Redknapp's debt to Hoddle as harsh reality takes its toll

In the two hours between hearing that Glenn Hoddle had been sacked as manager of Tottenham Hotspur and picking up the telephone to call the man he still, habitually, refers to as "the gaffer", much travelled through the mind of Jamie Redknapp. About the nature of football - the brutality and pragmatism that coats the beautiful game. How ephemeral and how enduring it is.

"I like the man, I owed him that call," says Redknapp, who signed on a four-year contract last season after 11 years at Liverpool. What did they talk about? "I said how sorry I was and thanked him for giving me a chance, because he did give me another chance in football. When I was leaving Liverpool there weren't too many other offers. When the opportunity arose we did it as quickly as we could - because I wanted to come to Tottenham - but I didn't see too many other people come in, because of my injury problems. I will always remember that."

Redknapp left it two hours because he wanted to give Hoddle a bit of time on that Sunday evening, a bit of space to talk to his family. "He said he was really disappointed. It is never an easy conversation to have," says the 30-year-old midfielder who was made captain by Hoddle in one of his final acts at White Hart Lane. "A lot of the lads called him, a lot," says Redknapp.

Thenpracticality kicks in. There are matches to play and, for Redknapp, another annoying injury to overcome to be available for today's Premier-ship game against Leicester City. "People have to understand that players just get on with it," he explains. "Clubs get managers - it's not that they come to you as a player and ask who you want. Unless I got asked I would not get involved, it is up to the board to decide."

Blackburn Rovers' Graeme Souness now appears to be the No 1 choice to be Hoddle's successor after Martin O'Neill's continued faith in Celtic, though Souness, a former Tottenham player, continues to play down the speculation. "There was obviously speculation last season [about Hoddle's future]," says Redknapp. "I'm not going to say they should have done it before, or it was not the right time. But you felt that we were not getting the right results and they made a decision to change things before they got into a situation like at West Ham last season. You get into a rut."

The atmosphere, he admits, was not quite right. After a reasonable start to the season, in which Redknapp had been their best player, things began to drift badly. "For some unknown reason we just seemed to lose it. I think there was a lot of pressure, and once people saw that we were struggling they got their teeth into the gaffer and were really going for him. What happens in those situations, when the press start to have a go at the manager, then indirectly it gets to the players. Because the crowd are edgy and we got edgy, and we were just not playing well." His words are undeniable even as he ponders the meaning. "I get on well with Glenn," Redknapp says. "Football is, well, we are all just passengers in the game - people will come and go - and it is harsh like that, it's the way the game is. Hundreds of managers go through the door."

And players, of course. Redknapp is speaking at the launch of Slendertone, a new series of workout machines, for which he is the public "face", appearing in a poster campaign. His own fitness has, as ever, been a preoccupation, as he has been troubled by pain in his knee - the same knee that had to be rebuilt, shaving many, many months off his career at Liverpool. Not that it is the same injury. Indeed, his recovery from it shows the strength of the knee.

"I went into a challenge with [Liverpool's] Harry Kewell and twisted it a little bit," he explains. "I carried on playing and wasn't playing as well as I would have liked, I was struggling, and thought I had to be careful with it. The physio took a look at it, but I wanted to carry on because we weren't doing well."

So he played against Fulham and Southampton - two home defeats which sealed Hoddle's fate. "After going to Liverpool and getting a 0-0 draw, the only thing I can identify as a problem is we played with two or three players [Dean Richards, Ledley King] who had not played at all - no pre-season - and then they played Saturday and Wednesday night and Saturday again. That was hard, and I was struggling a bit. I thought I wanted to be out there. I did not train Thursday or Friday but the gaffer said to me, 'How do you feel?' and I said, 'Look, I'll be OK'."

He wasn't. Hoddle was, undoubtedly, unlucky with injuries. Redknapp missed much of last season with a stress fracture to his foot. Many other senior players have been absent. After he secured the captaincy, injury has been all the more inopportune. "If you are not playing it is a tough thing to do to be captain - you are not on the training pitch from day to day, and can't go round the players."

He adds: "What has happened that has helped David [Pleat, the caretaker manager] is that Freddie Kanouté and Robbie Keane are now playing up front together. Unfortunately Glenn never had the opportunity to do that. That is the one side that was really unfortunate. If you can have those two playing together they are as good a partnership as you will see. Robbie is like a magician, that little bit of genius, and Freddie is explosive."

Pleat's three games so far have garnered two victories and three clean sheets. Does it worry Redknapp that the results have been achieved in his absence? "I've seen that before," he says. "It happened a few times when I was younger, and I worried that the team were better without me. But when a caretaker comes in you always hope and expect the results will pick up. David has done well and steadied the ship. We needed that. If I was 21 I would probably take it more to heart not being in the team, but I know how things change so quickly in football." Indeed he does.