Here comes trouble! Super rich City will win league in 3 yrs
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Here comes trouble! Super rich Manchester City will win league in three years, warns Tottenham boss Harry Redknapp
Big-money man: Manchester City saw off United with a huge outlay of £45m for striker Carlos Tevez
Pressure? Real pressure? How about languishing four points adrift at the foot of the Barclays Premier League and calculating the cost of relegation with a lavish squad and a mammoth wage bill?
'We were bottom of the league and the chairman hadn't slept for a few weeks,' says Harry Redknapp. 'He just kept telling me, "We can't get relegated, Harry, we mustn't get this club relegated". So I helped him sleep by getting us out of trouble.'
Redknapp grins as he recounts the story ahead of tonight's game at Manchester City, where a win for Tottenham will guarantee a top-four finish and a ticket into the lucrative Champions League for the first time.
The game is 'massive', he admits, but the Spurs manager is training the heat on his opponents, a club with seemingly limitless financial muscle who are itching to dominate the world. Their impatience has seen them dispose of one manager this season.
'There's no pressure on us,' says Redknapp. 'We set out for a top-seven finish so we've definitely exceeded expectations. There's more pressure on them.
'If you'd asked me for a top five, I'd have put Liverpool in it for sure - I thought they could win it this year after finishing second - and I thought Man City could beat anyone. I thought they could even be champions this season.
'Everybody in football knows it's only a matter of time before they win the title. I think they'll win it in the next three or four years. They're a powerful outfit with the owners they've got.
'With the players people tell me they're trying to bring in over the summer, they're going to put a team together to win the championship. They probably will do. If you bring enough world-class players, you're going to have a chance.'
Bidding war: City warned Spurs off a move for Craig Bellamy, says Redknapp
If Redknapp's assessment of City is accurate, this game has repercussions on the speed of their unstoppable progress. With the added lustre of Champions League football, what is there to stop a procession of top players beating a path to the City of Manchester Stadium to pocket Europe's fattest pay packets and play in the world's best club competition?
Redknapp revealed yesterday how Spurs had been bullied out of their attempt to sign striker Craig Bellamy from West Ham last year because City threatened to 'blow them out of the water' in their efforts to sign midfielder Wilson Palacios from Wigan. Money talks.
'I mean, Carlos Tevez, he cost £45million, didn't he,' says Redknapp. 'That's what the whole deal came to, apparently. That's why Manchester United didn't take him in the end. That's big, big money? And obviously massive wages. But that's the level they're at.'
The knock-on effect of this policy appears to be incessant pressure on the manager. Roberto Mancini replaced Mark Hughes in December and his future is uncertain, even if he finishes fourth.
'That's up to the owners, ' Redknapp shrugs. 'It's fierce when you think about it. Mark Hughes was doing fine. It's difficult.'
Spurs can put the brakes on City by keeping them out of the top four for another year and boosting their own interests: the endless pursuit of neighbours Arsenal and expensive projects to build a new stadium and new training ground.
'No one is walking around here thinking, "Cor, we can get in the Champions League",' said Redknapp. 'It has never been mentioned. I've not even spoken to the players about it. Hopefully it will happen. If we can get in the Champions League next year, it would be great for us. I'd be pleased to be a part of it. We'll give it our best shot.
'But if you start thinking, "Am I going to make it?" and then you don't make it, you will commit suicide in this game. You can't get ahead of yourself. I can't get too up before it happens. Or too low if it does not happen. I don't think the players think that way. It's difficult to explain sometimes.'
Redknapp can afford to play it cool. He has transformed Spurs from bottom of the Premier League to the brink of the Champions League in 18 months and the £5m paid to release him from Portsmouth will go down as one of Levy's best investments. Unlike Mancini, his job and his popularity are safe.
He may go to Manchester fretting over the fitness of captain Ledley King and goalkeeper Heurelho Gomes but he has assembled a strong squad at White Hart Lane.
On Saturday his six outfield substitutes (Palacios, Aaron Lennon, Eidur Gudjohnsen, Jermaine Jenas, Peter Crouch and Sebastien Bassong) would have made any rival manager envious.
A win tonight and he will join a small band of English managers who have appeared in the modern Champions League.
'What gets me excited?' Redknapp mused. 'My missus is still trying to find the answer.'
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I am not sure all this. depend on what type of star players they can attract. seems like all the top players in the world, like kaka, messi, ronaldo, buffon, terry etc all rejected their advances.