After being found not guilty of tax evasion by a London court on Wednesday, Redknapp is now the hot favourite to succeed Italian Fabio Capello as England manager.
Standing on the steps of Southwark Crown Court after being cleared of two charges by a unanimous jury verdict, the 64-year-old Tottenham Hotspur manager said he was pleased his ordeal was over.
"It really has been a nightmare, I've got to be honest; it's been five years and this case should never have come to court. It was horrendous. I'm pleased we can go home and get on with my life."
Redknapp, who grew up in London's East End, fell in love with football watching his father play in amateur matches and says he would have become a docker like him if he had not been blessed with football talent himself.
As a gifted schoolboy he trained with Spurs but never played for the club, instead making his name as a tricky winger with West Ham United, where he played in the same team as England's 1966 World Cup winners Bobby Moore, Geoff Hurst and Martin Peters.
Redknapp, who had been charged with cheating Britain's public revenue in relation to payments totalling $295,000 made to his bank account in Monaco during his time as Portsmouth manager, comes across as a man without pretence.
He utterly rejects one view of him as a "wheeler-dealer" and, in a rare show of public anger, curtailed a television interview with a reporter who suggested he was.
The jury at his trial heard Redknapp say that he had never sent an email or text in his life and was the "most disorganised person in the world."
"You talk to anybody at the football club. I don't write. I couldn't even fill a team sheet in," Redknapp said in a taped police interview played in court.
"We needed to change, I moved a few players on and brought some in," he said, to the delight of Spurs fans who regard him as the best manager they have had since Keith Burkinshaw guided the club to FA Cup final and European success 30 years ago.
"We were absolutely brilliant, magnificent, out-of-this world, outstanding," Redknapp said dead-pan at
