As recently appointed Southampton manager Harry Redknapp gets ready for a possibly explosive visit from his old club Portsmouth, four former bosses tell their own tales of grudge match horror
Terry Neill
Took over at Arsenal shortly after quitting White Hart Lane in 1976.
December 27th, 1976
Tottenham 2 Arsenal 2
The atmosphere at Tottenham that day was the most hostile I'd experienced. I was spat at, coins were thrown at me, I got all sorts of abuse and people were banging on the back of the dugout.
Perhaps I added to things a bit with my own youthful arrogance because I picked up some of the coins and put them in my pocket. They must have really detested me because there were 50p pieces, not just coppers. It saved on the pocket money.
In those days at Spurs you came out at one end of the pitch and had to walk all the way down to the dugout. To avoid the crowd I went out towards the centre circle and in along the halfway line. Some of the coins still hit me, though thankfully nothing drew blood or needed stitches. It hurt but I was never going to show that. You grin and bear it and stick the money in your pocket.
I knew what to expect. I'd quit Tottenham because I couldn't get on with the board there, not to take the Arsenal job, but I ended up at Highbury a few weeks later. You also have to remember I hadn't been the most popular Tottenham manager because I'd spent 11 years as an Arsenal player.
Understandably, I wasn't the fans' first choice to take over from Bill Nicholson and it was the ultimate test of character because the club were bottom when I arrived. In my first season I tended to get more stick from my own fans than from the opposition.
People would spit at me before and after games - stick one on me in the car park - and I got abusive phone calls. I also had death threats. After I kept the club up I became reasonably well accepted but then leaving and ending up at Arsenal changed everything.
Professionally you detach yourself and get on with the business but there's no denying there's an extra edge.
Before the game I didn't have a walk on the pitch; I didn't want to appear to be stirring it all up. Sometimes away from home you go out and have a look at the surface to make sure players have the right studs, but it definitely wasn't worth it that day.
In later years things got worse. When I signed Pat Jennings from Tottenham it stirred it even more. It wasn't deliberate on my part to keep stirring things up with Tottenham - I was just doing my job as professionally as possible - but soon I had nicked Jennings, Stevie Walford and Willie Young.
It added to the spice. If there's rivalry to an acceptable level, that's great. Above that, you have to feel sorry for people who get so bitter and twisted. They need help.
John Gorman
Assistant to Glenn Hoddle at Southampton 2000-01. Then rejoined Hoddle at Tottenham.
December 26th, 2001
Southampton 1 Tottenham 0
I took it for granted that something was going to happen but it wasn't until we got into the stadium that things really took off. People were doing stuff as we went towards the ground in the bus but that wasn't as bad as I'd expected. In fact I stopped when I got off and signed autographs.It was only when the whole crowd were inside the stadium that people began to chant obscenities.
I had been well liked by the Southampton supporters and they used to clap and cheer me and shake my hand. But when I went back that day I got as much stick as Glenn, and I thought: "They've changed a bit." It was funny but also a bit disappointing because I felt I'd done a good job there and I hadn't asked to leave.
Fans are very fickle like that. It always amazes me when a player gets booed at a club where he gave brilliant service. Dean Richards was with us and though he had been player of the year at Southampton and been loved there he took some stick as well. The fans had a real go at me when I got into an argument with Gordon Strachan on the touchline.
Gordon and I get on famously and we had a laugh about it afterwards, and Glenn was laughing too because he'd been in the stand and there were these two Scotsmen nose to nose in the technical area. I was getting worse abuse than Glenn then because the fans tend to save it for whoever's by the pitch.
I think a lot of it was tongue-in-cheek but you wish people would appreciate what you've done in the past. I nearly went back to work at Southampton with Glenn and I would have loved that because I had so many good times there. I'm sure the same fans who were having a go at me would have been up again shaking my hand.
Brian Little
Took over at Aston Villa in November 1994, three days after resigning from Leicester City
December 3rd, 1994
Leicester City 1 Aston Villa 1
I won't forget my first trip back to Leicester in a hurry. When I got into Filbert Street I think that, of the 20,000 crowd, the majority had "Judas" placards or pieces of paper with "Judas" written on them and they were forever throwing them in my direction.
A lot of people also had a big shout at me. I'd only been at Villa about a week and it was my second game in charge. It certainly wasn't a pleasant day and I think it took another two or three years before I returned to watch a game at Leicester.
Now things are fine; I've been there loads of times and we get on well, but there was a lot of anger back then. I was on edge going back to the club after leaving in very controversial circumstances and I had expected a reaction but the ferocity of it all was a shock.
Things had started at about 8.30 in the morning when I got a call from a friend asking if I'd seen the Sun. There was a big headline - "Little Liar" - which was going to wind up the Leicester fans even more.
I was disappointed someone had set the day up in the media with that story. They had taken a paragraph from a letter I had written to the Leicester board and it was a paragraph that didn't fall in line with the rest of the letter and made it look as if I'd said I wasn't going to go to Villa.
In fact, as was proven later, I'd had permission to talk to Villa. Leicester said they were going to take me to court but the initial procedure was kicked out because they couldn't deny that they'd given me verbal permission to speak to Villa.
I was made to look more of a bad lad than I was, but I also could have handled things better. From the outset the fans and local press asked me whether I wanted to go to Villa and I should have said: "I've got to talk to them. I had 20-odd years there as a kid." But I kept saying: "I'm not sure; we'll see what happens."
I was messing around in that respect and the Leicester fans' reaction was understandable but also difficult to take, especially as during my three years there we took them to three play-off finals and into the Premiership. Later in my first season at Villa, I was 4-1 up against Leicester with 15 minutes to go and they came back to 4-4, so I won a few friends back that day.
Mark McGhee
Left Reading to take over at Leicester in 1994. Moved to Wolves a year later
April 30th, 1996
Reading 3 Wolves 0
Going back to Reading I felt very uncomfortable. Apart from anything else I practically live in the town, because my house is near Reading, and I was anxious.
On my first trip back there I was absolutely vilified. There's still a reaction when I go back these days and, even though it's more muted, that disturbs me.
Reading were bottom of the Second Division when I arrived and near the top of the First Division when I left. Gates rose from 3,000 to 13,000 and they had a team who finished second at the end of the season I went.
If there's one place where I feel there might be justified animosity towards me it's at Leicester, because I left after a year to go to Wolves. But in actual fact the reaction against me was very muted there. That said, when Leicester got into Europe while I was at Wolves there was a campaign from the Leicester fans and I got about 2,000 or 3,000 postcards from Madrid, where they were playing Atletico in a European game. We had a laugh at that.
Going back to Reading for the first time wasn't funny. I don't think the experience unsettled my players but it gave theirs an extra charge. The fans were more vociferous than Reading fans are ever capable of being, simply because I was there. It helped their team.
My initial record against Reading was poor. We continually lost important games to them. I remember one at the old Elm Park with Wolves, when we were going for automatic promotion. It was a few games from the end of the season and that setback cost us. We finished third behind Barnsley.
Me being there was an important factor. I have no doubt that the team Reading had that day weren't good enough to beat us. But given the atmosphere and the hostility towards me, they did.
