The rage of Harry Redknapp: The manager in the eye of the storm gives his side of the story

Despite the fact that he was working furiously to clear his name of any wrongdoing, he still managed to turn on his quick wit and charm to relieve the tension.

The police had seized his wife Sandra's computer during the raid on his family home, he explained before adding: 'She only learned how to turn it on four weeks ago. There's absolutely nothing on it.'

Then there was the one about the Portsmouth players who interrupted the team meeting to ask for the telephone number of the agent accused of passing on part of his fee to the player.

'They'd never heard of an agent wanting to give a player any money before,' said Redknapp in mock astonishment.

A sense of bewilderment also hung over Portsmouth's training ground, near Eastleigh, as the scene unfolded.

Nonplussed first-teamers popped their heads through a doorway to check out the room where Pompey manager Redknapp normally addresses a handful of reporters on a Thursday, looking ahead to the weekend game.

It was crammed with dozens of journalists from national and local newspapers, TV and radio, all waiting for Redknapp's version of his arrest and interrogation by City of London police, investigating corruption in football's transfer market.

Redknapp's No 2 Tony Adams appeared and the cameras swung round in anticipation. 'Harry's gone home,' grinned Adams as he strolled through the crowds to collect a kettle from the other side of the room. Behind the smiles, Redknapp was clearly not amused with the chain of events which had ended with him sitting down at a desk and unfolding a script printed on two A4 sheets of paper.

Portsmouth, reeling from a development which threatens to rock their impressive start to the Premier League season, had initially cancelled the regular press conference.

But the manager insisted on telling his side of the story. He rarely read from the script, most of it came rolling off the tongue.

Redknapp said: 'I went to watch a game in Germany on Tuesday night, Stuttgart against Glasgow Rangers.

'I travelled back on Wednesday morning and when I got to Heathrow my wife was on the phone leaving me hysterical messages about the police having been round to our house at 6am, accompanied by photographers from a well-known tabloid newspaper.'

Redknapp did not name the newspaper, perhaps because he is a paid columnist, but was furious with the nature of the police raid and the fact that they had photographers in tow.

'My wife was on her own and was absolutely petrified,' he said. 'If you tell me that is the way to treat anybody, well I'm afraid that was not the type of society I was brought up in.

'Everything that has happened has been a bitter disappointment to me and my family, who were deeply hurt by the whole situation.

'I could just have got a phone call and been asked to pop down to the police station and have a chat about it.

'Why it had to be brought into the public domain and made such a big issue of, when I was not involved in any of it, I still find difficult to believe.

'I still think I was called into this being high profile. I add a bit of profile to the investigation because, to be honest, this is absolutely nothing to do with me.'

After his home was searched in his absence, Redknapp reported to Chichester police station and spent several hours answering questions.

He said: 'The whole crux of the meeting was that they wanted to discuss that an agent had been paid an agent's fee and had allegedly paid some of the money to a player, who was his player.

'That was the whole top and bottom of the investigation as far as I was concerned. There was no other issue to talk about. I wondered what I was doing there.

'What the agent does with his money is none of my business.'

Senegal midfielder Amdy Faye, now on loan at Glasgow Rangers from Charlton, and agent Willie McKay were also arrested and questioned on Wednesday.

So were Portsmouth's chief executive Peter Storrie and the club's former owner Milan Mandaric, now chairman of Leicester City.

Redknapp insisted that he did not know a 'more honest or straighter guy' than Storrie and hailed millionaire businessman Mandaric as 'the man who came in and saved this football club'.

Police raided Portsmouth's club offices at Fratton Park in July, taking away computers as part of their investigation but Redknapp claimed that there was nothing to hide.

'This club is completely transparent and totally honest,' he said. 'Nothing goes on at the club that shouldn't or that we are afraid of. Any investigation that has gone on, this club has helped everyone and co-operated fully.

'This is a fantastic club, run well from top to bottom. We are playing the best football of the last 50 years and we are in the highest position in the league in 50 years. Now I want to get back to concentrate on the football.'

Portsmouth are at home to Everton tomorrow but Redknapp's wish for this episode to curl up and quickly disappear seems unlikely.