Tim Henman, back of a cab, unremarkable ITK
Monday, June 28, 2010 at 11:11AM My brother-in-law is a black cab driver and, as you do, he always picks up famous people (within a working year he might have 4-5 stories to tell). Some triffic stories to tell (the best fare being Daniel Day Lewis) and with regards to football he's picked up Steve Gibson (didn't have good words to say about Woody), Danny Murphy's wife and one or two others.
The other day (few weeks back infact) he picked up Tim Henman. Had a lengthy conversation with him where Tim revealed had he known how great retirement was he would have done so much earlier. Tim doesn't miss tennis at all. Apart from the banter in the changing rooms, he's happy to have left all the media pressure behind. He felt he got a hard time from the British press who were relentless with him (the crux being, he was highly ranked and especially during Wimbledon would be beaten by the worlds best tennis players in semi-finals but was still questioned why he kept failing. In other words he was the best he could be but nobody would accept that).
Anyways, one or two other stories were told about how the press took a quote from his wife ('no comment') and run with the story the next day that she had told the reporters Tim would win Wimbledon and another story about when he snapped back at a journalist, a subtle snap back, but from that day onwards he always had a strained relationship with them (the journo had mocked him saying he was the 4th best tennis player in the world, and Henman snapped back whether he would be happy if he was the 4th best journo in the world).
The cabbie asked him what he did with himself these days and he replied: Golf. Tim noticed the mini-Spurs shirt my brother-in-law had hanging in the cab and said, "As a matter of fact my golfing partner is an ex-Spurs player". Turns out Jamie Redknapp and him are very close friends.
At the time of this, the media were reporting 'Harry to Liverpool', and my bro-in-law joked, "You best tell Harry he's going nowhere". Tim joked back and said there was no chance of Redknapp leaving Spurs (horses mouth) and that the only job he'd take if offered would be, quite obviously, England. No major news as we all know Harry wouldn't say no to that. Even if it's highly improbable he will ever be offered the opportunity. Redknapp would never leave the south for a northern based club.
By all accounts Tim was very pleasant, signed an autograph for one of my bro-in-laws neighbours kid who is meant to be pretty fantastic at tennis (he's only eight but plays against older kids and shows great promise) wishing him all the best etc.
No shocking revelations really. But then it was Tim Henman.
Ironically, Harry has come out and said today (on Talksport) he'd take the England job if he was asked. Once more, no shocker there. And I'll be shocked if the FA had the balls to ask him.
Reader Comments (22)
One day after we've been knocked out and Redknapp is already putting himself out there as available.
Klinsmann for Spurs.
Harry simply answered a question put to him.
He'd be mad to turn down such an opportunity. However, I hope he spends at least another season with us as Spurs show 10 times more promise than England.
However, if it were me in his position I would decline. Club before country for me... Every time.
COYS!
nothing wrong with an English manager wanting to manage England.
Cue all the Redknapp haters at Spurs to say how unloyal he is and this is why they don't like him.
Far too many idiots at the Lane nowadays. Most of them I drink with too.
I just hope the FA don't pay Capello off and keep him. Don't waste £10-12m that could be used at grass routes. The FA made their decision to sign him up for a further 2 years before the world cup. They now have to live with that or offer the job to Hodgson but leave Redknapp out of it. ;-)
Club before country. He'd fix up the England team, play the best players in their best positions. But rather he stuck it out at Spurs.
I would prefer or Harry to stay with us for this season at least, just to see the CL campaign (however short or long it will prove to be) pan out. Then if the opportunity arises again (e.g. Capello manages a side which loses to someone stupid like Bulgaria or Montenegro [can currently see the latter happening]), I wouldn't begrudge him leaving for England as it's something he genuinely wants to do and he's already done a lot for this club by making the CL dream come true. It's 50% up to the players to see this campaign through as best as they can.
Has Capello not signed a two year extension? Not that it matters much I guess.
I can understand why you would want to manage your country's national team but the media pressure with that job is just immense. And as Tim Henman found out, most journalist's are a bunch of sensationalist tossers who would sell their granny for a 100 words in a rag top.
The full interview from Harry.
Tottenham boss Harry Redknapp says he would not turn down the chance to manage England.
Pressure is continuing to build on current manager Fabio Capello following the 4-1 defeat in the last 16 of the World Cup against Germany on Sunday.
England disappointed throughout this summer's tournament in South Africa with a 1-0 win over Slovenia the only high of a disastrous campaign.
Plenty of names have now been mentioned as possible candidates to succeed Italian Capello, and Redknapp insists the next man should be English - and could be him.
He told talkSPORT: "They [the FA] have got a manager and until he's not the manager it's difficult to talk about it. But I'm English, who wouldn't want to manager England?
"There's not an Englishman - whether it's me, Roy Hodgson or Sam Allardyce - who would turn the job down because it's our country and we want to manage our country.
"No-one is ever going to turn that job down."
Swede Sven-Goran Eriksson also enjoyed little success in charge of the Three Lions and Redknapp thinks another foreign manager would show English football to be in a bad state.
"Could you imagine an Englishman managing the Italian national team? It doesn't happen," he continued.
"The Germans are the same, they have a German manager. We've ended up with two foreign managers. This guy [Capello] has a fantastic record at club level. But look, we've had a go with it now.
"When he finally moves on, in four years or whatever, surely there has to be a young guy or somebody in this country. Surely we have to find a manager from England, an English manager.
"I'm not talking about a Scottish manager or an Irish manager, I'm talking about an English manager because this is where we're from, this is our country.
"We should be able to produce someone who can manage the England football team and let's be honest, they can't do any worse than what they've [Eriksson and Capello] done."
Bye Harry :-( He will go!!
"My brother-in-law is a black cab driver "
why do you have to bring his colour in to this?
ha!
"My brother-in-law is a black cab driver "
"why do you have to bring his colour in to this?
Jun 28, 2010 at 1:34 PM | Devonshirespur"
hahahaha... love it!!
Um, you do have mini-cabs in Devon don't you Devonshire? LOL
As for Terry and his merry men.... embassasing! I have the honour of trying to explain these bunch of c*#ts away to our good friends and neighbours. And let me tell ya, embarrassing is an understatement... I live in Munich
* embarrassing (mind you embassing sounds about right)
The FA wouldnt dream of appointing Harry as he has a court appearance on 14th September.
Where as most of us would put club before country, I would not expect any manager who has been at a club for only one and half seasons to do the same.
The simple reason is we are fans, we chose to support our club, we live, breathe and worship it.
A manager doesn’t, he is paid by the club to do a job, and if you are lucky, he does that job very well.
BUT he is not a fan, a supporter.
I would imagine that all managers have nationalistic pride, they support their country, and so if offered the chance to manage their national team, the team they have supported since childhood, could you reasonably expect them to turn that offer down.
Or to put it another way if you got the call from Mr Levy to come and manage Spurs, would you, could you, refuse.
If he goes then all should wish him well - Its his choice and if a few England "world class" players showed that sort of pride then we might not have been done so badly yesturday.
but he'll be hugly missed, and we'd be back in transition again
and I can see all this happening
god really does hate us...doesn't he?
We need a proper old-school nutter in charge. 'Arry won't get it as he is going through the courts.
Scrap the foreigners, get rid of the WAG muppets and get someone we can associate with.
Death to anyone who has photos in a celeb magazine.
Send Terry to Scotland.
HR TRIAL IS SCHEDULED FOR NEXT SPRING BUT WITH HEARINGS BETWEEN THEN AND NOW.
CANNOT IMAGINE THE FA OFFERING HIM THE ENGLAND JOB UNTIL THE CHARGES ARE DROPPED OR HE IS FOUND NOT GUILTY.
SUSPECT THE TRIAL WILL TAKE PLACE UNLESS HR PLEADS GUILTY.
I RECKON ALL OF THIS MEANS HE CANNOT BE OFFERED THE JOB ANYTIME SOON.
BIGGEST DANGER FROM OUR POINT OF VIEW IS HE IS FOUND GUILTY AND SENT TO PRISON.
BOTH OF THESE ARE POSSIBLE.
Harry for England, klinsman for spurs, great for club and country, COYS.
Any easy qualifying group gave England players overconfidence, so when they arrived at the group stages in SA they thought the group would be cakewalk, with or without Rio. England had some horribly bad luck in this WC, but ultimately it comes down to the players in this one, I don't think Capello's much to blame and think it stupid to sack him now. Funny how 'Arry brings out the knife for the foreigner when its all said and done.
England are simply not good enough to win the WC and haven't been since 1990. It's a simple fact.
It's true what old Arry says, who would turn it down?
Can see it happening, bloody hope it doesn't!
Godspeed, Harry, and good luck. Surely losing the manager the national team will be rather less chaotic than having him banged up in the middle of the season? And if Spurs were prepared to chance it (i.e. the smoke that's always surrounded Redknapp finally manifesting some fire) why wouldn't the FA? As the 'arry apologists keep saying, it's just tax evasion, innit? Plea bargain it out and take the England job. Any fine would be covered by his first two weeks' wages. Also, as he's told us repeatedly, he's not (yet) been offered a new contract as Spurs.