Reality bites as Spurs failings exposed

HARRY REDKNAPP will never sacrifice his beliefs and buy his way to a trophy but you have to question if his outburst towards Manchester City will come back to haunt him at the end of the season.

You have to admire Redknapp for the way he has tried to build a team full of flair players at White Hart Lane without spending big money to win the title.

The Tottenham manager was adamant that he could never follow in the footsteps of Manchester City who have billionaire owners and is proud he has brought through his own players who can challenge for major silverware.

But following his side’s failure to beat a struggling Wolves team at home which cost them the chance to go joint top with the two Manchester clubs at the, you are left wondering if Redknapp is wrong in his philosophy.

To be a championship-winning side, you need to have strength in depth and the ability to rotate players and still bring in world-class stars to ensure you get the best out of your squad.

Unfortunately for Redknapp, he does not have that luxury and it clearly showed against Wolves when it mattered most. Too many of Redknapp’s big-name players were below par and you have to question if all their hard work is finally catching up with them.

Redknapp has major defensive problems, with Ledley King and William Gallas facing long spells on the sidelines. Michael Dawson was forced to play his third game in a week after just coming back from four months out with an Achilles injury and it clearly showed.

Rafael van der Vaart produced one of his worst performances of the season while Gareth Bale failed to make any impact and was superbly marshalled by the Wolves defence.

The truth of the matter is that Redknapp cannot afford to leave the likes of Bale or Van der Vaart out of the team and give them some much-needed rest at this crucial stage of the campaign.

Whereas Manchester City can bring in the likes of Edin Dzeko, Mario Balotelli or Adam Johnson who can make a difference, the Tottenham bench lacks the same kind of quality.

Tottenham have fringe players like Danny Rose and Roman Pavlyuchenko who are not in the same league as the other big-name stars at the club and the options open are nowhere near the same as Roberto Mancini has at his disposal.

The January transfer window is now open and how Redknapp would love the chance to sign a player like Carlos Tevez who could make all the difference in the second half of the campaign.

But Redknapp respects the club’s policy on wages and has a clear vision of how he wants his team to challenge at the top — even if it means them missing out on their best ever chance of winning the title.

Redknapp said: “The problem we have is that we can’t afford Tevez. We are not paying £200,000 a week or £40m in transfers.

“We can’t go and get an Aguero. We are not in the £40m market. Arsenal are not going to spend £40m on one player, so it’s difficult to find someone better than what we have.”

Some might say this was typical Tottenham — failing to win when it mattered most.

But you could sense it was not going to be their day after referee Mike Jones amazingly awarded Wolves a corner on 22 minutes which led to the opening goal from Steven Fletcher even though Kyle Walker had clearly not touched the ball as he allowed it to run out of play.

Luka Modric got them back into the game at the start of the second half but with the fans crying for Jermain Defoe to come onto the pitch, the options open to Redknapp were limited and they failed to break down a determined and dogged Wolves side, who followed up their recent impressive draw at Arsenal with another outstanding result in North London.

Wolves manager Mick McCarthy has come under fire recently for failing to pick up results. But he insists he is feeling no pressure from his owner Steve Morgan and does not fear getting the sack.

McCarthy said: “The tide was stemmed at Sunderland with a new manager and the tide was stemmed at QPR with a new manager, so suddenly the water was starting to flow up the M6 and M40 to Wolves.

“It’s just nonsense. But it’s usual. Sky wanted a manager under pressure. They were desperate for one. And that’s killed that one for today, at least.”

Defender Roger Johnson was pleased to win for his manager and insists McCarthy has the backing of the entire Wolves squad.

“It’s nice to [do well] for the manager,” he said.

“We are where we are because of the players, not the manager.

“You can’t sack a whole football team. Unfortunately it comes down to one man and that’s the manager.

“We want to show that we are backing the manager, which everyone of the lads is, and it was a good performance. We are happy with a point. We could have got all three.”