The Soccer Blogger
Hi
I’ve was doing a bit of newspaper / internet reading this morning and found the following article written by current Portsmouth goalie David James. James has been around in professional football for an amazing 17 years and, despite earning a reputation as “Calamity James” mainly during his stay at Liverpool (a little unjustly in my opinion), he has been the most consistent goalie in English football for quite some time.
Here he talks about something that has unfortunately almost been lost from today’s modern game (sorry business!). Loyalty! It’s a truly sad reflection on not only today’s game but society in general, that people are more motivated by money and material goods than such things as loyalty. Footballers and managers of the past would, I’m sure, find it very difficult to comprehend the modern game and imparticlarly the money the game generates and what the so called top players receive on a weekly basis.
Anyway, here’s what David James has to say about loyalty mainly due to the recent decision taken by his Portsmouth Manager, Harry Redknapp, in declining the approach from Newcastle. A decision, which had it been yes, would have earned him even more money I’m sure! Thank goodness someone still believes loyalty, happiness and quality of life are more important than material gain.
Such stories deserve to be aired as much as possible!
The Soccer Blogger
Harry and the transfer that never was
By David James:
In an industry where loyalty is an alien concept, Harry Redknapp’s decision to stay at Portsmouth is all the more impressive.
Talk about edgy transfer windows. Strewth. After 17 years in professional football, you think you’ve experienced all the nerves that accompany the comings and goings of the game. I’ve played under 15 different club managers and every club I’ve played for - bar Aston Villa - has seen one or more changes in management. Yet when it looked like Harry Redknapp was leaving Portsmouth on Friday, even I was shocked.
Usually managers leave because they are doing a bad job. But at Portsmouth everything has been going well. Harry always seemed genuinely happy to be here, there was no hint of him wanting to be elsewhere. On Friday Joe Jordan took training and by the time we’d got back Harry had left the training ground. Missing. It was a strange one and instinct told me he wouldn’t be coming back. Harry’s never been one to just disappear. At Manchester City I was used to Stuart Pearce doing that, always off scouting somewhere, but Harry’s different. He’s a real training-ground manager: you always know you can find him.
In a situation like that a club is full of whispers. We’d had two days off in the week because of the Sunday game, and so there were texts and phone calls. The night that Sam Allardyce was sacked I had a call asking if I’d heard the rumours about Harry.
Any manager leaving is a big deal, but for it to happen in the January window creates extra tension. There was a cloud of uncertainty about the place, the usual worries about who would stay and who would go. Would the new manager bring in new players? How many existing players would be sold? Would Harry take half the team with him? For footballers, January is always a month of bedlam, with Sky running the screen printer as the transfer news floods in. But on Friday, suddenly, the biggest transfer issue facing us seemed to be who would take over at Portsmouth.
That’s when you hear the same old names - aka successful failures - being lined up. Your heart sinks. You can’t help thinking if they’re that good, why aren’t they currently employed? Speculation runs riot: it’s human nature, of course, and it makes people edgy. The thing that concerned all of us was why Harry would leave something so successful of his own creation. He made the environment down here that we all like; we couldn’t get our heads round the thought that it might suddenly be taken away from us.
Can you afford to get emotional in football? You’re watching television, waiting to hear, and it’s a strange time. I’d say that after all my years in the game you get hardened to things. But even I felt the buzz when Harry turned up to take training yesterday morning. I saw him as I arrived at the training ground and it was as if nothing had ever happened, business as usual. But with an extra smile.
The media say Harry thought about it overnight. I can imagine him agonising over that. In the space of a few hours you’ve got to ask a million and one questions, discuss things with your loved ones and come to a decision. There have been clubs I didn’t want to leave - Watford, West Ham. But you have to get on with it: football’s a very transient existence and the longer you’re in the game the more you get used to moving about. I could understand why Harry considered the offer. With all due respect to Portsmouth, Newcastle are unlike any other club that he has managed. I know when I left Liverpool at 30, many questions were running through my head. My biggest fear was retiring without having achieved what I wanted for myself. As a manager you want to be up there with the big boys - a future that we hope to have at Portsmouth.
Watching the comings and goings of the transfer window my partner, Amanda, said: ‘There’s not much loyalty in football is there?’ On Friday at the training ground I discussed it with the physios and masseurs over lunch. We decided that loyalty and football weren’t true partners - sometimes even the fans aren’t loyal. Villa’s supporters didn’t much like Savo Milosevic; they gave him a hard time, he returned the compliment by spitting at them, and he lasted about five seconds.
But people surprise you, and having thought it over, Harry obviously decided that he couldn’t leave. A massive opportunity was presented to him, but he decided to stay. It’s not often that you witness that kind of loyalty or feeling. The last example I remember was when Roy Evans left Liverpool - he was bawling his eyes out. I was the last person he saw as he left the training ground and the tears were streaming. I felt that way when I left Watford. My heart sank when they told me I was on the transfer list. Word got out and all of a sudden there were agents left, right and centre wanting to get involved with me. Chelsea were interested, and I had a meeting with Villa’s Ron Atkinson in a motorway service station. It was all very surreal for a 21-year-old.
Now that Harry’s back, we’ve got peace of mind. We’ll be glad to have him in charge against Sunderland this afternoon. After an emotional reunion, we’ll all soon be back to griping about the same old things. As Harry likes to say, business as usual.
· David James has donated his fee for this column to charity
The article and the comments left by readers can be read here:
