The former Liverpool midfielder was in for a rude awakening when he tried to watch Everton - but even he admits the pie-thrower had fantastic aim
(Image credit: Getty)
Jamie Redknapp has told the latest issue about the first time he went to watch Everton play - during his time as a Liverpool player.
Redknapp joined Liverpool aged 17 from Bournemouth in 1991 but soon found out that he wasn't welcome at Goodison Park - despite the Reds and the Toffees having a so-called friendly rivalry.
“When I was a Bournemouth player, I’d gone to see Southampton without any issues,” explains in the February issue of FourFourTwo, available in shops and online now. “So, I thought as a young Liverpool player I could go and see Everton, too. Big mistake!
“I wore a baseball cap and hoped no one would spot me in the Goodison Road stand, but after 10 minutes I was hit on the head with a meat pie and someone yelled, 'F**k off Redknapp.'”
“To be honest, it was a fantastic shot – what precision, right on the side of the head! I got hit by another pie a few minutes later, so just had to sit there drenched in gravy and meat. We left at half-time.”
Redknapp later captained Liverpool but as a teenager joining one of the biggest sides in the country, he says that his experiences were scary initially.
(Image credit: Future)
“The first time I got on the team bus to go to training, all the players blanked me – cold stares from Alan Hansen, Ronnie Whelan and Steve McMahon,” he says. “No one offered me a seat, but I realised what was happening – you had to earn their respect. As the kid, you can’t say, ‘Oh f**k off, let me sit down’.”
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“I was dying inside, but you had to put on a brave face and show you deserved to be there. You had to fight your corner. John Barnes rescued me on that coach.”
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