Champions League Place a must for Harry

A long running saga about the England’s future manager is near to an end. Roy Hodgson, the current manager of West Brom, is in line to become Fabio Capello’s successor as England manager after few times as reports suggest. But after being involved in every possibility of managing “The Three Lions”, where does the future behold for Harry Redknapp?

Harry Redknapp, the hottest managerial ­property in football just a few weeks ago, is now facing an uncertain future at Tottenham on the back of his England disappointment. He is under huge pressure to qualify for next season’s Champions League.

With only 12 months left in his current contract at Spurs, the chairman has delayed the extension of his contract talks till the end of the season.

After a brilliant start to this season’s Premier League campaign, he was supposed to be in top of the list of future England manager. But he was not approached by FA. The Spurs team who were a serious title contender in February are now battling hard for the fourth spot. They have won just 2 games out of last 10 and this all began with Capello leaving England.

However, Harry has sent his best wishes to England manager-elect Roy Hodgson.

Redknapp had been the overwhelming favourite to replace Fabio Capello prior to this summer's European Championships. However, it is Hodgson who will have talks with the Football Association after West Brom granted permission.

"No problem," Redknapp told BBC Sport. "I wish him [Hodgson] all the best. He's a great guy. I've got a great job here (at Spurs). I don't hold grudges. I've woken up in a great mood on the back of a great win yesterday (Sunday). I will be concentrating on Tottenham as I have done all along."

As news of the approach for Hodgson was confirmed on Sunday evening, Redknapp conceded his chance of coaching England had now gone.

"I can't see it (the England job) coming up for me now," Redknapp told The Times.

"Everyone else was saying I might get it but I never spoke to Daniel Levy (the Spurs chairman) about England."

His Spurs career has been a great success. He arrived after the sacking of Juande Ramos. Spurs had secured only two points from the first eight games of the season prior to Redknapp's arrival and lay bottom of the league, but in his first two weeks in charge he took the club out of the relegation zone, winning ten out of the twelve points available with wins against Bolton Wanderers, Liverpool and Manchester City and a remarkable 4–4 draw against North London rivals Arsenal.

He went to finish 8^th that season. His successive run continued in his first full season in 2009-10 as he took Spurs to the Champions League finishing 4^th. He was awarded “manager of the season” and was only the second manager to receive the honor without winning a title. He started the next season in the Champions League and it can be termed as a successful one as they progressed to the quarter-finals of the competition before losing to Real Madrid. However they had to satisfy with Europa League place finishing 5^th in the league table.

So, his reign at Spurs has changed the whole context of the club in past few years and this kind of question about his future has surprised all. The degrading form of Spurs might be considered the effect of Harry’s future. But with all these settled, won’t he be the same Harry who has taken Spurs to the next level which was hard to be supposed at the start of 2008-09 campaign?