So, the papers are, as usual, sending out mixed signals about what Harry Redknapp is up to regarding the Newcastle job. Most seem to agree that he has indeed turned them down, but they seem confused over whether Newcastle chairman Mike Ashley is giving up on Our 'Arry or whether he's personally flying back from Hong Kong to wave more money in his face. Either way, whatever beer-bellied billionaire Ashley has to offer Harry, he should not take it.
From the point of view of the Newcastle chairman, I can see why he would want 'Arry. He has turned Portsmouth from Championship battlers to European contenders in his two spells at the Pompey helm, has made the kind of inspired deals for unknown players that ex-Magpies boss Sam Allardyce could only dream of - Sol Campbell or Claudio Cacapa? Alan Smith or John Utaka? You decide - and plays the kind of exciting, creative, goal-scoring football that Geordie fans had been screaming out for the entire length of Big Sam's disasterously by-the-numbers play-for-the-clean-sheet reign (which would have worked far better had the team been more capable of achieving those clean sheets, as yesterday's 6 - 0 thumping by Manchester United proves). So I can see why Redknapp is wanted on Tyneside. What I can't see, however, is why he'd want to go.
He has nothing to prove to anyone in the Premier League, as we have seen the effect he has on his teams by the way West Ham fell out of the Premiership the minute they ill-advisedly gave him the boot, and the way he has turned Portsmouth into mid-table Championship makeweights into one of the few teams who look genuinely likely to break the Big 4, if only for a season or two. Nothing he could achieve at Newcastle could raise his standing amongst his peers and his fans, and carries a very real risk of undermining the reputation as a winner that he has built up over his career. If he is tempted by the idea of managing a big club, he needs to remember that Newcastle are only a big club in terms of it's fans. Reputation-wise, they are barely bigger than Portsmouth, who also have a massively dedicated, die-hard fanbase, and in terms of investment, Portsmouth owner Sacha Gaydamak's family billions dwarf Ashley's paltry-looking £1bn, and as for his own wages, if 'Arry was that greedy, then Gaydamak has the deep pockets to, as one paper claims he already has, double his wages to ward off the interests of the Tyneside club. Only an idiot would consider leaving a club on the up, which loves him and is, due to his invaluable input charging headlong on a collision course with the established Premiership elite, to manage a mid-table side where anything less than instant Champions League qualification seems to end in the sack. 'Arry is a manager that could work miracles at Newcastle if he was given time, and could turn the club into something that would end with his statue being erected outside St. James', but he doesn't need to and he wouldn't be able to.
Harry, if you have turned the job down, you've made the right decision and you should continue to do so. Every Portsmouth fan I speak to absolutely adores you, and rightly so. You have nothing to prove by heading 300 miles north to what the papers are cliche'dly calling "football's poisoned chalice" - unless you're really interested in proving just how quickly you can get the boot for doing realistically well. You are 60 years old, and should be concentrating on building a legacy at Portsmouth, something you are halfway to doing already, and cementing your place in their folklore the way you have in West Ham's, not jetting off in a private plane on an ill-advised attempt to resurrect a club which, after all this time, must be considered less a 'sleeping giant' and more the world's biggest coma patient.
From the point of view of the Newcastle chairman, I can see why he would want 'Arry. He has turned Portsmouth from Championship battlers to European contenders in his two spells at the Pompey helm, has made the kind of inspired deals for unknown players that ex-Magpies boss Sam Allardyce could only dream of - Sol Campbell or Claudio Cacapa? Alan Smith or John Utaka? You decide - and plays the kind of exciting, creative, goal-scoring football that Geordie fans had been screaming out for the entire length of Big Sam's disasterously by-the-numbers play-for-the-clean-sheet reign (which would have worked far better had the team been more capable of achieving those clean sheets, as yesterday's 6 - 0 thumping by Manchester United proves). So I can see why Redknapp is wanted on Tyneside. What I can't see, however, is why he'd want to go.
He has nothing to prove to anyone in the Premier League, as we have seen the effect he has on his teams by the way West Ham fell out of the Premiership the minute they ill-advisedly gave him the boot, and the way he has turned Portsmouth into mid-table Championship makeweights into one of the few teams who look genuinely likely to break the Big 4, if only for a season or two. Nothing he could achieve at Newcastle could raise his standing amongst his peers and his fans, and carries a very real risk of undermining the reputation as a winner that he has built up over his career. If he is tempted by the idea of managing a big club, he needs to remember that Newcastle are only a big club in terms of it's fans. Reputation-wise, they are barely bigger than Portsmouth, who also have a massively dedicated, die-hard fanbase, and in terms of investment, Portsmouth owner Sacha Gaydamak's family billions dwarf Ashley's paltry-looking £1bn, and as for his own wages, if 'Arry was that greedy, then Gaydamak has the deep pockets to, as one paper claims he already has, double his wages to ward off the interests of the Tyneside club. Only an idiot would consider leaving a club on the up, which loves him and is, due to his invaluable input charging headlong on a collision course with the established Premiership elite, to manage a mid-table side where anything less than instant Champions League qualification seems to end in the sack. 'Arry is a manager that could work miracles at Newcastle if he was given time, and could turn the club into something that would end with his statue being erected outside St. James', but he doesn't need to and he wouldn't be able to.
Harry, if you have turned the job down, you've made the right decision and you should continue to do so. Every Portsmouth fan I speak to absolutely adores you, and rightly so. You have nothing to prove by heading 300 miles north to what the papers are cliche'dly calling "football's poisoned chalice" - unless you're really interested in proving just how quickly you can get the boot for doing realistically well. You are 60 years old, and should be concentrating on building a legacy at Portsmouth, something you are halfway to doing already, and cementing your place in their folklore the way you have in West Ham's, not jetting off in a private plane on an ill-advised attempt to resurrect a club which, after all this time, must be considered less a 'sleeping giant' and more the world's biggest coma patient.
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