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Harry Redknapp’s transfer dealings for Tottenham mean Premier League ‘not just a two-horse race’, declares Iain Dowie
The former QPR and Hull manager believes that the recruitment of Louis Saha on deadline day was a canny move from the Spurs boss and says they will challenge for the title
1 Feb 2012 18:15:00
By George Ankers
Getty Images
Iain Dowie has praised Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp’s transfer dealings in the January window, claiming that the Londoners will ensure that the Premier League is “not just a two-horse” race.
Spurs recruited 33-year-old Louis Saha from Everton and are close to securing defender Ryan Nelsen, 34, from Blackburn, and Dowie feels that their squad is now good enough to maintain a title challenge.
“Redknapp likes Saha and it's a low-risk move as he's only there until the end of the season,” the 47-year-old told Yahoo Sport.
“Now he's moved Roman Pavlyuchenko on, Saha is the best like-for-like replacement for Emmanuel Adebayor.
“The one area he might have a problem is right-back now Vedran Corluka has left, but Nelsen's arrival could give him the option of playing Younes Kaboul on the right.
“They've got a very rounded squad and I think they're right in the shake-up. It's not just a two-horse race.”
The ex-Crystal Palace boss also had praise for Manchester City’s Roberto Mancini both for his signing of David Pizarro on loan from Roma and for his handling of controversial wantaway Carlos Tevez.
“[Pizarro] is not your usual Mancini player - he likes to float around in pockets and offers a different option from the likes of [Samir] Nasri, David Silva and [Sergio] Aguero,” Dowie added.
“Mancini knows he can grind it out with the likes of Yaya Toure, Gareth Barry and Nigel de Jong, but Pizarro just offers something a bit more creative which they could have done with against Everton last night.
“But there was no need for major changes, and this is just a bit of tinkering.
“I think the way Mancini has handled the Tevez situation has been very good.
“He offered him an olive branch and gave him an opportunity to apologise to the team and the manager, but Carlos chose not to. He is in a difficult situation now.
“The Russian and South American transfer windows are still open, but if he does not move then he will have to come back and apologise, otherwise he won't be getting paid.
“I think Tevez has been badly advised, and it's a real shame to see a such a talented player spending his peak years on a golf course. He and his advisors need to find a way to resolve this and put it to bed.”
Dowie was also surprised by Manchester United letting highly-rated youngster Ravel Morrison leave for West Ham.
“If you'd said to me 18 months ago that a Championship side were going to sign Morrison, I would have been incredulous,” he admitted.
“But he has had a difficult time, got distracted on and off the pitch.
“The lad's got to play football and make the most of his God-given talent. The first time I saw him about a year-and-a-half ago he was absolutely magnificent. Since then he has been less effective, but I hope the penny drops because he's got bucket-loads of talent.
“I think it's a good situation for him, as Sam [Allardyce] has a good record of getting the best out of potentially difficult players.
“He's got great vision and ability on the ball - hopefully he will start playing regularly and we will talk about Ravel Morrison for the right reasons.”
Dowie also offered his opinion on Chelsea, who bought Kevin de Bruyne from Genk on deadline day in addition to their signing of Gary Cahill earlier in January.
“I must admit I thought Chelsea might have been more active this month, but Andre Villas-Boas has been very open about the fact that they have a project and the summer is going to be more important,” he added.
“They've got a very good player in Cahill. I was surprised he didn't start against Swansea, but maybe it's a case of getting used to the pattern of play. But who knows? Maybe he will be straight in against United at the weekend.”
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Spurs recruited 33-year-old Louis Saha from Everton and are close to securing defender Ryan Nelsen, 34, from Blackburn, and Dowie feels that their squad is now good enough to maintain a title challenge.
“Redknapp likes Saha and it's a low-risk move as he's only there until the end of the season,” the 47-year-old told Yahoo Sport.
“Now he's moved Roman Pavlyuchenko on, Saha is the best like-for-like replacement for Emmanuel Adebayor.
“The one area he might have a problem is right-back now Vedran Corluka has left, but Nelsen's arrival could give him the option of playing Younes Kaboul on the right.
“They've got a very rounded squad and I think they're right in the shake-up. It's not just a two-horse race.”
The ex-Crystal Palace boss also had praise for Manchester City’s Roberto Mancini both for his signing of David Pizarro on loan from Roma and for his handling of controversial wantaway Carlos Tevez.
“[Pizarro] is not your usual Mancini player - he likes to float around in pockets and offers a different option from the likes of [Samir] Nasri, David Silva and [Sergio] Aguero,” Dowie added.
“Mancini knows he can grind it out with the likes of Yaya Toure, Gareth Barry and Nigel de Jong, but Pizarro just offers something a bit more creative which they could have done with against Everton last night.
“But there was no need for major changes, and this is just a bit of tinkering.
“I think the way Mancini has handled the Tevez situation has been very good.
“He offered him an olive branch and gave him an opportunity to apologise to the team and the manager, but Carlos chose not to. He is in a difficult situation now.
“The Russian and South American transfer windows are still open, but if he does not move then he will have to come back and apologise, otherwise he won't be getting paid.
“I think Tevez has been badly advised, and it's a real shame to see a such a talented player spending his peak years on a golf course. He and his advisors need to find a way to resolve this and put it to bed.”
Dowie was also surprised by Manchester United letting highly-rated youngster Ravel Morrison leave for West Ham.
“If you'd said to me 18 months ago that a Championship side were going to sign Morrison, I would have been incredulous,” he admitted.
“But he has had a difficult time, got distracted on and off the pitch.
“The lad's got to play football and make the most of his God-given talent. The first time I saw him about a year-and-a-half ago he was absolutely magnificent. Since then he has been less effective, but I hope the penny drops because he's got bucket-loads of talent.
“I think it's a good situation for him, as Sam [Allardyce] has a good record of getting the best out of potentially difficult players.
“He's got great vision and ability on the ball - hopefully he will start playing regularly and we will talk about Ravel Morrison for the right reasons.”
Dowie also offered his opinion on Chelsea, who bought Kevin de Bruyne from Genk on deadline day in addition to their signing of Gary Cahill earlier in January.
“I must admit I thought Chelsea might have been more active this month, but Andre Villas-Boas has been very open about the fact that they have a project and the summer is going to be more important,” he added.
“They've got a very good player in Cahill. I was surprised he didn't start against Swansea, but maybe it's a case of getting used to the pattern of play. But who knows? Maybe he will be straight in against United at the weekend.”
For more insight from Iain Dowie and other leading managers plus exclusive Barclays Premier League highlights go to www.yahoo.co.uk/sport
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Live!
England 1-0 Belgium, Netherlands 4-0 Northern Ireland - follow all the international action LIVE! ahead of Euro 2012
With countries across the continent gearing up for their final warm-up games ahead of Euro 2012, join us for all the action from Saturday's friendlies. Get in touch with us via Twitter with your reaction.
Hosted by Joe Doyle
Hosted by Joe Doyle
19:59 BST
Unfortunately for Northern Ireland, they are trailing the Netherlands 4-0 at half-time. Looks like that one's all sewn up then.
19:54 BST
We're still getting plenty of Hazard chat on Twitter. A few are now saying that he's not worth the hype, others saying he was brilliant(!?) and others (which I agree with), saying he created much of his own hype. What do you think? Get involved!
19:46 BST
Joe Hart has also been giving his thoughts after the Belgium game: "It was a really tough game, a good run out. I thought we played well, [but] we were a little bit bitty at times.
"But, we came through. Obviously there were a lot of changes so it's good to get the result.
"Belgium are a very, very strong side who are going to be really good in the future. Vincent [Kompany] told me about them and said that they were coming good and I totally agree with him."
"But, we came through. Obviously there were a lot of changes so it's good to get the result.
"Belgium are a very, very strong side who are going to be really good in the future. Vincent [Kompany] told me about them and said that they were coming good and I totally agree with him."
19:38 BST
Here's Roy Hodgson's reaction to the result and some injury chat: "I'm very pleased, it's been a hard week and we've used a lot of players. There was a lot of disruption in the second-half with substitutions – some forced upon us, some we wanted to do. But it's still a very good end to the week playing against a good Belgian team here. Arguably even stronger than the Norwegian team we played last week and I've got to be more than happy that we've come out with another victory."
"[Gary] Cahill I suppose is slightly more of a concern for me because it is a jaw injury. We're desperately hoping the CT scan doesn't show any fracture and it's just going to be a bruising situation, which will be bad enough, but won't stop him taking part in the tournament. As far as John's [Terry] concerned he felt his hamstring a little bit. Again it wasn't a major thing when he came off but we still need to scan it just to be 100 per cent sure."
Suffice to say, if Cahill has broken his jaw, he won't play any part in the tournament.
"[Gary] Cahill I suppose is slightly more of a concern for me because it is a jaw injury. We're desperately hoping the CT scan doesn't show any fracture and it's just going to be a bruising situation, which will be bad enough, but won't stop him taking part in the tournament. As far as John's [Terry] concerned he felt his hamstring a little bit. Again it wasn't a major thing when he came off but we still need to scan it just to be 100 per cent sure."
Suffice to say, if Cahill has broken his jaw, he won't play any part in the tournament.
19:35 BST
And another point from today: Eden Hazard wasn't great. Don't think you can judge him on one performance though. What do you think? Is it just a case of too much hype around the Chelsea-bound Belgian?
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