Real Football Man All of the Football, All of the time
After Harry Redknapp managed to endear himself to Birmingham City fans after keeping the Midlands outfit in the EFL Championship the question that was then being asked was whether or not the former Tottenham boss would lengthen his stay at St Andrews.
Well we now know the answer to that as the 70 year old elder statesman has put pen to paper on a 1 year contract to take charge of The Blues for the 2017/18 season. Redknapp was bought into replace the horror show which was Gianfranco Zola’s reign at the club and with two wins from his final three matches it meant that Birmingham finished 20th and survived the drop to League One.
Redknapp’s stint in charge did not get off to the best start after defeat in the Birmingham derby to arch rivals Aston Villa. A Gabriel Agbonlahor goal was the difference and many were questioning whether Redknapp still had the midas touch.
He may well have to send a bottle of Champagne to David Wagner after the Huddersfield boss decided to make wholesale changes in the penultimate game of the season. That meant that Birmingham went up against a virtual second string outfit and took full advantage of the fact.
Whether Wagner was in the right to make such decisions with still so much riding on the season for the clubs at the bottom remains to be argued but I can guarantee that you will not get any complaints from Redknapp as it gave Birmingham’s hopes of staying up a massive boost.
The job was not quite done yet as they still needed a win on the final day of the season away at Bristol City – even more so because both Nottingham Forest and Blackburn picked up maximum points on the final day of the Championship season.
As long as Birmingham did their bit they would be fine and that is exactly what they did when Che Adams goal was enough to earn the vital three points required at Ashton Gate. Survival confirmed and Redknapp manages to keep Birmingham’s heads above water when at one point they were sinking like a stone.
It was a win-win position for Redknapp really. A stint of three games shows one of two things, failure to beat the drop and you can point to not having enough time to turn things around while doing the task in hand means you never have to buy a drink in the blue half of Birmingham ever again.
With Redknapp’s stock now as high as it has been over the past couple of years, there was no better time to talk contracts and it will be interesting to see what Redknapp can do with a full season and more importantly a full transfer window behind him.
He said himself that he feels that the group of players he has can get into the play-offs next season, by saying that he may have made a rod for his own back as failure to be contending for one of those spots could make his role at the club untenable.
But in fairness to Birmingham they could do with some stability, whether they can get that long term with a 70 year old in charge remains to be seen but even if Redknapp only has one more season in charge he should at least leave them in a healthier position as to when he took over.
When signing the contract Redknapp did say that his backroom staff would be announced in “due course” which is code for Joe Jordan and Kevin Bond will be joining me soon. The only thing missing is Niko Krancjar and then the bad will be back together for last set of dates in 2017/18
