Dave’s Football Blog

The city of Portsmouth held a special ceremony on Tuesday to honor Harry Redknapp — two days after he ditched Portsmouth FC to take over Tottenham Hotspur. Gee, the timing couldn’t have been better.

As you might expect, Redknapp heard a few cries of “Judas” from the crowd, but he was far too British to shout back, “You’re a liar!” In the end, though, it wasn’t Redknapp who calmed the crowd. Instead, it was Portsmouth’s own Cindy Lou Who:

Flanked by the Portsmouth owner, Sacha Gaydamak, and the lord mayor of the city, Redknapp sat with his head bowed and, no doubt, his toes curling. But then the young girl strode forward and the edginess in the gallery evaporated. She spoke in hurried, nervous sentences and only the hardest of hearts was unmoved. “I just want to say we still love you Harry and thank you for everything you did for us.” The roar when she finished shamed the cat-callers.

Awwwwwwww.

Of course, she might not be quite so gracious after Pompey is forced to sell Defoe, Diarra and Kanu to Spurs to pay off its debts, leading to a sudden crash back to the Coca-Cola Championship, while Tottenham becomes a contender again. Still, at least she got an FA Cup parade out of that deal. That’s one more parade than they’ve had in Newcastle in the last 15 years.

(Spotted on 101 Great Goals.)