Harry's Games

Who is Harry Redknapp? Football genius or football chancer? Master tactician or practical joker? How is it that even when he was facing court proceedings for tax evasion so many people were still seriously tipping him to be the next England manager? How can one man have two such diametrically opposed and incompatible career trajectories? Does the longing to have an English manager in charge of the national side warp people's thinking?'

To Portsmouth fans, Redknapp was the man who walked on water and won them an FA Cup. To Southampton fans, he is still the devil incarnate who had them relegated before jumping ship to their arch rivals. Spurs fans aren't sure what he is, bit don't care as long as he keeps the team together and winning. Sometimes he's the Messiah, at others the clown. Whoever he is, Crace is determined to find out.

John Crace is a staff feature writer for the Guardian, where he is best known for the literary pastiche 'Digested Read'. He has also written several books, including Vertigo: One Football Fan's Fear of Success. He lives in south-west London but travels to N17 for every home game.

Who is Harry Redknapp? Redknapp divides opinion like few other managers. Is he the greatest English manager never to have managed England since Brian Clough? Or have England dodged a bullet? And how was it that he was ever seriously considered for the job when his trial for tax evasion had yet to be heard? The facts of Redknapp's story are almost as well known as his one-liners. The East-End boy who played for West Ham, badly injured in a car crash, and went on to manage Bournemouth, West Ham, Portsmouth, Southampton, Tottenham Hotspur and QPR. But what makes him tick? Could it be that the same qualities that have made him such a successful manager are the very same ones that came close to ending his career? In Harry's Games , John Crace explores these apparent contradictions in order to make sense of English football's very own Greek tragedy. '[A] clever, insightful biography.' Mail on Sunday [Constable logo] [web address] [jacket design credit/photo credit] [7.99]

Who is Harry Redknapp? Football genius or football chancer? Master tactician or practical joker? How is it that even when he was facing court proceedings for tax evasion so many people were still seriously tipping him to be the next England manager? How can one man have two such diametrically opposed and incompatible career trajectories? Does the longing to have an English manager in charge of the national side warp people's thinking?'To Portsmouth fans, Redknapp was the man who walked on water and won them an FA Cup. To Southampton fans, he is still the devil incarnate who had them relegated before jumping ship to their arch rivals. Spurs fans aren't sure what he is, bit don't care as long as he keeps the team together and winning. Sometimes he's the Messiah, at others the clown. Whoever he is, Crace is determined to find out.

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