King Harry

[1973 ranger]

72. You will not meet a nicer bloke than Billy Bonds and Redknapp turned him over while he was assistant at West Ham back in the day. I don't care how they edited the show the man is someone who is not to be trusted.

[CroydonCaptainJack]

72. You will not meet a nicer bloke than Billy Bonds and Redknapp turned him over while he was assistant at West Ham back in the day. I don't care how they edited the show the man is someone who is not to be trusted.

What did he do?
I seem to recall something from his book but I can't remember what and that would have been HRs version anyway.

[QPRDave]

I still watch it but long gave up on the X Factor which has long run its course.

Yeah def jack, if i was to watch one it would be the jungle

[cross it Dave]

You need to get out more if you watch sh it like that on tv, and Crapknapp is a total fraud.

[acricketer]

BILLY Bonds has broken his four-year silence over his fall-out with Harry Redknapp.

Bonds has spoken up after hearing Redknapp accuse him on the radio of not caring about his beloved West Ham.

Bonds said: "What Harry has been saying about me is not true - I just want to put the record straight."

Redknapp tried to repair the rift by offering Bonds a job in his book (Harry Redknapp: My Autobiography), recently serialised in Sports Mirror.

But Bonds hit back: "Harry offer me a job at West Ham? He is taking the mickey. I find that totally embarrassing.

"I don't want to meet Harry or work with him again. He keeps calling me a friend but I don't see him as one.

"The last time I spoke to him was soon after I had left West Ham when he invited me back to have a photo taken with him.

"I had just left the place I loved after 27 years and he wanted me to make it look good for him. How selfish can you get? Of course I turned him down."

Redknapp also upset his old pal by implying that he didn't keep in touch with his friends.

"I know I am a private man, but who is Harry to say that I don't keep in touch with my friends?" said Bonds.

"Has he got a link to my home phone or what? Who the hell is he to say things like that?"

Bonds was forced to resign as West Ham manager at the start of the 1994 campaign. He has never accused Redknapp of stabbing him in the back and up to now has refused to discuss his sad departure from the club.

But his patience snapped when he heard Redknapp on the radio.

Said Bonds, now scouting for Charlton: "Harry was discussing his book and the conversation got round to what had happened between us. The last straw came when Harry said I had a problem with West Ham and the chairman and implied that I didn't care about the team's results.

"That was totally out of order. West Ham has been my life for 27 years and I still want them to do well, even though Harry is in charge."

Bonds took over as West Ham manager in 1990. He led them to promotion to the old First Division, but then the club was torn apart by the Board's controversial Bonds issue campaign.

It was during this time that Bonds and Redknapp, former team-mates, got back together again. Redknapp contacted Bonds and asked for a job because he had "become disillusioned with management at Bournemouth" - but Harry tells a different story in his book.

Redknapp says Bonds was desperately seeking help and the club was in turmoil with some of the players on the booze.

"He said in his book he got a phone call from me pleading for help but that is not true," said Bonds. "He told me he was so fed up with management at the time that he was driving around the Bournemouth ground not wanting to go into work.

"I was happy that Harry came in as my No 2 because we were terrific mates. I'd known him for 30 years. I went to his wedding and he was best man at mine - but if you are mates you don't say the things he has.

"He has made it sound as if everyone was on the booze when he came back to West Ham, but it was not like that.

"Harry may have been right to say the club was in turmoil but I would have liked him to give the real reasons.

"We had just had the worst six months in the club's history. The fans were demonstrating, the players lost their confidence, but that has not been mentioned by Harry."

Redknapp incensed Bonds when he slated his backroom team in front of the chairman and the MD as `rubbish' and slammed Jimmy Neighbour's youth policy in the club programme without his boss's approval.

Said Bonds: "I don't think that is the way a No 2 should act. To this day I still feel I let Jimmy, who later resigned, and my chief scout Ronnie Boyce down by not backing them more at the time.

"No, I won't be reading Harry's autobiography, nor will I shake him by the hand."

Bonds was even unhappy at the way West Ham announced his departure. "I had agreed with the chairman what was going to be put out but I know Harry changed it because it did not look good for him," said Bonds.

"The revised statement said I was disillusioned with the game, which hardly helped my chances of getting a new job.

"If I was that disillusioned why would I take a job at Millwall, of all places? That was hardly a marriage made in heaven, with me being a West Ham man of 27 years standing.

"I'm doing this to get things off my chest after staying silent for so long. I don't want to see Harry lose his job or anything like that - I'm just having my say.

"People who know me in the game know that I've always been straight with them - and I think maybe that is the one thing that bothers Harry."

Billy Bonds has asked us to point out that he did not reqest or receive payment for this article.!!

[dogsrrs]

I seem to recall them both being on TV about WHU at the time and B Bonds saying I can walk away from this and Redknapp trying to persuade him to stay shortly after B Bonds stepped down and Redknapp stayed on ,
west ham always had probably the worse drinking culture in football J Greives stated that on TV he never should have gone to west ham with his drink problems , Bobby Moore win or loose wer'e on the booze
Bobby's chauffeur hat he kept in his car to try to not get a tug ,
In reality there's more than likely a bit of both in this

[CroydonCaptainJack]

You need to get out more if you watch sh it like that on tv, and Crapknapp is a total fraud.

I am 54 mate. My partying days are long behind me

[QPRDave]

I am 54 mate. My partying days are long behind me

...there's always a whist drive

[Alanwycombe]

I am 54 mate. My partying days are long behind me

Youngster.

[qpr4life]

my mate had billy bonds in his cab a couple of years ago , he told him what 'arry had done , said he'd never speak to him again

Proper paper talk this.

[qpr4life]

Harry may / may not have been well liked as a Football man, but he came across as down to earth.

Not sure he's clever enough and bothered to turn it on 24/7 as a decent guy.

[bushcelt1]

I was hoping the cn ut choked on a wallaby...