Redknapp appointment widens coastal divide

SOCCER/NEWS: Southampton are ready to risk worsening their relationship with Portsmouth following Harry Redknapp's appointment yesterday as manager by attempting to take Kevin Bond from Fratton Park to work as his assistant. Steve Wigley, who was in charge of the first team, has left the club.

Portsmouth are furious that Redknapp has joined their fiercest rivals on an 18-month contract only two weeks after walking out and accuse Southampton of conducting negotiations while Redknapp was still at Fratton Park.

"It would appear that negotiations over this have been going on for some time and I am surprised and a little shocked that the chairman of Southampton has not picked up the phone and kept me informed," said Portsmouth's chairman Milan Mandaric.

"We have engineered good links with Southampton since we have started meeting each other again on a regular basis and I would have thought that counted for something. There is a common courtesy involved here and when you have to read about these things, Southampton being just 30 miles up the road, you wonder if the good old-fashioned values have all but disappeared."

An immediate denial came from Redknapp and Southampton's chairman Rupert Lowe but they will have no hesitation in causing further problems by moving for Bond.

Lowe is not worried that it might cause a stir. "If it does, it does," he said. "We don't bring somebody of Harry's calibre here and then say you can't work with the people you want to work with. That would not make sense. We will do our best to bring the staff that Harry wants here."

Redknapp would like to work again with Bond, his first-team coach at Portsmouth. "I know his contract runs out in the summer and if I can arrange something I'm sure we will try," he said. "He did a great job for me. He played here, he's a Southampton man and all his friends come here every week as season-ticket holders."

Nor did he rule out trying to sign Portsmouth players. "Not at the moment," he said, "but I left them with some fantastic players, players you'd love to have at any club."

Mandaric claimed Redknapp had assured him he would not join Southampton, saying: "Yes, Harry did tell me . . . on my request: 'Harry, I hope you don't go to Southampton' and he said 'absolutely not'. But again, it's Harry's life and it's his decision, I don't influence anyone on their own decision. I have my own decisions, that's what I follow."

Redknapp said: "I don't owe anybody anything. It's my life and this is a great opportunity for me."