From Swans to Spurs?

A popular rumour today is that which links current Swansea manager Brendan Rodgers with a switch to Premier League rivals Tottenham, should Spurs boss Harry Redknapp take up the England job. With Redknapp the popular favourite to manage his country, and the lack of many other credible candidates putting pressure on the FA to do all they can to get their man, a vacancy looks likely to arise at White Hart Lane. Tottenham have had their share of managers over the last couple of decades without any extraordinary success, Martin Jol probably the pick pre-Redknapp in taking them to within a lasagna-sized margin of the Champions League, but even he could not survive the chop. One Juande Ramos later, and Redknapp was the man tasked with taking over a Spurs side who had picked up just two points from the first eight games of the 08/09 season. Redknapp has gone on to produce unexpected results, leading Spurs in to the Champions League quarter finals in 10/11. This season, for a while at least, Spurs were even challenging for the Premier League title, although a marked drop in form coinciding with the "Redknapp for England" rumours has seen their chances evaporate. On top of this relative success, Redknapp has also had Spurs playing some of the most attractive football in England in recent years. All this adds an extra intrigue to the race to be Tottenham boss, should Harry leave; no longer can Spurs experiment with a Christian Gross or a Jacques Santini, they now need someone who can successfully encourage a team to play football that is both easy on the eye and capable of winning big matches.


This is where the rumours about Rodgers come in. Maybe it is a case of journalists attempting to add two and two together and coming out with four point five, but Rodgers' Swansea side arguably play even more attractive football than Spurs. The newly-promoted Swans have earned many plaudits for their style of play, earning comparisons with European Champions Barcelona, the Spaniards having brought slick passing and possession football back in to vogue with their phenomenal success in recent years. Having escaped the relative anonymity of The Championship, at least as far as media coverage goes, the Swans are now heralded for their play, with the likes of Leon Britton and Joe Allen receiving compliments they probably never dreamed of. A year ago, few casual followers of football would have uttered the names Britton and Allen in the same breath as Xavi and Iniesta; now that has changed. Obviously Swansea are not world beaters, not title challengers and not anywhere near as effective as Barcelona. However, this has more to do with a lack of resources preventing them from augmenting the likes of Britton and Allen with top class team mates, rather than the Xavi and Iniesta-comparisons being ridiculous. It is testament to Rodgers that he has managed to create such a watchable side out of a squad that on paper looks very average. At times they have suffered from trying to play the right way against opponents that have superior quality in other areas, but they have also upset the form book on multiple occasions this season, proving that passing the ball well can help David to beat Goliath. As a result, the Swans sit a handsome tenth in the Premier League at present.


The big question is whether Rodgers can make the step up to manage a team where there would be infinitely more pressure on him? With all due respect to Swansea, if their good intentions had flopped and they had headed for a swift return to The Championship, it would not have created too huge a negative buzz about the manager; after all, it was close on thirty years since the Swans had played top flight football so Rodgers was in a win-win situation just by taking them there. At Spurs, big things would be expected from him, with European qualification a minimum and a title challenge the goal. He certainly has a good pedigree, having worked with top stars at Chelsea whilst reserve team manager under Jose Mourinho. He also has vast experience in coaching for a man of just thirty-nine, having spent a decade at Reading with their Academy after seeing his fledgling playing career at the club cut short by injury. However, his early first team managerial career was less convincing. After an unremarkable short stint at Watford, he was poached by the Royals to replace Steve Coppell, a clear case of a favourite son returning home. Unfortunately, things did not gel for Rodgers at Reading, and he was out of the job by Christmas, with Chairman Sir John Madejski swinging the axe on a manager for the first time in a decade. Having been the public choice to take the job, he had fallen down by arriving with an arrogant attitude that did not reflect his actual track record. Youth team and reserve team success and working under the big name of the day is one thing; producing when the pressure is on is another, and Rodgers had little to back up his bold statements. He arrived back at Reading talking about bringing a "World Class Model", presumably a reference to having nabbed Mourinho's philosophies, which has proved to be ironic as he has proven at Swansea that his style of football is very different to that of his Portuguese mentor. The problem was that he was following the most successful manager the Royals had ever had by a long way, and yet he was coming in boasting about being world class.  When results didn't go his way, the writing soon appeared on the wall.


That was then. If Rodgers was to walk in to Tottenham with similar bombast, he would at least have his success at Swansea to show as support. Not that I believe he would make such statements any more, as he appears to have helped himself to a few slices of humble pie since those early press conferences at Madejski Stadium. Rodgers deserves a lot of credit for not only taking an unfancied Swansea team in to the Premier League, but also for the manner in which the team have achieved this. It would be a gamble for Tottenham to take him on if Redknapp does go, but a calculated one. Rodgers has worked with the kind of names Tottenham possess and crave, and he favours the kind of football that they want to play. It could be a match made in heaven, it could even be world class.