Redknapp blasts Spurs’ booze boys

HARRY REDKNAPP has launched a scathing attack on the drinking culture he inherited at Tottenham Hotspur and has warned he will not tolerate any more public transgressions from his wayward players.

Redknapp is still furious at the conduct of his club captain Ledley King, who was arrested by police in the small hours of Sunday morning after allegedly occasioning actual bodily harm on a bouncer outside a Soho nightspot.

King has been fined two weeks’ wages – roughly £130,000 (€146,000) – and warned as to his future conduct after being hauled into Redknapp’s office for a dressing-down last week, although his willingness to issue an immediate public apology means he will start today’s match with Manchester City at White Hart Lane.

But Redknapp fears the England defender’s behaviour is emblematic of a more deep-rooted problem at Spurs and now plans to ban his squad from visiting nightclubs in a bid to restore the club’s image.

“When I first came here, everybody said to me: ‘The players are always out in nightclubs,’” he said. “Why do you want that reputation as a group? It’s not right and I don’t see why we have to have it now.

“We will have a meeting with the players next week and we are going to put strong measures in place to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

“We would put a ban on them going to nightclubs. We’re certainly able to do that – we’re paying them massive money and they should look after themselves.”

Redknapp cited the conduct of foreign players such as Paolo Maldini and Paolo Di Canio, the striker he managed at West Ham, as role models for their English counterparts.

“You wouldn’t get that sort of behaviour among foreign players in the Premier League – they come from a different culture,” he added. “You wouldn’t get Paolo Maldini, at 41, getting so drunk lager is coming out of ears and he can’t stand up.

“Paolo Di Canio also looked after himself incredibly well and didn’t buy into the drinking culture. Once, my West Ham players were warming up and Neil Ruddock was boasting about having 10 pints and shagging the night before.

“Paolo was like: ‘F***ing hell, what the f*** is this? You are a f***ing idiot, Neil.’ And, to be fair, he had a point.”