Redknapp still unhappy to be overlooked for England

Harry Redknapp had taken a swipe at the Football Association’s senior officials, saying he “would not trust them to show him a good manager if their lives depended on it”.

Redknapp was the outright favourite to take the England job when Fabio Capello resigned last year, but the FA opted to approach Roy Hodgson, then in charge at West Bromwich Albion.

Although Redknapp maintains he holds no grudge against Hodgson, Redknapp is still unhappy and claims he was the leading choice with the fans and the players, suggesting senior members of the national squad like Steven Gerrard texted him to offer their support for him to succeed Capello.

“I wouldn’t trust the FA to show me a good manager if their lives depended on it. How would they know? What clubs have they ever run? Who do they speak to who really knows the game?” the QPR manager said in his autobiography, serialised in the Daily Mail.

“This isn’t about them giving the England job to me or Roy Hodgson, but English football being run by people who really haven’t got a clue. And they get to pick the England manager.

“Everyone said I was the people’s choice, the only choice. All the senior players seemed to be up for me to get the job. I got quite a few text messages at the time from players saying they would love me to manage England: Steven Gerrard, Wayne Rooney, Rio Ferdinand, John Terry. But the FA went for Roy Hodgson to be the England manager – a man who is more their cup of tea.”

And yet, this is the man who, when on trial last year accused of receiving secret payments, claimed: “I can’t work a computer, I don’t know what an email is… I’ve never sent a fax and I’ve never sent a text message.”

If nothing else good came out of that trial, at least Redknapp’s literacy levels soared dramatically.

Redknapp believes that the issue of compensation to Tottenham remains one of the reasons why he was never asked.

“I’m sure the FA would deny they were interested in me anyway, they always like to say they got their No1 choice, but maybe what helped make their minds up was the thought of writing a cheque in the region of £16million to Levy.

“He is known for driving a hard bargain at the best of times; get Daniel on a bad day and I would have ended up more expensive than Capello – and the FA were already getting a lot of criticism over his £6m-a-year salary.

“Of all the reasons doing the rounds for me not becoming England manager, the compensation issue makes most sense.”

That, and the small matter of your sullied reputation.