When they leave their plush pre-match hotel, a stone's throw from Windsor Castle, for the short trip to the new national stadium to face Cardiff, the team, the manager, his staff and all the club's officials will be able to reflect that the bad old days of struggle and strife are firmly behind them.

A second consecutive top-10 finish in the Barclays Premier League surely suggests the foundations are now in place for Pompey to go from strength to strength and convince their fans that with owner Alexandre Gaydamak's continued investment – which includes a new training ground next year plus solid plans for a new stadium to replace tumbledown Fratton Park – they really are going places at last.

Key to it all, though, is Redknapp's shrewd stewardship, and at 61 he is still the energy that drives Portsmouth and demands the right to do it his way.

His way has proved a massive success during his two stints at the club, but Redknapp remains adamant that there is nothing magical about his footballing alchemy.

"I can't come into clubs and put my hand on players like I'm God and say 'I'll make you a genius'," he said.

"I'm not clever enough for that. Nobody is, but what I can do is replace players who are not good enough with ones that can take us where we want to go.

"I'm always trying to improve the squad and I'm sorry you have to move players on and get ones that are better. It's a continuing process.

"These lads we have now are a great bunch, a pleasure to work with, but they need to win this trophy on Saturday and make themselves heroes in history.

"Whatever happens it has been a great season despite losing four matches in a row (in the Premier League) right at the end. That was disappointing but it won't matter a bit if we win the cup.

"Not even Europe will matter then – not until later. It will be great to get into the UEFA Cup just for the sake of it but right now I'm concentrating on just this one game."