FA Cup Semi-Final - Tottenham Hotspur v Portsmouth:HARRY REDKNAPP can appreciate the romance of the story and, under normal circumstances, he would have embraced it. His former club Portsmouth have endured a nightmarish season, in which financial meltdown and administration have provided the backdrop to looming relegation from the Premier League.
The club have adopted the prefix of “crisis” throughout. Yet out of the misery and frustration, it feels as if some form of footballing providence is pulling them towards the FA Cup final and there will not be a neutral outside of Southampton who does not wish them well in their semi-final against Tottenham Hotspur at Wembley tomorrow.
Redknapp helped to script a fairytale in 2008, when he led Portsmouth to FA Cup glory over Cardiff. It remains the only time since 1995 that a team outside the present day Big Four has won the Cup. In many respects, Redknapp helped to breathe the romance back into the competition. Now, with the boot most assuredly on the other foot, he must adopt the role of dream-wrecker.
It is not something the Tottenham manager feels comfortable with. “I was pleased Portsmouth got through but I really didn’t want to draw them,” Redknapp said. “I was hoping to draw Aston Villa. I’m not saying that would have been an easy game but you would want to avoid Chelsea and I really didn’t want to face Portsmouth.”
Whereas Redknapp assembled a fine team on the open market to win the cup with Portsmouth two years ago, Avram Grant has taken them to within touching distance of the final with a squad picked over by the vultures. Redknapp has been chief among them, having signed Jermain Defoe, Peter Crouch, Niko Kranjcar and Younes Kaboul from Pompey.
What irks Redknapp, however, is the accusation his assembly of the Portsmouth team that brought joy and indelible memories contributed to the club overstretching itself, to sending it towards the bottom of a pit from which it could not clamber out. He has frequently highlighted the massive profits he turned on Sulley Muntari, Lassana Diarra, Defoe and Glen Johnson, among others, and a close examination of all the deals during his second spell at the club reveals that his net spend was greatly in the black.
What about the player wage bill with which Redknapp saddled the club, ask the critics, a millstone that accounted for such a high proportion of turnover? Managers are not dissimilar to children in a sweet shop when it comes to new signings. They want them all and, if they are not discouraged, they will keep on pushing their luck. A club’s board of directors must be strong enough to say no.
“The problem was that the owner when I was there, Sacha Gaydamak, suddenly lost interest and stopped putting money in,” Redknapp said. “They have not funded the club [since he left]. It only holds 19,000 people, there is no [corporate] hospitality. That’s the trouble. And who knows where the money has gone? Who owns the land around the stadium? I wouldn’t know.”
Redknapp said that of his FA Cup-winning team: “Hermann Hreidarsson was a free from Charlton, Kanu was a free from Hackney Marshes and Sylvain Distin came on a free and they sold him to Everton for £5-£6 million.” He noted Sol Campbell, another Bosman signing, might have been on good wages but “nowhere near what he was getting at Arsenal.”
Redknapp also observed Portsmouth had spent “decent money” last summer, well after his departure, despite people saying they were “skint”. “They paid £4 million for [Kevin-Prince] Boateng, and £2 million for the kid from Watford [Mike Williamson] who they sold for £800,000 in the next window,” he said. “They bought [Nadir] Belhadj for £3-£4 million and [Tal] Ben Haim is on a big, long contract.”
Having left Portsmouth twice, the first time for their rivals Southampton, Redknapp has made enemies of a section of the club’s fan base. They tormented him with crank calls in the wake of his leaving for Tottenham while his return to Portsmouth to receive the freedom of the city for his FA Cup exploits was marred by the noisy minority. “It doesn’t bother me if they have a pop,” Redknapp said. “But I went back to Fratton Park [in October] and there weren’t any problems. People got upset when I left because I did such a good job there. You always get some but 99 per cent are fantastic.”
Redknapp described Portsmouth as “dangerous” underdogs and he predicted a host of their players would suddenly rediscover fitness. This is all they have left this season. “It’s another game, it takes an awful lot to get me excited,” Redknapp said. “My foreign players don’t get too excited, either. I’ll walk up to them now and say: ‘Are you excited?’ and they’ll just shrug. Benoit [Assou-Ekotto] doesn’t even know we’re playing at Wembley.”
For Redknapp, cold-hearted professionalism has to be the order of the day.
Guardian Service
Contract clauses hits Portsmouth
PORTSMOUTH ADMINISTRATOR Andrew Andronikou has revealed several of the club’s players may not play for Avram Grant’s side again following Sunday’s semi-final because of expensive clauses being triggered in their contracts. Six of the south-coast club’s players would trigger clauses – known as bullet payments – in their contracts that guarantee them a renewal of their contracts, or will entitle them to a range of cash payments.
While Andronikou would not reveal the names of any of the players involved, he did divulge that one of the club’s players may not be able to feature on Sunday due to an agreement within his current contract at Fratton Park. He said: “This affects five or six players who will not be allowed to play after the semi-final, and one who might not be allowed to play in the semi-final.”
Andronikou also said he would not interfere with manager Grant’s team selection, but that he had made the former Chelsea boss aware of the monetary connotations.
