Redknapp Let Fan Play For West Ham

Filed in archive Oddballs on November 24, 2006

This is weird. But also kind of brilliant. Apparently when Portsmouth boss 'Arry Redknapp was assistant manager West Ham in 1994 (where he later blooded half the current England team I might add) he let a fan who was heckling his players pull on a shirt and play for the Hammers in a pre-season friendly. Seriously. Read this:

"Lee Chapman was playing for us at the time," recounts Redknapp. "All through the first half some tattooed skinhead behind me was giving Lee terrible stick. At half-time I turned to this bloke who had West Ham etched on his neck and asked 'Can you play as good as you talk?' He looked totally confused. So I told him he was going to get his dream to play for West Ham. We sent him down the tunnel and he reappeared 10 minutes later all done out in the strip. He ran on to the pitch and a journalist from the local Oxford paper sidled up and asked 'Who's that Harry?' I said 'What? Haven't you been watching the World Cup? That's the great Bulgarian Tittyshev!' The fella wasn't bad - actually, he scored!" The fella in question was a 27-year-old called Steve Davies who had given up park football six years earlier.

Fantastic! I might make a trip down to Portsmouth sometime after Christmas, work on some good heckles, and have my boots handy just in case.