10 Years On - The Redknapp Retrospective

On This Day - Redknapp returned to Portsmouth in 2005

December 7th 2005: Harry Redknapp causes a South Coast earthquake, resigning from his role as Southampton boss to retake the reins at his former club Portsmouth. Although this was one of the most dramatic tales of the season, it would be impossible to envisage the impact it would have on Pompey. The fallout of Redknapp's decision fundamentally changed the course of history for the club. His reputation with the fans remains as characteristically divisive as ever, but a decade after his second appointment, just how does Redknapp's stature deserve to stand on the blue corner of Hampshire?

There number of different reactions within the Portsmouth stands was equivalent to the amount of voices belting out a pre-match 'Play Up Pompey'. Some were enraged. Some recognised the talent he brought with him. Some were suspicious of his motives. But even the most irate supporter recognised that Portsmouth stood a much better chance of avoiding relegation with Redknapp at the helm, following turgid performances from a calamitous mish-mash of a squad put together by Frenchman Alain Perrin. 

Redknapp patched things up with chairman Milan Mandaric

And so it was that Portsmouth achieved the impossible by battling to safety, although there are a few foreboding footnotes to add to this early Redknapp accomplishment. Russian businessman Sacha Gaydamak became co-owner and injected a hefty amount of money into the club in January, allowing Redknapp to spend £11.6m to bolster Portsmouth's paltry squad (not an enormous amount of money in the modern context, but for a relegation-bound side ten years ago, this was significant).

The gamble paid off, and this inspired Gaydamak, who soon assumed full control of the club from Milan Mandaric, and Redknapp to set their sights higher and spend more money on improving the team. Though transfer fees were kept relatively humble in the build-up to the 2006-2007 season (£3.5m for Niko Kranjcar was Portsmouth's top spend), it is understood that ample wages paid to the likes of Kanu and Sol Campbell began to change the dynamic of how the club was operating financially.

Nevertheless, the football undoubtedly became some of the best in Portsmouth's modern history. Fans were left purring by the tremendously solid back five, including the acrobatic athleticism of goalkeeper David  James, and were being treated to Kanu's sedately silky skills up front. Victories over Liverpool and Manchester United permeated a joyful campaign which was a cat's whisker away from bringing European football to Fratton Park for the first time in the club's history. 

Campbell and James brought international quality to Pompey.

At this point, things were probably running in a reasonable fashion. Money was being invested, but not to an overtly irresponsible degree. Transfer fees were low, wages were rising, but the players being signed were of fantastic reputation and quality, ensuring that the financial input was matched proportionately to on-field success. Redknapp's contribution was to ensure that a side of good players was producing the best football possible, and there was no doubt that he was achieving this.

However, after the 2006-2007 season, starry-eyed ambition took hold and things began to get out of hand. It may have been more prudent to give the squad another season of careful investment to see how things played out, but instead Gaydamak looked to capitalise on the club's upswing by investing heavily in both fees and wages. £24m was spent on new signings, including £6m for David Nugent and £7m for John Utaka, none of which was recuperated by any sales. 

Gaydamak (left) was rumoured to be plundering his father's fortune.

Considering Portsmouth's stature, this was never going to be a sustainable strategy. Fratton Park's 20,000 capacity would never offset the money spent, and although Redknapp was undoubtedly a talented manager, it is unclear quite how much success this team would have required to make this move financially sustainable.

It's depressing to talk about a manager's contribution with such a heavy emphasis on the financial impact of every season, but because we know how the story ends, it's impossible to ignore. Without the ultimate collapse of Portsmouth, these transfers could simply be seen as the clever squad strengthening that allowed for the club's first FA Cup in nearly 70 years. Instead, it is evidence of the foundations being laid for the complete dismantling of Pompey.

The fateful crescendo of Portsmouth's Premier League era.

The 2008 FA Cup win, propelled into reality by the quality of Redknapp's acquisitions, was perhaps the straw that broke the financial camel's back. Many of the subsequent reports of Portsmouth's demise cites the enormous bonuses paid to the players on the back of this trophy as one of the major factors. At the time, there were no murmurings of disaster afoot, and fans were in dreamland. By this point, most had forgiven Redknapp for his brief transgression across the county.

It's hard to know exactly when Redknapp became aware of the Portsmouth's crumbling reserves. It could be suggested that he knew things would be scaled back when he sold fan-favourite Benjani to fund Jermain Defoe's move to Portsmouth, but this belies the £9m he spent on Peter Crouch six months later. It certainly seems likely that Redknapp knew it was a good idea to jump ship to Tottenham early in the 2008-2009 season, as he had previously resisted the allure of Newcastle when they approached.

Redknapp joined Tottenham less than that 3 years after his 'second coming'.

His second departure disappointed fans again, and thrust the majority opinion of him back towards ambivalence. Just a few days after leaving Portsmouth, he accepted the freedom of the city for the team's FA Cup heroics. Some at the ceremony booed, but it seemed that most fans had begun to look at his tenure objectively, detaching themselves from any real emotive opinion of the man himself.

This arguably changed over the coming months when the true jeopardy of the financial plight began to grip the club. Gaydamak's outlandish, horrendous judgement of his own cash situation sparked the fateful succession of dodgy, dishonest and sometimes non-existent owners. There was a lot more antipathy towards Redknapp when Portsmouth met Tottenham in their unlikely FA Cup Semi-Final encounter at the end of the 2009-2010, with some feeling that his inept handling of the club's finances led to the crisis.

How much blame should be rightfully apportioned to Redknapp?

While it is a tempting prospect to pin the blame on Redknapp for the club's catastrophic money troubles, the evidence for this doesn't stack up. Gaydamak made it very clear that he was happy to run the club at a loss, doing so from the get-go and making suggestions that he was able to fund this out of his pocket. It wasn't unusual either - most clubs were operating at a loss during this period, well before financial fair-play rules were even considered.

Fans, and perhaps Harry Redknapp, were under the belief that Portsmouth had a small-scale Abramovich pumping undiminishable funds into the team. Further to this, chief executive Peter Storrie was handling a lot of negotiations. Some argue that Redknapp was probably demanding that these players were signed at any cost, but it seems unlikely that men like Storrie and Gaydamak would have run themselves into financial ruin on the say-so of the manager. 

Gaydamak's liberal spending racked up a reported £60m of debt.

Portsmouth shocked Tottenham in the FA Cup Semi-Final by winning 2-0, offering closure on the Redknapp story which ultimately defined the club's Premier League stay. The effects of Redknapp's spending are still being felt, as the club looks to recover from the string of unavoidable relegations that occurred almost incidentally as the fans looked to salvage the tattered remains of the finances.

It's difficult to really summarise the feeling towards Redknapp from my own perspective. Some of the most memorable, wonderful moments as a Portsmouth fan were entirely down to his managerial prowess: Winning the FA Cup, Pedro Mendes scoring against Man City, watching Pompey in Europe. But he inarguably had a hand in the darkest period of the club's history, a time which nearly destroyed my interest in the sport for good. 

Supporting Pompey became about despising irresponsible men, as opposed to football.

So, perhaps just as we all felt immediately after his move to Tottenham, I don't think I can feel anything emotively towards him and what he did. I can only really see his work objectively, and my conclusion is that if it was inevitable that Gaydamak would plunge the club into the financial abyss, perhaps it was lucky that we had someone who could get a trophy out of it. I want to feel more grateful for that, but I think the seasons that followed truly have dampened my take on our Premier League period.

Things will be more special when we succeed as a result of the fans' stewardship of the club, that's for sure.

Fab Timing

A clash of two calamitous titans has ended in a break-up. Capello and England. Gaffer and Governer. A love that didn't last.

In truth, this is one of those occasions on which you can see the case from both points of view, as well as accepting the parting of company as inevitable. On the one hand, John Terry's position had become untenable thanks to the ongoing race row between him and Anton Ferdinand. The FA could not allow their national team's primary representative to be somebody who is (allegedly) embroiled in a racism spat.

However, Fabio Capello is the manager, and the man with the reputation. He was the man entrusted to lead the England team to glory, and as a result he should have full control of team duties. When the FA intervened it was an undermining of his position, and Capello clearly felt that he couldn't work under such circumstances. Capello could not allow his position to be belittled in a way that affected a team policy he truly believed him.

It's a sticky one, with no easy answer.

However, as I mentioned in the ominous previous article 'A Growing F.A.rce', this whole mess could have been handled far better by the FA. A major team decision was seemingly executed without Capello being consulted at all. Regardless of how both parties felt about John Terry's captaincy, surely it would have been more desirable and productive for the FA to have held a meeting with Capello prior to any formal announcement regarding Terry. This way, both parties would have maybe been able to find a compromise, and neither would have felt undermined by the other.

I'm not saying Capello would have necessarily stayed if he'd at least been notified of the impending decision, but I can't imagine that a decision being taken without his knowledge particularly aided the situation. It just goes to typify how the FA are hopelessly clumsy when it comes to team and managerial affairs.

But let's look at the flipside of this great implosion. As opposed to what would have been a dreary tournament under an unwanted Capello regime, England now have the chance to do something different and interesting with Euro 2012. If the next permanent national manager is appointed in time for the Championships, they will get an immediate and very useful illustration of the state of the England team in major tournaments. The side needs fixing and, without wanting to sound agonisingly pessimistic, what better way to get started than by a demonstration of where the team is broken, with every crack and fracture under the microscopically stringent examination of a major tournament?

It's an opportunity alright, but the constant stone in my stomach regards the people who will be making the managerial choice, given their track record. The pressure is on for them to pick Harry Redknapp, and I think this pick would have both strengths and weaknesses. Harry is undoubtedly the most suitable man for the job when considering the team's immediate future, but beyond that it becomes a fuzzier picture. After all, Redknapp is 64, and that's an age most managers will struggle to reach whilst still in the prime of their careers. That said, if Redknapp can have a positive influence on building the team, and maybe hang around for three or four tournaments, then he could make a massive difference in England's future.

There's no guarantee that it will be Redknapp though, despite the enormous support he is receiving. The FA like to keep a clean image, and tend to steer clear of any troubled figures when it comes to the managerial position (though clearly not when it comes to the actual team). They famously turned their heads away from Brian Clough, despite him undeniably being highly competent and the most capable hands with which the job could fall into. Redknapp was only today cleared of tax evasion, but the lingering air of dodginess hangs around him like a crazy love-fuelled dog. The FA might want to go for a 'safer' option.

The only issue with that is, there are no candidates who tick both the 'clean track record' and 'capable' boxes. If the FA really does go for a 'safer' option, then they will have once again shown their own ability in running the national team (that was meant in a bad way... just so you sort of got the tone of that sentence). However, I'm not going to castrate them for something they haven't done yet.

What I will say is if that stupid excuse goes through their gawking skulls, perhaps it may be worth giving Stuart Pearce a run-out for Euro 2012 (and by that I mean as a manager, not a player). After all, Pearce is almost guaranteed the England hot-seat at some point in the future. Why not allow him a little lick of the big tournaments now, whilst we've got this chance to do so? The worst that can happen is that he does badly, which in the greater scheme of things isn't that tragic. If he does well on the other hand, we then have a young and talented manager that can see England into the distant future.

Well, these are all ideas anyway. What really does happen will depend on the very minds that brought you Steve McClaren, so let's not get carried away just yet. Although this whole debacle has come out of race rows, mismanagement and just general shoddiness, the little rays of light are beginning to shine through again. Here's to a hopeful future for England.