Jamie Redknapp has told the latest issue about the first time he went to watch Everton play - during his time as a Liverpool player.
Redknapp joined Liverpool aged 17 from Bournemouth in 1991 but soon found out that he wasn't welcome at Goodison Park - despite the Reds and the Toffees having a so-called friendly rivalry.
“When I was a Bournemouth player, I’d gone to see Southampton without any issues,” explains in the February issue of FourFourTwo, available in shops and online now. “So, I thought as a young Liverpool player I could go and see Everton, too. Big mistake!
“I wore a baseball cap and hoped no one would spot me in the Goodison Road stand, but after 10 minutes I was hit on the head with a meat pie and someone yelled, 'F**k off Redknapp.'”
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“To be honest, it was a fantastic shot – what precision, right on the side of the head! I got hit by another pie a few minutes later, so just had to sit there drenched in gravy and meat. We left at half-time.”
Redknapp later captained Liverpool but as a teenager joining one of the biggest sides in the country, he says that his experiences were scary initially.
“The first time I got on the team bus to go to training, all the players blanked me – cold stares from Alan Hansen, Ronnie Whelan and Steve McMahon,” he says. “No one offered me a seat, but I realised what was happening – you had to earn their respect. As the kid, you can’t say, ‘Oh f**k off, let me sit down’.”
“I was dying inside, but you had to put on a brave face and show you deserved to be there. You had to fight your corner. John Barnes rescued me on that coach.”
The new issue of FourFourTwo is out now and available to buy online.
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