Source: Daily_Mail
Why blame Harry Redknapp when the buck stops in the boardroom?
Portsmouth are in dire straits and we all know who is to blame: Harry Redknapp. He spent all the money, you see. Won the first trophy of significance since 1958 in the process, mind you, but now the club are in trouble, Redknapp’s regime is the one
under scrutiny. Emptied the kitty and then high-tailed it to Tottenham.
What a turncoat. What a rotter. There is one problem with that. Managers do not spend money; chairmen and owners do. Managers ask and, beyond that, any transfer is an executive decision. Rafael Benitez would love to buy more players for Liverpool; the problem is, unless Tom Hicks and George Gillett are amenable, he will be dipping into his own pocket.
Managers do the football, boardrooms do the business. To reproach Redknapp for Portsmouth’s failure as a commercial enterprise would be akin to blaming Alexandre Gaydamak, the owner, or Peter Storrie, the chief executive, for the failure to close down Arsenal’s midfield on Saturday.
Big spender: Redknapp invested heavily in the team, but Pompey fans weren't complaining when Mandaric gave him such a generous budget Nailing Redknapp for Portsmouth’s plight is also ungrateful because, if anything, his greatest talent is making bad owners seem good.
Look at what he has achieved with Tottenham. This time last year, the club were in jeopardy at the bottom of the league, as the time of Juande Ramos stumbled to a close. The season before, the directors were caught on a secret mission to Seville to lure Ramos after becoming disenchanted with Martin Jol.
After less than a year of Harry, however, Tottenham are considered feasible top-four contenders and Daniel Levy, Redknapp’s chairman, looks like the brain of Britain.
It is a familiar story. Terence Brown, the former chairman of West Ham, was hardly complimentary about Redknapp’s transfer dealings after his departure, but the manager who followed, Glenn Roeder, got the club relegated, and one of the last signings made on Brown’s watch, that of Carlos Tevez, was so expertly handled it cost close to £30m in fines and compensation.
The fans at Portsmouth were chanting the name of Milan Mandaric, the owner, when Redknapp was in charge. The club achieved their best league position since 1956.
Redknapp is not infallible, of course. He could do nothing for Rupert Lowe at Southampton and was bright enough to accept that the lot at Newcastle were beyond assistance.
To blame him, in absentia, for the turmoil at Portsmouth is unfair. All salaries and agents’ fees would have been authorised. If the financial plan did not work that is not the fault of an employee.
Indeed, Portsmouth were lucky to have Redknapp. Spending money is no guarantee of success, after all. They could have bought and still won nothing. At least in these hard times he gave them warm memories.
