Former Portsmouth manager Harry Redknapp has offered to help the club by speaking to Nwankwo Kanu, the striker who he signed from West Brom and is now causing the club financial difficulties.
When I first read this article on the ESPN website, titled ‘Harry Redknapp wants to help Porstmouth’, I was optimistically hoping that Redknapp was going to shift some of his money from Rosie 47 in to our accounts and help pay off the players on the way out, but no, all he is going to do is chat to Kanu – like no-one’s tried that yet…
Redknapp said to ESPN: “I will be ringing Kanu today to see if there is anything I can do. I signed him for Portsmouth on a one-year contract and Tony Adams told me: ‘You must be mad, he is finished’. Six years later, he is still there.
“In the case of Tal Ben Haim, if players have a contract and are owed money, you can see why they think they should get it. But if the club closes down they won’t get a penny. They need to think hard about that.”
Redknapp went on to say: “Portsmouth has got to be saved. It’s a great club with great traditions. It would be a disaster if this club went out of business.
“It has great fans to the extent that, if you live in Portsmouth, you are a Portsmouth supporter. If you walk around in that town, you don’t see people wearing Manchester United or Arsenal shirts.
“It is soul-destroying to see them in this predicament, and there must be a group of people out there or someone who could take over the club so cheaply and save them.
“I would love to see someone do that. Surely it cannot happen that Portsmouth go out of business. If someone did come in, the club could be resurrected quickly. It wouldn’t take a lot to get it going again.
“I remember when Milan came in and bought the club all those years ago, they were looking to lock the gates then and go into administration – but he turned it all around and made it work.
“When he sold the club, it spiralled out of control. Balram Chainrai put a lot of money in, but he must think it is the worst investment he ever made in his life. But now it just needs some people who understand football and who can work with the players.”
Notice he didn’t mention anything about Sacha Gaydamak – the owner who he worked under as he secured the FA Cup title in 2008, the owner who agreed to some of the ridiculous contracts along with his right-hand man Peter Storrie. These are the people who should be paying the debts!
I guess it’s a nice gesture from Redknapp to try and ease the Kanu situation but I just can’t see it doing any good, unless he offers to pay Kanu’s £3m request himself?
if we go bust when can we start again and where can we play?
Posted by jason | July 25, 2012, 12:27