‘I’m here to get Derby County promoted!’ – Harry Redknapp

Harry Redknapp  has told talkSPORT he has taken up a ‘football advisor’ role at Derby County to help the Rams achieve Premier League promotion.

 

The Championship club confirmed on Wednesday that the former Tottenham manager will assist Rams head coach Darren Wassall until the end of the season.

Redknapp has taken a director of football role before - at Portsmouth, where he was eventually named boss and then took Pompey up to the top flight.

But the 69-year-old has allayed fears that he could meddle with Wassall’s plans on the touchline, insisting he will "stay upstairs" through his stint at the club.

Speaking on the Alan Brazil Sports Breakfast, Redknapp said: “Derby is a fantastic club. Wassell has taken over as manager and it’s his first job, so the chairman felt that maybe I could help until the end of the season, so I said I’d do it.

“I won’t be on the touchline, I’ll be upstairs. I know it’s difficult when you’re a manager and you don’t necessarily want someone else coming in.

“But the chairman said, ‘look, if Harry doesn’t come in then somebody else will.’ He was going to bring someone in, and Darren knew that.

“I had a good chat with Darren, he’s a great lad, and I told him that I’m just here for nine games.

“Hopefully it will be nine games with automatic promotion or 12 games with the play-off final.

“I’m just here until the end of the season to help out and I’m looking forward to it. I’m up here now and ready to get cracking.”

Redknapp will combine his role with Derby alongside a coaching job with the Jordan national team, with the nation confirming his appointment on Thursday morning.

He has agreed to take charge of Jordan for their two World Cup qualifiers against Bangladesh and Australia later this month, as a favour to Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein, and Redknapp insists his responsibilities for the country will not affect his role at Derby.

“The Jordan games obviously come in the international break, so I’m not going to miss any games for Derby,” he told Alan Brazil and co-host Ray Wilkins, who has also coached the Jordan side.

 “I met with Prince Alli, and Ray will know, he’s a lovely guy.

“He asked me if I’d go out and do two games, they’ve got Bangladesh and then Australia away, which is obviously a tough game, they need to win both games and he asked if I’d go over to manage the team for the two matches, and I said I would.”