Untold Arsenal » Redknapp, Bond, the police, the court case…

I spent a jolly afternoon on Wednesday in London, doing my bit being interviewed for a DVD review of last season, pontificating in front of the cameras on the Lord Wenger and all his doings etc. Of course the great danger is that one can, in the heat of questioning, make a prediction or two, which by release date in August, might look extremely silly. I await with nervous anticipation.

Anyway, having just made the long trek back from London to the Midlands, glorying in the fact that the town near which I live now has its own railway station, I found myself thinking about the strange goings on in the world Mr Redknapp and his mate Kevin Bond.

In September 2006 the BBC made a series of allegations about corruption in football in their highly regarded Panorama programmes. Obviously I have no knowledge about the rights and wrongs of the allegations, and I have to add that everyone accused said that they had done nothing wrong.

Which is where the story stood until today.

Among all the allegations, a certain Harry Redknapp (then of Portsmouth) was said by the programme to be involved in ‘tapping up’ a player – a serious football offence. He denied it. In November 2007 he was arrested by the police. He said it was all about nothing.

Also in the Panorama programme Kevin Bond who at the time of the interview was assistant to ‘Arry said he would consider discussing receiving payments from agents – which would of course be against all the rules, and quite possibly could involve other serious offences.

I bring these people together because as you may know, Redknapp and Bond now work together at Tiny Tottland.

The BBC programme showed film of a conversation in which Bond told a reporter: “I understand what you’re looking for, and certainly myself and Harry would be open to listening to, you know, in order to come to some arrangement, if you like, where whatever we need, we’ll make sure that we call you, and what you really want is that we call you and only you.”

Anyway Bond started legal action against the BBC. The BBC stood its ground, did not apologise, or pay any damages, or back off.

And today it seems Bond has stopped all his actions, just as the case was about to start. He has walked away, presumably not wanting the case to continue, perhaps worrying that he could lose (although obviously I don’t know what really goes on in his head – or that of Redknapp come to that).

But it is strange that both of these people should work at Portsmouth, have BBC allegations made against them, be arrested (in the case of Redknapp) and run up all the costs of getting ready to go to the high court (in the case of Bond), and then…. sort of do nothing.

Funny old game.

Anyway, just to show that not all silly things happen at Tottland,
Newcastle Zebras are descending into chaos with no manager, no direction and a desperation from the owner to just get out of the whole rotten business. In such a scenario there’s no doubt virtually every player will now leave the club including Bassong. But where will he go?

Seems it could be Tottenham or Arsenal. What a choice to have to make! How could he ever decide. The land of Redknapp, Bond, the police and the High Court. Or Arsenal. Well, I wouldn’t know.

And last of all, Portsmouth might not become the richest club in the world after all because Sulaiman Al Fahim doesn’t want to fill in all the fit and proper person forms. In which case they might be in a spot of bother with no buyer.

Oh and Setanta are trying to sell the office furniture to raise money to keep going.

If you have been, thanks for reading.

(c) Tony Attwood 2009. – Oh yes, almost forgot. We just signed Vermaelen for lots of £££.