Who is the best Tottenham Hotspur manager of all time?

Harry Redknapp guided Tottenham to the Champions League for the first time in years

Question: Who is the best Tottenham Hotspur manager of all time?
Position‹3 of 5›: Harry Redknapp is the best Tottenham manager of all time
Argument‹2 of 2: Harry Redknapp guided Tottenham to the Champions League for the first time in years

The argument

Harry Redknapp's claim to be Tottenham's best manager rests on a rescue act that ended in the club's most glamorous modern adventure. He took charge in October 2008 with Spurs bottom of the Premier League, having taken two points from their first eight games and looking like relegation candidates. Within a season and a half he had not only steadied the club but driven it upwards, and in 2009-10 he led Tottenham to a fourth-place finish — securing qualification for the Champions League for the first time in the club's history, breaking into an elite long monopolised by the so-called 'big four'. The campaign that followed justified the achievement. In 2010-11 Tottenham reached the quarter-finals of the Champions League at the first attempt, beating the reigning Italian champions Internazionale at home in a match remembered for Gareth Bale's destruction of the defender Maicon, and topping a group containing some of Europe's strongest sides before falling to Real Madrid. For a club that had spent decades watching the competition from the outside, this was a leap onto the biggest stage in club football. Redknapp's Tottenham also played with a verve that won admirers well beyond the fanbase, developing Bale and Luka Modrić into world-class players and combining attacking flair with newfound consistency near the top of the table. Judged by the scale of the turnaround and the historic milestone it delivered, this argument holds, Harry Redknapp — the manager who first carried Tottenham into the Champions League — is the best in the club's history.

Premises

[P1]Redknapp took over with Tottenham bottom of the Premier League and led them to a fourth-place finish in 2009-10. [P2] That finish secured the club's first-ever Champions League qualification, followed by a quarter-final run beating Inter Milan. [P3] His side combined a historic milestone with attacking football and the development of world-class players. [C] Therefore, Harry Redknapp is the best Tottenham manager of all time.

Counter-arguments

Rivals for the title point out that Redknapp won no major trophy at Tottenham, whereas earlier managers did. Bill Nicholson delivered the League and FA Cup Double, multiple FA Cups, a League Cup and a European trophy — a haul a single Champions League campaign cannot match. A best-manager claim usually rests on silverware and sustained success, and a fourth-place finish plus one thrilling quarter-final run, for all their glamour, fall short of that benchmark. Attractive football and developing Bale and Modrić are genuine merits, but shared with other managers rather than decisive.

Rejecting the premises

[Rejecting P1] Leading Spurs to fourth is a strong achievement but not a trophy, and the best-manager title is usually anchored in the silverware Redknapp did not win at the club. [Rejecting P2] One Champions League quarter-final is a fine run, yet Bill Nicholson's Double, FA Cups and European Cup Winners' Cup represent far greater sustained success. [Rejecting P3] Attractive football and player development are merits several managers share and do not settle an all-time ranking against a trophy-laden predecessor. [Rejecting C] Measured by honours and sustained success, Redknapp's tenure does not clearly make him Tottenham's best manager.