Redknapp: FA bosses haven't a clue

07 October 2013 11:46

Harry Redknapp does not believe the Football Association's senior officials are equipped to make high-level sporting decisions and said he "would not trust them to show him a good manager if their lives depended on it".

Redknapp was considered to be the clear favourite to take the England job when Fabio Capello resigned last year, but the FA opted to approach Roy Hodgson, then in charge at West Brom.

It had been considered a near-certainty that Redknapp would leave Tottenham to take the job, and he has admitted he believed as much himself, going as far as asking Brendan Rodgers, then at Swansea and now at Liverpool, to be his assistant at Euro 2012.

Although Redknapp maintains he holds no grudge against Hodgson, Redknapp is still unhappy at the snub and believes he was the leading choice with the fans and the players, claiming senior members of the national squad like Steven Gerrard texted him to offer their support for him to succeed Capello.

"I wouldn't trust the FA to show me a good manager if their lives depended on it. How would they know? What clubs have they ever run? Who do they speak to who really knows the game?" the QPR boss wrote in his new autobiography, serialised in the Daily Mail.

"This isn't about them giving the England job to me or Roy Hodgson, but English football being run by people who really haven't got a clue. And they get to pick the England manager!

"Everyone said I was the people's choice, the only choice. All the senior players seemed to be up for me to get the job. I got quite a few text messages at the time from players saying they would love me to manage England: Steven Gerrard, Wayne Rooney, Rio Ferdinand, John Terry.

"But the FA went for Roy Hodgson to be the England manager - a man who is more their cup of tea."

While Redknapp was expected to leave Tottenham for England, he ended up leaving them without a job at all as Spurs chairman Daniel Levy parted company with him that summer.

A number of Spurs fans had held the belief Redknapp had allowed the England job to become the focus of his attention and, despite denying that, he has confessed to making plans for the national team while in the Tottenham dugout.

Source: PA