The story of Norwich City pinching all of the best players from Bournemouth during a period of the seventies is well known. Certainly at no time in history has a Canaries manager returned to his old club for such high scale pillaging as John Bond did at the time. In fact, the issue became so serious that in the end, the FA banned Norwich from signing any more players from Dean Court. Many of those that did make the move to Carrow Road went on of course to be hugely popular and amongst the best that ever represented City. However, one man that is nearly always forgotten whenever the episode is recalled is Harry Redknapp. In 1974 he spent three months on loan at Norwich during which he played three matches for the Reserves. Unfortunately for him, and us, his stay was punctuated with injury. What seemed to fans to be a certain permanent transfer in the making never happened. He was unable to prove his fitness to John Bond, who let him return to the Cherries. Harry was a hard working midfielder, and the attraction that the supporters had in him joining City came more from the fact that he was a product of the West Ham academy. In those days the Hammers were well known the world over for turning out class players with the silkiest of skills - Bobby Moore and Martin Peters notably. So fans were hopeful that Redknapp would carry the same DNA. There is no telling what might have transpired had he stayed at Carrow Road. Instead he continued at Bournemouth as a player until 1976. His return there in the early eighties kicked off a long, successful and controversial career as a manager - putting any achievements he may have made as a midfielder very much in the shade.
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