Harry tried to land AWOL Tevez in January

Tottenham failed in an audacious bid to sign Manchester City maverick Carlos Tevez in January, Harry Redknapp has confirmed.

Tevez was AWOL from City at the time and it is not known whether he would have been keen on a move to Spurs, who were then keeping pace with City in the title race, but a potential deal would not have happened anyway due to the forward’s wage demands.

“I said to the chairman ‘can you get me Carlos Tevez?’,” Redknapp said. “Daniel made some enquiries, but it wasn’t doable. If he could have done it, he would have.

“He [Levy] would have loved Tevez, but it wasn’t possible because his wages are £200,000 a week.”

Redknapp’s team now find themselves fifth in the Barclays Premier League after a run of one win in nine.

Tottenham defender Vedran Corluka, who is on loan at Bayer Leverkusen, risked his manager’s ire this week when he claimed that the north London side could finish as low as sixth because of his failure to rotate.

Redknapp robustly denied Corluka’s claims that his players are worn out.

“No players have ever come to me and said they felt tired,” Redknapp said. “Some of their stats have gone down because they have not wanted to run about enough — it’s not because they are knackered.

“I don’t ever remember Bobby Moore getting rotated, nor Geoff Hurst, Martin Peters, Dave Mackay or Alan Mullery. They played ankle deep in mud every week. It’s a load of nonsense. It’s an excuse.”

Redknapp was also irritated by the claim that he had a bust-up with striker Emmanuel Adebayor this week.

“Whoever said that is telling lies. It is an absolute lie,” he said.

Redknapp insists his team must win all their four remaining games — starting with tomorrow’s home clash against Blackburn — if they are to overtake Newcastle and move back into the final Champions League qualifying spot.