Background and career
Henry James Redknapp (born 2 March 1947) is an English former football manager and player. He has previously managed AFC Bournemouth, West Ham United, Portsmouth, Southampton, Tottenham Hotspur, Queens Park Rangers, and Birmingham City. Redknapp managed Portsmouth to the 2002–03 Division One title, gaining promotion to the Premier League and preserving their top-flight status in the 2003–04 season. In his second spell at the club, he managed the side that won the 2008 FA Cup. At the conclusion of the 2009–10 season, he guided Tottenham into the UEFA Champions League. His son, Jamie Redknapp, had played for him at Bournemouth and Southampton. He is also uncle to Frank Lampard, who played under him at West Ham United.
Redknapp was born in Poplar, London, the only child of Henry Joseph William Redknapp (1922–1996) and Violet May Brown (1924–2001). At age 15, Redknapp moved to West Ham United and played alongside Bobby Moore. In a 2008 interview, Redknapp stated as part of a tribute to Tom Finney, "I was a big Arsenal fan as a kid and I remember seeing him play against Tommy Docherty one night."
After being appointed Tottenham manager later in 2008, Redknapp stressed his Tottenham connections as well, stating:I am a big follower of the history of the game and Tottenham have been a great club over the years. I followed Tottenham, I trained there as an 11-year-old, 12-year-old so I know the history of the club. It is a big, big club.
During his playing career, Redknapp played as a midfielder. He began his career with Tottenham Hotspur, playing for the youth team until he was 15 years old, when he moved to West Ham United. He first broke into the first team at West Ham in the 1965–66 season, making seven appearances and scoring one goal. He made his debut for West Ham in a 1–1 draw at home to Sunderland on 23 August 1965. His first goal came in a 4–1 away win over Tottenham on 8 April 1966. Redknapp made his first start of the 1966–67 season, and scored his second goal for the club, on 3 December 1966 in a 3–0 win over West Bromwich Albion. Redknapp made 12 League appearances scoring once during his second season. During the 1967–68 season, he made 28 League appearances and scored twice, the first in a 4–2 home win over Burnley on 21 August 1967 and the second in a 5–1 away win over Sunderland on 6 September 1967. During the 1968–69 season, Redknapp made 42 appearances and scored three times, with 36 appearances coming in the league (along with two goals), three in the FA Cup appearances and three in the League Cup (along with one goal). His first league goal of the season came in a 4–0 win over West Brom on 31 August 1968, while the next came in a match in the League Cup against Bolton Wanderers, which West Ham won 4–0. Redknapp received a red card in a 2–0 away defeat at Leeds United on 12 October 1968. He had been booked for fouling Billy Bremner and was dismissed by the referee for dissent. His third goal of the season came in a 4–3 win over Queens Park Rangers on 2 November 1968. Redknapp made his first appearance of the 1969–70 season on 9 August 1969 in a 1–0 home win over Newcastle United, while his first goal of the season came in a 3–0 home win over Sheffield Wednesday on 2 September 1969. Redknapp made 26 total appearances and scored one goal; 23 of his appearances came in the league. During the 1970–71 season, Redknapp made 21 league appearances with one more coming in the League Cup. He then made a further 35 appearances during the 1971–72 season with 22 of them coming in the league. This would be his last season at the club before he moved to AFC Bournemouth for the 1972–73 season. He made 175 total appearances in both league and cup action for West Ham, scoring eight times over seven seasons.
Redknapp joined Third Division Bournemouth in 1972 from West Ham. He spent four seasons with the south coast side between 1972 and 1976. In the 1972–73 season, Redknapp made 37 appearances, with 34 of them coming in the league scoring once in the league and Bournemouth finished seventh in the league. He made a further 46 appearances scoring five times during the 1973–74 season with 39 appearances in the league. Redknapp made 19 (all league) appearances during the 1974–75 season as Bournemouth were relegated to the Fourth Division. In 1975–76, he only managed nine appearances. In total, he had played 101 league matches for Bournemouth, scoring 5 goals. At the end of the 1975–76 season, he moved to then Fourth Division side Brentford, where he made one appearance during the 1976–77 season.
In 1976, Redknapp joined North American Soccer League (NASL) club Seattle Sounders as a player-coach. He made 15 appearances during the 1976 season as they reached the playoffs after finishing second in the Pacific Conference, Western Division, before losing to the Minnesota Kicks in the Division Championship. Before returning to Seattle, he appeared briefly for AP Leamington in the Southern League Premier Division. Redknapp then made five appearances during the 1977 season as they finished third in the Pacific Conference, Western Division, before losing out in Soccer Bowl '77 to Pelé's New York Cosmos, 2–1. In 1980, Redknapp was contracted to play with ASL expansion team the Phoenix Fire, but the team folded in pre-season.
