‘He was begging me’ – Harry Redknapp reveals he turned down Levy’s offer
Harry Redknapp has revealed that he turned down the Tottenham job 18 months before he eventually accepted it.
Redknapp took over at Tottenham from Juande Ramos just eight games into the 2008-09 season, with the Lilywhites staring at a potential relegation at the time, having accumulated just two points until that point.
However, the 75-year-old helped turn around the club’s fortuned and guided the North London club to a respectable eighth place finish that season before helping the club to qualify for the Champions League for the first time in their history in 2009-10.
Redknapp has remarked that the main reason behind Tottenham’s turnaround was down to him instilling belief in the talented players who were in the squad.
He told BT Sport’s The Joe Cole Cast (as relayed by 90 min): “Give them a bit of belief. Gareth Bale hadn’t been on a winning team in 28 games or something. Never on a winning team, whether he was sub or starting.
“Luka Modric was a left winger. I said I was going to play him central, they said: ‘He can’t play there, he’s not strong enough. He can play anywhere, he’s fantastic’, and I stuck him in the middle and pushed Bale from left-back to left wing.
“We had good players. That was the key, getting the best out of them.”
The former Spurs manager revealed that a year and a half before he eventually arrived at White Hart Lane, Daniel Levy begged him to replace Martin Jol, but he rejected the Spurs chairman’s advances.
He also opened up about how he finally decided to take the job when it was offered to him in 2008.
Redknapp added: “I got offered the Tottenham job. I went and met Daniel Levy two nights running, he was begging me to take the job. I didn’t take it.
“I said: ‘You’ve got Martin Jol who has done alright. I don’t think it’s a good appointment, he’s done nothing wrong. It won’t be a popular appointment, let’s leave it’. And I left it.
“18 months later, he came back in. We were playing in Europe at Braga in the UEFA Cup, and I’m sitting on the coach next to Milan Mandaric [former Portsmouth owner]. My phone goes off and it’s Daniel Levy.
“He goes: ‘Are you alright to talk?’. ‘No, not really, I’m just in Braga on the coach with my chairman on the way to the airport!’. I went round his house that night and ended up going back to Tottenham.”
Spurs Web Opinion
Redknapp’s strength was always man-management rather than the tactical side of the game. He filled the players with confidence and allowed them to express themselves, which often made for fantastic viewing.
In fact, the football that Spurs played in the 2011-12 season is the best that I have ever seen us play (including the brilliant 2016-17 season under Pochettino). A midfield of Parker, Modric, Van der Vaart, Lennon, and Bale, with the shackles off, was exhilarating to watch.
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