Harry Redknapp often gives the impression that things just happen to him. In 2010, the story goes, the then Tottenham Hotspur manager took a deadline day call from the chairman. Daniel Levy had bought him a ‘present’ in the shape of Dutch maestro Rafael van der Vaart, who immediately set about making a mockery of his price tag as Spurs swaggered to the quarter finals of the

Champions League.
Back then, the one time Portsmouth coach’s good fortune in having a boss with cash to burn might have produced a few wry chuckles but his recent appointment by Queens Park Rangers suggests that there is more to ‘Arry’ than meets the eye.
The cynics point out that Redknapp is virtually synonymous with the much maligned art of wheeler-dealing. Although he was exonerated of tax evasion this year, the whiff of corruption lingers, with some going so far as to suggest that the Football Association was scared of bestowing the England job upon someone who could, even now, proves to have feet of clay. Redknapp is cast as resorting to shady transfer business to disguise a lack of tactical nous.
The man himself has been forthright in his own defence, once snapping at Sky Sport’s Rob Palmer “I’ve not made my name as a wheeler-dealer, I’m a f****** football manager”. This argument actually carries more weight than it appears to, because Redknapp is an unwavering devotee of the old school, whose followers are steeped in the blood and thunder of the training ground. Whereas some 21st century managers take a back seat, preferring to let their assistant do the dirty work, Redknapp is a constant presence behind the scenes. It is little wonder, then, that he has forged a reputation as a natural man manager.
It has also been fashionable to dismiss the grand old man of the English game, whose career as a manager now spans four decades and six clubs, as a happy-go-lucky bumbler who blindly pursues attack without a moment’s thought for the defence.
Try telling that, though, to Massimiliano Allegri, whose AC Milan side succumbed to a classic smash and grab raid at the San Siro in the Champions League round of 16 in February of last year, before being shut out in the second leg at White Hart Lane courtesy of the sort of rearguard action that has come to be associated with Italian teams.
It is open to question whether the suits at Loftus Road truly appreciate the rare combination of talents that Harry Redknapp will bring to the table. When they recognise them, however, they will be in good company.