Big fan: Harry Redknapp tried to sign him at Spurs

'If the clubs are not going to play it's no good having somebody who is going to be the new (Andrea) Pirlo and that kid goes to a club where they are lumping the ball from back to front 60 yards.

'Unless they are going to play through these people and they are going to encourage more
and more teams to play football then we are always going to have that problem.'

Redknapp, Betfair's football ambassador for Euro 2012, also expressed surprise that David
Beckham has not been selected for the Great Britain team for the Olympics.

'I have to say that I would have picked him,' he said.

'David has been a fantastic servant to all his clubs and a tremendous ambassador for football.

'He trained with Tottenham in January 2011 and we looked at signing him on loan when the American season ended. Putting him in the Olympics squad would not have hurt.

'Fair play to Stuart. He's always been his own man, which is what you have to be if you want to make it as a top manager. It's up to him to select the best squad at his disposal, that's what he believes he'll do.'

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