The Independent reveal that Harry Redknapp was close to walking out of Fratton Park when now-Chelsea manager Avram Grant was appointed as Portsmouth’s director of football. Even more revealingly, the Pompey manager also admits that it was no surprise when the Israeli replaced Jose Mourinho at Stamford Bridge, even though it was news to the ‘Special One’! Of Grant’s appointment as director of football at Fratton Park, Redknapp said:
“When I was first told I reacted in the normal way I do when people do that to me and that’s to [want to] walk away or whatever. But I didn’t. When he came here I quickly realised he was a nice man and he wasn’t here to take my job or anything else.”
“When he went there,” Redknapp said of Grant’s departure to Chelsea, “I had a feeling that he might be taking the job.”
It’s fair to say that Grant has had a successful time in charge of the Blues this season – they’re the only team who can land four pieces of silverware this season after all. Ironically, Portsmouth holding them to a draw on Saturday deprived them of breaking the record of nine straight victories originally set by Jose Mourinho.