Southampton boss Redknapp backs Woodward move

Southampton manager Harry Redknapp has given his blessing to former England rugby coach Clive Woodward taking on a future role at the English Premier League soccer club.

Rugby World Cup-winning coach Woodward is widely expected to join Southampton after the British and Irish Lions tour of New Zealand in June and July, although Saints are yet to confirm any formal appointment.

Woodward and his friend Southampton chairman Rupert Lowe have been non-committal when discussing a possible link but Redknapp said that he has already met with Woodward and believes he has much to offer.

"We met and got on well... he knows he will not walk in and get a manager's job. He wants to learn the ropes," Redknapp said.

"Clive's said if I had not been happy it would not have been a goer. If I didn't fancy it, I would tell them: 'I'm not having that'.

"I was very impressed with him when I met," Redknapp told Southampton's Daily Echo newspaper.

Redknapp said Woodward would not be joining Southampton to run the football club and the training academy but would be involved in "the medical side and rehab".

"If he can learn, we will go on from there. He loves his football, he knows it is a long, hard road," the Saints manager said.

"He is the type of fellow who can put his mind to something and achieve it. He will work hard and set his goals."

No conflict

Redknapp said Woodward joining the club would pose no problems and would not mirror the situation which forced him to quit Portsmouth when chairman Milan Mandaric brought in Velimir Zajec on the board to oversee footballing matters.

"Clive is not coming in as a director of football, so it's no problem at all," Redknapp said.

"He has got a lot to offer from the sports science side of it.

"That side of the football club has all moved on. Look at Sam Allardyce, he is into all that sports science and Clive Woodward has got that from his rugby background."