Former Tottenham midfielder Sandro has admitted he once landed himself in trouble after failing to understand manager Harry Redknapp’s instructions.
The Brazilian midfielder, who retired this month aged 34, spent four seasons at White Hart Lane between 2010 and 2014. Two of those years overlapped with Redknapp’s reign in charge.
But one occasion in which Sandro started saw Tottenham suffer a shock 4-0 defeat against Fulham in an FA Cup fixture in January 2011. Sandro has now revealed the defeat at Craven Cottage was in large part down to the language barrier between him and Redknapp, due to the manager’s thick cockney accent.
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Sandro exclusively told Ladbrokes Fanzone: “I got on with Harry [Redknapp] very well, but of course, I've got many stories of times where we didn't exactly get on! The one that springs to mind for me most came against Fulham – we played against them in the FA Cup. To be honest, I just couldn't understand a word of what he was saying.
“If he was giving me specific instructions, I didn't understand them. English, I could understand. But Harry speaks very different, so he's quite difficult to understand. So when we're in the dressing room and he's telling me to do this and do that, I'm nodding to him, as if I've taken in everything he said to me, but, to be honest, I didn't understand a word of it.
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“So I step out onto the pitch, and it turns out I was playing in the wrong position. In that game in particular, Harry wanted Luka Modric to play behind me, and I was going to play further up-front alongside Rafael van der Vaart. For me, that seemed strange, because I always played in the number six position.
“So Modric came over to me early on and said ‘Sandro, this is my position for today.’ And I said ‘No, this is my position. Go away!’ After that, Van der Vaart came and spoke to me in Spanish, so I could understand what he was saying, and he explained where the manager wanted me to play.
“We lost the match 4-0. We get to Monday morning and Harry starts complaining to us about the performance, particularly in midfield. He's not happy with us at all, and then Van der Vaart explains to him…
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"’Gaffer, you can't say anything because one player in this room was on the pitch and he didn't know which position he was supposed to be playing in… this is unbelievable!’"
“And I just thought 'oh my god…' When he said that, I just had everything shouted at me from Harry Redknapp. Louder and clearer than I'd ever heard him before. In this moment I understood everything!”
The stunning incident occurred during Sandro’s first season in north London, where he made 19 league appearances and 26 across all competitions. He played 106 matches over his Spurs career before a move to Queens Park Rangers.
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