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Priceless - southern journo admits to magic of Newcastle


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http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport...ticle674951.ece

 

 

Don't let it be if only, Redknapp

 

STEVEN HOWARD - Chief sports writer

 

 

 

HARRY REDKNAPP does not want to live the rest of his life thinking “If only ...”

 

There cannot be any “if onlys” when you are a football manager.

 

The career, for most, is too short. The profession, as we have seen this season, is littered with corpses.

 

That is why Redknapp should take the Newcastle job. A millionaire several times over, he doesn’t need the money.

 

Sure, there’s a lot of it — some £20million over four years — and we’re all partial to a pound note.

 

But what he DOES need before he calls it a day is the knowledge that he was given a chance to crack it at a big club.

 

Whatever we say about Newcastle and the lack of trophies over the last 50 years, an average gate of 52,000 is compelling evidence that this is no ordinary club.

 

To succeed at Newcastle, where so many have failed, will be a challenge that will appeal hugely to Redknapp and his self-belief.

 

Remember, this is not a man without an ego. He feels his success at West Ham and Portsmouth (twice) entitles him to more credit than he gets.

 

 

The old accusation that his achievements have only come at smaller clubs rankles.

 

Then, of course, there is the further charge that he has never won any significant silverware.

 

Well, they said the same about Kevin Keegan before he transformed Newcastle from a club at the bottom of the First Division into one of the Premier League elite.

 

Conversely, Tyneside was agog when Kenny Dalglish, the Double-winning messiah from Liverpool, succeeded Keegan.

 

Look at his record, they said. Yet all that counted for nothing.

 

The modern-day sceptics on the Gallowgate say Redknapp is too similar to Sam Allardyce, just another journeyman with no real star quality.

 

It’s a type of football snobbism, very prevalent in this day and age when aimed at managers who are considered a little old-fashioned. Yet there was no more old-fashioned a manager — or man — than Keegan.

 

You can only assume they have failed to notice the way Redknapp, 60, gets his teams playing “proper” football.

 

Except this deduction must be wrong seeing Pompey hammered Newcastle 4-1 at St James’ Park not that long ago.

 

As Redknapp weighs up his options, he knows there are many reasons why he should stay put.

 

He and wife Sandra have a wonderful home in Poole (when it’s not being stormed by police at 6am) and a close network of friends.

 

He also has a tremendous rapport with Pompey fans and acknowledges they bit the bullet when they allowed him back in after his brief stint up the road with the unmentionables.

 

But what is Portsmouth’s future? Talk of a new ground has been going on for so long no one can be sure it will take place. And Redknapp doesn’t have the time.

 

Newcastle offers him a wonderful chance to prove his man-management skills and ability as a coach are such they can even survive the managerial graveyard that is St James’.

 

Harry and the Geordies: What a rollercoaster ride that would be. Get me a ticket.

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to be fair to Steve Howard, Ive noticed that he has long been an admirer, way back from the Keegan days. He's the one hack who would regularly give an early season prediction having us win something.

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to be fair to Steve Howard, Ive noticed that he has long been an admirer, way back from the Keegan days. He's the one hack who would regularly give an early season prediction having us win something.

 

So that's obviously not the same steve howard, newcastle fan, who has just left Derby for the championship?

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