By HARRY REDKNAPP
THE NEXT three weeks are going to be hell for some managers.
The January transfer window means a load of earache from hours spent on the phone.
Then there’s the stress while desperately trying to get in some players in the hope of transforming your season and possibly saving your job.
Over the years I’ve had some pretty crazy times in January. The phone is ringing all the time. When I’m out having dinner with my wife Sandra it rings and the thing is you have to take the call.
You can’t switch the phone off in case you miss out on a deal or because you are closing in on one.
You are taking a gamble when you sign players in this way and it’s usually the struggling clubs that are forced to be most active in January.
But you can pick up the odd gem and when I think about the New Year window, a couple of names spring to mind — Andres D’Alessandro and Benjani.
D’Alessandro was a tiny Argentinian attacking midfielder. I’d first seen him play when I was manager at West Ham in an England Under-20 match at Craven Cottage.
He was up against Frank Lampard and Rio Ferdinand that night and was the best player on the pitch. He really caught my eye.
I tried to sign him then and got him for a week to train with us at West Ham. But he cost £5million and we couldn’t afford him.
A year or so later I was boss at Portsmouth and we were struggling in January.
I thought about D’Alessandro again but Portsmouth had less money than West Ham!
I brought in three players from Tottenham: Pedro Mendes, Sean Davis and Noe Pamarot. It was a three-for-the-price-of-one deal, actually more like one of Daniel Levy’s one-for-the-price-of-three deals.
How I got D’Alessandro I’ll never know and I have a lot of people to thank for it.
He was at Wolfsburg and no way could we afford to buy him, but the agent Barry McIntosh managed to fix up a loan.
Barry didn’t get paid, we didn’t have to pay a loan fee either. It was an amazing deal.
He turned up for training — all 5ft 7in of him — with bow legs and his feet pointing in the ‘10 to 2’ position. He was 9st dripping wet and Joe Jordan just looked at him and exclaimed: “Harry, we’re playing Bolton next. This kid will get killed.”
Joe had a point but I had faith. Andres went out and played really well.
He got better and better. He scored an amazing goal at Charlton and was a huge factor in us staying up that year.
As was Benjani. I brought him in as a big, powerful striker. He then went 14 games without scoring a goal!
But the fans loved him and I’ve never seen anyone work so hard in my life.
He finally scored his first goal for us at Wigan — in the game that kept us up.
Talk about drama. I will never forget that six months. We took 21 points from the last 10 games. And we eventually sold Benjani to Manchester City for £9.5million.
Most managers know who they want before the window opens, but you get an awful lot of rubbish thrown at you.
But every time that phone goes you have to answer it.
This month will have come and gone before I realise because I’ll on the blower every second.
