Redknapp: I needed time away from game

Harry Redknapp admitted he needed a break from football after capping the craziest year of his life by taking the QPR job.

Redknapp returned from his five-and-a-half month exile charged with masterminding another great escape from relegation. Succeeding in what he admitted was the "toughest" assignment of his managerial career should be child's play compared to the stress of beating tax evasion charges of a far more serious nature back in February.

The footballing disappointments which followed - being snubbed for the England job and sacked by Tottenham - simply compounded what had been an emotionally exhausting first half of 2012 for the 65-year-old. Asked if it had been the craziest year of his life, he said: "Yeah, oh yeah. Certainly. The whole thing was a bit bizarre, wasn't it?"

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