Harry Interview

Interesting points made by Redknapp, especially why he wont play Pav.

Harry Redknapp has downgraded Tottenham Hotspur's aims for the season after a frustrating start to 2011. The Spurs manager came into the new year declaring that his team were title contenders but following injuries and losses of form, plus an inability to strengthen sufficiently during the January transfer window while rivals splashed out, Redknapp now concedes that a third-place finish is probably the best that Spurs can achieve.

Tottenham seemed to be in the ascendancy two weeks ago, when Steven Pienaar rejected Chelsea in favour of a move to White Hart Lane from Everton, but Chelsea responded by forking out more than £75m on Fernando Torres and David Luiz on transfer deadline day while Spurs' attempts to sign more reinforcements were thwarted with several offers, including a club record £35m bid for the Villarreal striker Giuseppe Rossi, being rejected.

Having won only one of their past four league games, Spurs are 13 points behind the leaders Manchester United. They are three behind fourth-placed Chelsea, who Redknapp believes will pull further clear, and he suggested that the only teams now in the top four that his side can realistically aspire to leapfrog are Manchester City and Arsenal.

"We're not going to finish above Manchester United now," said Redknapp. "You can't give them such a headstart. If I had to pick one team who had a chance of catching them, I'd have to go with Chelsea. They're looking strong again. We've still got a chance of finishing above the others but then Liverpool still have a chance of finishing above the lot of us. It's definitely even harder to qualify for the Champions League this year than it was last year."

If Tottenham are to get back into the top four, they need their strikers back in form. Peter Crouch has struck only two league goals this season while Jermain Defoe has yet to find the net in the league during a campaign interrupted by injury. Robbie Keane has been loaned out to West Ham.

"We're waiting for [Defoe] to suddenly have that burst of goals that will make the difference to us. It's just about confidence. Once they start going in for him he'll go on a run. It's the same with Crouchy. He scored the other night [in the 1-0 win over Blackburn Rovers] and now hopefully he can go on a run. But so far [midfielder Rafael] Van der Vaart is the only one who has got his ratio of goals, we need the strikers to start scoring regularly as well."

Tottenham's top-scoring striker in the league this season has been Roman Pavlyuchenko, with five goals, however Redknapp seems unconvinced by the Russian, who has featured in only two of the last seven league matches and not completed 90 minutes in the league all season.

Pavlyuchenko's agent indicated yesterday that his client is unhappy at his lack of playing time and suggested he would raise the matter with the club's chairman, Daniel Levy. Redknapp hinted that the player's attitude did not impress him, saying sardonically: "It's up to him to get into the team, it's up to Super Pav, isn't it?"

One player who Redknapp could have signed in January but, to his regret, did not is Mark van Bommel. The Dutch World Cup finalist was available for free from Bayern Munich but Redknapp hesitated and the midfielder instead joined AC Milan. "I probably should have taken him, he would have been a good player for us," admitted Redknapp. "I sort of dragged my heels a little bit and we didn't do it."

Van Bommel would have filled the void left by Tom Huddlestone, who this week suffered a setback in his bid to recover from the ankle injury that has kept him out of action since November. Luka Modric, meanwhile, is expected to return in two weeks following the removal of his appendix and Gareth Bale should be fit to resume next weekend.

you dont wait for players to come into form you play the players that are in form.

arry digging for fossils again