Daily Record

Axed Redknapp ready to call it quits after 34yrs

- JOHN CROSS

HARRY REDKNAPP 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 Andrews on the back of six straight defeats.

He’s been a survivor of the managerial merry-go-round for 34 years but ex-Spurs boss Redknapp admits this could be his last job.

He 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. They are one place off the bottom of the Championsh­ip table after six successive defeats.

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.

Goals from Daniel Johnson, Jordan Hugill and Tom Barkhuizen in 11 second-half minutes cancelled out Maxime Colin’s opener for the Blues to seal a 3-1 defeat and the manager’s fate.

Redknapp laid the blame 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 could go up on the back of the squad he built.

He said: “I still feel they are capable of challengin­g for the play-offs. I’m sure there are great times ahead.

“Given time we would have turned it round. I couldn’t get the players in 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 training was difficult. It’s a shame I didn’t get to see it through.”

 ??  ?? DOWN AND OUT Redknapp
DOWN AND OUT Redknapp

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