Sacked Redknapp blames his players
‘Some of these lads are just not good enough’
HARRY Redknapp accused the players of letting him down as he was sensationally sacked by Birmingham City last night after only five months in the job.
Redknapp (above) was fired within an hour of Birmingham crashing to a 3-1 defeat by Preston which left them 23rd in the Championship. A club statement read: ‘Unfortunately, due to the poor start to the campaign, we are left with no choice but to terminate the contract of the manager with immediate effect.’
It was a sixth straight defeat in all competitions and the 70-year-old former West Ham and Tottenham chief soon pointed the finger at some of his players — even though it was he who had overseen a £20million summer spending spree which brought in 14 new faces. Speaking just minutes before he was told he had lost
his job, Redknapp lamented Birmingham’s performance and said there was nothing he could do as a manager if his players were making ‘basic errors’ all over the pitch.
Redknapp added: ‘ There’s some good lads in my squad, but there are one or two lads here who are not so good, I must say.’
In another attack on his team, Redknapp said: ‘Preston were quicker than us, sharper than us and better than us. There was some horrendous defending in the middle of the park. Some really basic mistakes from the players. But what can I do about it? But the manager gets blamed, you know, as that’s football.’
Redknapp, who succeeded Gianfranco Zola in April and kept Birmingham up l ast s eason, broke t he cl ub’s transfer record to sign Spanish midfielder Jota from Brentford for more than £6m — one of five signings on deadline day alone.
Redknapp, a s we l l as criticising s o me of his players, also claimed he’d had no luck during the first few weeks of the season, citing injuries as a factor behind the poor run of form.
‘We got another hamstring after two minutes — that’s four hamstrings,’ he said. ‘That’s not excuses, these are the facts.’
Lee Carsley, the club’s head professional development coach, has been put in charge.
Steve Cotterill, Redknapp’s righthand man as the club avoided relegation in May, is among t he f avourites to succeed him.
Redknapp knew he was under pressure before the cl ash with Preston. And immediately after the final whistle he knew he would be fending off questions about his future.
Intriguingly, when asked by a reporter if Birmingham were slipping too far behind, he responded: ‘I thought you were going to ask me if I would be here tomorrow. I don’t know what will happen, who knows, who knows.’
Birmingham had been blown away by Preston in the second half at St Andrew’s as Daniel Johnson, Jordan Hugill and Tom Barkhuizen al l scored in the space of 10 minutes to render Maxime Colin’s first- half strike an irrelevance. The marking was poor throughout from Birmingham and they were completely cut open at the back — highlighted best by the fact Barkhuizen could have walked the ball into the net for Preston’s final goal.
Birmingham City are in a mess on and off the field and whoever takes the manager’s job permanently will now have a tough task to avoid the ignominy of relegation to League One.