Sky Sports pundit Paul Merson has revealed he rates former Birmingham City manager Harry Redknapp higher than Arsene Wenger.
The former Gunner played under both managers, at Arsenal and Portsmouth, and is on the opinion that the currently longest-serving Premier League manager can learn a thing or two from Redknapp.
“People say [Redknapp] is a wheeler-dealer, and it’s so disrespectful” he spoke for Sky’s show A League of Their Own, “Tactically, he is one of the best I’ve worked with.
“If Arsene Wenger had Harry Redknapp’s tactical nous, Arsenal would win the league.”
While Merson’s criticism is partly founded on the fact that Arsenal have not won the Premier League since 2004, Wenger still has an edge over his English colleague on games won in the last decade, according to this statistic:
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Merson, who is ranked at No.26 in the Arsenal’s greatest player rankings, continued by insisting his greatest moment as a player was at Pompey rather than the North London club where he spent 12 years.
“Winning the league at Portsmouth.” he said, “We were 33/1 rank outsiders to win the league that year. We won our first game at home and I thought we’d be alright and then to Crystal Palace.
“We were 2-0 down at half-time and it could’ve been 10-0. I thought ‘what have I done coming here – this is going to be embarrassing’
“Harry came in at half-time and took three men off, put three at the back, five in midfield with three rolling attackers and we won 3-2.
“That’s when I knew he was a great manager.”
Redknapp was sacked from Birmingham City earlier in the month as the club has struggled to dislodge itself from the grasp of the relegation zone in the Championship after 11 games.