If he did make a dramatic return to the club, Redknapp – who this week was named as a contestant on ITV reality show ‘I’m A Celebrity… South Africa’ – would be by far the oldest manager to take charge of a Premier League club.
Aged 79 years and 12 days, Redknapp is two and a half years older than current record holder Roy Hodgson was when he left Crystal Palace in February 2024.
Redknapp is currently 10th on the list of oldest Premier League bosses, having left his last top-flight role with QPR in 2015 – a month before his 68th birthday.
He would not be the only big name to make a surprise return to management this season.
Ex-Leicester, Aston Villa, Sunderland and Nottingham Forest manager Martin O’Neill, 74, is currently in his second interim spell in charge of Celtic, while Neil Warnock, 77, was recently named caretaker boss at National League South side Torquay United.
Speaking to Radio 5 Live, former Premier League goalkeeper Rob Green said Redknapp’s return to Spurs would be even more “left-field” than O’Neill’s appointment at Celtic Park.
“I think it is even further for Spurs, but that is the sort of expertise in man management [they need],” he said. “It is a different kind of manager than the coaches we have now.
“The players have to have a charismatic leader to go in and lift the place, and certainly make them feel better about themselves.
“[Redknapp] is a manager that knows the club well. He certainly has a skill at getting the best out of people and people feeling good about themselves on the pitch.
“But for now, I just don’t see someone who has been out of the game in the country for as long as he has [coming back into management].
Earlier this season, Tottenham’s Micky van de Ven and Djed Spence were widely criticised for refusing to shake former manager Frank’s hand following a limp home defeat to Chelsea – behaviour which former Tottenham goalkeeper Brad Friedel says Redknapp would not condone.
“Can you imagine a player not shaking his hand after a game?” Friedel told the BBC’s Sportsworld. “That player wouldn’t be in the squad for the next game.
“When they fired Thomas Frank, I was one of the people that said to get someone like Harry – very similar to what Celtic did [with O’Neill] after [sacking] Wilfried Nancy.
“Harry would have gone in and said the right things.”
