redknapp tax evasion - trial begins january

[Ian Royal]

Spent the weekend with a defence lawyer who's opinion was that he'll get off because there only has to be three England fans on the jury who think he's our only chance of a trophy.... All that did was make me instantly decide if I needed defence I'd be asking someone else.

[YateleyRoyal]

Comments on Beeb journalist live at trial make it seem like the judge is in Arry and Mandaric's favour....

[andrew1957]

Must say as an England fan I hope he gets off as I would love him to take over from Capello - but no chance of that happening if he is convicted.

[Hoop Blah]

Comments on Beeb journalist live at trial make it seem like the judge is in Arry and Mandaric's favour....

I don't think the judge will be in eithers favour as such. He should just be outlining the pro's and con's of both arguments to keep them at the forefront of he jury's mind as they go off to deliberate.

The defence seems to boil down to the money just being a gift/loan for making some investments. How much they believe that will dictate the outcome I guess.

[Cobi]

Must say as an England fan I hope he gets off as I would love him to take over from Capello - but no chance of that happening if he is convicted.

What convinces you he can do as good or a better job than Capello? I don't think he will. He's a good club manager but he's hardly got an overflowing trophy cabinet.

Not convinced by Redknapp as England manager at all.

[cmonurz]

Haven’t really followed this, but from what I heard on the radio, their defence is that the payment in relation to Crouch was a gift ‘making good on a promise’ and as such it didn’t constitute a bonus payment? Is that it?

[Hoop Blah]

Must say as an England fan I hope he gets off as I would love him to take over from Capello - but no chance of that happening if he is convicted.

What convinces you he can do as good or a better job than Capello? I don't think he will. He's a good club manager but he's hardly got an overflowing trophy cabinet.

Not convinced by Redknapp as England manager at all.

I think Redknapp could be an excellent England manager.

As I see it, the key to success as England manager is creating the right environment to free the players to play at their best and coming up with a system of play to get the best from the resources available to you.

There seems to be very little doubt that Redknapp is an excellent man manager and has consistently created the right environment for free flowing and pretty effective football at all his clubs. He gets a lot out of players other managers don't always get the best from and seems to have the knack of keeping players happy and playing well.

The two biggest obstacles to Englands success is dealing with the pressure of expectation and creating a real togetherness (spirit, relaxed atmosphere whatever it is) within the squad to make the players perform to their maximum together. I don't think there's a lack of quality available, it's much more about how we harness it.

Redknapp seems to have the qualities to do it. One of his weaknesses as a club manager is that he likes to change things around a bit too much. At international level he'll already have a lot of (free) resources to play with but less time to make changes (due to lack of games) so it might even suit his style more too.

[Royal Rother]

That's quite a good case you've presented there.

[ZacNaloen]

He's not just a good manager, he's a good motivator and has a great tactical football brain.

May not be bright in other areas, but you can't call him stupid, just uneducated.

[FiNeRaIn]

I don't think there's a lack of quality available, it's much more about how we harness it.

In terms of quality we are significantly behind Spain, Holland, Argentina, Italy, Brazil,etc We are a quarter final team at best, we are the everton of international football. Lots of expectation but the players aren't good enough for the next level. Its about time we accepted that.

[Royal Rother]

I think most of us do.

To me it seems so obvious I think I glossed over that part of HB's post!

[Hoop Blah]

I don't think there's a lack of quality available, it's much more about how we harness it.

In terms of quality we are significantly behind Spain, Holland, Argentina, Italy, Brazil,etc We are a quarter final team at best, we are the everton of international football. Lots of expectation but the players aren't good enough for the next level. Its about time we accepted that.

See I disagree there, to an extent.

I think we probably lack the depth of reall attacking quality yes, but if you look at Dutch squad it isn't all that good but they, like the Germans, have managed to get the best out of what they've got by actually playing well as a unit and for once staying together.

I'm a big fan of a lot of the Dutch players (van Bommel, van Persie, Sneijder and van der Vaart etc) but I wouldn't swap any of their back 5 for ours and they've got players like de Jong, Hetinga, Huntelaar and Kuyt who are distinctly average. Even their top players are ones that have failed at the top level in the past, so it just goes to show how powerful it can be to get a team balanced and motivated to get the best out of a set of talented players.

Spain are a cut above at the moment, but they're a bit of a freak occurance of a group of players coming through and gelling at the right time around a couple of outstanding players (see the France side for a similar phenonenum not too long ago).

I'm not saying we have the most talented group of players in the world, we're still behind a lot of nations in the quality and quantity of the technical players we produce, but we've enough quality to put together an effective team given the right circumstances. Will those circumstances ever be allowed to develop? I'm not so sure to be honest.

[Hoop Blah]

I think most of us do.

To me it seems so obvious I think I glossed over that part of HB's post!

In brief though, you don't need a squad full of Messi's or Inesita's to make a tournament winning team.

Used effectively in the right team the quality we have is enough to flourish in a tournament and, given a fiar wind, beat the best teams out there. Maybe not as many times as they'd beat us over 10 matches, but enough to give us a chance at winning something (although very unlikely in 2014).

[Wax Jacket]

GREECE GREECE GREECE

so much of it comes down to attitude and nerve

[FiNeRaIn]

Jury sent home for the day.

[Friday's Legacy]

Jury sent home for the day.

you could elaborate further.. the news said the jury couldn't come to a decision and have been sent home to return with their verdict tomorrow.

[Tails]

If you couldn't extrapolate that from his post, you're pretty thick. IMHO.

[Platypuss]

Jury will be returning to court shortly.....

[exileinleeds]

Jury back....

[exileinleeds]

Not Guilty