Redknapp Linked With Portsmouth Return
Posted on | June 1, 2009 | No Comments
That got your attention, didn’t it? This will be short and sweet today, because there is not much to say on the subject of a possible return to Portsmouth for Harry Redknapp apart from, IT IS NOT GOING TO HAPPEN!
The main source of the story was yesterday’s Sunday Mirror. To read the article, click here. There are a couple of quite breathtaking assumptions in there, firstly that the new owner wants Redknapp as the new manager, and secondly that his return would be supported by a number of fans. Which fans are those, then?! I have not yet come across a single one who has supported this idea.
Harry Redknapp, even after his defection to Southampton, had the chance to become a true club legend. His return was obviously greeted with hostility at first, but his achievement in keeping the club in the Premier League against all the odds was undeniably spectacular, and I would go as far as to say no other manager could have achieved it. This allowed many fans to accept the possibility that he had walked out on us because he was hurt at the way a Director of Football, Velimir Zajec, was brought in over his head. He had gone to our fiercest rivals out of spite, precisely because he was so hurt by the club he loved so much.
That theory was blown out of the water by the way he left the club for a second time to go to Spurs. He owed it to the club after that first episode, to make sure his eventual final departure befitted such a legendary figure in the club’s history. Unfortunately, he turned it into a tawdry affair, leaving the fans in no doubt as to where his prioirities lay. Instead of battening down the hatches with a decent team (despite the transfer window departures), riding out the season in mid table, and making a summer decision on his future depending on the club’s prospects, he was off at the first sign of trouble, before you could say Tottenham Hotspur. He may say that was his opportunity to manage a ‘big club’. I would say that if he wanted to be well regarded for ever more at Portsmouth, all he had to do was show a bit more loyalty. This was clearly not as important to him as he led us to believe, even in the weeks before his departure. ‘I’m Portsmouth Till I Die’. No, Harry. We are.
All this doesn’t assume that Harry Redknapp would actually WANT to return, far from it. Just that no Portsmouth fan in their right mind should support a ‘third coming’. Even Harry Redknapp must know that there is no way back for him here now. His pride would surely not allow it even if the prospect appealed. The fans would simply not stand for it, and quite rightly so. He is destined to be reviled in Portsmouth when his achievements deserved so much more, and that sums up the strange dichotomy of his time at Fratton Park. But there is only one person to blame for that…
There will no doubt, in the coming weeks, be many more lazy, misleading, and poorly researched journalism on the takeover from the national press, so renowned for their sympathetic coverage of Portsmouth Football Club (see an interesting article on this here, by Mike Hall on the Rivals website). So, the quicker the deal is done and dusted, the better. That will be the interesting part for us Pompey fans, when we see just how far this can go. It could be a golden opportunity for us to progress into a bright new future, with no mention at all of Harry Redknapp, and that’s the way it should be.
Tags: Fratton Park > Harry Redknapp return to Portsmouth > Mike Hall > Pompey > Portsmouth > Portsmouth takeover > Premier League > Rivals > Southampton > Spurs > Sunday Mirror Redknapp article > Tottenham Hotspur > Velimir Zajec
Comments
Leave a Reply