Football managers are a strange breed. Many at the top end of the game are foreigners, very few are black, and a disproportionate number are Scottish, despite that nation’s conspicuous lack of football success. Their jobs are usually ephemeral (“sacked in the morning” is widely sung to the tune of “Guantanamera” by opposition fans) yet on the managerial merry-go-round a P45 and a large pay-off is normally swiftly followed by a lucrative new deal. Whereas in the 1960s characters like Alf Ramsey or Ron Greenwood projected the reserved demeanour of a headmaster, managers are now part of the celebrity culture, their every comment or expression scrutinised in the media.Few are really as strange as Harry Redknapp. During his recent tax-evasion court case he pleaded