'Harry and Clive Live', a show to run and run

Redknapp and Woodward dismiss rumours of a rift in an unconvincing show of unity at Southampton

"Every time I pick up the papers, I read that there's a rift between me and Clive," Redknapp said. "There's no problem between us in any shape or form. You know me well enough. If we didn't get on, I'd be the first to come out and say so."

Woodward, for his part, emphasised that he was at the club to learn and that any managerial ambitions would not be realised until two or three years down the line. "If Harry said no, I wouldn't be here tomorrow," he added. It was a show of unity every bit as convincing as that offered earlier this week by two other high-profile figures along the coast at Brighton.

Like Redknapp, Woodward suggested that he was not the type of character to suffer local difficulties in silence. "Harry's not a yes-man," he said. "And I'm certainly not a yes-man."

The fact remained, however, that both had been summoned to this room packed with TV crews, snappers and scribblers by the figure standing sheepishly at its edge, the club chairman, Rupert Lowe.

"I'm watching," Lowe said with an uneasy grin, after turning down the invitation to add his voice to the proceedings, "lending support."

Lowe's support for Woodward goes back to before Redknapp was lured out of supposed retirement towards the end of last season for what proved a vain, last-ditch attempt to retain Southampton's Premiership status.

Redknapp did not forbear to mention that the arrangement had been in place before his arrival, although he insisted he had been given the last word on it. He also insisted he had been asked about the recent signing of youth player, Jason St Just, at the recommendation of the skills coach whom Woodward has brought to the club for a reputed six-figure sum, David Clifford.

"He's a young lad, not a first-team player," Redknapp said. "Clive said that David felt he was a good prospect, so I thought: 'Let's have a look at him.' Clive's not saying to me: 'Harry, I'm bringing in a striker and he's going to play in your first team next week,' and I'm not having to say: 'No he's not, I'm the manager'."

Redknapp made the fair point, however, that Woodward's current role was entirely different to that of director of football, something that he had problems with at his previous club, Portsmouth. "A director of football has an input into the players bought by the club, which I wouldn't have here. The choice of players here is one million per cent my decision and I wouldn't stand for anything else."

Presumably, the man loitering near the door heard that clearly enough. There were some clear suggestions by those in the know that Redknapp had been far from eager to endure yesterday's public examination, but, as the cameras rolled, there was no escape for either man. This was Harry and Clive Live, whether they liked it or not.

Woodward conceded he might have done better to have held a press conference when he joined the club two months ago after his ill-fated tour in charge of the Lions. "That is one thing that I regret," he said. "From now on, I'm going to make sure that the press and supporters know about any new things I'm doing."

What Woodward has done so far has aroused a good deal of scepticism in what is, despite his protestations to the contrary, a game with a prehistorically backward culture.

Apart from Clifford, he has brought vision expert Sheryl Calder to repeat the eye exercises she prescribed for England's World Cup winners to increase peripheral vision. While Pele himself benefited from such a faculty - albeit one that he was born with - it is hard to resist the conclusion that peripheral vision is not a pressing concern for Southampton as they strive to return to the top flight.

Staring them full in the face is the simple fact that they have sold their two top strikers and brought in no one to replace them.

Redknapp maintained an optimistic front yesterday. "It's not as if the money isn't there," he said. "If we can find the right man, I'm sure the chairman will back me."

Was that another targeted message? Had a body language expert been present when the two examinees had arrived, they might have interpreted Redknapp's curious hand-wringing as an involuntary sign of the desire to wash his hands of the whole, awkward occasion.

"Two or three years from now," Woodward concluded, "I'll look back on this episode and it will be a small, little blip." Perhaps. But perhaps not.