Portsmouth chief Peter Storrie has revealed Harry Redknapp almost turned his back on the Tottenham job on Saturday night.

Storrie said: "It wasn't the greatest position for the club to be put in. It was 9.30 to 10 o'clock on Saturday night when I had to ring Joe Jordan and Tony Adams to say Harry's gone.

"I understand Harry's ambition. He wanted to manage a big club.

"In an ideal world we didn't want him to go at all and secondly we would have preferred him to run the game. But that wasn't an option that was given to us.

"Even after compensation was agreed Harry changed his mind several times. We tried really hard but it was his choice."