Redknapp eyes permanent Spurs deal for Gudjohnsen

Harry Redknapp wants to make the transfer of Eidur Gudjohnsen permanent in the summer and the on-loan Monaco striker will be given plenty of opportunity to justify such a move as Tottenham try to cope with more injury problems.

Eyebrows were raised when Redknapp moved for the former Chelsea and Barcelona striker in January and allowed Robbie Keane to move to Celtic on loan for the remainder of the season.

The loss of Russian striker Roman Pavlyuchenko with a hamstring injury suffered in Saturday’s 2-1 win over Stoke underlined the risk that Redknapp was taking.

But Redknapp insists Gudjohnsen, 31, can play a major role between now and the end of the season, particularly if a scheduled scan on Pavlyuchenko?s hamstring reveals he will be missing for some time.

Jermain Defoe has already been diagnosed with a grade two tear of one of his hamstrings, leaving Redknapp with just two fit strikers — Gudjohnsen and Peter Crouch — for Wednesday?s FA Cup sixth round replay against Fulham.

Spurs are unable to recall Keane from his loan spell at Celtic and Redknapp is just glad he beat West Ham to the signature of Gudjohnsen and hopes he can secure the striker on a long-term contract this summer.

Gudjohnsen scored his first goal to help secure a fifth straight win for Tottenham and played a part in Niko Kranjcar?s winner as Redknapp’s men tightened their grip on fourth place in the Premier League table.

The Spurs boss said of Gudjohnsen: “He is a top player. Every day he comes in and shows his fantastic ability. He is top, top drawer.

“He has been so unlucky because Pavlyuchenko started hitting that excellent patch. Defoe was scoring and Crouch was getting goals. So it was hard to get him in the team.

“I think he thought he had made the wrong move going to Monaco. That is where people go to retire. They only get 4,000, 5,000 crowds and he was not enjoying his football. I would be interested in taking him permanently.

“He helped us get a great result. A draw is a good result at Stoke, so anything more than that is excellent.”

Stoke, who had Dean Whitehead sent off early in the second half, cancelled out Gudjohnsen’s opener through a Matthew Etherington penalty but could not hold out until the end.

That left Stoke boss Tony Pulis feeling bitter over the performance of referee Mike Dean, after complaining to referee chief Mike Riley about the official in the lead up to the match.

The Stoke manager authorised a letter of complaint to Riley and followed that up with a phone call regarding the appointment of Dean to officiate the game with Spurs.

The sending off of Whitehead was the third time this season Dean has brandished a red card to a Stoke player in a total of only five sendings off for the club.

“Mike Dean has not done brilliant for us. I spoke to Mike Riley about my concerns over his appointment,” said Pulis.

“He got the bookings right in the first half, but Dean Whitehead?s second challenge on Modric. It was a free kick, but is it a booking? I don’t think so.

“I tried to get Mike Riley to change the appointment. I said we were not too happy to see him refereeing our game. We were hoping to avoid him for the rest of the season.

“We have had a couple of bad decisions with him. I am not questioning his integrity. I am sure he has had good games this season, but in our games there have been contentious decisions.”