Source: Team_Talk
Fixture fury for raging Redknapp
Harry Redknapp has launched a frustrated rant over Tottenham's fixture congestion and the logic of an international week before the season.[LNB] Spurs lost a pre-season friendly to Villarreal on Thursday night and are now due to take on Benfica on Tuesday before a game against Fiorentina on August 7.[LNB]Redknapp will then lose the majority of his squad for the week in the build-up to Tottenham's Premier League opener against Manchester City on August 14 due to international fixtures on August 11, when England play Hungary.[LNB]The White Hart Lane club will then face a Champions League qualifier in mid-August and their manager is less than impressed with the overload in matches.[LNB]"It's crazy," he told a press conference after the defeat to Villarreal. "We pile more games in. The last thing we need really is to be playing games. [LNB]"We need to train. I need to get the players on the training pitch because all we do is play and recover.[LNB]"I didn't want this game tonight. Too many games have been scheduled and it's a problem."[LNB]He added: "Can someone tell me why we have an international week on the week of the season starting?[LNB]"They have just been away as a group together to the World Cup. They have come home, they're probably sick of the sight of each other.[LNB]"Now they are going to have an international week before we play the first game of the season and then we play a Champions League qualifier.[LNB]"I won't see those players from the Saturday night until the Friday before we play Manchester City. I won't see them once, not once.[LNB]"How can that be a way to prepare for the start of the season?" [LNB]Redknapp continued: "There will probably be one or two players left at the training ground for the whole week before we play Manchester City. [LNB]"Why? What is the point in it? A meaningless (international) friendly for what reason?"
