Henry James Redknapp (born 2 March 1947), is an English former football manager and player. He has previously managed AFC Bournemouth, West Ham United, Portsmouth, Southampton, Tottenham Hotspur, Queens Park Rangers, and Birmingham City.
Redknapp managed Portsmouth to the 2002–03 Division One title, gaining promotion to the Premier League and preserving their top-flight status in the 2003–04 season. In his second spell at the club, he managed the side that won the 2008 FA Cup. At the conclusion of the 2009–10 season, he guided Tottenham into the UEFA Champions League.
His son, Jamie Redknapp, had played for him at Bournemouth and Southampton. He is also uncle to Frank Lampard, who played under him at West Ham United.
Early life Redknapp was born in Poplar, London, the only child of Henry Joseph William Redknapp (1922–1996) and Violet May Brown (1924–2001).
At age 15, Redknapp moved to West Ham United and played alongside Bobby Moore. In a 2008 interview, Redknapp stated as part of a tribute to Tom Finney, "I was a big Arsenal fan as a kid and I remember seeing him play against Tommy Docherty one night."
After being appointed Tottenham manager later in 2008, Redknapp stressed his Tottenham connections as well, stating:
Club career West Ham United During his playing career, Redknapp played as a midfielder. He began his career with Tottenham Hotspur, playing for the youth team until he was 15 years old, when he moved to West Ham United. He first broke into the first team at West Ham in the 1965–66 season, making seven appearances and scoring one goal. He made his debut for West Ham in a 1–1 draw at home to Sunderland on 23 August 1965. His first goal came in a 4–1 away win over Tottenham on 8 April 1966.
Redknapp made his first start of the 1966–67 season, and scored his second goal for the club, on 3 December 1966 in a 3–0 win over West Bromwich Albion. Redknapp made 12 League appearances scoring once during his second season. During the 1967–68 season, he made 28 League appearances and scored twice, the first in a 4–2 home win over Burnley on 21 August 1967 and the second in a 5–1 away win over Sunderland on 6 September 1967.
During the 1968–69 season, Redknapp made 42 appearances and scored three times, with 36 appearances coming in the league (along with two goals), three in the FA Cup appearances and three in the League Cup (along with one goal). His first league goal of the season came in a 4–0 win over West Brom on 31 August 1968, while the next came in a match in the League Cup against Bolton Wanderers, which West Ham won 4–0. Redknapp received a red card in a 2–0 away defeat at Leeds United on 12 October 1968. He had been booked for fouling Billy Bremner and was dismissed by the referee for dissent. His third goal of the season came in a 4–3 win over Queens Park Rangers on 2 November 1968.
Redknapp made his first appearance of the 1969–70 season on 9 August 1969 in a 1–0 home win over Newcastle United, while his first goal of the season came in a 3–0 home win over Sheffield Wednesday on 2 September 1969. Redknapp made 26 total appearances and scored one goal; 23 of his appearances came in the league.
During the 1970–71 season, Redknapp made 21 league appearances with one more coming in the League Cup. He then made a further 35 appearances during the 1971–72 season with 22 of them coming in the league. This would be his last season at the club before he moved to AFC Bournemouth for the 1972–73 season. He made 175 total appearances in both league and cup action for West Ham, scoring eight times over seven seasons.
AFC Bournemouth Redknapp joined Third Division Bournemouth in 1972 from West Ham. He spent four seasons with the south coast side between 1972 and 1976. In the 1972–73 season, Redknapp made 37 appearances, with 34 of them coming in the league scoring once in the league and Bournemouth finished seventh in the league. He made a further 46 appearances scoring five times during the 1973–74 season with 39 appearances in the league. Redknapp made 19 (all league) appearances during the 1974–75 season as Bournemouth were relegated to the Fourth Division. In 1975–76, he only managed nine appearances.
In total, he had played 101 league matches for Bournemouth, scoring 5 goals.
At the end of the 1975–76 season, he moved to then Fourth Division side Brentford, where he made one appearance during the 1976–77 season.
Seattle Sounders In 1976, Redknapp joined North American Soccer League (NASL) club Seattle Sounders as a player-coach. He made 15 appearances during the 1976 season as they reached the playoffs after finishing second in the Pacific Conference, Western Division, before losing to the Minnesota Kicks in the Division Championship. Before returning to Seattle, he appeared briefly for AP Leamington in the Southern League Premier Division. Redknapp then made five appearances during the 1977 season as they finished third in the Pacific Conference, Western Division, before losing out in Soccer Bowl '77 to Pelé's New York Cosmos, 2–1.
In 1980, Redknapp was contracted to play with ASL expansion team the Phoenix Fire, but the team folded in pre-season.
International career Redknapp represented England at youth level when he was 17. He was in the side that won the 1964 UEFA European Under-18 Championship after defeating Spain 4–0 in the final.
Management and coaching career
Seattle Sounders and Oxford City Redknapp began his management career as player-assistant manager of NASL club Seattle Sounders from 1976 to 1979 under Jimmy Gabriel. During his time with Seattle, Redknapp made 24 appearances, helping the side to second place in the Pacific Conference, Western Division, in his first season as player-coach, and then to third place in the Pacific Conference, Western Division, for the 1977 season, taking them to the final of the Soccer Bowl, before losing to Pelé's New York Cosmos.
During the 1978 season, Redknapp helped Seattle to a third-place finish in the National Conference, Western Division, before they lost in the first round of the playoffs, again to the New York Cosmos. In his final year in Seattle, he helped them to another third-place finish in the National Conference, Western Division, but this time they failed to qualify for the playoffs.
AFC Bournemouth At the beginning of the 1982–83 season, Redknapp took up his first major coaching role as assistant manager to David Webb at Bournemouth, six years after leaving the club as a player. Redknapp applied for the manager's job when Webb moved to Torquay United partway through that season, but was overlooked in favour of Don Megson. Megson was sacked in late 1983 as Bournemouth were in the Third Division relegation places, and Redknapp was hired as his replacement in October 1983.
In his first season at the helm, Redknapp helped Bournemouth avoid relegation to the Fourth Division. Bournemouth also caused a shock in the FA Cup when they defeated holders Manchester United 2–0 in the third round. He led Bournemouth to victory in the inaugural Associate Members' Cup by beating Hull City in the final. Bournemouth won the Third Division title in 1987 with 97 points, breaking the club's record for the most points accumulated in a season.
After two years at this level, Bournemouth were relegated at the end of their third season. Bournemouth were in 13th position on 3 March, but injuries which depleted the squad, combined with a catastrophic loss of form, meant they won only one more match that season, and were relegated on 5 May after a 1–0 defeat at Dean Court against Leeds United.
Road accident In June 1990, while in Italy to watch the 1990 FIFA World Cup, Redknapp was involved in a road accident along with Michael Sinclair, the chairman of York City, Fred Whitehouse, the chairman of Aston Villa, and Bournemouth's managing director, Brian Tiler. Travelling through Latina, south of Rome, at night, their chauffeur-driven minibus was in a head-on collision with a car containing three Italian soldiers. The minibus was flipped onto its roof and skidded 50 yards along the road. Sitting in the seat where Redknapp had usually sat during the trip, Tiler was killed, as were the three occupants of the other vehicle. Redknapp was doused in petrol and pulled clear of the accident by Sinclair. Redknapp suffered a fractured skull, a broken nose, cracked ribs and a gash in his left leg. Ambulance services arriving at the scene believed him dead and placed a blanket over his head. Unconscious for two days, Redknapp was flown home two weeks later in a special air ambulance paid for by Bournemouth. Though he made a full recovery, apart from losing his sense of smell and gaining a facial tic, he eventually quit Bournemouth at the end of the 1991–92 season.
West Ham United For the next season, Redknapp was appointed assistant manager to Billy Bonds at West Ham, another of his former clubs. However, in August 1994, the club board of directors opted to turn control of the team over to Redknapp and move Bonds into an administrative role. Bonds eventually resigned outright from the club, leaving Redknapp solely in charge.
Just months before being promoted to the manager's seat at Upton Park, Redknapp was linked with the managerial vacancy at Southampton after the departure of previous manager Ian Branfoot, but the job went to Alan Ball instead.
Redknapp helped to establish the club in the FA Premier League and introduced a number of young players from the club's academy, including Michael Carrick, Joe Cole, Rio Ferdinand and Frank Lampard. The signings of Stuart Pearce, Paolo Di Canio and Trevor Sinclair helped them re-establish their careers having been signed by Redknapp. He also made mistakes in the transfer market, particularly with overseas players, including Marco Boogers, Florin Raducioiu and Paulo Futre.
Nevertheless, West Ham finished in eighth position in 1998 and fifth in 1999, which saw them qualify for the UEFA Intertoto Cup in what was their second-best ever season in the top division. In the 1999–2000 season, West Ham won the Intertoto Cup and qualified for the UEFA Cup but failed to match their performances in the Premier League. Redknapp left West Ham on 9 May 2001, one match before the end of the 2000–01 season. For some time, it was unconfirmed whether he resigned or was sacked but Redknapp shed new light on the true circumstances in October 2007:
Portsmouth Redknapp became director of football for Portsmouth in 2001, and when the Leicester City manager's job became vacant with the dismissal of Peter Taylor that autumn, Redknapp was widely tipped to take over at the East Midlands club, but stayed loyal to Pompey, with the Leicester job going to Dave Bassett. It was reported in the national media that had Redknapp taken over, Bassett would have been on his coaching staff at the East Midlands club.
Redknapp kept Portsmouth in the Premier League in the 2003–04 season, but had a dispute with Portsmouth owner Milan Mandarić over his assistant Jim Smith. Redknapp had another disagreement with Mandarić over the appointment of Velimir Zajec as director of football and resigned as manager in November 2004.
Southampton A few weeks after his departure at Portsmouth, Redknapp became manager of Southampton, a move which infuriated Portsmouth's supporters, as the two clubs are fierce local rivals. Some fans even bore T-shirts which referred to Redknapp as "Scummer" and "Judas" and called for him to "Rot in Hell".