EPL: Redknapp resigns as QPR manager, set for knee surgery

The creaking sound heard by Harry Redknapp this week was not his rickety knees but the closing of a rusty, underwhelming transfer window. Redknapp's struggling Queens Park Rangers failed to strengthen, the owner Tony Fernandes signalled no more cheque-book panacea and six hours later Redknapp was on the phone to resign, citing the need for surgery. Nurse, the smoke-screens.
Redknapp has suffered this knee complaint for some time, and it is undoubtedly a significant concern because he has been unable to walk his beloved bulldogs on Studland beach, Poole. Yet anyone with even the slightest acquaintance with the engaging 67-year-old will know that he is of the old school, of the type who shrug off pain. Redknapp has endured far more life-threatening trauma and battled on. The knee excuse does not ring true.
It is strange to depict Redknapp as surrendering so suddenly the fight against relegation. Maybe he was simply frustrated that the failure to recruit a striker meant QPR's hopes of survival looked even bleaker.
Maybe he was particularly hurt by Fernandes' pointed deadline-day tweet of "no more cheque book. We have good players. Bought all the players manager asked for in summer". That hinted at a lack of faith from his main employer.
Redknapp always appreciated the scale of the task in hand. "We knew when we came up we were going to be in a scrap," he said when recently discussing his employment prospects. This looks the end to a managerial career that began in 1983 at Bournemouth. Redknapp is an experienced, popular manager rightly respected for producing attractive teams down the years but there has been a sense of drift at Loftus Road this season. He has always talked enthusiastically about the job but in his words could also be detected a feeling of weariness, of a season too far.
"It could be any time," Redknapp said a fortnight ago of whether he must just walk away one day. He believed there was a mole inside Loftus Road, spreading damaging words about his capabilities. The retirement of his friend, Sir Alex Ferguson, made him even more aware of time's passing. His knees hurt. Players like Shaun Wright-Phillips grumbled.