Harry Redknapp has revealed how close he came to leaving Queens Park Rangers and retiring from football management last season.
The 67 year old took over at Loftus Road in 2012 but could not prevent the west London club being relegated from the Premier League.
Although they were favourites to seal an immediate return, poor form around Christmas saw Redknapp’s side having to negotiate the play-offs to gain promotion.
Read more: Harry Redknapp vows not to repeat errors at Queens Park Rangers
And it was during the play-off final win over Derby when Redknapp started to face the prospect of walking away – only for Bobby Zamora to score a last-gasp winner.
“If we hadn’t gone up this year I would have turned it in,” he acknowledged.
“I would have definitely packed up. I wouldn’t have gone back and done another year in the Championship, it didn’t appeal to me any more.
“If we had got beat I would have turned it in, definitely.
“With 10 minutes to go I was thinking ‘what golf club should I join this year – should I play here or there?’ and then suddenly Bobby ruined it all.”
Zamora’s strike secured a top-flight return and Redknapp is glad to still be at the helm as he looks to help QPR flourish in the Premier League this time around – with a troublesome knee also no longer causing him problems.
“Now I am excited again,” he said. “To go to Anfield and Old Trafford is fantastic, I am so lucky to be able to do that.
“I wouldn’t have missed the Championship. I didn’t fancy it. I would have said ‘let somebody else have a go for a year’ because I like the people here – I like the chairman, I genuinely look forward to seeing him.
“My leg is a lot better. I was struggling last year. I didn’t need an operation in the end, I just got on the bike and strengthened it.
“I thought I would be out for three months with an operation, but the Premier League is exciting and I am looking forward to it.”
With former England and Manchester United captain Rio Ferdinand the only new recruit so far, Redknapp will be wanting to add more to his squad before the season opener at home to Hull City on August 16.
“We’ll get them in, we know that,” he said.
“I’m not making it up. A couple of boys are training with us who are not with us and we have Adel (Taarabt), who looks like he’s going to go.
“I’ve got a couple of kids playing with us to make up the numbers. We’ve got around 12, with a couple to come back. We’ll be a maximum of 13 or 14.”
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Another way to earn air miles
In addition to the Emirates and Etihad programmes, there is the Air Miles Middle East card, which offers members the ability to choose any airline, has no black-out dates and no restrictions on seat availability. Air Miles is linked up to HSBC credit cards and can also be earned through retail partners such as Spinneys, Sharaf DG and The Toy Store.
An Emirates Dubai-London round-trip ticket costs 180,000 miles on the Air Miles website. But customers earn these ‘miles’ at a much faster rate than airline miles. Adidas offers two air miles per Dh1 spent. Air Miles has partnerships with websites as well, so booking.com and agoda.com offer three miles per Dh1 spent.
“If you use your HSBC credit card when shopping at our partners, you are able to earn Air Miles twice which will mean you can get that flight reward faster and for less spend,” says Paul Lacey, the managing director for Europe, Middle East and India for Aimia, which owns and operates Air Miles Middle East.
The Bio
Name: Lynn Davison
Profession: History teacher at Al Yasmina Academy, Abu Dhabi
Children: She has one son, Casey, 28
Hometown: Pontefract, West Yorkshire in the UK
Favourite book: The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
Favourite Author: CJ Sansom
Favourite holiday destination: Bali
Favourite food: A Sunday roast
Tuesday's fixtures
Kyrgyzstan v Qatar, 5.45pm
Formula Middle East Calendar (Formula Regional and Formula 4)
Round 1: January 17-19, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 2: January 22-23, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 3: February 7-9, Dubai Autodrome – Dubai
Round 4: February 14-16, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 5: February 25-27, Jeddah Corniche Circuit – Saudi Arabia
The specs
Engine: Four electric motors, one at each wheel
Power: 579hp
Torque: 859Nm
Transmission: Single-speed automatic
Price: From Dh825,900
On sale: Now
The specs
Engine: 3.0-litre six-cylinder turbo
Power: 398hp from 5,250rpm
Torque: 580Nm at 1,900-4,800rpm
Transmission: Eight-speed auto
Fuel economy, combined: 6.5L/100km
On sale: December
Price: From Dh330,000 (estimate)
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Election pledges on migration
CDU: "Now is the time to control the German borders and enforce strict border rejections"
SPD: "Border closures and blanket rejections at internal borders contradict the spirit of a common area of freedom"
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TOURNAMENT INFO
Women’s World Twenty20 Qualifier
Jul 3- 14, in the Netherlands
The top two teams will qualify to play at the World T20 in the West Indies in November
UAE squad
Humaira Tasneem (captain), Chamani Seneviratne, Subha Srinivasan, Neha Sharma, Kavisha Kumari, Judit Cleetus, Chaya Mughal, Roopa Nagraj, Heena Hotchandani, Namita D’Souza, Ishani Senevirathne, Esha Oza, Nisha Ali, Udeni Kuruppuarachchi
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AUSTRALIA SQUAD
Aaron Finch (captain), Ashton Agar, Alex Carey, Pat Cummins, Glenn Maxwell, Ben McDermott, Kane Richardson, Steve Smith, Billy Stanlake, Mitchell Starc, Ashton Turner, Andrew Tye, David Warner, Adam Zampa
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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UAE v Gibraltar
What: International friendly
When: 7pm kick off
Where: Rugby Park, Dubai Sports City
Admission: Free
Online: The match will be broadcast live on Dubai Exiles’ Facebook page
UAE squad: Lucas Waddington (Dubai Exiles), Gio Fourie (Exiles), Craig Nutt (Abu Dhabi Harlequins), Phil Brady (Harlequins), Daniel Perry (Dubai Hurricanes), Esekaia Dranibota (Harlequins), Matt Mills (Exiles), Jaen Botes (Exiles), Kristian Stinson (Exiles), Murray Reason (Abu Dhabi Saracens), Dave Knight (Hurricanes), Ross Samson (Jebel Ali Dragons), DuRandt Gerber (Exiles), Saki Naisau (Dragons), Andrew Powell (Hurricanes), Emosi Vacanau (Harlequins), Niko Volavola (Dragons), Matt Richards (Dragons), Luke Stevenson (Harlequins), Josh Ives (Dubai Sports City Eagles), Sean Stevens (Saracens), Thinus Steyn (Exiles)
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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The Bio
Favourite vegetable: “I really like the taste of the beetroot, the potatoes and the eggplant we are producing.”
Holiday destination: “I like Paris very much, it’s a city very close to my heart.”
Book: “Das Kapital, by Karl Marx. I am not a communist, but there are a lot of lessons for the capitalist system, if you let it get out of control, and humanity.”
Musician: “I like very much Fairuz, the Lebanese singer, and the other is Umm Kulthum. Fairuz is for listening to in the morning, Umm Kulthum for the night.”
A State of Passion
Directors: Carol Mansour and Muna Khalidi
Stars: Dr Ghassan Abu-Sittah
Rating: 4/5
Company Profile
Company name: OneOrder
Started: October 2021
Founders: Tamer Amer and Karim Maurice
Based: Cairo, Egypt
Industry: technology, logistics
Investors: A15 and self-funded
