It's not impossible to make the switch between the two South coast rivals and enjoy popularity with your new club (just look at Peter Crouch), but a man who described Portsmouth as his "spiritual home" would have had to be enormously brilliant as boss of Southampton to wash away that stain on his reputation in the eyes of the Saints fans. It's fair to say that Redknapp, who retains a surprisingly high reputation outside of Southampton (in spite of continued failure to impress with the enormous spending power of QPR), was not brilliant at Southampton, not by a long shot. Appointing the manager of the only team the previous boss could beat may not have seemed like a brilliant idea for Southampton, but after Sturrock and Wigley they probably just wanted someone with experience of a Premier League relegation battle. Redknapp, however, compounded the club's low position by failing to win any of his first seven games in charge. In fact, he only won 4 of 22 Premier League games, including a humiliating 4-1 defeat away to his former employers, despite bringing in five new players during the transfer window. Southampton could still have survived by winning the final game of the season, but Redknapp's team lost and he became the manager to get the team relegated after 27 years in the top flight and the next season did not begin any better. Even despite the emergence of Walcott from the club's academy, a handful of early wins led to draw after draw and a position in the lower half of the Championship. In 21 games in the Championship Redknapp only managed 5 wins and, when a vacancy came up at his preferred Portsmouth, he was only too happy to leave with Saints fans equally happy to see him go.
