Sorry Spurs give Harry reasons to be fearful
“It’s possible, for sure,” Redknapp admitted. “But I hope they don’t because we play them in the Carling Cup Final at the beginning of March!”
If the football world is relying on Tottenham Hotspur to scupper United’s plans of an unprecedented quadruple, or quintuple if you throw in the FIFA Club World Cup that has already been collected, then the bookies might as well pay out now. If Alex Ferguson could hand pick any team for United to come up against at the moment, it would be Spurs.
Redknapp, whose Portsmouth team eliminated United en route to winning the cup last season, has barely hidden his frustration with the players he inherited at White Hart Lane from Juande Ramos last October.
He castigated half of his squad following the recent defeat at Wigan and ridiculed Darren Bent after an awful miss against Portsmouth last week, so the Spurs manager could not have been surprised by the post-match comments from Teddy Sheringham, acting as a television pundit, who suggested that his players ‘lacked fight’ and appeared ‘happy to be out of the Cup’.
Roman Pavlyuchenko may have given Spurs a fifth minute lead with a glancing header from Tom Huddlestone’s cross, but that was the sum total of Tottenham’s attacking threat. United soon found their stride and ultimately brushed Spurs aside without much resistance.
So Sheringham’s condemnation was hardly misplaced, yet Redknapp, perhaps feeling that open season on his players had gone on for too long, showed that there is actually some fight within the Spurs dressing-room with a blistering response. If only Redknapp’s players shared his passion.
Redknapp said: “I’m disappointed to hear Teddy Sheringham saying things like that. He ought to know better. It’s very unfair and I don’t what he is getting at.
“How can people say that the players weren’t trying?
“People are just jumping on the bandwagon at the moment, and getting on our back. It’s not as if we were beaten 6-1 here. We have lost 2-1 and we had chances to get a draw from the game.”
Spurs appear rudderless at the moment and relegation from the Premier League is a genuine possibility, regardless of the club’s illustrious history.
They were never going to be a match for United and, let’s face it, the Carling Cup Final on March 1 is hardly going to be a footballing equivalent of Ali versus Frazier.
The irony of this game is that Spurs were ultimately undone by two old boys in Michael Carrick and Dimitar Berbatov. Berbatov’s goal, two minutes after a Paul Scholes strike that deflected into the net off Tom Huddlestone, sealed the victory, but Carrick’s influence led to both goals.
A short corner for Scholes and a sublime pass for Berbatov initiated the two goals and Redknapp, the manager who gave Carrick his head as a youngster at West Ham, admitted that the England midfielder is now becoming United’s heartbeat.
“Michael has always been a top player and Spurs have never replaced him, that’s for sure,” Redknapp said: “He makes United tick and I’ve no doubt he can establish himself in the England team as the holding player behind Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard.
“When I brought Portsmouth here last season, we were doing great until Michael came off the bench and changed the game. He is a really under-rated player, but he is showing just what he is about for United.”
United manager Ferguson, who rubbished reports in the media that he was behind a scheme to end FA Cup replays as “absolutely scandalous,” is facing more injury problems for tomorrow’s trip to West Brom, with Danny Welbeck and debutant Fabio da Silva both limping out of this game.
But they were the only downside on a day when United were allowed to overcome a sloppy start to book their place in the fifth round.
Ferguson said: “We gave Spurs a start, but we recovered well and played some good stuff. Their keeper made some great saves, but Paul Scholes got us back into the game with his deflected goal. It was a great strike from a fantastic cross by Michael Carrick. It’s a dangerous game when you are only winning 2-1, but we were always comfortable.”
MAN OF THE MATCH: Michael Carrick — The former Spurs midfielder dictated the game in his quietly efficient manner. Eyebrows were raised when he arrived at United in August 2006, but he is now a crucial cog in Alex Ferguson’s team.
REFEREE: Peter Walton 7 — One of the Premier League’s more restrained officials and his style rubs off on the players. He was never troubled by either team during this game.
MATCH RATING: ** — Very few thrillers at Old Trafford these days, but then that’s because nobody is good enough to push United into fifth gear.
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