Source: PA
Redknapp's Europa League fear
Harry Redknapp feels playing in next season's Europa League will severely hamper Tottenham's chances of making it into the Champions League the following year.
Spurs have enjoyed a glorious debut season in the Champions League this term, but it now looks likely that they will miss out on dining at Europe's top table next year.
Last weekend's defeat at Chelsea saw Redknapp's team slip to sixth and they could be 10 points behind fourth-place Manchester City by the time they face Blackpool at White Hart Lane.
Redknapp knows his team would have to play 17 times to make the Europa League final and concedes that would have a huge impact on his long-term goal of bringing Champions League football to White Hart Lane on a regular basis.
"Teams who get into the Europa League want to get out of it," Redknapp said. "Half of them put reserve teams out in the early stages and it's difficult to play every Thursday and Sunday. It disrupts things. We didn't have European football last year and we finished fourth. That was a big advantage to us.
"If there are teams around you in the Europa League, you want to keep them in it. If we were in it next year, and you were one of the other clubs around us, you'd want us to stay in that competition because it takes its toll. I wanted Man City to stay in it this year because they were playing every Thursday night, slipping off to Azerbaijan to play a team out there. It's unreal, but that's how that competition is."
