Harry Redknapp came out fighting yesterday. The word had gone out that “H” wanted to get some things off his chest, and 50 or so journalists crammed into a room at Portsmouth’s training ground in expectation.

Spirits sank when it was announced that the Portsmouth manager would read a statement and take no questions, which made it sound as if we were in for an anodyne trot through some prepared legalese – but we should have known better.

Redknapp arrived a little late after taking legal advice, but he extemporised for more than five minutes from some notes, making no attempt to conceal his annoyance at the way he and his wife had been treated.

Why, he wanted to know, had police turned up at his house at 6am on Wednesday accompanied by tabloid photographers? Why was a computer that his wife had only just learnt to switch on taken away by the police? And why could the authorities not simply have invited him in for a chat?

“I went to watch a game in Germany on Tuesday night, Stuttgart against Rangers,” he said. “On Wednesday morning, 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.

“How they found out the police were arriving I am not sure, but I can guess. They searched the house and took a computer away that I bought my wife two years ago, and I think she learnt to turn it on four weeks ago. There is absolutely nothing on it.

“The whole crux was that they wanted to discuss with myself and Peter Storrie [the Portsmouth chief executive, at Chichester police station] I that an agent had been paid an agent’s fee and given some to a player, who was his player.

“I wondered what I was doing there. I think I add a bit of profile to the investigation because this is absolutely nothing to do with me. It is not in my field to be involved in what agents’ fees are paid and not paid, and what the agent does with his money is none of my business. That’s a situation for the player and the agent.

“My wife was on her own and was absolutely petrified. 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, [when] I was not involved in any of it, I still find difficult to believe.”

As usual, there were jokes and one-liners. “I held a meeting with my players,” he said. “I told them about the agent and that allegedly he had paid some of his agent’s fee to the player. All of them wanted the agent’s phone number because they had never before heard of an agent who wanted to give a player any money.

“I have received texts from many players who I have worked with – and top managers – and I have really football appreciated them. Of course, I couldn’t get e-mails because now I haven’t got a computer.”

It was a relaxed affair in the circumstances. Tony Adams and Joe Jordan, Redknapp’s assistant manager and head coach, wandered in to make cups of tea and players were in and out after training. Redknapp made his points forcibly and obviously felt that it had gone well enough for him to take one question. Unfortunately, the loudest voice belonged to the representative of a television company, who decided that mentioning the BBC Panorama investigation, in which Redknapp featured, was a diplomatic opening.

Redknapp, who refuses to speak to the BBC because of its broadcast of that programme, got up and left. But he had already delivered his message.