Redknapp: Sky's the limit for Jamie right now
Harry Redknapp may have to wait until next season to bring son Jamie into the coaching set-up at Portsmouth.
The former Liverpool and Tottenham midfielder, who joined his dad at Southampton last January for a failed survival fight, hung up his boots in the summer after a career plagued by knee injuries.
He was recruited by Sky as a pundit after turning down a similar offer from the BBC.
Although Redknapp senior would be happy to have his son on board at Fratton Park – he was in the stands for Saturday’s 1-0 win over West Brom – the manager said: “It is difficult at the moment.
“He is working for Sky and really enjoys it so we will get this season over with and see what happens then.
“He is doing his coaching badges. He watches Chelsea train most days and he was here on Saturday. I think he will go on to be a success in coaching and management.”
But Redknapp senior may feel it is right to desert family loyalties temporarily if he can get Kevin Bond back in from Southampton to assist him in Pompey’s survival fight.
Bond, who followed Redknapp out of Fratton Park a year ago and became his coach at Southampton, appears to be at loggerheads with the Championship club after falling out with caretaker manager Dave Bassett over tactics.
He has been sent home on “gardening leave” by Saints and although Redknapp has the loyal Joe Jordan in situ at Pompey, he would jump at the chance to employ Bond again.
With his father seriously ill, Redknapp senior’s life is going to be in turmoil for a while and he must soon turn his attention to the January transfer sales.
At least, he will provided Portsmouth can pick up more vital points in the three remaining games this year against West Ham at home on Boxing Day, Arsenal away two days later and Fulham (home) on New Year’s Eve.
But Redknapp is not fooled by the three points Pompey purloined from Albion on Saturday.
Together with away wins at Sunderland and Everton it is only their third of the season, and the first at home.
More evidence is needed whether Redknapp is worth backing in the transfer market.
He admitted: “I’ve told the chairman Milan Mandaric there is no point in throwing away five or six million pounds if we are cut adrift in the bottom three after the Fulham game.
“We still need points and let’s face it we are going to have to face much stronger teams than West Brom – no disrespect to them.
“Our squad is bare. We have no right-sided players and that is crazy at this level. We also have no strikers and we’ve used up all our loans.
“Next month Lomana LuaLua goes to the African Nations Cup with Congo and Salif Diao and Aliou Cisse might be picked as well by Senegal. So it is still really tough.
“But I knew that before I came back here and I’ve only come back to do my best. I haven’t got a magic wand.
“We have a chance because the players are giving everything. I’ve relied mostly on the ones I had with me before. I’ve seen enough of some of the others but the team is going to have to play like it did against West Brom every week.
“The game is supposed to be full of peaks and troughs but I never seem to go to the club that’s right up there, do I?
“I went to West Ham after they had been relegated. I went to Bournemouth in the old fourth division, I go to Southampton when they are in the bottom three - and the same here at Portsmouth.
“The last few seasons I had at West Ham, we finished fifth once. Then the year before last at Portsmouth was not a problem, admittedly.
“But most of the time I seem to turn up somewhere where Christmas is ruined because there are not enough points on the board.
“I’m always stuck in relegation battles but, I suppose, football is in the blood and it is something I just have to have a go at. I’m up for a challenge all the time. It’s mad.”
Redknapp has a red-letter day in his diary this weekend – a St Stephen's Day date with West Ham, the club he managed for seven years.
“I also managed a team against them at Bournemouth,” he recalls. “But while I’ve been been at Portsmouth we have come up to the Premiership and they have gone down. We’ve missed each other every time.
“They have had a terrific time lately and Alan Pardew has done a fantastic job.
“Yet it doesn’t matter who the opposition is. All that concerns me is getting the points that will help keep Pompey up and Milan at the club. If we go down, he could go. And if he goes, the club goes.”
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