A new storm broke in the turbulent relationship between Portsmouth and Southampton yesterday after Pompey accused their south-coast rivals of breaching a confidence.

Sources at Fratton Park said that Southampton's chairman Rupert Lowe yesterday personally requested Portsmouth's "best offer" of compensation to open talks with Harry Redknapp. Despite walking out of St Mary's last week, declaring his position "untenable" after he had indicated an interest in returning to Fratton Park, the former Portsmouth manager remains under contract at Southampton.

The English Championship club are seeking a £220,000 package to release Redknapp and are apparently reluctant to modify that figure. When Pompey's chief executive Peter Storrie informed Lowe that they would be prepared to pay up to £125,000 - £50,000 as a down payment and £75,000 contingent on his club's Premiership survival - the offer, which Storrie intended to be confidential, was made public and dismissed as "derisory".

"This is the first official offer of compensation we have received from Portsmouth and we have turned it down," Lowe said. "Until we reach agreement, Pompey do not have permission to speak to Harry, who is still in our employment."

That led to dismay at Fratton Park, where executives are aware that Redknapp would still welcome talks with Portsmouth. "It seems they want to keep Harry Redknapp at Southampton as they have rejected this offer," said Portsmouth's chairman Milan Mandaric, before adding that he had not been able to speak personally to Lowe since he was otherwise engaged. "(Lowe) is too busy today hunting the ducks - that's more important to him than the football."

It could be that Redknapp will force the issue by covering the discrepancy in valuation between the two sides from his own pocket - an outcome that would suit both clubs if not the manager.

"If Portsmouth come back and do a deal, I'd love to go back and try and keep them up, but if I'm out of football, I'm out of football," said Redknapp. "I'll put myself under severe pressure if I go back to Pompey - they're not the team I left behind. But I'm not sure it's going to happen at the moment because Rupert wants his compensation."

And the rifts at Southampton continued to widen yesterday with the assistant manager Kevin Bond criticising Dave Bassett's haste in applying for the job vacated by Harry Redknapp.

"I'm extremely disappointed with Dave Bassett's comments in respect of his desire to take charge of team affairs along with Dennis Wise," said Bond, who is upset at being overlooked as caretaker manager.

"The reason I was absent from St Mary's on Saturday was because the chairman asked me not to attend, having made the assumption that I would be joining Harry. The chairman's decision was made without extending me the courtesy of asking my wishes first."

Bond's position has been left in deeper doubt after Lowe confirmed yesterday that Bassett would continue in charge against Luton on Sunday.

Clive Woodward's former right-hand man Simon Clifford was not surprised Redknapp's exit exposed divisions and he was also critical of Bassett, whose methods he described as the "antithesis" of his own. Clifford, who left Southampton last month, predicted civil war would afflict the club until there was an overhaul of the coaching staff from top to bottom.

"There were so many factions among the coaching staff it was untrue," he said. "The one thing that united most of them was they were against what me and Clive were trying to do. The problems are far more deep rooted than Harry Redknapp, and the splits were numerous."

Clifford, who owns non-league Garforth Town and runs an extensive network of football schools, is sceptical of a Bassett-Wise managerial team. "I saw Dennis Wise on the touchline in his suit on Saturday holding a bit of paper and it looked to me like he was going to a fancy-dress party as Jose Mourinho," he said. "They need a manager who can get something out of nothing. The club are not in a position to pay high wages and transfers so they have to find another way."

Clifford said Lowe's plan was for him to form a managerial team with Woodward, eventually, but he will not consider coming back following the departure of Redknapp. "Clive Woodward and Rupert Lowe wanted to be quite radical and had their vision," he said. "I presumed everyone at the club was clear about the future vision of the club, but that wasn't the case."

Clifford thinks Woodward would probably take the manager's job if it was offered. "Clive is willing to see it through. I think he wants to get along with the football fraternity," he said. "For me, it was an impossible situation and in the end I just wanted to leave and get on with my other work. I wasn't brought in just to go along with what they were doing.

"For example, I studied ProZone and felt fitness was an issue, but when I suggested it be looked at I was more or less shouted down. They said I should praise Harry and the coaching staff in interviews, but I wasn't doing all that political crap when some of those coaches had treated me with contempt."