Always Managing: My Autobiography by Harry Redknapp Read Free Book Online

and I thought very seriously about an offer to coach Ukraine twelve months ago, but I’d rather go in every day and see a bunch of footballers than sit around drinking tea with a bloke in a suit. I want to go out on the training ground with players, pick an XI and look forward to Saturday afternoon. I’m at the stage in my career that when I go to Anfield or Old Trafford, I walk around the place reliving the memories and wondering whether I’ll ever come back this way again. I’m not ready to give that buzz up just yet – I enjoy it too much, even the difficult times, bottom of the league with Queens Park Rangers. It is a fantastic feeling to walk out at those big grounds, and the older you get the more you appreciate it and want to savour that moment. So to manage England would have been great in its way, but when it didn’t happen, I didn’t go into deep depression or lose sleep. I phoned Roy to wish him good luck, and I meant it. There are no hard feelings from me.
    The way I see it now, though, the moment has passed. I couldn’t see myself managing England if the chance arose again. The FA made their decision, they went with Roy, and I cannot see me wanting to work for them in the future. If the job came up again, I wouldn’t want to be considered. I’ve given up on it now, and I think I would rule myself out early in the day, once the questions started flying. I’m happy to lead my life without going through that hassle again. Some people are ambitious, but I’ve only ever wanted to enjoy my football. I have turned down some interesting opportunities – Tottenham, Newcastle United, Ukraine – because they did not fit where I was at the time. I’ve managed in the Champions League, I’ve managed Bournemouth, and I was happy both times.
    That doesn’t mean to say I do not still have opinions on the way England should play. What Englishman doesn’t? We should be better. Doesn’t everyone think that? Without doubt we have underachieved. There is nothing more frustrating than getting to a tournament and seeing England outplayed, and then you look at the team-sheet of the opposition and it is full of players that couldn’t make it in our Premier League. How often does that happen? You’re thinking, ‘Hang on, he was at Blackburn – he was useless,’ or, ‘That bloke couldn’t get in West Ham’s team.’ You see Dirk Kuyt playing for Holland and he looks different class; meanwhile Steven Gerrard – who was better than him at Liverpool, week in, week out – is struggling. It doesn’t make sense. The big European nations have not got better individual footballers than us, I’m convinced of it. I look at our team, one to eleven, and I am amazed we have been so poor.
    I think it comes down to identity.
    We don’t have any.
    The last England manager I can remember who had a firm idea of how he wanted to play was Glenn Hoddle: three centre-halves, a player coming out from the back to overload midfield; there was a plan to what he wanted to do. Since then we’ve bumbled along, a hundred different systems: are we kicking it, or are we passing it? That’s what I like about Brendan Rodgers: he’s not scared to put a weedy little player in midfield if the kid can pass, and then he’ll let it all flow through him. There is a shape, there is an idea: the full-backs are high, the centre-halves split; you know how his teams are going to play before you kick off. They are going to pass, they are going to take risks; but England do not have that identity. If you look at England against Italy in the last European Championships, and I know it was difficult for Roy because he had just come in, but when your best pass completion statistic is from Joe Hart to Andy Carroll – goalkeeper to big lump of centre-forward, bypassing nine outfield players – you know you’ve got a problem. No other major country would record a stat like that.
    Don’t we all want to see England play the game properly? Well, it is going