Hits and missus

Oliver Holt told The Supplement that Harry Redknapp was right to criticise Darren Bent so strongly.

Redknapp was right to blast Bent in Oliver Holt believes Harry Redknapp's latest rant will lead to anything but trouble and strife. The Tottenham boss hit the headlines this week for claiming that his wife could've scored the header that Darren Bent put wide in the 1-1 draw with Portsmouth. The remarks have divided football fans and pundits alike, with some claiming Redknapp had gone too far and was wrong to publicly humiliate one of his players. But Holt insists there is no-one better than manipulating the press than Redknapp and this is just another example of his superb man-management. "I don't go along with this thing that it's dangerous what he's doing," the man from The Mirror told the Sunday Supplement. "The one thing is he's old enough and experienced enough. He's a master at man-management and he always has been. "He is experienced enough to know what is dangerous and what isn't dangerous. He is under a lot of pressure; Tottenham aren't pulling away from the bottom of the league as quickly as we all expected them to after that great run of results when he first came. "Harry has always been in the public eye and what he has said has always to an extent brought publicity and I do agree that I'd much rather have some that says 'my wife could've scored that goal' - which, let's face it, we were all thinking! "And Darren Bent wasn't looking to be exonerated from that. I think Harry used the word 'precious' for some of the reaction to what he said and I agree with him totally. "It's refreshing that he can say that and woe betide the day that he can't talk like that." Redknapp has also accused some of his players of sulking since the arrival of new faces, including £14million Wilson Palacios. But Holt believes the two outbursts are more than just frustrations boiling over. He insists there is method to Redknapp's madness and that he is being far shrewder than the critics give him credit for. "There's always a case when, in the January transfer window, managers - and Harry's not alone in this - use it as leverage," he explained. "They talk down some of the players they've got to try and persuade the board and the public they need more players and he probably feels that need more than most because they're in the relegation zone. "He's trying to do everything he can to bring in new players and point our more than usual, the weakness in his squad at the moment. "I think he probably realises that he's a in a transitional period and the club is in a transitional period, where he has inherited someone else's team. "He's got problems with what he's found so he wants to make it his own team, make it his own signings."