The challenge for Tottenham's chairman, Daniel Levy, is to keep his manager where logic says he has never had it so good
In many respects it was the perfect storm. Harry Redknapp experienced euphoric relief and release after one court case; Fabio Capello found his position in the ongoing fallout from another unacceptable. Redknapp, with his reputation cleared by the jury at Southwark crown court, appeared a racing certainty to succeed Capello as the England manager. Capello's resignation then scrambled the timeline.
Talk to Redknapp about the biggest post in English football and the patriot inside him shouts loudly. He has repeatedly said that Capello's successor ought to be English, that the Football Association ought not to go down the road it first took when it appointed Sven-Goran Eriksson in 2001. Moreover, Redknapp says, it is a job that "you cannot turn down", particularly if you are English.
One of the many questions whirring on Wednesday night concerned when Redknapp would be confronted by the decision.
The relief at Tottenham Hotspur after the jury at Southwark returned its "not guilty" verdict on the club's manager was palpable. The first thoughts were for Redknapp and his family, who have lived a desperately stressful ordeal for over four years. Despite Redknapp's chirpy and stoic front, there is no doubt that the investigation into his financial propriety has affected his health; he underwent a heart operation last November.
Tottenham pushed the line throughout Redknapp's two-and-a-half-week trial that it was business as usual and now that the matter had been "resolved", they said in a short statement on Wednesday lunchtime that overflowed with understated footballspeak, "we all look forward to the rest of the season".
When the statement was released, the imponderable concerned what might happen regarding Redknapp after the season's final game, at home to Fulham on 13 May. It was incumbent on the chairman, Daniel Levy, to mobilise in the fight for Redknapp's heart, to show that England was an offer that could be refused. The brief remained the same after Capello had made John Terry's England captaincy his cause c�l�bre, although the battle lines had been dramatically redrawn.
It is generally accepted that Levy would not block an approach from the FA for Redknapp, if that was what the manager wanted, even if the chairman is not the type to settle easily or cheaply. That Redknapp has a little under 18 months to run on his White Hart Lane contract would appear to make compensation not too expensive an issue.
Levy, though, does not want Redknapp to walk away and he certainly does not want to lose him while the season is still alive and Tottenham are chasing a return to the Champions League. The suggestion of Redknapp job-sharing would not sit comfortably with Levy, even if England have only one fixture before the end of the season ? the friendly against Holland at the end of the month.
The day may have felt rather surreal for Levy, as he lurched from the prospect of losing his manager to keeping him and then back to losing him again in the space of about eight hours. Redknapp's acquittal had been emotional for many Tottenham employees but Capello's resignation, with its attendant connotations, left them feeling punch-drunk.
Levy has to hope that Redknapp will value, sufficiently, what he already has to turn England down and, at the very least, he does know that he would be torn. Redknapp enjoys what he has built at Tottenham; the day-to-day involvement with players and staff, the team's style and, in terms of results, things could not have gone much better. No one would walk away from this lightly, particularly when the journey is incomplete.
Redknapp enjoys an "odd couple" relationship with Levy. "I suppose anyone who's working with Daniel would make an odd couple," he said in December. But each seems to recognise that he is good for the other. The respect between the pair has built to the degree that Levy was rumoured to be prepared to stand by Redknapp even if the worst came to the worst in the crown court. The support that Levy has given to Redknapp throughout the affair has been appreciated.
Levy's to-do list regarding Redknapp features some exacting tasks, over and above the need to give him an improved contract. If Tottenham are to kick on in the summer and move beyond the mere verge of something special, Levy must retain Luka Modric (again), most likely with the aid of a raised wage ceiling, which would cheer the squad's other key performers; he must replace the on-loan striker Emmanuel Adebayor, who will surely prove too difficult to sign permanently; and he must continue to compete for the market's best talent.
Redknapp is known to worry about the potential for serious personal abuse in the England role and a mythology has attached itself to the Impossible Job. Drink from the poisoned chalice and you will, invariably, be lampooned as a root vegetable or wally and gradually lose your ability/marbles.
There is a logic that says Redknapp has never had it so good, that he should sit tight and prosper at White Hart Lane. Logic, though, does not always apply in 21st-century football.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2012/feb/08/harry-redknapp-england-manager-tottenham
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