Thank the lord for Harry Redknapp – a football manager who calls a spade a spade.

If you haven’t seen Harry’s press conference after Queens Park Rangers’ loss to Liverpool on the weekend, take Molly Meldrum’s advice (watch it below).

It was a symphony of honesty, an antidote to all the prima donnas – managers and players – who call the Premier League home.

• Fergie didn’t want Beckham in No.7 
• Superstar’s tax problems to get Messi

Redknapp is a grafter, and as recently as 2010-11 he was guiding a highly entertaining Spurs squad into the Champions League (he would have done it two years running had Chelsea not won the competition in 2011-12).

There’s something oddly reassuring about Harry’s cockney brogue and there’s often a twinkle in his eye.

On Sunday his QPR side looked to have done enough to take a point from their home clash with Liverpool, but they were hit late (the fifth minute of stoppage time) on the break and lost 3-2.

Redknapp was gutted – a draw would have been enough to take QPR off the bottom.

Harry is almost 68 years old, a fact he pointed out to the scribes at the end of his media conference on Sunday.

He’s seen it all, and when asked if he feared for his position, he was at his brilliant best.

“I don’t go home and worry about speculation George, you know what I mean?” he said.

“I’m 68 nearly, what am I worried about? I’m not 35 with five kids trying to pay a mortgage.

“I do my best every day, I come in early … I leave late at night. I love my job and I do my best. I can’t do any more.

“There ain’t no one who could do any better here at the moment than me.

“I hear other names mentioned, but they couldn’t do any better than what I can do, that’s for sure.”

Harry was quizzed about the status of Moroccan midfielder Adel Taraabt, a man with immense talent but whose work ethic has seen him fall foul of most managers he’s worked for.

His response was priceless.

“What am I supposed to keep saying, keep getting your 60, 70 grand ($A105,000-$A121,000) a week but don’t train?” Harry raged.

“What’s the game coming to?

“He’s not fit to play football, unfortunately.

“I can’t keep protecting people who don’t want to run about and train, who are about three stone (19kg) overweight.

“He played in a reserve-team game the other day, and I could have run about more than he did.”

As good as Harry’s form was on Sunday, it’s not career best. Below are his finest moments behind the microphone.

“Even when they had (Bobby) Moore, (Geoff) Hurst and (Martin) Peters, West Ham’s average finish was about 17th. It just shows how useless the other eight of us were.“ Harry on his playing days with West Ham.

“I sorted out the team formation last night lying in bed with the wife. When your husband’s as ugly as me, you’d only want to talk football in bed.” Harry talks tactics.

“Was I scared of going to prison? Yes I was. You’re relying on 12 people who might not like you. They might have been Arsenal fans for all I knew. One had a stained jacket, for goodness sake.” Harry, then managing Spurs, on his 2012 tax evasion trial.

“Samassi Abou don’t speak the English too good.” Harry, the master of irony, on the difficulties with bringing in players from non-English speaking backgrounds.

“I’m not a wheeler and dealer. F*** off.” Harry takes offence to a Sky News reporter’s description of him as a “wheeler and dealer”.

“By the look of him he must have headed a lot of balls.” Harry’s appraisal of Iain Dowie (pictured above).

“No wonder he’s in the f***ing reserves.” Harry after being hit on the head by a football at training during an interview (see below – language warning).