Redknapp to seek Mandaric talks

Southampton 2 Portsmouth 1

Harry Redknapp (pictured) will seek an urgent meeting with Portsmouth chairman Milan Mandaric tomorrow to try to discover whether his job as manager at Fratton Park is any more secure than that of South Coast rival Steve Wigley at Southampton.

Wheeler-dealer Redknapp is adamant he must retain full control of team-affairs and there can be no doubt that his view of the future for Pompey is diametrically opposed to Serb-American businessman Mandaric who insists he will “one day in the future” appoint a Director of Football at the club to work alongside the manager.

It is a prospect that appals Redknapp who insists there is plenty of affection in his uneasy relationship with Mandaric after the fairytale success both have brought to down-at-heel Pompey over the past three years.

Plans for a £36m (€51.6m) stadium refit are firmly in the pipeline at Fratton Park which currently has a capacity of only just over 20,000. And Pompey are known in the game for paying handsome wages to the key players Redknapp has unearthed, largely abroad, with the aid of a network of agents.

But he insists: “I’m a football manager. If I’m not in control I’m not here. I have had enough of all the aggravation. I don’t want it and I don’t need it. With my record at this club I certainly don’t deserve to read what I’ve been reading the last few days.”

Saints head coach Steve Wigley was meant to be the man under pressure at Saturday’s High Noon shoot out for the bragging rights on the South Coast.

His first Premiership victory in 10 attempts this season, secured by substitute Kevin Phillips’s 70th minute header from a Jason Dodd free kick, gave him an astonishing blaze of self-confidence – sufficient certainly for him to predict: “I will definitely be in this job next week and expect to still have it at the end of the season.”

Chairman Rupert Lowe’s record of employing seven managers over the last eight years would not normally inspire such optimism and Southampton’s result at Norwich next Saturday will be interesting with Glenn Hoddle and Gerard Houllier still being mentioned as likely successors to Wigley’s post.

Asked about Wigley’s future, Lowe would only say: “It has been a good day for him, a good day for everybody at Southampton.”

But Redknapp appears just as vulnerable at Portsmouth if he maintains his opposition to Mandaric’s plans – even though he insists the pair are good friends.

“We are fine, okay, no problem,” he said. “I like him very much. Really. If I didn’t I’d say so. We get on great. I could go out for dinner with him and enjoy his company. We did that the other night but none of this Director of Football thing was mentioned.”

It is undeniable, though, that the pair have had at least two public bust-ups now, the first towards the end of last season when Redknapp’s assistant and former Pompey boss Jim Smith’s future was under discussion.

But Redknapp said: “Probably I’m a difficult man to work with as well. It probably works both ways.

“People recognise what I’ve done. You ask the fans at Portsmouth. They’ve recognised what I’ve done, but it has been a bad couple of days.

“I thought I was Manager of the Month after we beat Manchester United, but I must have dreamed it.

"Would I walk away? No. I’d just have to look at the whole situation.

“I need to sit down and have a chat with the chairman, probably on Monday, and see where we go.

“It would be hard to walk away but you have to be yourself. You have to look yourself in the mirror and do what you feel is right for yourself and your family. That’s what I’ll do.

“At Portsmouth we have terrific support and a good team but we’ve gone forward too quickly. Now I have to see how the chairman sees the future and what he feels should happen.”

Mandaric confirmed on BBC radio that he has interviewed several candidates, some British, some from overseas, but was not thinking about appointing “somebody next week”.

One is Vilimir Zajec, the former Panathinaikos manager and Croatia World Cup star who has left the Greek champions and seems set on linking up with Mandaric, but Redknapp said: “I don’t know him and I never will know him. No chance. It won’t happen.”

Portsmouth’s poor away form helped their local rivals out of a hole after Saints had been humiliated in a 5-2 Carling Cup caning five days earlier.

After just 12 minutes Swedish centre half Andreas Jakobsson headed past his own keeper, on-loan Kasey Keller, to gift Pompey the lead and had to go off with a head injury.

But that brought in club captain Jason Dodd for his first game since damaging his back in the opening match of the season and Dexter Blackstock, 18, equalised within six minutes after the returning James Beattie miskicked.

Phillips’ winner, three minutes after replacing Beattie was a perfect bonus.

For this had looked like last chance saloon for nice guy Wigley who said: “On Tuesday night everything went wrong. Yet it probably brought things to a head.

“The players had to deliver today if they wanted to walk around this town. Now they’ve done a bit to make up for Tuesday although we still need a couple more wins to get us back on track properly.

“I’ve spoken to the chairman and he’s always been supportive. Of course other names have been mentioned but they are not happening. I’ve got the job and I’ll still have it at the end of the season I hope.”