My daughter bought me, for Christmas, “Always Managing; an autobiography” by Harry Redknapp.
Harry Redknapp was the manager of West Ham, Spurs, Bournemouth, Portsmouth, Southampton etc. He now manages QPR. As a player he played for West Ham.
Actually this is a very good and enjoyable book to read. It made me laugh in some places. He talked about his time playing for West Ham and how badly Bobby Moore was treated by that club. His movement to play overseas in his last years as a player.
The book begins with is court case and how it affected him. He talks about transfers and how he got on with the clubs he has managed and is managing.
What interested me the most was when he managed Spurs. He tells us that he didn’t want to go to Spurs but preferred to stay at Portsmouth. But the director said he should go as they needed the money (£5 million for him). Portsmouth were in trouble at this time. He says he got on very well with Daniel Levy (Spurs director).
One of the criticisms over Daniel Levy was that at the end he never supported Harry in the transfer window. Harry says this isn’t true, he just didn’t need the players and in the January window you never were going to get anything good, anyway. Daniel Levy always supported Harry in the transfer window, according to Harry. He does say he was surprised to be sacked by him and can’t figure out why. But they stayed friends and lent him players to help him out at QPR. He talks about his European Cup matches and league matches and tells us stories of his time in those competitions.
He also says that when he went to Spurs – Spurs were bottom with only 2 points – that he wasn’t worried because Spurs had a very talent group of players. He couldn’t understand why Spurs were bottom. They finished 8th under him in his first season at Spurs.
Overall a very interesting and enjoyable read.
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