The Tottenham Hotspur manager, one of football's 'great survivors', has been talked of as the next England coach
Harry James Redknapp has grown to find his portrayal at the hands of the press rather distasteful. At least one reporter has made the mistake recently of referring to him as a "wheeler-dealer" prompting him to stomp off in disgust, his hackles raised by all the tired barrow-boy, Arthur Daley analogies. These days, he argues, he should be considered solely as "a fantastic football manager".
That attempt at reinvention has been set back at Southwark crown court. Both prosecution and, to some extent, defence have tapped into the perception of the best English manager of the modern era over the past two weeks, the crown seeking to expose Redknapp as a ducker and diver with all the nous required to set up an anonymous offshore bank account. The defendant retreated into comic cockney, claiming he writes "like a two-year old", is "utterly disorganised" and is a technophobe, bewildered by the modern mysteries of text messaging and email.
Away from football his life is apparently chaotic, a farce of poor investments and shambolic financial decisions. Yet those who watch Redknapp's teams, particularly the slick Tottenham Hotspur side currently third in the Premier League, see football of rare sophistication. His charges outplay opponents with relish, their manager giving the likes of Gareth Bale and Rafael van der Vaart a stage upon which to thrive. Spurs offered him an opportunity to prove himself as an elite coach, rather than just a market trader of a manager.
At 64, and with 30 years spent in the dugout, he finally has a chance to oversee a team capable of challenging for trophies. To have to tackle issues from his time at Portsmouth – a team he revived but a club built on sand rather than Tottenham's firmer foundations – just as the he was being talked of as the next England coach, has been untimely.
Colleagues of Redknapp call him a "one off". That may be because he is so old-school he feels like a breath of fresh air these days. This is one of football's great survivors, a veteran of more than 1,200 matches as a manager who can point to achievements at virtually all the clubs he has coached.
There was a Third Division title with Bournemouth, a fifth-place finish in the top division with West Ham. He hauled Portsmouth out of the second tier and, albeit with a leveraged chequebook, won the FA Cup in 2008 – the club's first final win since 1939. He also took Spurs to the quarter-finals of the Champions League.
Not bad for a man who, when thrust into temporary charge of Bournemouth back in December 1982, lost his first game 9-0 at Lincoln. "The pitch was frozen solid but Lincoln had the new Adidas pimpled studs, and ours had long nylon studs," he recalled. "We could hardly stand up. We were 8-0 down and won a corner and the kitman started screaming at our centre-half to get up the pitch. 'We're hardly going to win 9-8,' I said to him. I thought that first game was going to be my last." Losing 5-0 at Leyton Orient the following week represented improvement.
Redknapp's rise to management followed an orthodox playing career. He was born in Poplar in the East End of London, the only child of Henry and Violet. A talented player, he moved from Tottenham's youth teams to West Ham, where he played in the first team during the late 60s alongside Bobby Moore, the England World Cup-winning captain. Moves to Bournemouth, Brentford and a short stint in the US with Seattle Sounders followed before Bournemouth gave him his chance as a manager. He is married to Sandra, with whom he has two sons: Jamie, a former professional with Spurs and Liverpool, and now a high-profile pundit on Sky, and Mark, a model.
Redknapp survived a serious car crash in 1990 while attending the World Cup in Italy; the ambulance crews at the scene thought him dead and covered him with a blanket. The accident, in which five people died, including his friend and employer, the Bournemouth managing director Brian Tiler, left him with no sense of smell and a pronounced facial tic. Against medical advice, he was back managing Bournemouth within four months.
What is clear is that Redknapp lives for football. He is obsessed in the same way as Arsène Wenger and Sir Alex Ferguson, managers of Arsenal and Manchester United respectively. On the day when Portsmouth were competing in the 2008 FA Cup final, Redknapp lost himself in the buildup watching televised coverage of the second leg of Rochdale's League Two playoff with Darlington. "It went to penalties," he said, marvelling at Dale's progress after descending from the royal box. "They'd been 3-1 down and looked dead and buried."
Last Wednesday, after a fraught first day in the witness box, he wound down by attending Tottenham under-19s' win over Liverpool.
He still boasts enough enthusiasm to drive from his home in Poole to the Spurs training ground in Chigwell every morning, leaving at 6am with his assistant Kevin Bond, even if he has been out scouting the night before. Commitment has invariably brought success.
He is viewed as a manager who can squeeze that little bit extra even from those whose careers have stalled, of a man who can pinpoint talent and exploit it. His technophobia does not extend to modern footballing innovations such as Prozone, though he does ultimately perhaps rely just as much on good old-fashioned instinct.
"I don't think there is a better manager in the country," said Bond. "His ability to spot and then handle a player is second to none. He's also very tactically astute, far more than he's ever given credit for, and his man-management is exceptional. Harry is pivotal on a day to day basis at the club."
Tottenham's progress in Europe's elite club competition last term was staggering and, if there are fewer drills in training and less painstaking tactical preparation than at some other clubs, Redknapp clearly recognises his players' fortes. The formations employed usually succeed in allowing his team to express itself and damage opponents.
A skilful West Ham could dazzle on their day. Portsmouth were about strength and energy. Spurs have the ability both to batter incessantly but also rip teams to shreds on the break. "Harry's been around and learned from guys like Ron Greenwood and John Lyall, football people," said Tony Adams, the former Arsenal captain. "He's not an East End wide boy just starting out in the game. He has something about him, and he knows exactly what he's doing. He's one of the best."
He delegates at training but players point to his one-to-one cajoling as key. Former England goalkeeper David James claimed he creates "the environment for us to play well in".
Peter Crouch, who has been signed three times and sold twice by Redknapp, said: "He builds up players' confidence, telling you every day you can be a world-beater. Eventually you start to believe it. Harry is an honest fella. If you're crap, he'll tell you. If you're playing well, he'll tell you. Everything is clear and simple. He resurrects players' careers like that."
In an age when sports science, psychology and tactical masterplans can overcomplicate at times, simplicity can feel refreshing.
It is not just his players who like Redknapp's company. The day he learned Portsmouth had been drawn at Manchester United in the FA Cup quarter-final in 2008 he recalled he had been playing golf with "some old Etonian and, er, Alastair Campbell".
He can be a showman – with a string of footballing anecdotes – and even a comedian, when thrust into the dock to defend his reputation. The jokes he cracked in court – whether at the expense of Milan Mandaric's barrister Lord Macdonald ("He's an Arsenal supporter, isn't he?") or about his dog Rosie – showed as much.
just 36 hours before Spurs were due to welcome Milan to White Hart Lane, Redknapp had hosted a £100-a-head charity breakfast at the Cumberland hotel for the One to One Children's Fund and, over the course of a 40-minute stay, had the 200 guests in the palm of his hand.
Two corporate suits paid £15,000 to have lunch with the Spurs manager at Gary Rhodes's restaurant in the hotel because he is one of the game's characters and offers a unique insight into every supporter's dream job. His stories veer from the Romania forward Florin Raducioiu opting "to go shopping at Harvey Nics with the in-laws" rather than play for West Ham against Stockport, to the Portugal striker Paulo Futre's refusing to wear the club's No 16 shirt ahead of a match against Arsenal. "He walked in holding up his shirt and said: 'Eusébio, Pelé, Maradona 10. Futre 10, not fucking 16.' We argued. He threw the shirt down, trod on it and left."
There is always the potential for slapstick, such as the time he was asked if the Rangers player Marco Negri was impressing in a trial period at Upton Park. "Negri? Who? Never heard of him. Who's he?" came the response, prompting the journalist to point at the distinctive long-haired, bearded Italian jogging round a training pitch just behind the manager. "Oh, that Marco Negri."
Those little jousts were usually forgiven, but the suspicion lingered that Harry knew exactly what he was up to. Within the game, very little passes him by. His record would demand he be considered for the England job when Fabio Capello departs after Euro 2012.
But the court case has hardly helped his chances. Redknapp's ability to revive the likes of Portsmouth and Spurs was startling. Shrugging off the Flash Harry image of which he has grown so weary may be beyond even him.