‘It’s a tough ask, that top four’ – Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp believes Champions League spot is out of reach

Harry Redknapp, manager of Tottenham Hotspur

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Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp believes a top four finish could well be beyond his side after they dropped two points at home to relegation threatened Blackpool.

Spurs couldn’t take advantage of Manchester City’s defeat to Everton and find themselves six points behind Roberto Mancini’s men with three games to go, with a trip to Eastlands to come on Tuesday.

“It’s a tough ask, that top four,” Redknapp told the BBC. “If people are realistic and understand football they’d look at the top four and say ‘Look, who’s going to drop out of the top four every year?

“Manchester United? I don’t think so, they’re in the Champions League final. Chelsea? Not a chance, too strong. Arsenal? Not really. Every year they’re in Champions League.

“Man City? Unbelievable resources, fantastic squad. Getting stronger and stronger, they’ll get stronger in the summer again. There’s a championship in Manchester City for sure. Liverpool are going to get better.

“It’s very difficult to make that top four; very, very difficult. It’s a difficult ask.

“You have to keep trying to improve in the summer, try and juggle around, shift one or two lads who aren’t in the side, to give us a bit more quality in the team to try again and do it next year.”

Jermain Defoe’s 88th minute strike cancelled out Charlie Adam’s penalty but it wasn’t enough to earn all three points for Spurs, with Redknapp admitting that Champions League chance may have disappeared.

“We needed a win today,” he added. “Anything else but a win was no good to us really.

“We’ve drawn too many games lately. We haven’t been able to kill teams off. We haven’t been quite as good as we were a couple months back when we were just beating teams instead of drawing so many games.

“Whether we’ve just got a bit flat after the Champions League run; it takes an awful lot out of you.

“It just wasn’t to be today. Wasn’t a lack of effort, just a little lack of quality in the end to score the goals we needed.”