BBC Loves the Bung

October 27 – 2006

You’ll recall, in our bit on the BBC bung documentary, we referred to the following Harry Redknapp quote:

?I like Toddy, don?t I? No I?d take him. I would take him. I would take him without a doubt.?

Every news outlet on the planet ran this quote and described its context as being a casual, hotel lobby meeting where Redknapp pisses on the established rules of the game. The Pompey manager, we are led to believe, is hunting down agents to “tap them up” and grease through a deal.

But then we saw the video.

Let’s get this straight. The “agent” spends the first two-thirds of the conversation planning an all expense paid trip to the World Cup, with private jet, for ‘Arry and a few of his mates. Then the conversation turns to Andy Todd, who Redknapp mentions he likes. The agent then, in no uncertain terms, details Todd’s displeasure with his current club, and even goes so far to say he “fancies” a move. Redknapp then says he’d take Todd in a second. Does that really qualify as “tapping-up?”

We’ll tell you what it qualifies as: fucking entrapment. And the British public should be hotter than a shepherd’s pie about the manner their tax dollars are being spent. Everyone on the planet knew Portsmouth would have to add to their squad last summer; baiting the manager with a hard-nosed player who would provide excellent value to a team barely clinging to the Premiership is like baiting Mark Foley with a chance at a recurring role on The Suite Life of Zack & Cody. There’s no way in hell Redknapp is going to turn the other cheek. Had he done so, we can probably all agree he needs to be in another line of work.

And all the synthesized-xylophone-music-behind-hidden-camera-footage in the world can’t make Redknapp look sinister here. Were this a sting on the agent himself, it would maybe seem more scandalous. As it stands, we can only say this: We like Harry Redknapp. We think he’s a tough bastard. We’d take him without a doubt.