IT is like no footballing double act since Clough and Taylor but it remains to be seen where Harry and Jim end up next.

Tears flowed at Fratton Park yesterday at the end of one of the greatest eras in Pompey's history. The scenes were not unlike those at the Baseball Ground on the day that Brian Clough and Peter Taylor quit Derby County in 1973.

Clough and Taylor fell out with their chairman and Derby's board of directors despite helping the East Midlands club to the Football League championship and a European Cup semi-final.

Like that Derby side, Pompey have been punching above their weight for the past two years and that is down to 'Harry and Jim', who will surely take their magic formula elsewhere, despite Redknapp's determination to stick to the 'I'm having a break from football' script.

Give it a week or two and he'll be desperate to get back, just as he was when he kicked his heels as Pompey's director of football.

Yesterday's incredible turn of events began with the resignation of Redknapp's right hand man and ally Jim Smith, and Redknapp confirmed that he was also on his way at a lunchtime press conference in Fratton Park's quaint Montgomery Suite, while Pompey fans gathered at the Frogmore Road entrance.

The recent history of Portsmouth FC has been compared to a soap opera but this latest chapter has been a storyline that even the most gifted scriptwriter would have found hard to conjure.

As Smith put it, 'football is a funny old game but not as funny as the last two weeks have been.'

No-one was laughing at Fratton Park yesterday.

Even Redknapp shed a few tears as fans thanked him for Pompey's two most successful seasons since the 1950s. Redknapp knows the scale of his achievements. "We've gone from the bottom of the first division to playing top drawer football in the Premiership and that's why we're on TV more than Coronation St these days," he said.

The fans who bade Redknapp farewell left him with a lump in his throat as they sang his name. Redknapp admitted that leaving Pompey was more emotional than the day he left West Ham, but it has been a partnership. As one fan put it, 'Harry and Jim fit Pompey like a glove'.

There was no chance of one staying and the other leaving. Redknapp said: 'This morning someone asked me if I would go now that Jim has gone and I admitted that Harry and Velimir hasn't got the same ring to it as Harry and Jim!'

Smith was not involved in the press conference, where Redknapp was flanked by chief executive Peter Storrie and director Terry Brady, but was greeted by a media scrum and an army of Pompey fans in the Fratton Park car park when he emerged afterwards.

The 'Bald Eagle' is a cult figure down there, having led Pompey to the 1992 FA Cup semi-final and the brink of promotion before he was reunited with Redknapp on the south coast a decade later.

At 63, you would think he would be ready for retirement but expect the duo to turn up at another club before too long. Wolves would dearly love the 'Harry and Jim' formula to do for them what it has done for Pompey and last night Redknapp was the out and out favourite for the Molineux job at 4/5 on.

The speculation will not end with Wolves.

Whisper it, but the talk in south coast pubs this weekend is sure to revolve around Redknapp and Smith and their suitability for the Saints job, were it to become vacant!

That is only to be expected while Saints struggle under Steve Wigley but despite Redknapp's proximity - he lives in Poole - he is unlikely to pop up at St Mary's.

He and Rupert Lowe met to discuss the vacant Saints' manager's job before Stuart Gray's appointment more than three years ago, but agreed to differ.

The prospect of Lowe having second thoughts on Redknapp and Gordon Strachan being unveiled as the new Pompey manager is a tale to stretch the most vivid of imaginations.

Strachan made no secret of his admiration for Mandaric during his time as Saints boss but both he and Redknapp have too much love for the fans of the south coast clubs they served to cross the divide.

But Glenn Hoddle might yet emerge as a surprise contender to work under Velimir Zajec . . . again whisper it, but Mandaric is in Dubai this week, as is Hoddle ...

The other club in Redknapp's life is Bournemouth but he will not be helping out the debt-ridden League One club for the time being.

"I've got a lot of affection for that club, they're struggling a bit and are looking for people to help out but I won't be going there just yet."