The Tottenham Hotspur manager was expected to take over England, with bosses of Everton and Swansea City strongly linked with his job. Aston Villa, Chelsea and Liverpool may yet have their say too.
The FA’s decision to select Roy Hodgson as England boss made perfectly logical sense, yet it still came as a shock to many.
Among those shocked not to be even approached were Harry Redknapp himself and his club chairman Daniel Levy, who would have negotiated his departure.
Redknapp’s appointment appeared such a done deal at one stage that it is a certainty that Levy will have spent time drawing up a shortlist of potential successors.
High on that list will have been both Everton’s David Moyes, and Swansea City’s Brendan Rodgers.
Both have had hugely successful seasons, and would surely flourish in with Tottenham’s environment and comparable resources, if they had been willing to take the gamble.
Had either Moyes or Rodgers gone to Tottenham, it would have opened up a vacancy at their clubs, to be filled by… Roberto Martinez? The Spaniard has close ties with Swansea and would have been an ideal candidate, and his experience of getting the best out of limited squad’s is comparable to Moyes’ Everton success.
Then of course…a vacancy at Wigan emerges… and you get the pattern.
Forget all of that now, Redknapp is staying put. Has the managerial merry-go-round halted? It certainly seems like it.
When a job as big as Tottenham – a top six side – becomes available, it naturally has a domino effect on the rest of the market. With Hodgson leaving the West Brom job open, it will not have the same impact, although perhaps a similar one on a smaller scale.
The latest man linked with West Brom is Claudio Ranieri, who would certainly be an interesting appointment, an ambitious one which the club will hope does not backfire.
Other than that, which jobs will be up for grabs this summer in the Premier League?
Both Moyes and Rodgers are staying put, only a huge job could persuade them to leave the comfortable surroundings they have created, and both still will feel there is much to do.
One job stands out as ‘unsafe’ and that is Aston Villa, with Alex McLeish the subject of more fan protests this weekend.
Fans are highly unhappy at the team’s style of football and are staying away in droves. Randy Lerner will have to act, and even if he survives this summer we bet he will be gone by Christmas, as the fans will be ready to turn the second next season’s results don’t go their way.
Roberto Martinez turned down that job last summer, would he reconsider this time around? He is well loved at Wigan, but there is increasingly a feeling that he needs a new challenge and now is the best time to seek to move on while his stock is high.
Apart from that around the Premier League, there are two further jobs with question marks hanging over them.
Who will manage Chelsea next year? The logical, and surely only choice is Roberto di Matteo, but Roman Abramovich has never been the easiest owner to read. What di Matteo’s FA Cup success has done, is elevate the standard of required candidate to replace him.
A Rodgers or a Moyes would not be welcomed by the fans as a step up; only a Guardiola or a Mourinho would be, or a man able to re-invent a whole club’s philosophy, like Bilbao’s Marcelo Bielsa.
Di Matteo’s sudden availability would set the cat among the pigeons, but he may decide not to rush into anything new, and it remains more likely day by day that Chelsea decide to stick with him.
The biggest question mark of all remains over Kenny Dalglish at Liverpool. It seems right now that he will be given one more season to improve league results, but there has been no public backing since the FA Cup Final defeat.
If he would leave, it would throw open a gauntlet to potential successors, Martinez, Lambert, two ambitious but unproven candidates, but one man really stands out. A Liverpool legend who still adores the club and wants a ‘big job’ – Rafa Benitez.
How much movement do you expect there to be with managers this summer? Is Redknapp staying for good? Will Dalglish stay?
image: © ell brown
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