Harry Redknapp's 'Confusion' Comment Insults Luka Modric

Tottenham Hotspur have played in two competitive matches this season. Their best player has featured in neither of them. Luka Modric was 'ruled out' of Spurs' Hearts match with a slight hamstring injury, but he also failed to take the field against Manchester United and Tottenham were subsequently pasted by a midfield that featured Anderson and Tom Cleverley in the centre. At this point, even Harry Redknapp has admitted that Modric is sitting because he doesn't want to play for Spurs, hoping instead for a move to Chelsea.

But you already knew all that. At least, I sure hope you do, because God knows that nobody's shut up about it since Saturday (and I'm to blame there as well, since hey, writing material). You also probably know that Harry Redknapp has said that Modric has sat out because he's 'confused' about the situation and that Spurs will be offering him a new deal. But I'm going to talk about that anyway, because whenever anyone says anything that patronising I kind of feel like it deserves some comment.

Confused? Really? Luka Modric doesn't strike* me as confused in the slightest. He wants to move to Chelsea, and does not want to play for Spurs, and therefore he is not playing for Spurs. That's not the mark of a confused person, unless you're using 'confused' for 'misguided', in which case you are a bona fide prat.

*Unfortunate word choice, in the circumstances.

Spurs are substantially under-paying Modric and Chelsea offer him the better chance of winning trophies. There's nothing particularly unclear about the situation, and the player can force through a transfer by refusing to play. Which he is in fact doing. Calling Modric 'confused' because he's taking steps to secure a transfer to Chelsea is seems to imply that he's doing this all by accident, which he isn't, and is pretty deeply insulting to Modric-the-human-being-who-wants-to-leave.

Obviously, Tottenham would be in trouble if Modric left, and Chelsea's pursuit of him should probably be generating more 'tapping-up' comments than it has so far, so the Blues hardly hold the moral high ground on this one. But calling sitting out of a match to force a move the act of someone who's simply confused is beyond patronising, which has been a theme of this transfer saga from the very beginning.

Spurs had the chance to become an established Champions League team. They've failed to take it, and their best player wants to move on as a result. Chelsea's bids, in Redknapp's own words (glad to see that they exist now) are 'no longer derisory'. It's time to either sell or convince Modric to play - but for goodness sake, Spurs, treat him like a real person rather than a lost little child who doesn't know what's good for him.