And so it has proved. Obviously it doesn't take an idiot to realise that ever since Rent-a-Quote left Fratton Park not only have they become increasingly hostile towards us but, strangely, their criticism of Southampton and particularly Rupert Lowe from earlier in the season has ground to a halt. Coincidental of course.
This Sunday has brought two cases. First of all Martin Samuel, the Bluto-esque journalist on Jimmy Hill's "Sunday Supplement", called Milan the "biggest berk in football". Considering the fact that football is a game that contains the likes of Doug Ellis, Sepp Blatter and Paul Dickov, that's quite a bold statement. Then again coming from a man who once called Harry Redknapp, "a hero of mine", it's hardly overly surprising.
The second was an article from The People and our old friend Paul McCarthy. A man who, under Redknapp's regime here, was happy to throw around phrases like, "testament to Portsmouth's courage" and "Portsmouth's ferocious determination". But now he's been reduced to snide little comments such as this article that has been published today.
The question I really find myself asking is, why the hell has he written it? The papers covered the Milan/Redknapp row earlier in the week, starting off with Milan saying that the financial situation under Velimir was ten times better than Harry and we were now starting to repair some of the short term economic damage - a quote taken out of context by (surprise surprise) the papers, and then used to try and make the point that Velimir was "ten times better" than Harry as a manager (despite the fact that wasn't the point that was being made at all) - and it had all pretty much been put to bed with Harry having the last word on Sky Sports News by calling Milan "sad" and "pathetic" (something reported almost triumphantly by the tabloids).
But oh no, that's not good enough for McCarthy. Far be it for Redknapp to have to fight his own battles when he can get his friends in influence to have a dig for him as well. Of course, Milan hasn't made it easy for himself by accusing the media of being "third rate comics" and "publishing poison", as well as his comments on the Official Site during the week implying that Redknapp was going to the press to try and cause unrest. Even so, why do writers for bog roll publications, like McCarthy, feel the need to pointlessly get involved? Do they not realise how blatantly biased their opinions appear for a supposedly "neutral" publication? It's alright for me to go on this sort of rant - this is a Portsmouth messageboard, I'm a Portsmouth fan - but The People, The Mirror, The News of the World et al - these are meant to be in nationwide circulation and report the news accurately (stop laughing). When did that take a back to seat to supporting their ever-quotable chum so that he'll keep on writing a column for them?