Harry Redknapp was appointed Director of Football at Derby County today. His star has fallen rather dramatically. He looks a bit 2D in the era of Mauricio Pochettino.
His clubbability, famous popularity among grizzled, drink-sodden hacks, and sheer unignorable Englishness have rendered him unfashionable with the more highbrow critics in the game.
Derby are currently fifth in the championship but appear to be faltering. Last month, they sacked their manager Paul Clement - a very harsh decision - after a wobble early in the new year.
Redknapp has been brought to provide 'senior support' to inexperienced manager Darren Wassall.
He has long been convinced of the efficacy of the director of football role and its worth as a vital extra layer of support to a manager.
Here he is discussing the role a few months ago.
It totally undermines your role as manager if you’re not picking the players. It’s a joke really that you are expected to work with someone else’s players. It’s all very well someone recommending players to you but when they don’t work out, it’s your head on the block.
I’m just not in favour of that. As a manager I have to select the players, train them every day and make decisions. To expect me to work with players someone else has decided I want is a nonsense. I want to make my own decisions and rightfully so. If things don’t work out fine, I’m responsible for that. But why should I be accountable for someone else’s mistakes?
My head’s on the block when it goes wrong so no I’m not going to support something that could cost me my job and I have no say in it.
Perhaps cognisant of his past comments, Redknapp was keen to stress that his new role, despite the title conferred on it, is substantively different to the role of director of football.
He's more like what was Bobby was to Stan than a typical (dare one say traditional) director of football.
I never thought I’d become a director of football but my role at Derby is completely different and it is only going to run until the end of the season.
