It’s been a rather emotional 24 hours for Tottenham Hotspur manager Harry Redknapp, who went from facing a possible jail sentence to being, in the eyes of many English football fans, the ideal candidate for the national team, a team now looking for a new boss.
Just a few hours after Redknapp was cleared of all tax evasion charges, Fabio Capello quit as manager of the England national team. Capello resigned after the FA stripped John Terry of the England captaincy. Terry has been accused of racial abuse, and he is currently awaiting a July trial regarding those charges.
Redknapp has been pulling double-duty throughout much of 2012, fighting tax evasion charges while trying to keep Tottenham in the top three of the Premier League. He actually missed last Monday’s match at Anfield when his flight was canceled at the last minute. Redknapp immediately returned to the Spurs training ground once he was cleared of the charges on Wednesday, and he is now preparing Tottenham for a Saturday showdown with Newcastle United.
Redknapp told reporters on Wednesday that he currently has just one team on his mind. Sources quoted the Tottenham boss as saying “I’ve not even thought about it. I’ve got a job to do. I’ve got a big game on Saturday for Tottenham. Tottenham is my focus…Tottenham have been fantastic to me. The fans last week at the Wigan game … it was incredible the reception they gave me. That’s my only interest, is Tottenham Hotspur.”
Spurs fans in attendance at White Hart Lane on January 31 when Tottenham defeated Wigan 3-1 sang songs in support of Redknapp throughout both halves of the contest. Redknapp thanked the fans for their support on Wednesday before news of Capello’s resignation went public. You can expect more of the same from the Spurs faithful this Saturday.
Capello was slated to leave the national team following this summer’s Euro, and it had been widely speculated that Redknapp would take over as the new England manager even before Wednesday’s decisions. The only roadblock between Redknapp and the England job was the tax evasion trial, which is now no longer an issue.
Don’t assume, however, that a Redknapp exit from White Hart Lane is a guarantee. Redknapp has Tottenham on the verge of their second Champions League berth in three years, and one “in the know” individual has assured me that Spurs chairman Daniel Levy isn’t yet prepared to lose Redknapp without at least a little bit of a fight. Levy could be prepared to make Redknapp one final “dream offer” to remain with Spurs, although no such deal has yet been made public. Levy hasn’t commented on Redknapp’s future since Wednesday.
As a Tottenham fan, I would love nothing more than to have Harry as the team’s manager for years to come. He, along with Levy, built a title contender without breaking the bank, and Redknapp has been, for the most part, a player’s coach over the past few years. The results really do say it all regarding Redknapp’s tenure at Spurs. With that said, I certainly wouldn’t blame Redknapp for taking the national team gig. My only hope is that he will remain at Tottenham until the end of the current season, something that seems likely now that Stuart Pearce has been named as a temporary replacement for Capello.
Note: This article was written by a Yahoo! contributor. Sign up here to start publishing your own sports content.
Article source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/sports/rss//SIG=11mpr3jgm/*http://sports.yahoo.com/sow/news?slug=ycn-10944740
