It was graceful of Harry Redknapp to show a little feeling for the plight of his ravaged opposite number Robert Martinez after Spurs ran amok against Wigan Athletic.

Redknapp recalled how he lost his first match as manager of Bournemouth by 9-0 and explained how the memory of it still cuts like a knife.

In North America, however, Redknapp's charitable instincts would surely have been thrown back in his face. Indeed, fisticuffs have been exchanged between NFL and College coaches at the end of lop-sided games.

This is because of what Europeans would no doubt consider an odd convention. It is one that holds it to be a crime against sportsmanship to “run up the score,” that when a contest is over it is over and embellishment of the winning margin is not only less than commendable but seriously bad taste.

Perhaps when the exhilaration created by a superb attacking performance wanes somewhat, Redknapp or coach Joe Jordan will explain the American theory to some of the players, especially Jermain Defoe. Should it happen, though, Defoe might want to employ an Americanism of his own: the one that goes, Say What?