Harry Redknapp has said that Paolo Di Canio was the most difficult player he managed, but told a brilliant anecdote about him at West Ham on talkSPORT on Friday.
Talking on the Alan Brazil Sports Breakfast Show (Fri, 9.30am), Redknapp revealed what really went on behind the scenes after Di Canio caught the ball rather than scoring against Everton in that infamous game back in 2000.
The Everton keeper Paul Gerrard was down injured when the ball came across but, instead of putting it into the empty net in the 90th minute with the score poised at 1-1, Di Canio caught it so the stricken keeper could get immediate treatment.
Talking at the time, Redknapp said, “It was sportsmanship of the highest merit. Paolo thought the goalkeeper might have a broken leg and refused to take advantage.”
However, there was more to the story.
“Di Canio, he was hard work,” Redknapp said when he was asked who was the most difficult player he had managed.
“A character but a real problem. There was that game when he catches the ball at the end rather than putting it in the net.
“I came off at the end fuming saying ‘What has he done?’ Stuart Pearce came storming in and said ‘Don’t let me anywhere near him’.
“Then I had to go and do an interview live on Sky Sports afterwards. They said how amazing it was. I though, well it wasn’t that good a game.
“They asked if it was the most sporting thing I’d ever seen and I had to say, ‘Oh yeah, it was brilliant.’ I wanted to kill him.
OPINION
This was redemption for Di Canio after his career had taken a huge hit after he pushed referee Paul Alcock over while he was playing for Sheffield Wednesday. And, at the time, Redknapp’s public face was full of praise for his attacker, while simultaneously wondering whether others teams would do the same for West ham. Unfortunately, this didn’t mark a sea change in sporting attitudes in the game, which is possibly worse than it’s ever been at the moment. Hilariously, though, both Redknapp and Pearce wanted to kill Di Canio for not putting the ball in the net and winning the game. Pearce against Di Canio would have made for a very interesting confrontation, although we can’t imagine Pearce coming off worse to anyone back then.