Harry salutes Adams influence April 06 2008
Harry Redknapp handed a large share of the credit for Portsmouth's outstanding season to his assistant Tony Adams and wants to see the former Arsenal ace given the top job at Fratton Park - one day.
Pompey, sixth in the Premier League, scraped a 1-0 FA Cup semi-final victory over West Brom at Wembley through Kanu's goal 10 minutes after half time, plus a solid defence.
And the 61-year-old boss admitted: "A lot of what we've achieved is down to Tony and our first-team coach Joe Jordan. They deserve a lot of credit.
"I love having Tony with me. What a player he was, what a captain. The nearest thing I've seen to him as a captain is Martin Johnson, who has just got the England rugby job.
"I'd love Tony to be manager of this club when my time is up - one day. There's no problem there and I'm not worried about him taking it. And Joe's done brilliantly, you would never get anybody more staunch.
"So I'm lucky to be have two such smashing guys."
Although Adams, who was recruited by Redknapp at the start of last season and persuaded to extend his contract this term, tackles all facets of coaching with the squad, he was obviously a master of the defensive art for England and Arsenal.
Pompey's progress to the final has not been pretty but they have conceded just one goal in the cup and kept 20 clean sheets in total this season with the resilience of centre-backs Sol Campbell and Sylvain Dustin, plus the enduring brilliance of veteran goalkeeper David James.
Redknapp, who signed a new three-year contract last August, loves sticking to the principles of good passing he learned at West Ham but Pompey have been tighter by far since the arrival of Adams, the inspiration of Arsenal's old 1-0 generation.
His spell in charge at Wycombe Wanderers was unsuccessful but he studied coaching abroad in Holland for a spell and wants to complete a good grounding before going into management again, higher up the ladder this time.