Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp could face disciplinary action from UEFA after he appeared to aim a clenched-fist gesture towards Shamrock Rovers supporters during the 4-0 win at Tallaght Stadium.
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Goals from Steven Pienaar, Andros Townsend Jermain Defoe and Harry Kane gave
Tottenham a resounding win over the Irish part-timers, but Rubin Kazan's 1-1
draw at PAOK Salonika meant Redknapp's team crashed out of the Europa League.
The 64-year-old's night took a turn for the worse with 20 minutes left when he
appeared to make the angry gesture towards the Shamrock fans, who had barracked
him almost continuously throughout the match.
The Spurs boss, who was this week warned by the Football Association over his
future conduct after making critical comments about referee Chris Foy, tried to
downplay the apparent incident after the game.
When asked if had made an obscene gesture towards the Rovers fans, Redknapp
said: "Not really. Did I make an 'obscene' gesture? No, I didn't make... No.
"I have spent enough time in Ireland to know what lovely people they are. If you go and meet them afterwards they are probably lovely people. But they get together and shout a load of nonsense and that is football. That's life. I
don't hold any grudges.''
Redknapp was proud of his players, but admitted his team were facing an almost
impossible task to qualify.
"We came and did the job we had to do but when you are in a situation like we
were tonight and you are relying on another score, it is always difficult,'' he
said.
"At half-time, with the Russian team losing 1-0 having gone down to 10 men
very early in the first half, I thought maybe they will be beaten 2-0 or 3-0,
and we would just need to win by three or four, but I had a feeling they would
draw.''
Redknapp has never hidden his dislike of the Europa League, but he insisted he was disappointed to be exiting the competition.
"It was disappointing. I want to win every game. We haven't not gone through
for lack of trying,'' he said. "Maybe if I had played players like Scott Parker and Rafa van der Vaart we
might have sneaked through, but we might not have won 10 out of 11 league games
though.''
The defeat meant Shamrock ended their first full European campaign without
registering a point. The Irish champions did play well at times and came close to
grabbing a consolation goal on a number of occasions.
Departing manager Michael O'Neill, who is believed to have an interview for the
vacant Northern Ireland job next week, admits Spurs were a class apart.
"We were playing against a better team with better players,'' he said. "I thought we played well in the early part of the game but the goal set us back. It's disappointing. In the second half we did well, but we have to be honest
and say we were well beaten by the better team.''
O'Neill admits he is sad to be leaving Tallaght Stadium after a successful
three-year period in which he has won back-to-back titles and made Shamrock the
first League of Ireland club to qualify for the groups stages of a European
competition.
"The three years have been fantastic,'' he added. "The season before I came here they finished seventh in the league and were 42 points behind the winners. Since then we have won the cup and the league on two occasions.''
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