Earlier this morning I pre-recorded a half hour interview with Harry Redknapp which will be broadcast on my LBC show tomorrow night (Friday) at 7.30pm. The hook was his book ‘Always Managing’ which has been serialised in the Daily Mail this week. I did try not to make it all about West Ham but I am not sure I wholly succeeded.
Harry is a great conversationalist and has some great anecdotes, but I get the feeling he is already growing rather weary of the whole book publishing process. He’s quite open that he’s not exactly a student of literature, and the book was ghosted for him by top sports journalist Martin Samuels. I’ll do a full review of it when I have finished reading it but I have the distinct impression that there are things which Samuels has written which don’t exactly reflect Harry’s views. Take West Ham’s treatment of Bobby Moore, for example.
THIS extract of the book was published yesterday on the Daily Mail’s website. Here’s the key passage….
When I go to Upton Park these days there are two gigantic portraits in the corners at each end. One is of Sir Trevor Brooking, the other of Bobby Moore. Think about that. Sir Trevor Brooking; plain old Bobby Moore. No disrespect to Trevor, he was a great footballer and remains a fine ambassador for the game but it doesn’t seem right. How was Trevor knighted and Bobby ignored? Now he’s dead you can’t move for pictures of him around the place. It disgusts me. Bob’s got it all now. The old South Bank named after him at Upton Park, statues outside the ground and at Wembley Stadium. They even use his name to sell West Ham United merchandise these days. ‘Moore than a football club’ is the slogan. When he was alive they didn’t want to know him.
There are two problems here. Harry told me he had never heard of the slogan ‘Moore Than a Football Club’ and didn’t even know there was a giant banner of Bobby Moore at the south end of the West Stand. He was horrified when I told him David Gold had tweeted he was rather disappointed with his comments, as he said his views were directed at previous owners of the club. I suspect the real issue here is that Martin Samuels will have thought he was reflecting Harry’s views, but couldn’t quite resist the temptation to ramp it up a little. Harry told me he thinks Gold and Sullivan have done a tremendous job in their time at Upton Park and seemed genuinely horrified that he might have upset them. I advised him to drop them a text to mend some fences. It made me wonder whether Harry thinks he might have some unfinished business at West Ham…
A quick aside. On the way out of the building Harry was met by a very ebullient Peter Storrie, West Ham’s former chief executive. I suggested he should also write a book. He said he’d love to, but think of the lawyer’s bills! He’s given me his card. I think I might ask him if he will do one of my In Conversation interviews for the site at some point. He certainly knows where a few bodies are buried.