Rejoice! Throw a party! Have another public holiday! Or at the very least pop over the pub for a quick one, for 'Arry is a free man! What an extraordinary thing it all is. Never mind the killings in Syria, the possibility of an imminent Israel attack on Iran, the global economic crisis, etc., etc., the news wires have been full of nothing else but the outcome of the Redknapp trial (oh and the other bloke of course, oh, and some Italian bloke who's just left his job.)
Pleased as I am (as a Spurs man) that our 'arry got off, I must say I was a bit surprised. It did look very much like he was bang to rights. After all, why do you open an account in Monaco and keep it under wraps unless you've got something to hide? And why does your boss pay you a large sum of money unless it's got something to do with your job? On the latter point, Redknapp seemed to completely shoot himself in the foot in that News of the World interview by saying that that's exactly what the money was for.
But never mind. A combination of Mandaric giving the right line, that it was a personal matter and not work related, and the joint spiel that "we've paid zillions in tax, why would we resort to some complex subterfuge to save a few bob?" did the trick. Plus of course everyone loves 'arry and how could the jury send down such a popular bloke, especially when the future of English football depended on him? I'm not sure that a judge sitting alone would have come to the same conclusion - especially if he'd been a rugby man or worse, an Arsenal supporter.
The "why would we resort to..." line is not much of a defence is it? It's a good question but the answer's largely irrelevant. I have no idea why they messed around with money in Monaco but the fact is they did and if you want to give someone some money as a friend, why does it have to go to Monaco and not your local high street Barclay's?
But there is of course nothing illegal about giving someone some money in an offshore account and if Mandaric says it was nothing to do with the job then who are HMRC to say otherwise? That's the conclusion the jury came to and fair enough. So that's that.
Now comes the issue of 'arry's future career. The timing of the Capello departure was a newsman's dream come true, you really couldn't make it up. I don't want to see Redknapp leave Tottenham but it seems inevitable. I can only hope that, as it's been pretty much a dead cert for ages, the Spurs board have done a bit of sensible succession planning.
In the meantime, if you want to vent your spleen at someone who's taken more than their fair share of the economic cake, look no further than Don Capello. He really shows the bankers how it's done: £6m a year for doing a part-time job that any football-savvy 10 year-old could do just as well for a the price of a new Xbox and a year's supply of sherbet fountains. Do check out my previous post where I suggest this job should be up from grabs as a national lottery prize (bring on the Jobbo Lotto!) I believe it's quite possible to have this in some party's next election manifesto. It might be only the Monster Raving Loony Party but then a lot of their supposedly bonkers ideas are now law!
'arry says his focus is 100% on Tottenham. Just as well - if we don't beat Newcastle tomorrow then I'll be wishing the jury had reached a different conclusion.
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