The key, as has long been thought, is offloading Roman Pavlyuechnko to free up funds and wage budget.

Zenit St Petersburg, considered one of the front runners for Pav’s signature, have today officially pulled out of the race to sign him after having a loan bid rejected.

And Pav himself has distanced himself from rumours linking him with former club Spartak Moscow’s arch rivals, insisting “I just cannot imagine myself wearing Zenit’s shirt.”.

All is not lost however. Harry Redknapp has refused to deny reports of a recent meeting with Ruud Van Nistelrooy’s agent and confirmed his interest in  signing the Real Madrid striker.

“It’s an interesting one.” said Redknapp.

“Van Nistelrooy is a fantastic player with a proven goalscoring record in England, and if he was available it could be of interest to us.”

“But I’ve already got four strikers and if I ended up trying to keep five of them happy, that’s a problem I could do without.

“Pavlyuchenko is looking to move, and I could only do something with Van Nistelrooy if someone came in for Pav and he decided to go.”

Reading between the lines, the fact that Redknapp is commenting on the story would suggest that Tottenham are confident of striking a deal for Pav soon and we can expect serious moves for a top notch central midfielder following that transfer. Birmingham have been mooted as potential buyers.

Reports today suggest that former Arsenal midfielder Mathieu Flamini, who had been heavily linked with Tottenham, has flown in for talks with Man City about a loan move there.

But the on off saga of Sandro’s move from Brazil to Spurs could still happen. And Spurs are still believed to be interested in Sulley Muntari (of Inter Milan) and Miguel Veloso of (Sporting Lisbon).  

And amazingly, the Telegraph is today reporting that Spurs are in the market for a new right back with 29 year old Mathieu Chalme of Bordeaux top of the list. If that happens, I’ll run down the Tottenham High Road naked, so you’d better hope it doesn’t!

In other news, Jamie O’Hara is back in the squad for tomorrow’s match against Liverpool after he returned from his loan spell at Portsmouth and Tom Huddlestone pulled out of the squad with a knee injury.   

• VIDEO: Best of Harry Redknapp interviews including loads of Effing and Blinding (2 Comments)
• Redknapp explains Keane and Hutton departures – Both still have Spurs futures (30 Comments)
• Veloso To Spurs? Agent: “We Will See Soon”… (10 Comments)
• Begovic Deal Back On? (4 Comments)
• Frantic Dash To Seal £10m Striker Switch (8 Comments)

• VIDEO: Best of Harry Redknapp interviews including loads of Effing and Blinding (2 Comments)
• Redknapp explains Keane and Hutton departures -- Both still have Spurs futures (30 Comments)
• Veloso To Spurs? Agent: “We Will See Soon”… (10 Comments)
• Begovic Deal Back On? (4 Comments)
• Frantic Dash To Seal £10m Striker Switch (8 Comments)

• VIDEO: Best of Harry Redknapp interviews including loads of Effing and Blinding (2 Comments)
• Redknapp explains Keane and Hutton departures -- Both still have Spurs futures (30 Comments)
• Veloso To Spurs? Agent: “We Will See Soon”… (10 Comments)
• Begovic Deal Back On? (4 Comments)
• Frantic Dash To Seal £10m Striker Switch (8 Comments)

Harry Redknapp has clarified his thinking on the goalkeeper situation at Spurs.

There was some confusion amongst Tottenhanam fans as to whether the persistent keeper links in the press indicated a lack of trust in Heurelho Gomes from the Spurs manager.

But Redknapp has confirmed that any move for a goalkeeper would be with the aim of providing quality cover for the Brazilian, not replacing him.

Harry said: People have talked about David James and Ben Foster but they are going to want to play and Gomes has been brilliant this season.”

“It is a difficult situation because if Gomes gets injured, we need someone who can come in and do the job. It’s no good putting someone in just to give them experience.”

It is being widely reported this week that Spurs are on the verge of signing Swiss keeper Eldin Jakupovic on loan from Lokomotiv Moscow with a view to a permanent £1m deal in the summer.

• VIDEO: Best of Harry Redknapp interviews including loads of Effing and Blinding (2 Comments)
• Redknapp explains Keane and Hutton departures – Both still have Spurs futures (30 Comments)
• Veloso To Spurs? Agent: “We Will See Soon”… (10 Comments)
• Begovic Deal Back On? (4 Comments)
• Frantic Dash To Seal £10m Striker Switch (8 Comments)

• VIDEO: Best of Harry Redknapp interviews including loads of Effing and Blinding (2 Comments)
• Redknapp explains Keane and Hutton departures – Both still have Spurs futures (30 Comments)
• Veloso To Spurs? Agent: “We Will See Soon”… (10 Comments)
• Begovic Deal Back On? (4 Comments)
• Frantic Dash To Seal £10m Striker Switch (8 Comments)

New video compilation of Aaron Lennon in the Harry Redknapp era (includes the Wigan match).

• VIDEO: Best of Harry Redknapp interviews including loads of Effing and Blinding (2 Comments)
• Redknapp explains Keane and Hutton departures -- Both still have Spurs futures (30 Comments)
• Veloso To Spurs? Agent: “We Will See Soon”… (10 Comments)
• Begovic Deal Back On? (4 Comments)
• Frantic Dash To Seal £10m Striker Switch (8 Comments)

Done the Christmas shopping yet? Not long to go. Click here for exclusive savings and voucher offers at Argos

Mark Hughes has dismissed Tottenham’s hopes of signing Man City defender Micah Richards. Harry Redknapp had hoped to bring the  former England player to Spurs in a £6m deal in January after Richards found first team football difficult to come by at City this season.

But Hughes said:

‘Micah Richards is not going anywhere in January.’

‘He is a big part of what we are trying to do here and we know he can improve. Don’t forget, he is still a very young man.

‘His football experience is great for someone of so few years and sometimes he doesn’t get enough credit for that.

‘But he is nowhere near the finished article. There is a huge amount of potential still to be tapped into.’

• VIDEO: Best of Harry Redknapp interviews including loads of Effing and Blinding (2 Comments)
• Redknapp explains Keane and Hutton departures – Both still have Spurs futures (30 Comments)
• Veloso To Spurs? Agent: “We Will See Soon”… (10 Comments)
• Begovic Deal Back On? (4 Comments)
• Frantic Dash To Seal £10m Striker Switch (8 Comments)

Done the Christmas shopping yet? Not long to go. Click here for exclusive savings and voucher offers at Argos

Harry Redknapp said after the 9-1 thrashing of Wigan last week that Jermaine Defoe is the best finisher around.

And Aston Villa boss Martin O’Neil agrees.

He said:

“I wouldn’t disagree with Harry Redknapp that he may well be as good a finisher as anybody in the Premiership.

“Defoe is a very fine player. But it is not just him we will have to be aware of. Tottenham have a number of good players like Peter Crouch, Aaron Lennon and Niko Kranjcar.

“Tottenham were absolutely brilliant at the weekend and in unstoppable form. I felt they were excellent.

“I happened to be at the game and they caused Wigan all sorts of problems scoring that number of goals.

“But saying that I don’t think for one minute that anyone would have expected at half-time that Wigan would have conceded eight goals in the second half.

“It is an appetising game with the two teams in fourth and fifth place.”

• VIDEO: Best of Harry Redknapp interviews including loads of Effing and Blinding (2 Comments)
• Redknapp explains Keane and Hutton departures – Both still have Spurs futures (30 Comments)
• Veloso To Spurs? Agent: “We Will See Soon”… (10 Comments)
• Begovic Deal Back On? (4 Comments)
• Frantic Dash To Seal £10m Striker Switch (8 Comments)

Done the Christmas shopping yet? Not long to go. Click here for exclusive savings and voucher offers at Argos

Harry Redknapp has confirmed that Luka Modric is back in training following his long lay off with a boken leg.

Redknapp said: “Luka’s coming on slowly, gradually getting there, but we are seeing some light at the end of the tunnel.

“He’s joined in for the first time today, so we are starting to get there with Luka.”

• VIDEO: Best of Harry Redknapp interviews including loads of Effing and Blinding (2 Comments)
• Redknapp explains Keane and Hutton departures – Both still have Spurs futures (30 Comments)
• Veloso To Spurs? Agent: “We Will See Soon”… (10 Comments)
• Begovic Deal Back On? (4 Comments)
• Frantic Dash To Seal £10m Striker Switch (8 Comments)

Done the Christmas shopping yet? Not long to go. Click here for exclusive savings and voucher offers at Argos

Here is a transcript of Harry Redknapp’s pre-match press conference today before the match against Aston Villa at Villa Park tomorrow.

Asked if he’d risk making any changes to a side that beat Wigan 9-1 last time out, Redknapp replied:

“It’s possible that I’d make one or two changes, it’s a different game and winning at home is different to playing away, you’ve only got to look at results over history.”

“It was a difficult week for me,” he said. “Look at JJ, he played against Brazil then I didn’t play him but his attitude has been terrific, and the way he has conducted himself has been first class.

“It wasn’t easy for him after playing against Brazil but he showed me what a fantastic professional he is.”

Translation? Jenas in for Hudd or Kranjcar me thinks. And I’d be very surprised not to see Keane in the starting line up although there’s no way that he should be :(

Redknapp on the match itself:

“There will be no danger of complacency as it’s a very tough game, you are never going to get an easy game there, so it’s an evenly matched game between two teams trying to get into Europe.

“You don’t have a lot of time to dwell. When I was driving home from the Wigan game I was already thinking about the Villa game. We have a very tough week with Villa, Manchester United in the Carling Cup and then Everton.”

On the race for 4th place:

“Man City will still be favourites, they’ve got a fantastic squad of players, but us and Villa are still trying to push into that area,” he said.

“One or two feel they have a chance to push the top four and break into that group.

“We could go second with a win, that would be nice but it’s where you finish at the end of the season – 25 points at this stage is a good total but we’ve got to keep building on that now.”

On Defoe:

“He’s been sharp ever since he came back from injury earlier this year and I said before the game he can carry on from the training ground,” Redknapp said. “If we can get one or two from him at Villa I’ll be delighted.”

On the Villa squad:

“Martin O’Neill made some good signings, the three defenders – Richard Dunne, James Collins and Stephen Warnock – were terrific, no gambles, absolute certs to be Premier League successes, and so they look stronger this year with pace and counter-attacking abilities.”

• VIDEO: Best of Harry Redknapp interviews including loads of Effing and Blinding (2 Comments)
• Redknapp explains Keane and Hutton departures – Both still have Spurs futures (30 Comments)
• Veloso To Spurs? Agent: “We Will See Soon”… (10 Comments)
• Begovic Deal Back On? (4 Comments)
• Frantic Dash To Seal £10m Striker Switch (8 Comments)