Harry Redknapp Expresses His Sympathy for Hicks, Leading to Liverpool Outrage

Harry Redknapp has been a pretty respectable manager in his time at the Premier League, most notably now because of the resurgence of  the Spurs team he bosses over.

However, if his latest comments quoted by the daily mail are anything to go by, it is very easy for any rational being to conclude that he is either deluded or trying his best to let Liverpool's misery off the pitch continue.

In his latest statements, as expected from any unsporting rival manager, Harry Redknapp has accused Rafael Benitez, the ex-Liverpool manager to be the major cause for Liverpool's present distress and he doesn't stop there.

He further stretches his poor sense of logic to say that it was responding to Rafael Benitez's poor calls in the market which is the only BIG error of Tom Hicks and George Gillett.

All those words coming from a man, who could be easily singled out for spending beyond his means for prolonged spells at Portsmouth. With all due respect to Portsmouth they never were a very strong club financially but under Harry's second spell they did fare pretty well.

However, the success that Portsmouth got was mainly because they started all of a sudden to live out of their means as Harry Redknapp stretched the owners out of their capacities (15 goals in 150 games doesn't exactly paint a good picture does that, Harry?).

The masks however did not last and after Harry quit Portsmouth for Tottenham in 2008, Portsmouth lasted only one year after that before Pompey owner Alexandre Gaydamack sold the club to some dodgy owners and entered administration.

Clearly, it is not to say that Portsmouth's entering administration was solely due to Redknapp but before he points out to the likes of "expensive flops" bought by Rafael Benitez, should he not see what he was doing buying Portsmouth, a John Utaka, an all-time record signing for them for 80,000 GBP a week. A 9m GBP for Peter Crouch? Was that not living beyond the means?

On top of that there was also David Nugent who in Portsmouth's realms was an expensive buy.

Harry has clearly forgotten the fact that it was he who took the Portsmouth wage bill to above 50m GBP with players who had nothing to offer and nowhere to go. Clearly Portsmouth with far lesser revenue than other premier league clubs were paying way too much in terms of wages. 

Harry almost single handedly took the club resources to the drains and his counter argument to his deeds was that if the owners were stupid enough, he could not be blamed. A great way to repay the faith of the owners isn't it ? 

Harry Redknapp could also claim that he wanted to better his team on the pitch but in doing so he had forgotten that the process had to be gradual for a club of Portsmouth's stature and not by just throwing around cash as any mistake in the market could effectively hurt them too hard financially.

Yes, there are bigger clubs than Portsmouth who buy some Mr.Nobodies for high sums and Rafa Benitez was also wrong to go after an injured Aquilani, but then big clubs should be able to compete in the transfer market and even the great Sir Alex Ferguson has had his share of problems there. 

Mr.Harry surely did not know that out of the amount of money that Benitez spent during his stay, most of it was wheeling and dealing and not keeping "flops" like Bentley on the bench and still going for Van der Vaart case.

In reality the American owners funded about 150m GBP to Benitez in his 6 years regime, which amounts to some 25m per year. Even Aston Villa does nearly as good and even Stoke and Sunderland have exhibited a similar financial muscle in recent times.

Barring Arsenal, the clubs wages for Liverpool are also not above either of last year's Top Finishers. So clearly Rafael Benitez did not live beyond his means like Harry himself tried out.

Harry's latest attack on Rafael Benitez comes after amidst similar criticism by other English Pundits who have developed some sort of Xenophobic attitude towards any foreign manager who comes to England and is reasonably successful.

The baffling part in Redknapp's argument is that he not only finds Benitez at fault, he finds no fault with the American Owners who have kept burdening the club with debt, which originated mainly from the new stadium plans and the money they needed to buy the club in the first place.

It had nothing to do with the transfer market deals, funds from the player sales have been vanishing mysteriously from the funds at Liverpool for quite sometime anyways.

Lastly, I would like to point this out to Mr. Harry Redknapp that Roy Hodgson DID NOT inherit a weakened squad. The squad had almost won the League after 20 years and underwent long spells of injury to key players last season which could go some way in reasoning Liverpool's fall from the top four.

So Dear Harry, you are No Arsene Wenger in the transfer market either and as Rafa also bought players like Agger, Skrtel, Reina, Kuyt (Dirk was bought before the Americans took over, Arry), Alonso, and Benayoun in very good bargain deals. Torres was an expensive buy but was financed by selling out Bellamy, Riise, and Luis Garcia.

Please keep your "utmost sympathy" in your pocket or if you are still not done please beg Hicks to takeover at White Hart Lane instead. Clearly when a fraternity and that too like Liverpool's is rebelling against a regime, it makes proper sense.