Let's hear it for Jamie's dad!

[Guest Red Mist]

Bloody well played, Harry. Congrats to Pompey for staying up and sending the two clubs managed by those Manc t***ts down to the Championship!

[Euphrates]

Thought this was about Carra, how pissed off am I?

[JonShar]

Just a stay of execution really. Portsmouth are far worse off than they were this time last year.

[Guest Jack Bauer]

20 points out of 27 ain't bad

 

Would have been more interesting had they not had a poor mans Abramovich come in.

[slapnuts]

Quality from droopy dawg

[Benitez]

what I don't with the commentators on Sky Sprats Footy First and Redknapp himself in self congratulatory mode - going on about what a great job he'd done - with a club who where pretty much guaranteed to get relegated when he took over.

 

But I thought they wheren't even in the relegation zone when he took over

 

And he was able to bring in a lot of players, a luxury not affored to the other bottom dwelling clubs.

 

Just don't think it's that big a fecin deal meself like

[hagi_complex]

'arry done triffic.

[Jim D]

Did well didn't he? From the time he took over till now Harry "Houdini" Redknapp took Portsmouth from a mighty 18th place to a staggering 17th position! Certainly the work of a magician eh?

 

I'm sure any other manager with the resources and money he was given when he came in would of pulled it off just as easily.

[Benzo-13]

He should get the England job.. Seriously.. He's not afraid of reputation at all. He's a good top 8 Premiership manager and lot less vile than Fat Sam.

 

Amazing achivement considering the side I saw us beat at Anfield in November 3-0 was one of the worst I ever seen.

[JonShar]

what I don't with the commentators on Sky Sprats Footy First and Redknapp himself in self congratulatory mode - going on about what a great job he'd done - with a club who where pretty much guaranteed to get relegated when he took over.

 

But I thought they wheren't even in the relegation zone when he took over

 

And he was able to bring in a lot of players, a luxury not affored to the other bottom dwelling clubs.

 

Just don't think it's that big a fecin deal meself like

 

Is absolutely right.

 

He would be an absolute joke as England manager, that's a horrible idea.

[Scally Bob]

Can't stand him. Archetypal geezer manager, always good to his Mum and left his doors unlocked. In his world all good players are all cockneys from the sixties and Venables is the next Messiah. And not a hint of xenophobia/borderline racism for the Ingerlund job.

 

I'd love to do an audit on all his transfer deals.

 

What's he ever done anyway?

 

I think I've lapsed into Life of Brian mode now.

[Bootle Buck]

Yes well done arry. You used lots of money from a very shady(to say the least) new owner to see off Brum and the Baggies(two of the worst premiership teams ever). Now let's find out the truth about:

 

a. Were the money came from

b. The transfer dealings

c. How illegal it all was

[Stevie H]

he's a fat crook whose face is melting.

[The Hitman]

Can't stand 'Appy 'Arry either,just can't stand him. He's raised a nice lad,but that's about it.

[Sir Tokyo Sexwale]

or not?

 

previous thread

 

Has anyone counted the number of times media goons have referred to Harry Redknapp as Harry Houdini in recent weeks? Annoying, isn't it? Inaccurate, too. Yes, even after Birmingham's win last night Portsmouth look like wriggling free of relegation but Redknapp deserves only a fraction of the credit. And yet the Beeb, in particular, are giddily trying to convince us that it's all down to the magic of 'Arry, that loveable ol' escapologist

 

How does he do it?," cooed Five Live presenter Eleanor Oldroyd last Sunday, becoming just one of many conspirators in the mystification of an ordinary manager. "It's incredible. He really is Harry Houdini!" she gushed nonsensically of the man who, less than 12 months ago, steered Southampton to relegation for the first time in 27 years.

Oh, but that was all the fault of doolally Rupert Lowe and conniving impostor Sir Clive Woodward, wasn't it? That's what Harry hinted relentlessly, so it must be true. Harry always shoots from the lip and tells it straight, doesn't he? Just like when he returned to Fratton Park last December and, shaking his head mournfully, insisted his bungling predecessor Alain Perrin had left him a squad of planks and fools. "Look what I have to work with," he wailed, deploying the same motivational strategy that wrought such wonders for Mick McCarthy at Sunderland. "Some of the guys don't even speak English, it's ridiculous!" he continued, as if interpreters haven't been invented and he, wheeler-dealer extraordinaire, has never signed a player who didn't recite Shakesperian sonnets while rounding goalkeepers to top off 14-0 wins.

 

Of course Harry's intention wasn't to motivate his players, it was to feed the media a self-serving script that went something like this: if Pompey perish, it's because Perrin fatally wounded them; if they survive, it's because Harry's a miracle-worker. Pompey were in 16th place when Perrin was ousted. Now they're 18th.

 

Yet this country's media enjoys nothing more than churning out waffle to fuel disingenuous cults of personality, so many have happily sung along to Harry's song. This is unjust on Perrin, unjustified for Redknapp and, most of all, just insulting to the public.

 

Perrin's reign lasted 21 games. Portsmouth were in danger of relegation when he took over towards the end of the 2004/05 season but ultimately avoided it - and even helped themselves to the pleasure of pushing Redknapp's shambolic Southampton closer to the drop with a 4-1 demolition. Then Yakubu was sold against Perrin's wishes and Arjan De Zeeuw, the linchpin of the team's defence, returned to Wigan, allegedly because they offered better wages. With paltry resources, the Frenchman could only blag loan players or gamble on unknowns and unwanteds. Several stunk, some swam. Just like with Redkanpp's buys throughout his entire career.

 

This is not to say that Perrin was a brilliant, misunderstood manager, merely that he wasn't quite as cack-handed as Redknapp has implied. In fact, Perrin's record (W4 D6 L11) is remarkably similar to Redknapp's (W7 D4 L11). Er, not really, but... But the "Harry Houdini" brigade have giddily glossed over this because, as a chatty Englishman, Harry makes a good media hero. Even if the team's position when Redknapp took over had been as grim as the man himself would have us believe, is it not outrageously patronising for anyone to ask us to accept that it is Harry's wiles that have been responsible for Pompey's mini-recovery? As opposed to Alexandre Gaydamak's money?

 

Pompey's new sugar daddy has bankrolled the recruitment of eight costly new players since January as well as a £4.1m mascot (that's what Benjamin Mwaruwari's for, isn't it?). How would Perrin have fared with that backing? Where would relegation rivals West Brom be with wedge like that? Make no mistake, money is the cheese.

 

Despite this huge investment, Redknapp had inspired Pompey to a run of nine defeats in 10 league games (including a 5-0 battering by Birmingham!) before Pedro Mendes stopped the rot with a freakish last-gasp winner against Manchester City. Which brings us on to the second reason for the Portsmouth "miracle": the unusually generous fixture list.

 

After the win over City, Portsmouth visited West Ham, who, with the FA Cup quarter-final looming, fielded a second-string side. Then Middlesbrough did the same. This Saturday, they're at home to Sunderland (whom Perrin's Pompey whipped 4-1 away from home when the Black Cats had not yet been drowned). Throw in a couple of preposterous misses by Arsenal's Emmanuel Adebayor and one fact becomes obvious: Harry couldn't possibly have been handed an easier run-in.

 

So if Pompey survive, it will primarily be thanks to a massive cash injection and a favourable fixture list, and not because their manager is magic. But I guess Harry Houdini sounds more catchy than Harry Serendipity.

[wacko]

Thought this was about Carra, how pissed off am I?

Not as pissed off as me. I just did it again