position” “Wenger needs to be like Mourinho” “Wenger is too old” “Wenger just sits and watches” “Wenger is too tall he needs to be shorter…like Mourinho”

      And now Merson comes up with this? I respect Harry and I think its a shame he missed out on the England job. As for them ex-players, all I ask is for them to take a coaching job and implement all their “intelligent ideas ” and then try to think their way out tactically when their ideas fail?

      Football is… life… you win…you lose… you get old. Even if you are a world cup winning coach, pretty soon some other coach will make a monkey out of you. Brazil approached the 2014 world cup aggressively, appointing TWO WORLD CUP WINNING COACHES to double their chances of winning! great strategy right? yep . . . until the Semis when their combined brains (aged 136) were fried by a younger (54 yr) Joachim Low and the score line? 7-1!

      Wenger insisted for years that being in the CL every season was success but the angry mob (incensed fans and armchair experts) insisted it was failure. Then last season, Mourinho gets Man U back into CL and Klopp scrapes Liverpool into fourth place and both are hailed as geniuses.

      Yes things have changed, Wenger may no longer be the young upstart that transformed the EPL and despite the insane amounts spent by direct rivals in the last decade, he is still able to keep Arsenal in reckoning.

      I wonder who we have to thank for that

  4. Merson is trying to attract attention that all ex Arsenal players do and Wenger seems
    An easy target
    If redknapp had so much tactical nous then why has he only ever won one trophy?
    Mersons brain cells are degrading due to heavy drinks and drugs usage in the past
    So give the guy a break he has no sense to decipher anything let alone management styles
    He’s still bitter that Wenger decided to sell him
    Arsene knows

  5. “Tactically, he’s one of the best I’ve worked with. If Arsene Wenger had Harry Redknapp’s tactical nous, Arsenal would win the league.” That statement says it all about Merson. Every JA writer shouldn’t write any article base on what he said in future to save us from lacks of intelligence.

  6. Merse never said Harry is better than Arsene, he said if Arsene had Harry’s tactical nouse the glory would return. Most ex players of ours have said Arsene doesn’t do tactics and the writer of this article has put his spin on something said in an interview to twist the meaning, as usual!

    1. First off I have to say that I am not a Wenger fan as I think his best days are long behind him. However Redknapp is worse in every aspect of management, especially tactics and has failed at more clubs than he has been okay at (Southampton, QPR and now Birmingham).
      I hate to say it but Merson has proven himself clueless about his understanding of football as his betting record shows.

  7. Alright, Pat J, you owe me a new keyboard and a monitor because I spit coffee all over mine. Are you for real, or is this supposed to be some kind of a sick joke? HR over AW? I’m still laughing.

  8. I would take harry in a heart beat, but just so we can smoke weed together.. But when it comes to football coaching, old harry does not know what he’s doing

  9. There are other managers that I think would do a better job than Wenger, but Harry Rednapp definitely isn’t one of them.

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