Stars will follow money, says Harry

MANAGER Harry Redknapp conceded that it would have been “beyond our wildest dreams” that his team would be within touching distance of the top of the table after their woeful start to the season.

The Londoners will go joint top of the Barclays Premier League today if they beat Wolves at home after putting pressure on favourites Manchester City, and rivals United, with a 2-0 win over Everton on Wednesday.

However, Tottenham’s strict wage structure means the club will always struggle to hang on to their top players, according to Redknapp.

He concedes the likes of City, United and Chelsea are in a different league.

Spurs had to fight hard to fend off Chelsea’s interest in Luka Modric last summer — when the Blues reportedly offered to triple the Croatian’s wages — and Redknapp admits money, and not glory, is the prime motivation behind any top-flight footballer’s thinking nowadays.

“Players play for a club and they enjoy being there, but if someone comes along and offers them a contract that could blow their current one out of the water, then you’ve got a problem,” Redknapp said.

“I’d be talking rubbish if I said people wanted to stay at Tottenham just because we’re playing good football. I’d be dreaming. If you want to keep the best players, we have to find a way of doing a deal that’s near to what they can earn elsewhere, otherwise it will be a problem.”

Redknapp concedes Emmanuel Adebayor will have to take a huge pay cut if he is to stay at White Hart Lane next season.

Adebayor has struck up a good understanding with Rafael van der Vaart to keep top goalscorer Jermain Defoe out of the team and the Togo striker is keen to make his move to north London permanent.

Spurs’ top earners are thought to be on roughly £70,000 a week — about a third of what Adebayor receives at the Etihad Stadium, and Redknapp summed up the gulf in spending power between the two clubs by saying: “He has done well for us. He has worked hard but he is on amazing money.

“The other week, one of the lads told him that he had not paid his £50 fine for being the worst player in training on a Friday morning. One of the lads said to him: [Bloody hell, Ade, you are on 200 grand a week and you can’t afford to pay a £50 fine!’ He replied, [Don’t insult me, it’s 225!”

Spurs can at least breathe relatively easy for the rest of the season about Modric after Andre Villas-Boas confirmed he would not renew his interest in him this month.

But with the Croatian, Gareth Bale and Van der Vaart all receiving rave reviews this term, the summer could prove the ultimate test of Spurs’ ambitions of being regular title challengers.

Aware that having a big squad will be key to ensuring Spurs maintain their title challenge, especially with games at Manchester City, Liverpool and Arsenal to come before the end of next month, Redknapp is adamant that he will not let his fringe players, including Defoe, leave this month.

The first test of that policy came yesterday when Tottenham received an undisclosed bid from QPR for Steven Pienaar that was quickly rejected.

“I wouldn’t want to let him go. He is a good player,” Redknapp said.