HARRY SAYS HE THINKS IT’S ALL OVER
Redknapp set to retire after being axed by struggling City
HARRY REDKNAPP, the great survivor of the managerial merry-goround for 34 years, is set to retire after being sacked by Birmingham.
The 70-year-old says there is “every chance” his managerial career is over after his departure from St Andrew’s on the back of six straight defeats.
Former Tottenham boss Redknapp said: “I doubt very much whether it will happen again now.
“I’m a realist. If I could help someone, somewhere, help a young manager, I’d love that. I did it at Derby with Darren Wassall and had a great time.”
Redknapp kept the Blues up last season but the start to this campaign has been a disaster, despite the club spending big money in the transfer window.
It is a clear indication that the pressure of producing in a so-called “results business” is greater than ever, when even Redknapp can be sacked after a handful of games.
Here, Redknapp saw Maxime Colin slot home from a tight angle to give the Blues the lead.
But Daniel Johnson (below), Jordan Hugill and Tom Barkhuizen all netted for Preston in 11 secondhalf minutes to seal the manager’s fate.
Redknapp laid the blame squarely on the club’s recruitment process – they brought in 14 players in the summer – and the fact four deals were done on deadline day.
But he suggested the next manager will thrive with the new players and could even go up on the back of the squad he built.
He said: “They’ve got a squad that is probably as good as they have had for a long time. I still feel they are capable of challenging for the play-offs.
“I genuinely believe they have seven forward players who are as good as any in the Championship, who unfortunately haven’t been playing because of injury.
“They are going to be fantastic players, Premier League players for sure, hopefully with Birmingham City one day.
“I’m sure there are great times ahead. I wish the club every success.
“Given time, we would have turned it round but whoever goes in is going to take over a good group. I took over a team that got out of trouble on the last day of last season, they’d had two wins out of 25, they weren’t good enough. It needed change.
“But unfortunately I couldn’t get the players in that I was after and it went down to deadline week before I got a big influx.
“Then it was six players making their debut on one day, then three games in that week, so even working on the training ground was difficult.
“It’s a shame I didn’t have the chance to see it through but time is something you don’t get an awful lot of.
“I feel more sorry for the other lads in the lower leagues who lost their jobs (Chesterfield’s Gary Caldwell and Michael Brown at Port Vale).
“It’s difficult to get back on the ladder for them, whereas I have been lucky enough to have been on that ladder and had a great time.”