Ban Harry Redknapp from football
Sunday, 19 October 2008
First thing's first. The supporter who hit the assistant referee at Villa Park yesterday with a missile aimed at the loveable innocent cockney sparra' is a moron and should be banned from Villa Park for life.
But...
Harry Redknapp is a hypocrite. Last night he variously told reporters that the supporter involved "has no place in football", "is a disgrace to the game" and "should be banned for life". That's pretty rich coming from the likes of you, me ol' China. I'm not surprised that you rocked up on Match Of The Day for once though. When it suits, eh Harry?
My opinion, assumptions and assorted learnings on Harry Redknapp's spick-and-span conduct would get me phantom-sued just like the BBC, but for some strange reason I have the urge to recall some passages from Tom Bower's excellent book, Broken Dreams.
Please bear in mind that a) I grew up in Bournemouth and have a huge soft spot for the local football club, and b) to the best of my knowledge, Harry Redknapp has never commenced legal proceedings against Mr Bower or his publishers. There's plenty more, too, and much of it is worse.
Give it some thought - is this man in a position to declare himself football's moral guardian?
"In Harry Redknapp's life that passion nearly equalled his ambition for personal wealth. 'At the end of the day,' he pontificated with sincerity, 'no one gives a monkey's about you once your career's over so in my view you should make the bucks while you can.'"
"Shortly before, however, Redknapp had attacked foreign players in England for undermining the team spirit by refusing to drink. As a player, he admitted, his life revolved around drinking and gambling."
"Lying, he believed, was justified to protect his team and his personal interests."
"In the same month, he defended Hartson's aggressive kick of Eyal Berkovic, an Israeli midfielder, in the face. When his denials were challenged, Redknapp dismissed the attack."
"In 1990, despite Redknapp's expenditure, including generous contracts with the players, [AFC Bournemouth] was relegated to the Third Division. The club's debt was destined to increase to £4.4m...Redknapp had increased the clubs costs but not its income. The small profit on his transfers had been swamped by the players' annual wages, which had risen around fivefold to around £1m."
"Redknapp escaped any blame for Bournemouth's plight."
(Photo Credits: The Sun, Aftonbladet)
7 comments:
Very one sided and not particularly accurate about Bournemouth! Redknapp escaped blame for afcb's plight because he wasn't responsible, the chairman and board were!
He nearly lost his life and saw one of his best friends die in a car crash. I'm not surprised he changed in the months afterwards.
The only thing he may have been wrong to do was take a loyalty payment (he hadn't taken any wages for a few months before) and then go to West Ham.
He has always helped out with players when we have needed them!
Very poorly thought out blog!
Piffle, the club's wage bill would have doubled anyway, even without promotion. Have we forgotten inflation of 10% plus at the time?
The AFCB directors made the club members only as soon as we went up, denying us a small fortune in lost gate money. The board sanctioned players we couldn't afford, the two chairman of the club at time saw their companies go under, god knows were some of the money went.
None of the board from 1984-1992, during Redknapps time at club,put a penny into AFCB. Much went out, as at many clubs, but we had a good well run team til 1990.
Any manager can get in players non stop, is it Harry's fault Pompey owe a lot, or his directors?? No, he doesn't control the purse strings When Redknapp left we owed 1.5 milion, with bank interest at 15%. And gates down 2000-3000.
If his directors had been sensible, AFCB would have had little debt. But when have directors ever been sensible??
Harry Redknapp is not in a position to criticise the morality of anybody else involved with football, in my opinion - and really, that's all I've said.
It wasn't a "thought out blog" at all. Redknapp's hypocrisy (he criticised Villa fans' abuse and language in the same interview as using the term "fucking shit") has angered me.
The quotes from Broken Dreams bring into question the credibility of Redknapp's self-righteous bleating about Villa fans, because he is hardly perfect himself.
I'm merely suggesting that Redknapp should keep his mouth shut on issues of football morality. He doesn't exactly have a clear copybook now does he?
Chris, your first and last quoted paragraphs have nothing to do with morality. It is a true statement that the club has no use for you when your playing days are over. It may be slightly different now (but not much) but he said a number of years ago didn't he. The bit about afcb I have already dealt with as has Wayne.
As for what he said about the Villa fan. There is a great deal of difference between hurling abuse and coins at match officials and swearing in a conversation. What you appear to be saying, is that if you swear in a conversation then you are as bad as someone who throws coins at match officials. Which, as Wayne says, is piffle.
You may hold strongly negative views about Harry Redknapp but don't be surprised if people take the opposite stance. I don't agree with you at all and the quotes from the book make him look the same as every other manager in the league!
I do have a strongly negative opinion of Redknapp, granted. And I'm not surprised to face opposition.
I'm saying that Redknapp is not in a position to play the innocent, as he has done last night and today. The very idea makes me physically sick.
Throwing coins at assistant referees or Harry Redknapp is not acceptable. But I think that Redknapp needs to take a look in the mirror before pretending not to understand why Villa fans hate him so much. It's a feeling born of his own actions. The guy simply can't stop himself.
I'm angry with him for tarring us all with the same brush which, by pluralising 'thugs', is exactly what he's doing. I'm also informed that coins were thrown at the Emirates yesterday - little publicity, because it hasn't had Redknapp doing a calculated one man PR job on it.
I believe that Redknapp is seizing an opportunity to stick the boot in, for which he was waiting all afternoon yesterday.
Regardless, I thank you both for your comments. I don't claim to be an expert on Redknapp's time at Bournemouth, so your insight is interesting.
As a disgruntled Pompey fan i am not only speaking for myself but also for a large contingent of the fan base! Right where do i start with Mr Redknapp....the man is totally dishonest,corrupt,disloyal and ammoral! When he first walked out a couple of years ago when asked by a reporter he said "he wasnt going down the road (to scum)" even though he had secretly signed a contract to manage scum at the time. Well the next season after sending the scum down he came back and fair play he helped us escape relegation for which the fans duly forgave him for his cardinal sin. Fast forward a few seasons and now because the club are skint he's deserted again to manage Spurs. Only a couple of weeks ago he was quoted in the local paper as saying 'This will be my last club. I am Pompey till i die!' Yeah right! And what really annoys me is that as Spurs manager he has already expressed an interest in poaching Defoe,Crouch and Johnson. I expect in the January transter window he will do his best to poach of all our best players which is his usual tactic and which adds insult to injury!
He used to be known as King Arry more like King c**t
Thanks for your comment Mark. I'm writing a piece for EPL Talk at the moment which may interest you.
What are your thoughts on Tony Adams' appointment?
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