Redknapp: I will not quit

After missing two games after a heart operation, Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp has shown his passion for football is as strong as ever.

He returned to the bench for the impressive 2-0 win over Aston Villa on Monday night and takes his team to West Bromwich Albion on Saturday, aiming to build on an unbeaten run of nine games that has fired Tottenham into third place on the Premier League table.

“It never entered my mind,” Redknapp said when asked about retirement plans. “It drove me mad, sitting at home. I had a bad couple of weeks but now I feel better than before.”

“I have been chasing [my wife] Sandra around the kitchen a lot. She asked them if they could reverse this process.”

Success tends to increase exposure and this has certainly been the case with the club’s star players as interest in Gareth Bale appears to be accelerating, with Barcelona the latest club to be linked with the Welsh winger.

However, Redknapp remained firm in his stance when questioned about selling the major talents in his team, and this was emphasised by chairman Daniel Levy’s summer decision to rebuff Chelsea’s attempts to prise Luka Modric from the club.

“We have never spoke to anyone [about Bale],” Redknapp said.

“If you start selling your best players where does it end?”

“You have to say we’ll be a mid-table team. If you want to be a top team you’ve got to keep your best players.”

Aside from the impressive start Scott Parker has made to his Tottenham career, fellow summer signing Emmanuel Adebayor has led the line well, contributing five goals and four assists so far this season.

Asked whether Tottenham would look to make his loan deal a permanent transfer, Redknapp said: “He is on a big contract at Man City and it is not a contract he can get here. He’d have to take a big pay cut.”

“But who knows? I am sure that if anyone will be able to put a deal together, it will be the chairman.”

Tottenham have won eight of their first 11 matches for the first time since the 1966-67 season and have done so on four other occasions. Every time this has happened, the club have finished in the top four.