Wheeler-dealer Redknapp laments the end of players like Pearce and Wright

'Sorry, Lee...bad timing. I've got the hump, I should be all right in a couple of hours.' Give or take a few expletives, that's Harry Redknapp's untypical welcome.

His chief scout Ian Broomfield confirms the bad news; Arsenal's Johan Djourou, who would have been Redknapp's eighth signing of an active summer, has bizarrely chosen to go to Birmingham instead of Portsmouth.

'I've been after him for weeks and months. Arsene Wenger said he was coming here, Tony Adams had pushed hard. I am choked,' is one of many dejected comments on this, his first defeat of the season.

For a man beyond 1,000 matches as a manager, it is a reaction that reveals the desire and drive Redknapp still brings to work every day. He has signed and sold a few in his time, often more Harry Potter than Harry Redknapp when it comes to transfer magic, but this summer has challenged his skills like never before.

'It's gone crazy...£9million for a goalkeeper? Is Craig Gordon nine times better than David James? Bloody frightening.

'What a bargain James has been for £1m, but I tell you it is getting harder. The bargains are there, they must be. We got Sylvain Distin - a terrific signing - on a free but I'd still like to find some English boys from the lower divisions and give them a chance. Like in the old days.

'At West Ham, we signed Peter Butler for £200,000 from Southend. The club had been relegated and there were a few Big Time Charlies in the dressing room. Peter was a bit of a journeyman and he came in, kicked a few of them in training and shook up the whole place. We won promotion.

'Finding one like that now would be like winning the pools. I am looking, I still love looking, but it's so much harder now.

'What happened to the days of Bobby Gould going to see Wealdstone play and leaving after five minutes because he'd seen enough? He signed Stuart Pearce the next day. That feeling, when you are watching a player and you see something - "My God, what have I uncovered here?" - I love that feeling, that feeling of "I have to get this fella now, before someone else does". I enjoy that more than signing a £7m player. The hunt, the discovery, the nurturing, the realisation that you were right to trust your instincts.

'I remember one Bank Holiday Monday and my wife, Sandra, fancied a day out together. So I told her I was going to Nuneaton to watch a centre forward called Carl Richards, a big, handsome boy who looked like Carl Lewis - and ran like him. I called him over after the game. He had never heard of me, but I told him I would sign him, offered him £220-a-week and then went to see his manager to do the deal with Enfield.

'While I was waiting, Carl's mate came up to me and said, "Don't sign him, sign me. I'm a much better player". I signed Carl, ignored the other bloke. His mate was Ian Wright... '

Suddenly, the loss of Djourou is forgotten. 'Carl Richards was brilliant, Bournemouth won promotion and we sold him for £80,000 the following season to Birmingham. There are a million stories like that, but that's what I love about the transfer market.'

This summer, he has spent big on David Nugent, John Utaka and Sulley Muntari and all three will start at Derby today as Portsmouth look to improve on ninth place last season.

' The chairman has been excellent. He has backed me. He says, "Anything you want, Mr Redknapp?" I tell him that I only want to buy players that can improve the team.'

Redknapp's energy is inspiring, but he sometimes yearns for the good old days. 'The game has changed so much. As a player, I would finish training at West Ham and we would all go together, over the cafe for a few hours, as a team of local boys. Now? Well, it's so different. And the game is not any better for it.

'I love looking at pictures of Tommy Lawton getting on a bus with the punters and going to play his first game for Everton. He was a great centre forward, a legend, but he travelled on a bus!'

Don't be mistaken, Redknapp, 60, is no stick-in-the-mud and moves with the times, embracing the qualities foreign players bring.

It has not always worked, however. 'Clubs weren't geared up to welcome players from abroad in the early days. At AC Milan, they had people helping with the language, helping families to settle and to find schools and homes, on 24-hour call. We have that in England now.

' Once I signed a centre half, Javier Margas, who was the captain of Chile. West Ham brought him over, stuck him in a house in the middle of nowhere and on the second day going to training, he took a wrong turn and ended up going the wrong way up the M11 to Stansted Airport, 50 miles away. His tyre burst, he couldn't speak English and he was stranded.

'His wife was at home, couldn't even watch TV, the washing machine flooding the kitchen and screaming at her husband. And we wondered why he didn't settle!'

He is smiling again, at last. Best to leave it there.