Former Spurs winger David Bentley has claimed his infamous soaking of Harry Redknapp live on TV ended his career at Tottenham.
We had beaten Manchester City at the Etihad to qualify for the Champions League for the first time and while Redknapp was being interviewed on live TV he had a bucket of water thrown over him by a group of his players led by Bentley.
Bentley who joined us for £15million two years earlier, made just two more Premier League appearances for Spurs before unsuccessful loan spells with Birmingham, West Ham, Rostov in Russia and back at Blackburn.
“The lads tried to get the chairman in the changing room and someone said ‘get the manager’ and it turned out he was being interviewed, so I went and did it,” he told The Telegraph.
“It was just a celebration, I wasn’t trying to make him look silly. He wasn’t happy because he was trying to change his image and I went and chucked water on him. He wanted to be like Sir Alex Ferguson.
Bentley added: “I played loads that year and there was no problem between us, but then that was the end for me.”
The article goes on to say that Redknapp confirmed in 2011 that he found the incident “disrespectful” but held no grudge towards Bentley, adding on talkSPORT: “You notice it was all lads who didn’t play who did it.”
Bentley retired from football in the summer of 2014 after a year without a club following his release by Tottenham.
He added: “I went back to Blackburn and I came off in a game against Cardiff and said ‘that’s the last game I’ll ever play’,” he said. “My dad was in the stands and I told him ‘I’m done’. He said ‘you’ll be alright’ but I said ‘no I’m done’.
“People are always wondering if I was depressed or something, but I just wanted to do something else. I’m fine. I had a great time. I did it the way I wanted. I went for it, got to the top and didn’t stay there for that long. I like that.”
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