HARRY Redknapp emerged from two-hour showdown talks with Portsmouth chairman Milan Mandaric yesterday still manager - for now at least.
Redknapp was summoned from the training ground to Fratton Park to discuss his future with the Serbian multi-millionaire after a week of accusation and counter-claims.
The row started when it looked as if Redknapp's veteran assistant, Jim Smith, 63, was being sacked with coach Kevin Bond to make way for a replacement, possibly from abroad.
Mandaric also wanted Redknapp to call a halt to his spending, which had taken the club's wage bill to £20m a year, and build up the youth scheme.
But the rift between manager and chairman looked terminal when Redknapp accused his boss of lying when Mandaric further claimed that it was Redknapp, not himself, who wanted Smith out.
The meeting at Fratton Park was attended by Redknapp, Smith, Mandaric, chief executive Peter Storrie and director Mandaric wants to improve the infrastructure at Fratton Park, and was beleived to be unhappy at the club's lack of a blossoming youth system.
Only last month Portsmouth won the Under-15 English Schools trophy - but only three of the squad are on Pompey's books.
Two of them, Billy Huntley and Jake Thomson, are on Saints' books.
A third, goalkeeper Jack Stanbridge, has been training with Saints.
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