Under normal circumstances, the publication of Harry Redknapp's autobiography would not cause much of a ripple in the waters round these parts, given our general lack of interest in Tottenham Hotspur, tax evasion, or talent for getting a club relegated. The book is clearly on the path to make the Nobel Prize in Literature shortlist, but prior to that it's being serialized in the Daily Mail, a periodical of note.
The one point of interest for Liverpool fans is the alternate universe scenario laid out by Redknapp in which he, and not Roy Hodgson, secured the manager of England position. In Redknapp's Bizarro England, his choice of deputy would have made a huge difference to Liverpool's current management situation as he states Brendan Rodgers would have been the man for the job.
"If I had become the England manager I would have taken Brendan Rodgers as my No 2," Redknapp's ghostwriter said. "He had players at Swansea passing it like Franz Beckenbauer. You know how his teams are going to play before you kick off. They are going to pass, they are going to take risks; but England do not have that identity.
"Look at Brendan at Liverpool now — he still knows how he wants to play. He got rid of Andy Carroll because he wasn’t in that plan. That is how Spain operate: this is how we play and we don’t compromise. My thinking on Brendan was this: if he can do it with players from the lower leagues at Swansea what can he do with Rio and Terry or Rooney and Gerrard?"
Redknapp says he approached Rodgers about the potential to deputize England at Euro after a Tottenham home match against Swansea in spring 2012, two months before Rodgers was announced as Liverpool's new manager. Rodgers was "up for it" but of course Redknapp's fellow countryman Roy Hodgson got the job and the rest, as they say, is history.
We'll never find out what Rodgers could have done with Rooney and Gerrard — or whether or not he was the man to find a positive answer to the eternal question of whether or not Stevie and Frank Lampard can play together. Of course, this will be no loss to Liverpool fans who prize club above country, and for those more interested in seeing what Rodgers can do with Gerrard and the Welsh Beckenbauer.