The challenge for Tottenham's chairman, Daniel Levy, is to keep his manager where logic says he has never had it so good
It feels like the perfect storm. Just as Fabio Capello talks himself into trouble with his views on one court case, Harry Redknapp emerges from another with his reputation intact. Redknapp to be offered the England manager's job? It is a racing certainty and, the way things are shaping up, some people would like to see it happen sooner rather than later.
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-G�ran Eriksson in 2001. Moreover, Redknapp says, it is a job that "you cannot turn down", particularly if you are English.
The relief at Tottenham Hotspur after the jury at Southwark crown court 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 have pushed the line throughout Redknapp's two-and-a-half-week trial that it has been business as usual and now that the matter had been "resolved," they said, in a short statement that overflowed with understated football-speak, "we all look forward to the rest of the season". It is what happens after that, though, that has started to preoccupy them and the challenge for the chairman, Daniel Levy, is to show that England is an offer that can be refused.
In his favour is that, at the very least, when the FA comes calling, Redknapp would be torn. He not only values the position he has at Tottenham, which was granted to him after 25 years in the managerial game, but he enjoys what he has built. He never tires of reminding his audiences that the club were bottom of the Premier League with two points from eight games when he took over in October 2008 but he also talks regularly about how he loves the football that his team has come to play.
In terms of results, things could not have gone much better for Redknapp at Tottenham ? finishing fourth rather than fifth last season would have done the trick ? but it is the purist in the 64-year-old that thrills at watching his players ping the ball at pace and pour forward from all angles. With Gareth Bale and Luka Modric the headline acts, Tottenham are up there with the country's most attractive teams.
Ever the people person, Redknapp is driven by the day-to-day involvement with a group of players and, in broader terms, the daily contact with members of staff, from the assistant managers to the tea lady. He has overseen the creation of a vibrant spirit at Tottenham, where the sense is of a club that can finally take the big step forward, and he can cherish a quality that many seek and few find: job satisfaction.
No one would walk away from this lightly and particularly not when the journey is incomplete. Redknapp has spoken of Tottenham having "a league championship in them" and this season, when they have been impressively consistent since September, has given the notion a tantalising feel. Then there is the Champions League, which Tottenham revelled in last season and appear certain to re-enter next. Redknapp loved those European nights.
The manager enjoys an "odd couple" relationship with Levy. "I suppose anyone who's working with Daniel would make an odd couple," Redknapp said in December. But there is the sense that each one recognises 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 for Redknapp features some exacting tasks and that is before the latter's contractual situation is factored in; Redknapp's deal expires in the summer of 2013 and he believes that he has earned improved terms. If Tottenham are to kick on and move beyond the mere verge of something special, Levy must retain 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
Patrick Davis David Desharnais Andrew Desjardins Andre Deveaux
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