And here's the truth about dirty 'Arry, snatched from westhamonline.net:
The name’s Redknapp… Mark Redknapp. Who am I? I am one of the agents involved in the 2000 transfer of Titi Camara from Liverpool, where my brother Jamie played, to West Ham United where my father Harry was manager. Since Liverpool were only asking £600,000 for Camara from other clubs, I was pleased that the Hammers boss (Pops) decided to pay £1,500,000 with 50% of any difference going to the agents…
Agents being happy with Harry is a common theme. Of the £18 million paid to Leeds for the Rio Ferdinand deal, Rune Hauge and Pini Zahavi, involved in the deal which was then a world record for a defender, profited to the tune of £2.75m. A world record fee for agents?
There was similar confusion in the London club’s sensible purchase of two world cup starring Cameroon defender, Liverpool player, and Redknapp-represented Rigobert Song for a fee in excess of £3 million. Liverpool must have inflated the postage: in an interview with the BBC Redknapp Snr admitted “it was a bit of a complicated deal actually” and that he splashed no more than £1.5 million of cash, the remainder being accounted for by the exchange of “Finland under 16 star” Daniel Sjolund, who moved to West Ham from Brommapjkarna, a Swedish side known for producing young talent, for £190,000 in October 1999.
Former Leeds chairman and dream-liver Peter Ridsdale authorised the payment for England‘s best defender, but later claimed not to be aware how much went to agents. In fact he had agreed to pay disgraced agent Rune Hauge a staggering £1.75 million following the capture of Rio Ferdinand from West Ham. Hauge, banned by FIFA in 1995 for paying bungs to former Arsenal manager George Graham, originally asked for five per cent commission on the deal, but Leeds agreed to pay almost 10 per cent of the then British record £18m fee.
There was one further beneficiary of the Rio Ferdinand transfer… Hammers manager Harry Redknapp. Following the sale West Ham United Football Club Chairman Terence Brown gave ‘H’ a £300,000 ‘gift’.
"It was a gift from the Chairman, Terence Brown, who told me I'd earned it for my management of the club," he said.
"About a fortnight after Rio Ferdinand had gone to Leeds, Brown came to me and told me he wanted to give me a £300,000 'present'. He made it clear this was a gift following the deal we'd done on Rio and because he was pleased with the way I'd been running the Club."
Reacting to accusations that he engineered the whole deal, Redknapp said
"I'd much rather have kept Rio than pick up a £300,000 bonus. But the trouble from Rio's viewpoint was that he didn't feel the club wanted to keep him."
The most important agent in Redknapp’s life is a Mr Willie McKay. McKay, as the head agent involved in the Song and Camara deals, was either clever or lucky enough to have come up with a brilliantly timed arrangement with Liverpool that he would keep 50% of any fee generated above a certain level. Maybe it was in the stars that long-time associate made high bids for both players mere weeks after…
Along with signing the poor Camara and Song, at least one of whom would be in contention for West Ham’s worst ever signing if not for Glenn Roeder, there have been a few other ‘fantastic’ purchasing decisions. It was well known that Gary Charles was an alcoholic by the time he was a non-playing player on the books of Benfica. Possibly Redknapp thought he could turn him around, but on going out to Portugal to meet the player himself, Charles was nowhere to be seen. This didn’t stop Redknapp’s single-minded determination to sign the alcoholic, car-crash-fleeing ex-Aston Villa player, who went on to play 4 games in 4 years at a cost of £1.5m per game before West Ham claimed on the insurance and were paid out because of a “recurring knee injury”. Ilie Dumitrescu was another who was courted with extreme persistence. The authorities had thrown a spanner in the works in the Romanian’s transfer from the wilderness of Tottenham’s reserves by rejecting a work permit, but on appeal he was able to come for £2.5m, lasting 10 games before moving to Mexico.
During his tenure at Upton Park, Harry Redknapp made 134 transfers, a new team every season. The busiest agent was Willie McKay. Redknapp still focuses on certain parts of the market and has recently demonstrated a penchant for French Africans.
Good old ‘Arry left the ‘Appy ‘Ammers with the 6th highest wage bill in the Premiership when he left, and scored the same number of points in his last season as Glenn Roeder did in the relegation year. The first choice defence on leaving was an aged Nigel Winterburn, Song, Dailly and alcoholic Charles. Steve McLaren turned down the manager’s job as he would “rather manage Southampton”. Another target of the board Alan Curbishley thought “I’d have to take them down first to take them up again”.
Redknapp was sacked by Terence Brown after spending the Rio Ferdinand money on Camara and Song, Ragnvald Soma, Svetoslav Todorov and Hayden Foxe. Just three years on and only one of those has a claim to be a regular Premiership player. West Ham quietly refused to play any of the incoming for some reason… and on selling the £3 million Song (in Harry Redknapp‘s world) for a hundred grand or so, the honest Glenn Roeder said “we’ve had to take a slight loss on some of the players Harry brought in”.
Portsmouth’s wage bill is swollen at £20 million p/a plus, but Redknapp has done the job Mandaric brought him in to do. Does Mandaric believe any slight shall we say conflict of interest in Redknapp’s previous behaviour? The pair fell out when Mandaric refused to let Redknapp keep ultimate control of buying and selling players. Redknapp has walked, but Pompey’s chairman believes they will be “friends for life” and that no bad words will be exchanged between the two parties. There is nothing like mutual interest to ensure it…
If Harry Redknapp does decide to quit football he can always concentrate on his million pound property investments on the South coast, or his Italian restaurant (Lorenzo’s) which I understand is one of the most profitable in the country…
He wont come here
