Portsmouth chief Peter Storrie admits the club is reeling after Harry Redknapp's defection to Tottenham.

Storrie, a personal friend of Redknapp for 14 years - they were together at West Ham - denied they let the manager of their FA Cup-winning team go so Pompey could collect a £5million-plus compensation payment to ease a financial crisis at Fratton Park.

He said: "I think we should make it abundantly clear that this is something that was forced upon us. It has not come about by Portsmouth Football Club.

"It is something we have had to react to and that is the situation.

"All this is still a shock. Harry will certainly be a tough act to follow and I accept that many players who have signed for us have signed because of him - but that is also true at some other clubs.

"After we had Tottenham's offer we spoke long and hard with Harry and we were still very hopeful right up to the end that he would stay.

"He kept changing his mind - and that was pretty much the case when Newcastle wanted him earlier this year.

"But having known Harry so long I always knew he wanted to manage a top club - a club with a big stadium and fantastic history.

"But no way have we done this to get a transfer fee. It was Harry's choice and Harry's alone.

"There have been a lot of comments about what Spurs are paying us but it is all down in stone in Premier League rules that it must be a fixed sum or whatever is left of a manager's contract.

"Some fans, it seems, are critical of Harry going but what I think they should remember is what a great job he has done here.

"When he came back from Southampton (in December 2005) he had to endure a lot of comments but we had a squad that was virtually condemned to relegation and somehow he kept us up.

"Since then he's established us in the top 10 and last season we won the FA Cup."