Shut your cake hole Redknapp

Harry Redknapp said about Jack Grealish: “He needs to go somewhere where he can play,” These comments were made at the launch of AIB’s The Toughest Series by JOE.

He then goes on and say: “If he goes somewhere to be a squad player, his career is going to go down. He looks to me to be a kid who needs to be told he is great, that ‘we will build a team around you. You will be our main man. You will make things happen, everything has to go through you Jack, this is how we are going to play’.”

He then adds, “He’s not going to replace Dele Alli, that’s for sure. Or Eriksen. You can’t have a team of artists. We all want good players, but you also need Wanyama’s or whoever else you want to play in there.”

First of all, all players are squad players, including Kane and Alli. Good players get picked because they shine above the others when given a chance and both Kane and Alli took their chances, worked hard and became part of the first eleven.

Take Alli, he was bought as a squad player, but he worked hard, shone and worked his way to the forefront. The moral of that story, work hard and you won’t be that far from the manager’s mind.

Injuries happen all the time, and if Alli or Eriksen drop form or are injured, then Grealish will be given his chance. If he believes he is good enough and shows it then Alli, Eriksen, or whoever he replaces will have to wait for their chance again. That is how it works and should work. You are going to a club like Tottenham because the manager has faith in your abilities, the rest is up to the player.

Whichever top six club he went to he will be part of a squad. If he wants immediate and guaranteed football, then he should go to a club that is an also-ran. In other words, those clubs that are there to make up the numbers, like West Ham, Bournemouth, Watford and now Arsenal etc.

Of course, I might be being a bit unfair to Redknapp as he might be thinking that this kid isn’t good enough to set foot on the world’s stage and in a roundabout way he is warning us that we shouldn’t take a player that isn’t up to it. In other words, he is kicking him between the legs, while at the same time he is patting him on the head and saying “good boy”.

Or he might have a grudge against Spurs for Levy sacking him. He got the sack for his own stupidity. In his final season Spurs finished fourth, but he took his eye off the ball and allowed the speculation of getting the England job go to his head. We dropped points, and he never got the job in the end. We were only two points away from replacing Arsenal, in fourth position, and a UEFA Champions League place (because of Chelsea winning the competition that year the other places went to the top three clubs).

It is for the reader to speculate on the reasons why he said what he said. Personally, I think, on this occasion, he wanted to show that he was flash Harry and that he had two orifices, sadly he picked the wrong one to speak out off. That isn’t necessarily a bad thing if you are a ventriloquist’s dummy.

Will Grealish go to Spurs? In my opinion, he can be hit and miss, but he does have the talent. The question is, if he did go to Spurs what can Pochettino do for him? As we have seen with the youngsters and seasoned professionals he can make them tick better. Working with squad members and kids has produced wonders. Grealish must ask himself whether he would benefit from Pochettino’s skills and does he believe in himself, if yes, then he should go for it. If not, then take ‘Arry’s advice, ‘Arry curry (sorry, that should be hara-kiri).

But this might be all pie in the sky. Aston Villa are playing hardball, and Levy is playing the same game. We will see which one blinks first. Whoever blinks first Grealish can’t go any further where he is at the moment.

Who said, “Go ahead, make my day”. Oh, yes, Clint Eastwood’s Harry Callaghan in Dirty Harry. What a coincidence, Dirty Harry… who would have thought of it? Not me gov, I am only the messager. Didn’t he – as in Dirty ‘Arry (sorry Harry) also say, “Do you feel lucky?” Well, do ya, punk?” Well Jack Grealish, do you?