Harry Redknapp 'a better tactician than Arsene Wenger', says Arsenal great Paul Merson

Head to head: Arsene Wenger and Harry Redknapp
Getty Images

Harry Redknapp was a better tactician than Arsene Wenger, according to Paul Merson.

Merson worked under both managers, though was sold by Arsenal just one year into Wenger's reign before going on to play for former Tottenham boss Redknapp at Portsmouth five years later.

Wenger won the Premier League three times and the FA Cup seven times during a trophy-laded era with the Gunners. Redknapp's sole major honour was the FA Cup in 2008.

But Merson says there is no question who is the superior tactician between the two, telling Sky Sports of Redknapp: "One hundred per cent, best man-manager I've ever worked under, by a million miles.

"As a man-manager knowing what you want or what you need, you could tell him what you need, he wouldn't tell you what you needed. I think that was a massive thing with him.

"The thing with Harry, people think, ‘Oh, he's a wheeler-dealer'… his knowledge of football is second to none.

"I honestly think he's tactically better than Arsene Wenger, in my opinion. I worked under both. Tactically, if I know a manager who wants to set up, make sure we don't lose a game and stop the other team playing… for me, Harry is the man.

"He's with George Graham, that sort of [level]. Arsene Wenger, he had some unbelievable players. When you've got Thierry Henry, Dennis Bergkamp, [Robert] Pires, [Patrick] Vieira, [Emmanuel] Petit, [Marc] Overmars and [Freddie] Ljungberg… if I'm the manager of Arsenal, I'm opening the football match up!

In Pictures | Tottenham vs Arsenal, north London derby | 12/07/2020

1/70

"I want the game to expand, to go end-to-end because if it does, there's only one winner. That's Arsenal because of the players I just reeled off. But when you've got a manager who hasn't got that quality of player and you've got to set up, that's why I think Harry is a phenomenal manager.

"He put a team together, he pulled players into certain positions and it clicked. I played in a phenomenal football team."

Redknapp has been out of work since a brief spell with Birmingham City in 2017, while Wenger was last year appointed as Fifa's head of global football development.