Harry Redknapp - king of the jungle!

Have to say I went off our former manager in the years after he left us.

Don't get me wrong, he mostly did a great job - we played some great football, we reached a Wembley final and an FA Cup semi, we got 4th for the first time and we had that wonderful Champions League run in 2010-11 - but his contradictory opinions, open touting of other jobs and rent-a-quote ways started to become very tiresome.

We rather crumbled from a position of strength in 2010-11 and 2011-12, with two terrible ends to the season - and, despite supporting him through his court case, he was publicly seeking both the Chelsea and England jobs while seeming to take his eye off the ball in the league and cups. Then, when Hodgson was given the England job and the Chelsea speculation came to nothing, he demanded that Levy give him a new contract and full backing in the transfer window.

I still maintain that Levy was right to dismiss him, and I think he'd taken us as far as he could. Finishes of 4th, 5th and 4th again were terrific - and some of the fare served up by Modric, VDV, Bale, Lennon, Krancjar, Ade, etc, was sublime to watch - but I don't think he'd have taken us to the next stage (of being genuine, genuine challengers) as Poch has done. He also inherited a very good squad, although he got the absolute best out of them for the most part.

Since leaving, I haven't really thought much of him as a pundit (though he's far from the worst about) and I've always thought he's received too much credit from his media pals given his managerial record is mixed at best. Times of great success (with us, Bournemouth, Portsmouth and West Ham), but also far less successful stints at Southampton, QPR and Birmingham. A good manager, but never a great one - which was what the media seemed to portray him as sometimes.

Anyway, to get to the point of the article, I've warmed to him a lot in the episodes of I'm a Celeb I've seen so far. He seems like a thoroughly decent chap and a great raconteur. Despite myself, I've found myself smiling and laughing quite a bit whenever he's on screen.

For most of his time in charge, I was actually a big supporter of his - and stood up for his record when others questioned it - but I felt the manner in which he handled himself in the last year soured things a bit.

Seeing him in the jungle, my opinion of him has changed somewhat. Still behind Poch and BMJ in my list of favourite Spurs managers, but he provided us with some great moments in his three and a bit years in charge. The 1-0 over City to clinch 4th, the wins over Arsenal and Chelsea in the run-in of that season, the 3-1 win over Inter, the 1-0 win against AC Milan at the San Siro, the long winning run in the 2011-12 season, the 3-2 win at Old Trafford, the 4-0 against Liverpool, the 4-4 at the Emirates, the 9-1 win over Wigan and the 2-1 win at Anfield courtesy of a Modric pen and a VDV thunderbolt.

Harry for King of the Jungle!