“I said: ‘I don’t think so Bruno, they will win the league.’ He said: ‘You want a bet?’ ‘They’re 12 points clear - you can’t bet!’ So he said: ‘You afraid to have a bet?’ I thought: ‘Are you mad?’ I thought I’d won the pools when I walked out of there.
“Three months later I have to walk in and, oh, he slaughtered me. It was a big bet. That was the dearest night I’ve ever had in an Italian restaurant!”
He enters another Italian’s domain on Sunday. “City are not invincible,’’ Redknapp said of Roberto Mancini’s side. “We have good attacking players: Modric, Parker, Van der Vaart, Lennon, Bale. City will be wary that we can hit them on the counter attack with Walker.’’
Unfortunately for Redknapp, Adebayor is ineligible but “Jermain Defoe is bursting for the opportunity”.
City have spent £430 million on players since the Abu Dhabi takeover. “I would have been close to winning the league [with that money],’’ said Redknapp.
“When they started talking last year about ‘Tottenham’s bid for Sergio Aguero’, I thought: ‘What a load of nonsense. How can we afford Aguero?’ We aren’t going to pay £40 million and £250,000 a week to a player. Daniel [Levy the chairman] runs this club as it should be run.
“He is not going to put it in debt like that. When you can buy players like that you have got a chance haven’t you? Same as when Chelsea started breaking the bank and buying all the top players.’’