ENGLISH PREMIER LEAGUEHARRY REDKNAPP has insisted he is in no rush to sign a new contract with Tottenham Hotspur even though his current deal is entering its final year.
Having been overlooked for the position of England manager this week, Redknapp suggested that he would like to stay at White Hart Lane though he is unconcerned that Daniel Levy has yet to make any move to keep him beyond next season, indicating that talks over an extension could be held during the summer.
“It’s up to the chairman, I don’t go running to him asking for a new contract,” Redknapp said.
“I’ll see what happens in the next few weeks and what the chairman has to say. It’s his club. He does what he wants. If he wants to talk to me about a contract we will talk about it. If he doesn’t, we’ll take it from there.”
Redknapp, whose side visit Aston Villa tomorrow, dismissed the idea that Levy could be waiting to see whether Tottenham qualify for the Champions League before deciding whether to stick with him and argued that he has already done enough at White Hart Lane to prove his worth.
“Qualifying for the Champions League is important to everybody but it doesn’t make you a good manager or a bad manager, does it? If you miss out on the Champions League by one point or two points, does it make you a better manager? What can you do? You’re either good or you’re not good.
“I’ve done a good job and if people don’t recognise what you have done or don’t feel that you have done that well, I can’t tell other people: ‘Look how good I’ve done – chairman, here I am.’ It is up to him.
“I’ve got no thoughts of moving anywhere else, but I don’t want to make it seem that I’m chasing after the club to give me a new contract. I am genuinely not.”
He added for Tottenham to demand nothing less than a fourth-place finish would be unrealistic. “At the start of the year if you looked at it, who is supposed to make the Champions League? Manchester United and Manchester City are absolute certainties so you are playing for two places really.
“Arsenal make it every year, Chelsea were certainties, Liverpool spent god knows how much. Realistically, where are we? Fifth or sixth maybe.”
Whatever his own future, Redknapp said Tottenham would be “finished” if they sold key players such as Gareth Bale and Luka Modric this summer, insisting that Modric, in particular, would be irreplaceable. “You can’t replace him,” Redknapp said.
“We are looking to build, to add to the group we’ve got and improve for next year, not to go backwards. If we go backwards, we’re going nowhere basically. We will slump back into mid-table mediocrity and we don’t want that.”
One potential recruit is Ajax’s Belgian centre-back Jan Vertonghen.
“I have watched him and he’s a good player but we’re not close to doing anything with anyone yet,” Redknapp added.
Guardian Service
