After Pompey's 1-1 home draw with Fulham - with assistant manager Tony Adams and coach Joe Jordan in joint caretaker-charge - Storrie insisted he and owner Alexandre Gaydamak were stunned by Redknapp's decision to join Tottenham - and tried "everything in our power" to persuade him to stay.

And Storrie, a personal friend of Redknapp for 14 years - they were together at West Ham - denied they let the manager of their FA Cup-winning team go so Pompey could collect a £5million-plus compensation payment to ease a financial crisis at Fratton Park.

He said: "I think we should make it abundantly clear that this is something that was forced upon us. It has not come about by Portsmouth Football Club.

"It is something we have had to react to and that is the situation."

Former Bolton and Newcastle boss Sam Allardyce and ex-Chelsea chief Avram Grant - who moved to Stamford Bridge from a technical director role at Fratton Park two years ago - are fancied by bookmakers to succeed Redknapp, although many Pompey fans want former Arsenal star Adams to take over.

Storrie said: "Replacing Harry as manager was not something we had thought of at all at this time yesterday, but of course the job of replacing him starts now.

"I have, obviously, spoken to Sacha (Gaydamak) and it will be decided between him and me - with my recommendation.

"I have already had around 84,000 text messages on the subject. So I have had plenty of advice.

"All this is still a shock. Harry will certainly be a tough act to follow and I accept that many players who have signed for us have signed because of him - but that is also true at some other clubs.

"After we had Tottenham's offer we spoke long and hard with Harry and we were still very hopeful right up to the end that he would stay.

"He kept changing his mind - and that was pretty much the case when Newcastle wanted him earlier this year.

"But having known Harry so long I always knew he wanted to manage a top club - a club with a big stadium and fantastic history.

"But no way have we done this to get a transfer fee. It was Harry's choice and Harry's alone.

"There have been a lot of comments about what Spurs are paying us but it is all down in stone in Premier League rules that it must be a fixed sum or whatever is left of a manager's contract.

"Some fans, it seems, are critical of Harry going but what I think they should remember is what a great job he has done here.

"When he came back from Southampton (in December 2005) he had to endure a lot of comments but we had a squad that was virtually condemned to relegation and somehow he kept us up.

"Since then he's established us in the top 10 and last season we won the FA Cup."

Storrie confirmed there was no fixed agreement with Redknapp preventing him coming back to Fratton Park to buy players for Spurs.

But he said: "A lot of money has been spent here on players coming in and that's all from Sacha Gaydamak, who has continued to support the club financially.

"He was here today as usual for home matches an d went in the dressing room to see people and reassure them."

It now remains to be seen whether Redknapp will turn up to collect the Freedom of Portsmouth accolade at the city's Guildhall on Tuesday - the day before Portsmouth visit Liverpool and Tottenham go to Arsenal.