Redknapp confident of keeping squad together
Reuters - Friday 11 May 2012, 14:30
Tottenham Hotspur
manager Harry Redknapp is confident of keeping his exciting
squad together even if the team slip up against Fulham on Sunday
and finish the Premier League season out of the Champions League
places.
Asked if Tottenham's best players would want to leave if
that happened, Redknapp told reporters on Friday: "Champions
League football gets over-hyped a bit.
"At the end of the day, if you pay players good wages and
get them a good contract they are happy."
He also dismissed a story in the Spanish sports newspaper
Marca that Spurs had agreed a 40-million-euro fee with Barcelona
for midfielder Gareth Bale.
"I wouldn't think there's the slightest bit of truth in
that. Not a chance I wouldn't have thought," Redknapp said at
the club's training ground.
"You have got to keep our best players because if you don't,
where are you going? You can't be selling your best players."
Tottenham, fourth in the table, could finish third and
return to the Champions League after a year's absence if they
beat Fulham and Arsenal, a point above them, fail to win against
West Bromwich Albion.
Fifth-placed Newcastle United, who are one point behind
Spurs, could also clinch a top-three finish and are away to
Everton.
"If we win we are definitely going to finish fourth so we
have just got to try to win a difficult game," Redknapp said of
the match which will be a return to White Hart Lane for Fulham
boss Martin Jol, who managed Spurs between 2004 and 2007.
"If we finish third it would be great but if we finish
fourth it would still be a great achievement."
As long as Chelsea do not beat Bayern Munich in the
Champions League final next week, that would put Spurs into the
preliminary round for next season's competition.
Asked if he would be the world's biggest Bayern Munich
supporter if Spurs did finish fourth Redknapp replied: "If we
finish third I will be an even bigger Chelsea fan."
Spurs have a problem at left-back with first choice Benoit
Assou-Ekotto injured and his stand-in Danny Rose suspended after
being sent off at Aston Villa last Sunday.
Bale could be moved from left midfield to fill in at
full-back. Scott Parker is still struggling with the Achilles
problem that has seen him miss the last three games although he
was on the bench for the 1-1 draw at Villa Park.