Harry Redknapp: Mourinho should stay at Chelsea, Tottenham wanted to sign Hazard
Ahead of Queens Park Rangers’ Premier League clash against Chelsea, manager Harry Redknapp spoke highly of opponent boss Jose Mourinho, insisting that the Portuguese should stay at Chelsea if he wants to emulate Sir Alex Ferguson-like success in England.
“He’s proved that he’s a fantastic manager wherever he’s been,” he was quoted by CFC Latest. “You don’t go and win Champions Leagues like he has unless you are a top manager. To be at the top, it helps if you have top players. He has top players and he knows how to get the best out of them and put teams together.”
“He’ll be in the game for many years to come and could end up as the greatest manager of all time. His record at Porto and Inter tells you he is a top manager. He’s got something about him. He has a charisma about him and has got a great knowledge of the game,” he added.
Mourinho should stay at Chelsea
However, the former Tottenham manager believes Mourinho can better his own record only if he decides to stay put at Chelsea like Ferguson had at Manchester United.
“I think if he wants to he can do what Fergie did at Manchester United. If he wanted to stay at Chelsea for 15 years he could do it,” the 67-year-old continues. “He’s at the right club with the right chairman. Chelsea were lucky that the chairman took over when he did and bought a club that was struggling. The day he walked in the club took off. Manchester City were the same. The moment Sheikh Mansour bought City the whole club changed.”
“That can happen, it does happen. He wouldn’t take a team in the bottom four or five now and turn them into a top six team, that can’t happen. It’s about being in a position to go out and get the best players,” he adds,
On Tottenham trying to sign Eden Hazard
Redknapp also spoke about how he had spent four hours in a Paris airport hotel trying to persuade then-Lille player Eden Hazard to sign for Tottenham which was weeks before the Belgian had finally signed for Chelsea.?
“I tried to get Hazard at Tottenham,” he recalls. “I spent four hours with Hazard in a Paris airport hotel talking to him about coming to Tottenham and he wouldn’t come at the time. He went to Chelsea and not long after Joe Cole said he thought he was the best players he ever played with. We just couldn’t get it over the line.”