Harry Redknapp: I spent hours begging Eden Hazard to sign for Tottenham before Chelsea move

QPR manager Harry Redknapp spent four hours in an airport with Eden Hazard when he was still at Lille but the player eventually chose Stamford Bridge 

 
Harry Redknapp has revealed how he spent four hours in a Paris airport hotel trying in vain to persuade Eden Hazard to become his player just a few weeks before he eventually joined Chelsea for £32 million.

Tottenham had identified Hazard as one of their principal transfer targets for the summer transfer window in 2012 and, with the club seemingly heading for the Champions League in place of Chelsea, Redknapp felt that a deal was feasible. “I think he was dead keen to come at that time,” he said of the player who was then with Lille. “Joe Cole said he thought he was the best player he ever played with. He’s a fantastic talent and a great player. We pushed on for him. We just couldn’t get it over the line.”

Redknapp will face Hazard with Queens Park Rangers on Saturday and know that two factors ultimately conspired against him. The first was Tottenham slipping from third to fourth in the Premier League, thus failing to guarantee their place in the Champions League. The second was Chelsea winning the Champions League to take the fourth and final qualification spot from Tottenham, despite finishing sixth in the league. Hazard had been excited by the possibility of playing with Gareth Bale at Tottenham but his mind was made up once Chelsea became European champions.

Redknapp tells the tale to illustrate just how difficult it is to compete for the top players with clubs such as Chelsea and is adamant that keeping QPR in the Premier League this ­season is a tougher challenge than Jose Mourinho winning the title.

“Every year I look at the manager-of-the-year awards and, when I see the people who win it at the big clubs, I think it should be given to a Tony Pulis or a Steve Bruce,” Redknapp said. “It’s too easy to vote for one of the teams that have got everything. Chelsea have got such a strong team – there’s not a weakness there.

“They’ve got power and great ability in a player like Costa. You didn’t have to be a clever man to buy the centre-forward. Anyone that’s got a television and has watched Spanish football knew they were signing the best centre-forward in Europe in Diego Costa. He was the biggest certainty you’ve ever seen. You don’t have to be a genius, you just have to have the 30-odd million he cost.”
Although Redknapp feels that British managers do not get the same opportunities with what he calls the “great teams”, he has no doubts about the pedigree of Mourinho and believes the self-styled ‘Special One’ could go down as the greatest manager in history. “He’s proved that he’s a fantastic manager wherever he has been,” Redknapp said. “He’s going to be in the game for many years to come and he could end up as the greatest manager of all time [but] he is not going to walk into a team in the bottom four or five at the moment and turn them into a top-six team. That’s not going to happen, as clever as he might be – and he is very clever.
“He’s got a charisma and a great knowledge of the game. I couldn’t fault him. He can do what Fergie did at Manchester United. If he wanted to stay at Chelsea for the next 15 years he could do it. He’s only going to be successful there.”