Redknapp: Champions League not crux of exit
442 Staff - Thursday 14 June 2012, 13:14
Former Tottenham Hotspur manager Harry Redknapp believes he would have been sacked even if the club had secured a Champions League spot for next season.
Redknapp was dismissed from his role early on Thursday morning after almost four years at the club.
Reports suggest that a failure to reach the elite European competition for a second successive season was the reason for his exit.
Didier Drogba's spot-kick against Bayern Munich sealed Chelsea's spot in the Champions League next season at Spurs' expense after the North London side finished ahead of the Blues in the Premier League.
But the veteran tactician believes he would have been shown the door regardless of the result at the Allianz Arena.
"We finished fourth and we were just unlucky in the end. I still think the same outcome would have come if Chelsea hadn't have won [the Champions League]. That's the feeling I got," Redknapp told BBC Radio 5 Live.
"Even if we had finished fourth [and got Champions League football], the chairman [Daniel Levy] would have gone down the same road he went down yesterday.
"As I say, that's football, I've had four great years here. All you can do is leave the club in better shape than you found it and one thing is I know I've done that, for sure."
And the 65-year-old insisted he is not about to retire, pointing to the example of Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United as he looks for a way back into management.
"I feel great, I don't feel any different, so I'm ready. I love football, that's what keeps me going really," he added.
"I love going in to work with the players every day, that's what I'll miss, but I'm not one for sitting at home to be fair.
"Ferguson is in his 70s, he isn't coming towards the end of his career, he's still the best manager in the world.
"You look at the World Cup and you look at the senior managers there. No I'm not coming to the end - I'm as fit as a fiddle."