Harry Rednapp's Autobiography

[tototoner]

It's being serialised in the Daily Mail this week ahead of its release on 10-Oct

Just read the 4 online Daily Mail articles on it today and think it will be a good read, he's certainly got a few interesting stories to tell, the one about the jockey is just madness.

Here is one of the links

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/fo...lives-depended--HARRY-REDKNAPP-EXCLUSIVE.html

 

[Geyzer Soze]

Triffic

 

[Wsussexspur]

I was thinking to myself yesterday that Harry had been quite recently knowing what a media/ publicity whore he is! This will keep him in the headlines for abit. Will enjoy reading this book when it comes out can imagine it will ruffle a few feathers & egos.

Am guessing it was Lennon he is referring to who wanted to be pulled out of the England squad.

 

[tototoner]

I was thinking to myself yesterday that Harry had been quite recently knowing what a media/ publicity whore he is! This will keep him in the headlines for abit. Will enjoy reading this book when it comes out can imagine it will ruffle a few feathers & egos.

Am guessing it was Lennon he is referring to who wanted to be pulled out of the England squad.

Lennon, Walker, Parker or Defoe - maybe all 4

 

[tototoner]

This is the story on the jockey

I was introduced to ‘Lee Topliss’ at Les Ambassadeurs casino in London one night during my time as Tottenham manager.

Lee Topliss is a young jockey who has been riding for Richard Fahey at Musley Bank Stables since 2009.

He is regarded as one of the best apprentices in the game.

This guy seemed a nice kid. He wasn’t dressed too well, looked like he could do with a few quid, but very open and chatty.

If you like a bet, he seemed a good man to know.

Then the conversation turned to football. ‘I love Tottenham, Harry,’ he said. ‘The only problem is, I can never get a ticket…’

Suddenly, he was at near enough every home game. He’d ring me up, give me a few tips for horses — they usually got beat — and then arrange to come to the match at the weekend. Half the time I’d end up dropping him at the station afterwards because I felt sorry for him.

He came everywhere. Directors’ box at Manchester United and Arsenal, in a private box next to Roman Abramovich at Chelsea.

We went out for dinner after a match and I’ve never forgotten the way he tucked into his food. I’ve never seen a jockey eat like it. He even had dessert.

‘Are you sure you should be having all those calories, Lee?’ I asked him. ‘Oh, it’s OK, Harry,’ he assured me. ‘I sweat it all out in the sauna in the morning.’ What do I know? He went through the card and then

I gave him £150 for a taxi back up to Newmarket.

This went on for years. If we had a big game, he was there.

One day he said he had an offer to go to Dubai for a few weeks and ride for the Godolphin stable.

‘It’s a great opportunity, Harry,’ he said, ‘but I’ve got to pay my own way and I can’t afford the air fare. I’ll get prize money out there but I can’t collect it until the end of the month.’

‘How much do you need, Lee?’ I asked. ‘About five hundred quid should do it,’ he said. So I lent him £500. I never saw that again, prize money or not.

When I switched clubs, Lee’s allegiance to Tottenham turned out not to be as strong as he made out. Now he was going everywhere with QPR.

On the last day of last season, he came up to Liverpool as my guest, sat in the directors’ box and, at the end of the game, pleaded poverty again. ‘I’m riding down at Newbury tomorrow, Harry, and I’m not sure I’ve got the train fare.’

He even cadged a lift to the station out of me, which took me in the opposite direction to home.

I just felt sorry for him. He was always on his own, and he obviously wasn’t making much money, despite being a top apprentice.

And then I got a phone call from Willie McKay, a football agent. ‘Do you still speak to Lee Topliss,
Harry?’ asked Willie. ‘Yeah, I do,’ I said. ‘He’s always calling me, more losers than winners, mind you.’
‘Right,’ Willie continued. ‘Well, I think I know why his information isn’t so clever.’

‘Why?’

‘He’s not Lee Topliss. He’s a potman at a boozer in Newmarket. He picks up glasses - he’s not a f****** jockey.’

Three years he’d had me.

The best seat in the house, good restaurants, lifts here, there and everywhere - and heaven knows what in hand-outs.

And it was a sheer fluke that Willie found out the truth. A while ago, ‘Lee’ had given Willie a rare successful tip, so the next time Willie was at Doncaster, he saw Lee Topliss’s name on the card and wanted to thank him.

But when he saw him ride around in the parade ring, it didn’t look like Lee Topliss. Taller for a start. Willie put it down to the protective racing helmet he was wearing and thought no more of it.

Then, a few races later, he saw Lee with his back to him in the paddock. Now was the chance to say something. He tapped him on the shoulder.

‘Hello, Lee, I’m Willie, Harry’s mate, thanks for the horse you gave me, good lad, it ran well,’ he said.
The jockey stared at Willie as if he was mad.

‘I’m Harry Redknapp’s friend,’ Willie repeated. ‘If you ever need anything, give me a ring.’

Again, he was staring back at Willie as if he had landed from the moon. Then Willie began to study the lad’s face. It wasn’t the ‘Lee Topliss’ he knew, the one he had met with me at Les Ambassadeurs.

And then Willie started making enquiries.

I thought I was streetwise. This guy, ‘Lee’, was a different class. I’m told when Istabraq won the Champion Hurdle, he’d led the horse into the winner’s enclosure waving the Irish tricolour. Everyone thought he was part of the trainer Aidan O’Brien’s stable but it turned out they didn’t have a clue who he was either.

He was a conman preying on the racing scene and the little Irish rogue had us all. I’m told he was working the same racket with Liverpool’s Glen Johnson, plus a couple of football agents and other managers.

I can imagine him now, in his room full of signed shirts —Robbie Keane, Aaron Lennon, Gareth Bale, all collected through me.

So I’d got sacked by Tottenham, relegated with QPR, my mate of three years turned out to be an Irish crook, and my last memory was of him disappearing off to Lime Street station in Liverpool with another £150 of my money.

Oh yes, it had been one hell of a year.

Me, Toon boss? Don’t bet on it

I was in a restaurant with my wife when we bumped into Richard Hughes, a Portsmouth player. It was 2005 and Richard asked me, straight out, if I was going back to Fratton Park from Southampton.

What was I going to do? Lie? ‘You never know,’ I said. ‘It’s definitely a possibility.’

Suddenly, there was money going on my return. The odds came down sharply and that was enough for the FA’s compliance unit to get involved. No bets were traced to me, but they were to Richard. He’s a friend and I gave him a straight answer.
We all know people at football clubs or racing stables do it. The bookmakers quickly close the book if they suspect the punters know more than they do.

Yet I ended up before the FA, and Richard was quizzed as well. In the end Brian Barwick, who was FA chief executive, realised we had done nothing wrong.
Another time, I was contacted by Paul Kemsley, a friend of Newcastle owner Mike Ashley, about the vacant manager’s job.
I could tell by his voice he had several thousand reasons to want me to be Newcastle manager. He likes a bet, Paul, and I got the impression he was very confident I would take it.

But I had a good team at Portsmouth — we had beaten Newcastle 4-1 — and I didn’t think it was worth it. ‘F****** hell, Harry,’ he said. ‘Don’t do this to me.’ ‘Sorry, Paul,’ I insisted. ‘I just don’t want to go.’

‘But, Harry, I’ve done my b******s here…’

If betting on managerial appointments is wrong, then ban it. Don’t pretend it’s fine unless you actually know the manager.
Since when did having good information in a betting market become a crime?

 

[nightgoat]

COMING ON TUESDAY

My tough love made Bale a superstar... when he wasn't playing with his hair!

 

[Lilbaz]

Did rosie have to write it for him?

 

[SlunkSoma]

Thanks for the tip (OP not 'Lee'). Was wondering when his book would come out and thought it would be an interesting read. Those two anecdotes there though have left me a little cold. The scam is a bit brutal for Harry, but all that talk about betting is a little disconcerting. Paul Kemsley was a director/influencer at Spurs - how many times did he pull the same job with us? George Graham anyone? Done his bollocks indeed. This needs to be weeded out, parasites manipulating football for their own gain. Its murky and means the focus is not on the pitch. Makes me feel a little ill.

 

[OmarsComing]

lol will buy on kindle

'riffic

 

[onthetwo]

i liked the part about trying to get Brendan Rogers to assist him as England manager at half time in the Swansea game at home!
For me, the tone of the excerpts that i read helped connect the dots on his departure i.e. he and DL are on different planets.

 

[CowInAComa]

I think this recent extract re: rodgers and england and sour grapes shows exactly why we sacked him and england overlooked him.

Twat.

Championship tosser.

 

[dixiespurs]

Did anyone see this article a few weeks back?

http://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2013/sep/05/harry-redknapp-played-fan-west-ham

 

[Geyzer Soze]

Anyone else read these excerpts In a Harry voice?

 

[KILLA_SIN]

Didn't Paul K file for bankruptcy a little while a go?

 

[King of Otters]

Great stuff.

 

[Colonel_Klinck]

I thought they were quite funny. And people are kidding themselves if they think people ITK at clubs don't have a flutter using info they have. If you like a bet, you like a bet and if you can pull one over on the bookies good luck to you. Personally gambling holds no interest at all for me.
As much as I was glad to see Harry leave I enjoyed the majority of his time in charge. He got us into the CL for the first time and we were exciting to watch. He's such a dodgy geezer though lol.

 

[VegasII]

Comedy. Del Boy meets Franz Kafka and William Burroughs...some real twilight zone shit with Harry.

I think there's a book/film in there somewhere covering Harry & levy...some kind of satire....

 

[Hoddle&Waddle]

Epic Beige Slacks are Epic

 

[jonathanhotspur]

I think this recent extract re: rodgers and england and sour grapes shows exactly why we sacked him and england overlooked him.

Twat.

Championship tosser.

Self-aggrandizing chancer. Prattling on as though he's some kind of football purist who would never go Route 1. How much hoofball did we have to endure after he bought Peter Crouch? You have to laugh at the idea of him hiring Rodgers to do the coaching-leaving him to do fuck all else apart from pick the team, spout bollocks to the media and read the Racing Post (business as usual).

 

[tototoner]

good stuff on QPR today

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/fo...p-book-QPRs-worst-dressing-room-football.html

EXCLUSIVE: Inside the most toxic dressing room in football - Jose would not have kept QPR up last season​

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• REVEALED: The stinking attitudes and culture of decay inside Rangers' dressing room last season
• I was really worried I was going to have a heart attack or a stroke

By Harry Redknapp​

PUBLISHED: 23:59, 8 October 2013 | UPDATED: 07:27, 9 October 2013​

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Jose Mourinho would not have kept QPR up last season. The squad I inherited in November last year was poorly balanced, undisciplined and short of confidence. The directors and owners were nice people but they were naive in football terms and I think certain people they had trusted — agents and advisers — had let them down quite badly.

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They had probably never been around players, or indeed football before, did not know the market and had spent unwisely on some very average foreign imports. ​

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They had players on astronomical wages, being watched by crowds of 18,000 at Loftus Road. It wasn’t sustainable; it wasn’t right. ​

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Rangers had players like Jose Bosingwa, who just six months earlier had won the Champions League final with Chelsea, but he wasn’t going to give his all. I found out the extent of the problem after we beat Fulham and Bosingwa refused to sit on the subs bench. I’d had problem players in the past but I thought his attitude was disgraceful.

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I fined him two weeks’ wages — and that was when I got the shock of my life when I found out how much he was on. Bosingwa’s salary was ridiculous.​

The problem was, he wasn’t the only one. It was scary. Within weeks I had worked out that my best player was Ryan Nelsen, a 35-year-old New Zealand international — and he couldn’t wait to get out.​

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‘You’ve got no chance,’ he told me. ‘Not a prayer. This is the worst dressing room I’ve ever been in in my life. You haven’t got a hope with this lot. I don’t know how you solve it.’​

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The attitude stank. Attitude towards the game, attitude towards training. I can’t remember a worse one — and behaviour like that cannot be altered overnight.​

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Bottom of the league, a new manager, the transfer window more than month away, you can’t walk in and just start smashing people. You have to coax them along, try to take them with you. I tried to install discipline, with fines for lateness and poor behaviour, but the culture of decay was too ingrained.

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Part of the problem was that the owners hadn’t actually spent serious money on transfers. They didn’t buy players at the top of the tree, but they did pay big wages. So what they had was a squad full of very average footballers earning more money than they deserved. ​

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It made them very arrogant and contemptuous. They would rather come in late every day and just pay the fine than behave in a professional manner. Getting them in was daily aggravation. ​

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There were players who were late three, sometimes four times each week – and the most we ever trained was five days! There was always an excuse.​

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One day I heard that one of our players had been out until 4.30am at a casino in London, when we were playing Manchester United at 3pm the next day. ​

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When I called him into my office and confronted him with this information he seemed genuinely puzzled. ​

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‘Friday?’ he said. ‘I don’t think it was Friday. Maybe it was Thursday.’ That annoyed me even more. I was expecting him to be angry at the mere suggestion of it. ​

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I was expecting a real row and to go back to my source with a load more questions. ​

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Instead, this idiot genuinely couldn’t remember if he was out until dawn on the Thursday or the Friday — clearly there was a chance he was out both nights!​

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Some would train all week, then have a mystery injury and cry off for the match on Saturday. Rarely would anyone play through a knock or a tweak. I don’t know how they had the front to pick up their wages some weeks. I felt truly sorry for the guys like Clint Hill.​

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Clint was not the greatest player but he would run through a brick wall for QPR. You could tell he was disgusted with some of the attitudes he encountered. ​

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He didn’t have the technical ability of those players but if we had more like him we might have stayed up. It doesn’t matter how good a player is technically — without desire, he is nothing.​

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The transfer window was looming but we had too much work to do. What was my plan? Ditch 15 of them? No chance. ​

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I was probably being too open about my feelings, as well. After we lost at Everton, for instance, I said we were sloppy and undisciplined and had turned into Raggy A**e Rovers after half-time. It was the truth.

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My son, Jamie, was on the phone almost every week telling me to stop having a go at the players. ​

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Really, by then, I didn’t even know I was doing it. I’d get asked a straight question and give a straight answer; I was too frustrated with too many of them to cover their backsides any more. ​

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All we could do in the January window was try to buy our way out of trouble — adding to the squad in the hope of making a difference. We signed Loic Remy who ended up our top scorer with six goals. Christopher Samba was our other big signing in January, although he proved a terrible disappointment and we sold him back to Russia. ​

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As the weeks went by, the harsh reality was plain. Looking at the mentality of the players, the lack of goals and the general weakness of the squad I had inherited, we were going down. ​

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I don’t think anyone could have kept them up, in all honesty. I don’t think Mark Hughes would have turned it around had he stayed. There was too much wrong and I had overestimated my ability to affect that. ​

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I was worrying about the effect it was having on my health, too. After the defeat at Everton I hadn’t slept. I looked at myself in the mirror and I didn’t look right, I didn’t feel right. I was getting funny feelings, my body ached and my chest felt tight. ​

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I was really worried that I was going to give myself a heart attack or a stroke. ‘How much longer can I keep going on like this?’ I thought. ‘How much longer can I do this to myself?’ ​

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I did worry that something serious was about to happen. I’m not one for going to the doctor, though. I always think, ‘Get a night’s rest and you’ll be fine tomorrow.’ I know that’s not a sensible attitude, either. I’d been due a full medical for two years but keep putting it off. ​

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After my heart operation I was given tablets but, I’ll admit, half the time I forget to take them. I carry them around in the car. Little triangular things — I don’t know what they are, to be honest.​

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It is always Sandra who will ask whether I’ve taken them and I’ve usually forgotten, so she pads out to the bathroom, takes three out of the packet and puts them in my mouth with a glass of water. I don’t look after myself properly, considering all the stress. I know that.​

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Losing produces a weird reaction in me. I surrender all sense of perspective. It’s ridiculous, really. All this over a football match.​

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Nothing would give me greater pleasure than to get Rangers back up. ​

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I spent all summer trying to remedy our problems, shifting certain players out, getting others with the right attitude in.​

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The close season was a frustrating time for me as I spent most of it on crutches following a knee operation. With perfect timing, Adel Taarabt promptly got up to his old tricks. ​

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He turned up late for our training camp in Devon so we sent him home. There were the usual excuses but we’re not standing for it any more. There has to be a different attitude if Rangers are to return to the Premier League. ​

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I know some of these players think they are better than this division but I’ve been down there and I know there are teams and players that will eat you alive if you are not fully committed.​

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My priority was to get rid of the troublemakers. Get rid of them before they got rid of us.​

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