Redknapp urges Chelsea target to join Manchester United

Following Petr Cech's transfer to Arsenal, Chelsea are very much in need of a new backup to Thibaut Courtois. One of the most popular options out there at the moment would be Stoke City's Asmir Begovic, who is both homegrown, and fantastic at what he does.

At one point in time, Begovic played under Harry Redknapp at Portsmouth, and the unemployed manager doesn't believe the keeper should join Chelsea as Cech's replacement. Here's what 'Arry had to say:

I cannot see Asmir Begovic going to Chelsea. He’s too good a keeper to be a number two and if he goes to Stamford Bridge then he’ll only be Thibaut Courtois’ replacement. He’s a great pro and definitely a top six team keeper and if, as looks likely, De Gea goes to real Madrid then I think Manchester United should look at him, he’s that good.

I had him at Portsmouth and nearly took him with me to Tottenham but when he turned up at the Spurs training ground he saw the Croatian keeper Stipe Pletikosa who was only there to say hi to a few mates like Luka Modric and Niko Kranjcar.

However, Asmir thought we were going to sign him as well and didn’t fancy it so quickly turned around without telling us and drove up to sign for Stoke. We were calling him telling him he’d got it wrong and that Pletikosa was only there to see his friends and not to sign for us but it was too late! We laugh about it when we meet up now! As it turns out we did end up getting Pletikosa as cover on loan!

But if I was Begovic I’d go looking for first team football and he’s not going to get that at Chelsea.

This probably means very little in the grand scheme of things, as Redknapp is simply a pundit (and not a great one at that), now that's he's out of the managerial game. His story about Begovic being turned off by his visit to Tottenham and joining Stoke instead made me laugh, though, so I thought this was probably worth sharing.

Regardless, it's always fun when Tottenham's loss is Chelsea's potential gain.