Harry Redknapp – a man loved and loathed in equal measures
It’s hard not to have some opinion on Harry Redknapp. Whether you think he’s a top geezer, lovely jubbly man of the people. A shifty, underhand dealing crafty chancer, or simply a melting waxwork of his son Jamie, most people can muster up feelings one way or another for him. West Ham fans love him, Southampton fans hate him. Bournemouth fans love him, Portsmouth fans hate him. Tottenham fans love him, Tottenham fans hate him. He doesn’t mince his words does ‘Arry and he remains a man loved and loathed in equal measure.
Although never seeming like a particularly ambitious or career driven manager, his club record has been surprisingly inspirational. At Bournemouth he became their most successful ever manager, helping them escape the drop to the Conference in his first season, famously beating Man United in the cup in 84 and winning the old 3rd Division in 1987. At West Ham his chirpy wide boy personality seemed to fit perfectly with the club’s, and during his time he gave the Boleyn faithful good football, a famous parade of youth players, a few shiftily acquired but entertaining foreign signings and their second highest top flight finish ever. At Portsmouth he got them promoted to the top flight for the first time in 40 years during only his second season and after leaving, returning, then leaving again, he left behind a legacy that included a surprise FA Cup victory in 2008 – the clubs first in 68 years. Even now at Spurs, despite grumblings among certain sections of the fan base about his inability to make the best out of the sides potential and propel them into the top 4, ‘Arry oversaw a great escape of sorts last season after the Lilywhites languished on only 2 points when he took over in October, eventually propelling them up to 8th. Not bad me ol’ cockle.
So it’s hard to see why he’s so loathed by some, even if he does pop off to manage his clubs local rivals for a bit, or leave them to take a more prestigious job once in a while. His habit of starting every interview with “Well…something something…wasn’t it?” may be a bit grating but surely not too much to hold against him? His penchant for nicking former players off his old clubs doesn’t often endear him greatly in truth, even if – as in the case of Pompey this year – he does them a favor with the fee. His one of lads persona, something that usually goes down well with fans, doesn’t always help him either, as at West Ham, where a frank, pub chat-like interview with a fanzine ended up getting him fired by a Chairman (Terry Brown) none to happy with his honesty. His passion can work against him sometimes too, and he tends to get a bit twitchy when riled up, (which can be a bit off putting, especially on such an odd face) – but he tells it ‘ow he sees it does ‘Arry you see. Wallop!!, that’s the ticket.
It’s his off the field activities that have garnered the most negative criticism. Always seen as a bit dodgy, somewhat unfairly at times, the revelations that he may have had a secret bank account in Monaco or received a couple of nags as a gift from an agent didn’t really come as much of a shock to anyone, whether they were true or not. His arrest in 2007 on suspicion of fraud and false accounting cost him consideration for the England job, even though he was never charged, something he still – understandably – holds a grudge about today. But Harry shouldn’t be the type of person that gets on with the rozzers or the establishment. He should be the type of person that turns up midway through a Guy Richie film and places a monkey on a dead horse.
His tenure at Tottenham is his first real experience at a genuinely big club, he’s used to being a bit of an outsider. Only more time will tell if he’s cut out for this type of management or whether he is just chancing it at this level. He does play favourites but also seems like a boss players want to play for (if you’re in the in crowd of course). Love him or loathe him, he’s a character, and with Jose Mourinho busy pouting half way across Europe and Neil Warnock mellowing in the lower leagues, the Premier League needs all it can get.
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” West Ham fans love him” utter rubbish as a hammer myself i can honestly say i can’t stand the twichy twot, his face resembeles a sweaty scrotum and he is totaly untrustworthy a real snidy two faced underhanded waste of space
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Hving read the educated comment by cb800,all I can say is “Doesn’t it make you proud to be a football fan. Fans cover a wide range of the population but unfortunately the illiterate cb200s of this world get us all characterised as vocabulary challenged morons. cb200 you are doing a great job for those that want to put football down. Apologies if you are actually 8 years old or less in which case the one to one teaching assistant programme is not working.
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“West Ham fans love him”???
Who the hell writes this ignorant crap??
– He’s as hated as Ince, Lampard jnr & Defoe down the Boleyn. He left us in a financial mess (thankfully we pulled the plug well before Portsmouth did).
He sold Rio and spunked the money on some of the worst players ever seen at UP (and that really is saying something). And the agent fees conveniently went to his own son (alledgedly, of course).
But the final straw was him going on about how ‘West Ham are his club’ (and apparently he suported Arsenal as a boy), and yet he was happy to join our most hated Premier League rivals Tottenham.
But this is the man who went from Portsmouth – Southampton – Portsmouth, so we shouldn’t be surprised.
He’ll probably end his career managing Rangers or Celtic, swearing loyalty, and later defecting to the other side. Depending on who offers the most money, of course.
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Redknapp in charge of Spurs is like having Fayhed in charge of Harrods. A two bob chancer.
He kept Spurs up blah, blah, blah…
Did anyone see the squad they had? Big f-ing deal.
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I don’t know where you get the idea that he is loved by West Ham fans, well he was for a brief period I suppose, but now he is universally despised. The man has no loyalties, he will happily spend money for short term gains but will eventually bring that club major problems by which time he has seen the writing and moved on, and of course there are the constant rumours and accusations that have been following this man for years, smoke and fire I think.
No in my opinion he is a horrible, selfish and greedy man that has fooled the press with his cheeky chappy image
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I don’t get the “He plays his favourites” stick he seems to get. What does that mean exactly? If he had been at the same club for the same length of time as Fergie or Wenger would that line work in a derogatory manner? Who was Fergie’s favourites? Ferdinand? Neville? Giggs? Scholes? Rooney? What about Wenger’s? Is it Henry? Campbell? Fabregas? Vieria?
Who are these favourites that Harry plays? Defoe… (Who at Spurs would like to see him out of side? No one) Crouch… (He is not guaranteed to start any game) Kaboul… (Are we denying that Spurs need cover in CB position? Can we be sure he won’t ever be good enough to replace King in the long term, Good job Harry bought Bassong as well, then isn’t it?)
Spurs fans were digging Harry out for favouring Robbie Keane… Keano won’t finish this season under him because Harry has moved him on.
Time will tell if Harry is good enough to start knocking on the doors of the established top 4, but what do we think about Moyes, O’Neill or Mancini, are they good enough…
If Harry gets lucky enough to experience Champions League football he will be able to buy quality established players. Right now he has to buy players that can work the Premiership or players that have the potential to become established world class players (not the finished articles.)
Meanwhile he has taken a team staring relegation in the face, tinkered and today sits 4th with a Qtr-final tie in the FA cup coming up.
Not bad in my book… actually it’s pretty dam impressive.
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To the angry ‘ammers…my apologies, I was always under the impression he was generally liked. The west ham fans I know appreciated his time at the club and laugh off his “dodgy” dealings for the most part. But they clearly aren’t representative of all….At any rate, regardless of his dealings or his flops (boogers springs to mind) he was a pretty succesful manager for you, as he was at almost all his clubs. He stabilised you in the PL and brought through a host of dynamic youngsters and considering you were in the second tier either side of his management, I’d say he was pretty successful in his time…
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Absolutely hated at West Ham so this article starts wrongly and also ends wrongly, Harry HAS been charged and is awaiting trial. Facts, get them right, they really do help an article.
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in addition to being hated by West Ham fans – he also tries to take credit for producing our young players eg Rio, Lampard, carrick etc. This is totally wrong. Tony Carr is the man at West Ham who deserves every ounce of credit for the young players that West ham produce. The evidence? Where else has Harry produced these players – nowhere! meanwhile, Tony Carr is still producing them at West Ham.
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Not sure the footballing fraternity away from the East End are aware how much he is despised down there. Just ask Billy Bonds a question about his old best mate harry and you’re likely to receive a right hook from old blue eyes.
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