Spurs' Harry Redknapp: My name must be cleared over 'scandalous' tax allegations

Harry Redknapp last night revealed his desperation to see an end to his two years of hell over tax allegations.

An impassioned Redknapp told Mirror Sport how the strain of early morning police raids and the constant drip of insinuations had a terrible effect on his beloved wife Sandra.

He said: "Sometimes there can be smoke without a fire - and for sure this is one of those occasions. I have nothing to hide."  

Redknapp returns to Portsmouth today with Spurs in third place after their best-ever Premier League start which has the Tottenham fans dreaming of cracking the Big Four elite wide open.

He added: "Every week I'm hearing the same rumours everybody else is, that this is going to happen or that's going to happen. It's been doing  my head in for months and months now.

"If they did charge me, that's not a problem - well it is a problem, because I don't want it - but if it happens I know I've done nothing wrong and there's only one winner.

"What's happened and the way things have happened, knocking on my door at 6am when they knew I was out of the country, has made my wife very very ill.

"That's the worst of it. That's how scandalous this is.

"The problem is, the more we talk about it, the more people will think there's something in it. People always want to believe some crap about you.

"I'm just blocking it out of my mind and getting on with the job I'm doing here." 

The latest claims are that Redknapp owes back taxes over a £10,000 fee paid to him by former Portsmouth owner Milan Mandaric from the sale of Peter Crouch - who will line up for the Tottenham chief at Fratton Park today - to Aston Villa in 2002.

Redknapp said: "I have had to work under that pressure of the allegations - and it has been difficult. It's not been easy, especially when you know you haven't done anything wrong.

"It's an absolute load of nonsense, really. We've got an issue over nothing, over a misunderstanding about £10000 of Income Tax.

"Look, my accountant informs me that since 2002 I've paid £6.8m in PAYE. So I'm scarcely going to purposely do something for £10000, am I?  Redknapp revealed that when he left Portsmouth in November 2004, after a major fall-out with Mandaric following the bizarre appointment of Velimir Zajec as director of football, he had turned his back on a tax-free lump sum of £140,000, which he had given to the club"s football in the community project.

"Mick Maguire, who was at the PFA and negotiated for me, will tell you that's true," said Redknapp. "Mick thought I was off my head but I said I didn't want the money.

"Why would I do anything wrong? Why do I need to do this when I've got Jamie and Mark and seven grandchildren a lovely wife and I'm not short of money? Why would I bother for £10000?  "Every week I'm hearing the same rumours everybody else is, that this is going to happen or that's going to happen. It's been doing  my head in for months and months now."