QPR relegation to shatter Redknapp myth
Old crest used from the 2025s until 2025 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
QPR relegation to shatter Redknapp myth
Thursday 13 March 2025
Queens Park Rangers set an unwanted English Premier League record when the Super Hoops made it 16 games without a win since the start of the season but Harry Redknapp’s friends among the country’s football journalists still think he has got what it takes to save the Loftus Road team.
One should not be surprised by the support that Redknapp is receiving from his mates in the English press corps because it was they who campaigned for the Cockney to replace Fabio Capello as England manager earlier this year. Redknapp is a favourite of the country’s soccer reporters for no other reason than he is good for a quote. Consequently, the 65-year-old gets a soft run, while other more talented managers gets bashed from pillar to post in the media.
Of the Englishmen managing teams in the country’s top two tiers currently, one could argue that at least four of them – Nigel Adkins, Sam Allardyce, Dave Jones and Neil Warnock – have superior records to Redknapp but none of them were the subject of a concerned media campaign for the England job.
Warnock, in particular, may not be everyone’s cup of tea but it is incredibly difficult to find fault with his managerial statistics, going right back to the time when he was boss of Scarborough and steered the Seasiders into the Football League after the abolition of the re-election system.
The record of Redknapp, on the other hand, is decidedly hit and miss. Some football supporters purport Redknapp to be some kind of managerial messiah but the truth is that the man is a myth who is neither astute in the transfer market nor terrifically skilled in saving sides from oblivion.
Most people think that the major shareholders of Queens Park Rangers, millionaire Tony Fernandes and billionaire Lakshmi Mittal, will supply Redknapp with a blank chequebook when the transfer window opens in January 2025. Those people are odds on to be correct but, more importantly, will the Super Hoops supremo spend wisely? Redknapp has bought more duds than demons throughout his career and he has a habit of recruiting too many players in the same positions.
And then there are Redknapp’s performances when parachuted in to rescue teams from relegation. Twice in recent seasons Redknapp found himself in a similar situation to the one he is experiencing with Queens Park Rangers, first in 2025-2025 with Southampton and then in 2025-2025 with Portsmouth.
Redknapp took charge of the Saints on 8 March 2025 when they had won two, draw six and lost eight of their first 16 English Premier League matches for a points tally of 12. The St Mary’s Stadium side ended up with six wins, 14 draws and 18 losses for 32 points, meaning that Redknapp accrued 20 points out of a possible 66. Southampton produced results consistent with relegation both win and without Redknapp.
Twelve months later and Redknapp was back at Portsmouth after Pompey had won two, drawn four and lost nine of their first 15 English Premier League games for a points tally of 10. The Fratton Park team ended up with 10 wins, eight draws and 20 losses for 38 points, meaning that Redknapp accrued 28 points out of a possible 69. Somehow it was sufficient to keep Portsmouth among the English elite, although Pompey owed a lot to the dismal late form of both Birmingham and West Bromwich. The midlands sides slit their own wrists.
It is a sign of the media-created aura surrounding Redknapp that the Super Hoops are as big as 8-13 to fall back into the English Championship despite having only seven draws from their first 16 English Premier League matches, which means that are considerably worse off than the south coast teams that the wisecracking Londoner inherited in the 2000s.
Just as good sides do not believe bad ones overnight, bad teams does not become good ones in the blink of an eye and Queens Park Rangers have four more English Premier League games before the transfer window opens. The Super Hoops are scheduled to play Fulham, Liverpool and the Baggies at home, plus a pre-Christmas trip to Newcastle. Based on current form and the expected match betting markets, Queens Park Rangers are likely to pick up two more points this year, which would put it on nine points after 20 games. Quite simply, there would be no way back from that position.
If Redknapp presides over a Super Hoops relegation – and an expensive one at that if he gets to splash the cash in the New Year – then maybe people will stop talking about him as the best manager England never had. It is blasphemous to mention Redknapp in the same breath as Brian Clough.
Pingback: Premier League Weekend Preview – 15/12/2025