EXCLUSIVE: Spurs to charge FA £5m for Redknapp
Published 23:01 09/02/12 By John Cross
Spurs chairman Daniel Levy will put up a fight to keep 'Arry, who has 17 months left on his current £3m-a-year contract, and will demand a high compensation fee.
Redknapp is the Football Association’s outstanding candidate and they want to name their new man next week.
However, England Under-21 boss Stuart Pearce will still take temporary charge of the seniors for the friendly against Holland on February 29 - as revealed in the Mirror.
Redknapp has admitted in the past that England would be hard to turn down, but said on Thursday: "I've not even thought about it. I've got a job to do. I've got a big game on Saturday for Tottenham. Tottenham is my focus.
“Hopefully it’ll be the right decision for the country, but my focus is all on Tottenham.
FA chairman David Bernstein admits that Redknapp’s standing as the fans’ favourite will hold huge sway, while England players Wayne Rooney, Jermain Defoe, Rio Ferdinand and Michael Owen have all backed him.
The FA’s four man selection panel, made up of Bernstein, general secretary Alex Horne, Sir Trevor Brooking and Club England managing director Adrian Bevington will sit down on Friday to discuss their approach and hope to move quickly.
Bernstein said: “Of course public opinion will be taken into account. We want to make an appointment that the public are positive about and that excites the fans.
“But we can’t bedrivenby that. If you only have one candidate, then it makes a very difficult situation indeed when negotiating and so on.
“So we have to do it professionally, with an open mind and put a shortlist together, but also include the desires and wishes of our fans, which are crucial to us.
“I agree with other Club England members views that the motivational qualities of a future England manager are absolutely vital, to be able to handle big players and motivate and excite both the players and the fans.”
Bernstein did not rule out having a caretaker in charge at the summer's European Championship finals if it meant getting their first choice in the long term.
“I’m reluctant to limit our options at this stage," he said. "So I’d rather not answer that.”
Ferdinand appeared to take a swipe at the departing Capello, while endorsing Redknapp’s credentials to be his successor.
Capello failed to explain to Ferdinand why he was replacing him as captain when he handed John Terry the armband for the second time, and the Manchester United defender tweeted: “I think we need an English manager now, we don’t need anything else lost in translation... Harry Redknapp would be my choice by a distance.”
Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher, a dramatic late call-up to the England's 2010 World Cup squad said: "I think if Harry Redknapp came in that is exactly the type of personality everyone would like to see.
"Man-management is the most important thing with England. You are not together long enough to improve players. The players should be improving at their clubs where they train every day.
“You need someone to make the players confident, feel good about themselves, a manager that makes sure players look forward to turning up all the time because that?s not something I can say, hand on heart, I did at times.”
Spurs director Sir Keith Mills said: “Our position has been clear - the fans want Harry to stay at Tottenham, the players and the coaches do, the board does, and we hope he does stay.
“If he is approached then Harry clearly has a big decision to make. He’s managing a top-three team in the biggest league in the world, we’re doing incredibly well at the moment. I know he loves it, it will be a tough decision for him.”
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