Harry Redknapp couldn’t get enough of Peter Crouch and Jermain Defoe during his time at Tottenham and Portsmouth. But which one did he prefer?
The English manager made a huge splash throughout his time in the Premier League, guiding ‘Pompey’ to an iconic FA Cup victory and Spurs to the Champions League. And the recipe behind his success featured one of the most iconic duos in English history. With Defoe’s blistering pace and Crouch’s aerial ability, even the most solid of defenders struggled to solve the puzzle in front of them.
Reminiscing on Reece Mennie’s podcast, the 75-year-old said: “They were both great. Little and large, they were perfect! What a pair. Hit Crouchy, drop it down, Defoe smack it in the back of the net. Quite simple, really! Ain’t rocket science! When you get the , ball lads, hit Crouchy on the diagonal, he’ll knock it down, and Defoe gets around him and smacks it in the back of the net. Quite simple!”
But what happened when the notorious manager was asked to pick between his star men?
Harry Redknapp choose between Peter Crouch and Jermain Defoe
When put on the spot, the former gaffer gave a very interesting response. Rather than give an outright answer, he went off on a tangent about how experts doubted Defoe because of his size.
Redknapp replied: “Ahh difficult. Jermain was a brilliant goalscorer, great finisher. I signed Jermain as a schoolboy. When he finished school I , took him to West Ham, loaned him out to Bournemouth.
“Mel Machin, the Bournemouth manager rang me, ‘We’re bottom of the league, we’re struggling Harry, we’re going to get relegated. You haven’t got anybody have you? We need a striker, but we’re struggling for money.”
He continued: “I said ‘I’ve got a kid here you can have on loan’ and he asked how old he was, so I said 17. He said ‘Harry, you know this league a men’s league. How big is he?’ – I said about 5’6. ‘Oh leave off, Harry!’
So I said tell you what I’ll do – I’ll send him down, don’t loan him, but let him train with you for a week for a bit of experience and have a look at him and tell me what you think.
Next day he rang me about 2 o’clock in the afternoon; ‘Harry, can we loan him for the season? We had a practice match this morning, and he scored 5 goals!'”
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