Harry – new Spurs faces vital

Redknapp: Thinks Spurs need to bring in more top signings in the summer

Harry Redknapp has urged Spurs to bring in top-class talent to ensure a swift return to the UEFA Champions League.

Spurs’ 2-1 defeat at Chelsea on Saturday leaves them seven points behind Manchester City in the race for the fourth-place finish in the Barclays Premier League.

Tottenham enjoyed a dramatic run to the last eight of Europe’s premier club competition this season having finished fourth in 2009-10 but look set to miss out on a return to the Champions League next season. Redknapp insists the club will go backwards if they do not strengthen this summer.

He said: “I hate when people say, ‘Oh well, if they don’t make the Champions League, they’re going to sell (Gareth) Bale or they’re going to sell (Luka) Modric – that’s not the way forward.

“The way forward now is to say, ‘Okay, let’s go and find one or two top-drawer players and go and move on again and let’s get back in the Champions League’. “
Harry Redknapp Quotes of the week

“The way forward now is to say, ‘Okay, let’s go and find one or two top-drawer players and go and move on again and let’s get back in the Champions League’.

“I haven’t spoken to (chairman) Daniel (Levy) about it but I’m sure he’s got to be positive. Where do you go if you don’t do that?

“Chelsea looked like they might have dropped out of the top four round about transfer-window time, so they went and spent £75million on two players because they wanted to stay in there.

“I’m not saying we should spend £75million but we need to keep positive and moving forward.”

In spite of their current league position, Redknapp insists Spurs will fight to the end of the campaign in a bid to make the top four.

He said: “We have four games to go, we have to keep going and see where we finish.

“What we need to do now in the summer is make sure we’re still positive.

“If we don’t make the Champions League this year, we can’t throw the towel in and say, ‘That’s the end of Tottenham, we’re going to go back to being eighth or ninth or 10th in the league’. This is a club that can win a championship in the next couple of years.”

But Redknapp is aware that he will have to strengthen his ambitious squad in the summer – whether they finish in the top four or not.

He insisted: “We have the nucleus of a fantastic team. We need to go and add one or two and shift one or two who are not in the team.

“We must keep looking to push on and not take a backward step.”