Harry Redknapp: A terrific career, in his own words

Harry Redknapp during a Q&A session. Credit: Oxford Union YouTube.

When one of the most instantly recognisable faces in football, walked down the stairs in a packed lecture theatre, an excitable buzz was felt from the audience, who were understandably starstruck.

The floor was open for any questions for Harry Redknapp, who sat casually and relaxed in his chair. The slight reluctance from the audience to break the silence was noticeable, so the 72 year-old joked: “Your supposed to be journalists but none of you have any questions?”, which garnered a laugh from the crowd, and showed how he hadn’t lost a step from grilling the media as a manager.

Redknapp’s thoughts and insights into the football industry kept the press conference entertaining, he began with discussing the fiasco which surrounded his potential position as England manager.

“I would have loved to have managed England, but I was managing Tottenham at the time. Things were going great, we were playing well,

Then the England job came up and it really looked like I would get the job. I spoke to Richard Bevan, and he said that he spoke to Roy (Hodgeson), and Roy wouldn’t even go for an interview, because he felt that I had the job!

“So, it was a surprise when I didn’t get it to be honest, it was a bit of a shock. I was in the car driving back from a game at Tottenham, and it came on the radio at about five-thirty in the evening saying that Roy had got the job. I’m not one for looking back, that’s life, you move on”

Harry Redknapp and Roy Hodgeson were no strangers to one another.

Redknapp has been the manager of eight different English football sides, beginning at his spell with Bournemouth in 1983 and finishing as recent as 2017, when he signed off his managerial career with Birmingham City.

Having been around football clubs for the majority of his life, the one thing the East End original misses the most is the feeling of victory.

“The buzz of winning is amazing! When you win a game, the highs… I can’t tell you!”

“I used to drive home and sign all the way back to Bournemouth from wherever it was that I was managing, I’d be driving along, punching the air, Yes!”

A reminiscent smile was etched across his face, as he continued to talk to the audience who were hanging onto every word he said.

“I’m all on my own in the car, anyone passing me would think ‘who is this, he’s a nutter’. But I used to get the high of it, the feeling, I used to love it.

That feeling, the referee putting his lips to the whistle, when your hanging on for grim life, one goal in front, and that whistle goes and you know that you’ve got the win, it was amazing, loved it!”

Having been a football manager for over thirty years, Redknapp has been through it all. However, he has also dealt with every kind of player, as he continued, he discussed a less than angelic face that he encountered in the changing room.

“Paolo Di Canio, he played for me at West Ham. He was a genius, but Paolo was quite hard work. He was a volatile Italian.

“He would come in some mornings in a great mood with the sunglasses on and signing, but the next day he would come in and have the hump about something, and moaning.

“I used to have to handle him very carefully, if we had a nine-a-side, I would always put the people on his team that might kick him if they were on the other team!

WATCH: Paolo Di Canio's most iconic goal for West Ham vs Wimbledon.

“Stuart Pearce, Nigel Winterburn, anyone who might kick him, I would make sure where on his team. At any given minute he could lose it.”

Redknapp then spoke about a certain Welshman who is regarded as being one of the best players he ever managed. Yet Gareth Bale’s meteoric rise at Tottenham didn’t start as smoothly as you would imagine.

“When I went there (Tottenham) he (Gareth Bale) had gone some twenty-something games having never been on the winning team!

“If he had come on as a sub or started, they had never one a game, which is incredible really. I remember talking to Sir Alex Ferguson, and he said that he would play him, he’s bad luck.

“I waited, we were three-nil up against West Brom with about three minutes to go, and I put him on, and I thought, ‘well he can’t mess this up today’. And on he went, and we won the game!

“Gareth went on to become, for me, the third best player in the world, next to Messi and Ronaldo, whoever you favour.”

Redknapp’s anecdotes and stories from his tenure were timeless. It was a real pleasure to have him speak at the University.