Harry Confident Of Arsenal Victory
Spurs manager Harry Redknapp believes his side are closing the gap on North London rivals Arsenal, and says he believes the Lilywhites can beat the Gunners when the two sides meet next month – as well as finishing in a top-four spot.
Speaking at a Jewish Care business breakfast on Wednesday, Redknapp said: “To be honest the gap [between Spurs and Arsenal] is closing. They’ve built a fantastic club, they’ve got some great youngsters and their scouting system has been second to none in recent years. Arsene Wenger keeps bringing in young players; they have a conveyor belt of young players coming through.“They’re a well-run club who have a manager who’s done a good job and they could win the league this year. But when we play them at White Hart Lane, I fancy our chances of beating them.”
Currently sitting outside a lucrative fourth spot, Redknapp is though confident his side can finish there, but highlighted Man City as their main threat to the spot. “We’ve given away some silly points this year but I still feel we have a strong possibility of us finishing in fourth,” he says. “Man City are the team to beat. They had a great win at Chelsea the other week but we’re right in it and have every chance this year of finishing in the top four.”
Confident in his side’s capabilities of finishing in the top four, Redknapp’s also extremely positive when talking about England’s chances of success in this year’s World Cup. He said: “England have the best group of players right now since I don’t know when and I think this is the best chance we will ever have to win the World Cup again – I think it’s a group which has a genuine chance of winning the tournament.
“However, while we have a great crop of English players now, you do wonder where the next group will be coming through from. Now we have the Lampard’s, Rooney’s and Gerrard’s, but already you can see it’s harder and more difficult for young English talent to come through. Kids also have other distractions nowadays and it is a worry.”
Redknapp was similarly pessimistic about the future of English football in terms of foreign owners – and what it will do for club managers. He said: “I think there will be more and more foreign players and owners coming into our game, and with the foreign owners coming in, I think that will result in more managers facing the sack on a more regular basis. These people coming over are used to winning and don’t or won’t understand when they don’t as only a few teams can win silverware each season.
Redknapp also ruled out any possibility of becoming the England manager in the future, saying he prefers the day-to-day running of being a club manager. “It’s not for me now”, he said. “Besides I couldn’t handle sitting in an office every day, for me it’s to go out on the pitch every day with the players. And when you’re England manager you get almighty grief and it’s difficult to cope with the pressure. For me when you win and it’s going well it’s fantastic, but when you lose it’s crazy, you get so low it’s not right. “
