more reasonably, a holiday.
If you go on holiday with a lover and after the first night you realise that you, in point of fact, despise your companion; the way they eat, addresswaiters and are cruel to the street cats of Lindos, perhaps it’s prudent to give them the old heave ho’ and try your luck with a chamber maid. Or in this case Harry Redknapp.
I’ve said before in this column that I love Harry, I think he was great at West Ham and has done wonderful work at Portsmouth but most importantly he is the most amusing manager working in top-flight football.
Once, on Goals on Sunday where he guested with Paul Merson he told an anecdote of Merson’s early career at Fratton Park and the special attention granted to gifted players. As is well publicised, Merson hadproblems with addiction relating to gambling and alcohol and during one traumatic period he requested some time off to go to Tony Adams’s addiction clinic.
Harry consented acknowledging that Merson would benefit from the treatment. When Redknapp relayed this story on telly he went: ‘Merse came to me saying can I have some time off to go to Tony’s clinic cos I’m having a bit of trouble with the booze, the gambling and the birds…’ Merson interrupted here, saying: ‘Not the birds Harry, I was still married then, remember?’
Harry cared not a jot that his candour had retrospectively devalued Merson’s marriage and blithely ignored his former charge’s appealing looks. ‘Anyway I give him the time off then I got a phone call from a mate, saying “I’m in Barbados, I’ve just seen Paul Merson on the beach.” I goes “No. Merson’s in Tony Adams’s clinic” – turns out he was lying but he came back the next week and scored twice.’
The upbeat ending of the yarn was somewhat lost on Merson as he was now just staring blankly into camera having been off-handedly outed as a philanderer in a story meant to illustrate his wayward talent.
Some say Redknapp deserves a big stage on which to display his under-appreciated skill. But he is adored at Pompey and will be forever loved in East London and, whilst Newcastle are a fantastic club with incredible supporters, I don’t think their administrators deserve a great manager like Harry.
23
If Keegan’s a messiah I want the Cockney Moses
The Dionysian versus the Apollonian, romanticism versus pragmatism, forever we oscillate and vie between these two contrasting ideas. A wise man once remarked to me that the Third Reich was an example of what happens when you put an artist in a position of power; although many of Hitler’s atrocities were committed as a result of him being a right bastard as opposed to an artist – there’s nothing in pointillism that suggests that genocide would be worthwhile.
I suppose what he was saying was that a personality whose mind isgoverned by poetic ideas like Bavarian myth and the operas of Wagner oughtn’t be put in charge of foreign policy and defence because they’ll pursue impractical objectives to achieve, in this case misguided, romantic ends.
Kevin Keegan’s reappointment as Geordie messiah made me reflect on this theory. Now, I’m right behind any second coming, it appeals to me, a Geordie messiah, why stop there? Let’s have Harry Redknapp as a Cockney Moses and Martin O’Neill as an Ulster Herod. I am enthralled bynarrative and Keegan’s return is a great story; he’s an intriguing character who, I gather, is a little embittered about the way he’s been handled by the English press and feels he has scores to settle.
I was initially baffled when I heard the news but on reflection it makes perfect sense particularly if regarded as an insular romance between the people of Newcastle and Keegan rather than a managerial decision made by a massive franchise. Because logically, surely, this doesn’t add up. When Keegan took Toon on its euphoric romp from the foot of Division One to the summit of the Premier League the footballing landscape was very
If you go on holiday with a lover and after the first night you realise that you, in point of fact, despise your companion; the way they eat, addresswaiters and are cruel to the street cats of Lindos, perhaps it’s prudent to give them the old heave ho’ and try your luck with a chamber maid. Or in this case Harry Redknapp.
I’ve said before in this column that I love Harry, I think he was great at West Ham and has done wonderful work at Portsmouth but most importantly he is the most amusing manager working in top-flight football.
Once, on Goals on Sunday where he guested with Paul Merson he told an anecdote of Merson’s early career at Fratton Park and the special attention granted to gifted players. As is well publicised, Merson hadproblems with addiction relating to gambling and alcohol and during one traumatic period he requested some time off to go to Tony Adams’s addiction clinic.
Harry consented acknowledging that Merson would benefit from the treatment. When Redknapp relayed this story on telly he went: ‘Merse came to me saying can I have some time off to go to Tony’s clinic cos I’m having a bit of trouble with the booze, the gambling and the birds…’ Merson interrupted here, saying: ‘Not the birds Harry, I was still married then, remember?’
Harry cared not a jot that his candour had retrospectively devalued Merson’s marriage and blithely ignored his former charge’s appealing looks. ‘Anyway I give him the time off then I got a phone call from a mate, saying “I’m in Barbados, I’ve just seen Paul Merson on the beach.” I goes “No. Merson’s in Tony Adams’s clinic” – turns out he was lying but he came back the next week and scored twice.’
The upbeat ending of the yarn was somewhat lost on Merson as he was now just staring blankly into camera having been off-handedly outed as a philanderer in a story meant to illustrate his wayward talent.
Some say Redknapp deserves a big stage on which to display his under-appreciated skill. But he is adored at Pompey and will be forever loved in East London and, whilst Newcastle are a fantastic club with incredible supporters, I don’t think their administrators deserve a great manager like Harry.
23
If Keegan’s a messiah I want the Cockney Moses
The Dionysian versus the Apollonian, romanticism versus pragmatism, forever we oscillate and vie between these two contrasting ideas. A wise man once remarked to me that the Third Reich was an example of what happens when you put an artist in a position of power; although many of Hitler’s atrocities were committed as a result of him being a right bastard as opposed to an artist – there’s nothing in pointillism that suggests that genocide would be worthwhile.
I suppose what he was saying was that a personality whose mind isgoverned by poetic ideas like Bavarian myth and the operas of Wagner oughtn’t be put in charge of foreign policy and defence because they’ll pursue impractical objectives to achieve, in this case misguided, romantic ends.
Kevin Keegan’s reappointment as Geordie messiah made me reflect on this theory. Now, I’m right behind any second coming, it appeals to me, a Geordie messiah, why stop there? Let’s have Harry Redknapp as a Cockney Moses and Martin O’Neill as an Ulster Herod. I am enthralled bynarrative and Keegan’s return is a great story; he’s an intriguing character who, I gather, is a little embittered about the way he’s been handled by the English press and feels he has scores to settle.
I was initially baffled when I heard the news but on reflection it makes perfect sense particularly if regarded as an insular romance between the people of Newcastle and Keegan rather than a managerial decision made by a massive franchise. Because logically, surely, this doesn’t add up. When Keegan took Toon on its euphoric romp from the foot of Division One to the summit of the Premier League the footballing landscape was very
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