Quite possibly the most boring man in football, Redknapp was never first choice (or even 101 choice) for the Toon job by Newcastle supporters.
He has taken Portsmouth to the FA Cup final, and good luck to him. Give him his hour of glory ... because we get the feeling it is down hill for him from now on.
Pompey fans are cheering now, but some remember how he jumped ship to join bitter rivals Southampton because "they are a bigger club".
That is like KK joining the Mackems ... UNTHINKABLE!
Redknapp: "It was nice to be wanted by a club like Newcastle.
"On the one hand, people said take on the challenge to prove I could do it with a big club.
"But on the other, I've brought good players in here at Portsmouth and wanted to stay loyal to them. I'm delighted that I did.
"It's another great day for me and the club, especially the fans.
"I came back to a terrible team after leaving a really good one behind a year earlier. We did really well to stay up.
"At first I wondered what I'd done. As soon as I got back, the captain at the time, Dejan Stefanovic, told me I'd got the worst team here he had ever seen.
"He said 'you must me mad' - and after the first morning's training I realised he was right.
"There were a few good lads still there - Dejan, Gary O'Neil, Richard Hughes but they had got rid of the ones I had like Patrick Berger, Yakubu and so on.
"They had gone out and bought a load of oddmarks in from everywhere around in the world. I'm not blaming (then manager) Alain Perrin because I don't think it was his fault but, quite rightly, we were bottom of the league, looking dead and buried.
"Somehow we got out of it after going to Wigan and winning in the last game but one. But what a day.
"People said to me I must be nervous before my first FA Cup semi-final but, believe me, it is nothing compared to that day at Wigan where I knew we had to win to stay up or else everybody would slaughter me.
"If we had gone down I knew I was in big trouble because I can't say truthfully that everybody welcomed me back.
"At first there were banners up saying 'Judas', nice things like that.
"But in the end you have just got to stay true to yourself and I've got time for everybody. I'd rather do somebody a good turn than a bad turn, that's for sure.
"I got a letter last week from a fan who wrote saying he'd been with his wife to every round in the cup, been to Ipswich, been to Preston but couldn't get tickets for the semi-final. He'd tried for his life.
"So I took it on face value, rang him up, not knowing it was April Fool's Day and left a message on his answerphone saying 'Hello Geoff, it's Harry Redknapp, I've got you two tickets and would ring back'.
"Of course, when I did he couldn't believe it. He said he'd had a big ruck with his mates who said somebody was playing a joke. But I was delighted to get him the tickets.
"My wife Sandra said what other Premier League manager would do that, but that's how I am."