LONDON // The Tottenham striker Darren Bent has nothing but praise for the way Harry Redknapp has transformed the team and given them the confidence to move off the bottom of the table. Redknapp has only been in charge for a week, but he has wasted no time in stamping his authority on White Hart Lane.
After beating Bolton 2-0 in his first game in charge, Redknapp then helped the Cockerels produce a miraculous comeback against arch-rivals Arsenal to snatch a 4-4 draw. And the former West Ham and Portsmouth manager capped a dream week when his side came from behind once again to beat league-leaders Liverpool 2-1 on Saturday. The victory helped Tottenham move off the bottom of the table and Bent claims it is all down to the influence of Redknapp.
Bent said: "Harry seems to be able to work these miracles and, at the moment, he has got the players playing and probably knowing they can win games. "At the start of the season we weren't really showing any backbone and were getting beaten too easily and giving away too many easy goals. But at the moment we seem resigned not to lose, even if we go behind we still feel we can win games and it just seems to be happening at the moment.
"At one stage at the training ground it was a horrible place to be. Everyone was just really down and there was no team morale. "Since Harry's come in everyone's just shown a new lease of life and you've seen that in the performances. It wasn't nice before when [Juande] Ramos came in and banished a lot of players to the reserves because he didn't want them. "Harry's arrived and made everyone welcome and I think that's the respect you've got to show people. If you show them respect they do what's been done on the pitch and get results for them.
"He has made people believe they are good players and we shouldn't be where we are. Obviously with Juande and the Spanish it was a bit hard but the players now believe how good we are and how we can progress. "Harry can talk to people and have a proper conversation and people know what he is going on about. I think that is the main thing that's changed since he's come in." Former assistant manager Gus Poyet felt that Bent could not play alongside summer signing Roman Pavlyuchenko.
But Bent showed that Poyet was wrong when he played a crucial role in setting up Pavlyuchenko for the vital winner against Liverpool in injury time and said he can forge a lethal partnership with the Russian international. Bent added: "It was said me and Roman couldn't play together but as you saw I set him up and he scored the winner. With time perhaps the partnership will blossom. Harry's come in and made us two play together and hopefully it will pay off. Ideally Harry wants to play 4-4-2, so if he can get us two working together it is going to help the team."
Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher said his side will bounce back from their first league defeat of the season. Carragher said: "Look how Chelsea have reacted since we beat them." @Email:sports@thenational.ae