EXCLUSIVE
By Oscar Rudd
It's a warm July afternoon in Sandbanks as I meet Harry Redknapp at his lavish south-coast home. I am led from the gate by Jermain Defoe to a picturesque balcony overlooking the beach, where the former manager sits on one of two comfy deckchairs (each of which has a car door built onto the arms), prodding in awkward fascination at a mobile phone as if it were an Arthur C. Clarke obelisk.
He smiles as I compliment his home, particularly the solid-gold space shuttle platform at the far end of his extensive grounds, still visible from our spot towering over the exotic imported trees and custom-built rollercoasters that make up his recently extended estate. "It's absolutely top-class work, it absolutely is," he tells
Goal
. "The chairman takes care of all of that, really, and I couldn't have asked for more. The builders have come in and really done a job for us in the middle of the garden."
The renovations, coming so soon after the last of the Premier League's money mysteriously disappeared from a Monaco bank account as it was being prepared for distribution between the remaining member clubs, have been questioned by some fans but Redknapp's jowls rumble angrily when I broach the subject of the criticism sent his way.
"I've got no time for that rubbish," he fumes. "All these people on the Twitter and what have you ... I'm not having it. I'm not a fackin' wheeler-dealer and I'm not a fackin' tax evader. I'm just enjoying my retirement." He winds down the window on the other arm of his chair to shoo away his dog, Rosie, who has emerged onto the balcony sporting a diamond-encrusted doggie onesie.
As our chat comes to an end, Defoe returns to collect me. As I shake Redknapp's hand, I ask him how the former striker is settling in as his butler. "He's a top, top, top butler, there's no doubt about it," says the 68-year-old. "I'd like to get one or two more bodies in before September, though. I just haven't got the competition in the kitchen. I tried to get Younes Kaboul in on loan but he just didn't get the pie baked that I needed. I told him my Sandra could've done better and he might not like that but he's got to do better, for me."
Regular readers should note that George Ankers left Goal shortly after this interview was arranged "to spend more time with my voodoo dolls".
