Calling all R’s: The Redknapp Warning

The wait is finally over for Tottenham fans; their former manager is no longer a former manager. Finally someone has bestowed upon Harry Redknapp a contract, a team but far more importantly for him a platform. Redknapp will no longer be a shadow of sheer nonsense hanging over White Hart Lane, I wish him well but QPR fans need to heed our warnings.

Late one evening In 2008, my phone went mental. These were my pre-twitter days so Spurs news was shared amongst my friends via texts. Juande Ramos and been disposed of along with his coaching staff and helpers, in had swooped Redknapp and his entourage.

This apparently was the start of a glorious period in our history; although if you peel away The Sun and Daily Mail wrapping, it was 4 or 5 unforgettable games sandwiched with some decent performances, marinated in some lucky results and served with a massive side salad of drubbings.

However, I can now release my Redknapp issues, he is no longer mine or Tottenham’s problem. He has had his first game in charge of QPR, a solid 0-0 away to Sunderland and now his challenge of creating using a new mantra: “Four points from thirteen games when I got here” begins.

For Redknapp however, there must be slight sting, as Marcellus Wallace told Butch Coolidge: “that will be pride messing with you”. The man whose destiny it was to lead England to Brazil in 2014 is staring down the barrel of leading the Hoops to Bristol in 2013.

The tabloids sold the public and all bar 95% of Spurs fans the story that Redknapp was this old school manager able to bring the best out of every player. He was the man to unite a John Terry fractured dressing room. Redknapp as the next manager of England was a nailed on certainty for all, bar those in power.

The FA offered the role to Roy Hodgson and as Spurs threw away a wonderful chance of third place by drawing 1-1 at Aston Villa, the public started to see through the façade.

Stood on the touch line as his side was in the process of throwing away 2 vital points, he shook with concentration as he racked his brains for a solution to his problem. Redknapp’s visionary tactical move was to introduce a defensive midfielder with 10 minutes to go; it was all the confirmation that the FA needed. They had made the right choice.

That summer as Hodgson led England on a battling yet once again fruitless international campaign a now jobless Redknapp was in no man’s land. After failing to agree a new deal at Spurs he was sacked, England had Hodgson and every other club had their managers in place. There was nowhere to go but wait for a job and inevitably end up on MOTD talking about Spurs and not talking about any other manager whose position was under threat.

The big job that he craved however never arrived and never would have. The Manchester clubs are beyond him, Woolwich wouldn’t go near him, whilst Liverpool gambled on Brendan Rodgers and Chelsea preferred to face the wrath of their own fans by appointing Rafa Benitez.

It ended up being a choice between Ukraine or QPR, and despite what we have been told to the contrary, Redknapp taking a job in Eastern Europe despite the pay was never going to happen. The truth is that QPR are his level of club.

Financially well backed, in dire straits, southern based and destined to never really make an impact on the Premier League. This is quite a sobering thought for a man so highly regarded by the press and who for a weeks at Spurs led a title challenge.

Now fully entrenched at QPR, it will take a couple of weeks for the furore to settle down. As with every story in the Premier League, there is always another round the corner. So in a few weeks Redknapp may well find himself sat talking to half empty press room and it is at this very moment that all his mistakes at Spurs will come back to haunt him.

The former West Ham boss took Spurs and the platform they bestowed him for granted. As the years ticked by it became Project Redknapp, not Project Tottenham, he had the best squad we have seen in decades, millions of TV money and a chairman intent on raising the clubs profile and asking price.

All Redknapp had to do was keep his focus, do his job and led Spurs into more unchartered waters than just a single season jolly in the Champions League.

At Spurs we proclaim to have witnessed many false dawns, but Redknapp’s broke all contraband guidelines.

QPR fans take note, your club is win-win for Redknapp, he would never have taken it if it wasn’t. If he retains your Premier League status he will push himself back to the front of the queue if England’s Brazil 2014 campaign falters; and should he fail and well: “They had four points from thirteen games when I got here.”