Harry Redknapp's special role advising Frank Lampard and Everton how to avoid relegation

Sixteen years ago, on the day that Frank Lampard lifted the Premier League title with Chelsea, his Uncle Harry completed one of football’s great escapes.

It is no surprise that as Lampard finds himself fighting his own relegation battle as manager at Everton, he has turned to Harry Redknapp for advice. Redknapp masterminded Portsmouth’s incredible survival mission in 2006, when they took 20 points from a possible 27 to beat the drop.

Safety was confirmed with a 2-1 victory at Wigan - just hours after Lampard had collected his second title medal following a 3-0 victory over Manchester United at Stamford Bridge.

Everton’s predicament is just as precarious. They face Lampard’s former club at Goodison stranded in the bottom three. And Lampard revealed: “I speak regularly to Harry - no matter what the situation. He is always a great voice of reason and experience and he has been in this situation before. It’s not like he tells me to do this or that - it’s not that kind of advice.

“But I chat to him casually and some of the things he says to me makes you think ‘yeah, of course.’ With people like him, you find the best things they say are simple. I’m not trying to put Harry down when I say that because it’s the absolute opposite. The smartest managers make things very simple. Whenever I speak to him, whether it’s ‘what do you think about taking the Everton job, Harry? What do you think about the Chelsea job? What do you think about this situation, because you were there with Portsmouth?’

“Those things are easy to bounce off him - and you might get some nuggets of advice. In terms of what the nuggets are, I'll keep them to myself! But it's great though to have him on the end of the phone.” Family has also been important to