QPR boss Harry Redknapp admits he needed the summer off after a hectic six months earlier this year.

Redknapp was fighting for his very freedom in a tax evasion trial which ultimately saw him cleared.

The footballing disappointments which followed - being snubbed for the England job and sacked by Tottenham - simply compounded what had been an emotionally exhausting first half of 2012 for the 65-year-old.

Asked if it had been the craziest year of his life, he said: "Yeah, oh yeah. Certainly. The whole thing was a bit bizarre, wasn't it?

"I probably needed a break. Maybe it wasn't the worst thing that could have happened to me."