What Harry Did Next
Eight years on from being the bookmakers' favourite to become the new Head Coach of England, Harry Redknapp believes his career in football management is now over. Andy Greeves caught up with the former Tottenham Hotspur and West Ham United boss, whose career path has taken him on quite a different course in recent years.
Since departing his most recent managerial position at Birmingham City in 2017, Harry Redknapp says he has experienced a "crazy, busy" period in his life.
After being crowned 'King of the Jungle' on the ITV show I'm A Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! in 2018, the ex-professional player and manager released a Sunday Times bestselling book called The World According to Harry and embarked on a 40-venue theatre tour, which included a date at London's Royal Albert Hall.
At the start of his phone interview with Soccerphile, Redknapp admits; "I don't see myself going back into football management… not now." His calendar, prior to the outbreak of the coronavirus, reflected that, with a television chat show and another theatre tour amongst his list of projects for 2020.
"Everything I was doing between now and September has been put on hold," says Redknapp, whose ITV1 show Harry Redknapp's Sandbanks Summer attracted 11 million viewers in the United Kingdom earlier this year. "I was supposed to be doing a 20-venue theatre tour, which is on hold now until the end of September. I was also going to be doing a live chat show called Redknapps' Weekend Warm Up with (son) Jamie (Redknapp) and a comedian called Tom Davis, who is a huge West Ham fan. The programme was due to start back in March on Sky1 but was obviously delayed with everything that has been going on."
The only sighting of Redknapp on a touchline any time soon will come in the second series of his ITV1 show Harry's Heroes: The Full English, which is set to return to television screens in Great Britain in May.
Series one featured the ex-manager's efforts to get a squad of former England internationals fit and healthy prior to a match with a German legends' team. The likes of David Seaman, Chris Waddle, Robbie Fowler and Matt Le Tissier were amongst those who took part and triumphed 4-2 in a meeting with their German counterparts.
"We went on a road trip to France, Italy, San Marino and Germany to play matches this time around," explains Redknapp. "We spent about five days in each of the different destinations and we played legends teams. We came up against a Metz legends side in France… who were really good. Most of their players were in their early 40s and in very good condition. Robert Pires was involved for them and he's still fantastic.
"We also played a San Marino team, with Davide Gualtieri - who famously scored one of the quickest goals in international football history against England and against David Seaman - playing in the game with David Seaman in goal for us! A lot of the players from the original series were involved again. We had some new faces too… Kevin Phillips was one, who is still fit as a fiddle. Darius Vassell was another, who played in Germany."
After a professional playing career which saw him make over 300 appearances for the likes of West Ham United, AFC Bournemouth and Seattle Sounders, Redknapp spent over 30 years in management. He started out at Bournemouth, helping the Cherries win the old Third Division title in 1987 to gain their first promotion to the second tier of English league football.
At another of his former clubs, West Ham United, the east Londoner guided the Hammers to a fifth-place league position in 1999 - their highest finish of the Premier League era - while introducing future England internationals and then-academy graduates such as Michael Carrick, Joe Cole, Rio Ferdinand and Frank Lampard into the Hammers' first-team. The first of two spells with Portsmouth between 2002 and 2004 meanwhile yielded a major success.
"My first full season (2002/03) at Portsmouth was one of my most enjoyable in football… winning the old First Division (now Championship) title," reflects Redknapp. "We were 33/1 at the start of the season to get promoted… we were a really unfancied team. I thought if we could finish halfway up the division it would have been an improvement on the previous five years. To win the title and in the style we did (amassing some 98 points) was incredible."
A difficult spell at Southampton in 2004/05 saw Redknapp unable to save Saints from Premier League relegation, having joined the club when they were in the bottom three of the division in December 2004. He returned to Portsmouth in 2005 and helped keep them in the top flight in 2005/06 before guiding them to a ninth-place finish the following season. Even better was to follow for Pompey, who won the FA Cup under Redknapp's management in 2008.
Days before he received the Freedom of the City of Portsmouth in October that year, Redknapp had departed to take charge of Tottenham Hotspur - who had amassed just two points from their opening eight Premier League matches that season. The Lilywhites eventually finished eighth in 2008/09 and the following campaign, qualified for the UEFA Champions League.
"I loved my time at Tottenham," comments Redknapp. "I had such great players to work with… Luka Modric, Rafa (van der Vaart), Gareth Bale etc. We played some great football. The match that will always stick with me from my time at Tottenham was beating Newcastle 5-0 at home (February 11, 2012) one night when I'd been in court during the day and I'd headed straight from Southwark (Crown Court) to White Hart Lane.
"The Champions League nights (in 2010/11) were incredible... reaching the quarter finals by beating the likes of AC Milan. Even the Inter Milan group match we lost 4-3 felt a bit like a win. I remember us being 4-0 down at half-time and down to ten men. If you'd have said to me then 'will you take (a) 4-0 (defeat) and you can go home' I'd have bitten your hand off. You could see us getting smashed six or seven. But it was a phenomenal second-half showing and what Gareth did (scoring a hat-trick) will live long in the memory. If we'd have had an extra ten minutes, who knows what might have happened."
More recent appointments have seen Redknapp take charge of Queens Park Rangers, the Jordanian national team and Championship-side Birmingham City.
"I went to QPR, who were bottom of the league at that time with, in my opinion, a lot of average players getting phenomenal amounts of money. We went down but got promoted the following season.
Bouncing straight back to the Premier League is never an easy thing to do. We had to make massive changes to the squad and luckily, we got a good blend of players who did the job. Beating Derby in the Play-Off Final (of May 24, 2014) with Bobby Zamora's goal was one of my real memorable moments in management. Tony Fernandes was a fantastic chairman… I had a lot of time for him. There were a lot of good people at that club."
These days, Redknapp's main involvement in football centres around the punditry work he does on Premier League and UEFA Champions League fixtures for broadcaster BT Sport, while he has season tickets for himself and his grandsons at former club AFC Bournemouth. A religious watcher of matches - the former player and manager is yearning for a return of some live action.
"I'd like to see the season finished if it is possible to do so before we start a new season," he admits. "Nobody knows how long we'll have restrictions hanging over us though, so whether it will actually be possible to finish the season, who knows. It would be nice to see Liverpool crowned champions… they've been fantastic. I also think of those teams pushing to get into the Premier League from the Championship… it's absolutely massive for them.
"There are still so many teams with so much to play for in all the different leagues and in the European competitions too of course… lots of interesting issues to play out if it's possible."
The World According to Harry by Harry Redknapp (Ebury Press, £7.99)
© Andy Greeves & Soccerphile.com
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