Tottenham’s Trial by Fire

Published: 30^th Jan 12 11:08 am

by Alan Dymock
Alan Dymock

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Andrew Weber-US PRESSWIRE

Sometimes sport can throw up episodes that test the fans. You clap and you cry, on cue, but your support must never waiver. Your manager is your shepherd and your team’s objectives are your objectives because you’d rather die roaring them on and falling hoarse and short than missing them clear that obstacle and lift that hallowed trophy. You would take your years in the wilderness, the disappointments and the broken promises for one day in the sunlight.

Clubs know this. They would have to be fools to ignore their fans. They can hear you hollering and they know when the pressure is on. The figurehead feels this more than most. Any manager under pressure to maintain or, conversely, radically alter the status quo has to be strong. They have to have bulldog spirit and a hide thick enough to suffer the slings of abuse and the personal attacks.

Perhaps that is what endears most of England with Harry Redknapp. He knows hard times. He knows relegations and budgets that hamstring the most prudent of businessmen. He has signed bargain players and turned them into stars. He has brushed shoulders with the great and good and still maintained his salt of the earth persona. He is ‘Arry, not Harry, and wouldn’t you just love to see him in charge of England?

However, the man who makes friends with the disrupted is also no stranger to suspicion. It is hard to keep the chin up and the chest out like in so many successful campaigns when the lawyers are involved and the police need questions answered.

The fan support has been great, and Tottenham Hotspur are buoyed at the moment, but there is no way of knowing how they’ll recover from Henry James Redknapp standing trial accused of ‘cheating the public revenue’.

He is being tried for alleged actions during his time at perennial strugglers Portsmouth, the team he eventually led to an FA Cup title. According to her Majesty’s government “The CPS Revenue and Customs Division decided there was sufficient evidence and it was in the public interest to charge Mr Redknapp. He is jointly charged with Milan Mandaric, the former chairman of Portsmouth City Football Club, following an investigation by the City of London Police and HM Revenue & Customs.

“The charges concern two payments, totaling USD$295,000, from Mr Mandaric to Mr Redknapp via a bank account in Monaco, evading the tax and national insurance contributions due between 1 April 2002 and 28 November 2007.”

He has been questioned over the last week and now it is his turn to give evidence. His time facing prosecution was a bit strange for Harry, it must be said. A manager of the Monaco bank in question claimed Redknapp was a single signatory for an account, and that any ‘bung’ would have been paid in to an account named after his dog, Rosie.

The court also heard of how Redknapp claimed to the police, when previously questioned, that he was unable to “fiddle taxes” because “I am completely and utterly disorganized. I write like a two-year-old and I can’t spell.”

A history of huge financial losses were also presented as proof of such incompetence, alongside declarations of fear that he may have lost his family home as collateral in such ill-fated dealings.

Now he gets a chance to tell his side of the story, alongside implicated former boss Mandaric, through their respective counsels.

Whatever happens in the following days the Spurs fans will support their manager and uphold his pleas of innocence. They will also continue to back their team. They have come through barren spells and heart breaking seasons. So what if the establishment stand in their way? They will rally, banding together under the gates of White Heart Lane, and bang the drums again.

The fans will galvanize. The players will be told to focus on the job. They will continue their assault on the English Premier League. The only thing missing? ‘Arry may not be able to make some games because of court delays.

Soccer never gets easy. It is tough at the top.

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