Vieira keen to earn his Spurs – Redknapp

Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp has admitted that former Arsenal captain Patrick Vieira is keen to quit Inter Milan for a shock move to White Hart Lane.

Vieira earned hero status at Arsenal during his nine-year spell with the Gunners, but the France midfielder is looking for regular first-team action after falling out of favour at Inter and Redknapp believes he would gladly join his former club’s bitter rivals.

If Vieira does sign for Spurs, he would risk angering Arsenal fans who regard him as a legend, but Redknapp insisted that wouldn’t stop the 33-year-old returning to north London.

“I’m still interested in Patrick, I would like him,” Redknapp said. “What’s he done wrong? He hasn’t killed anyone, he’s just a great player who played for Arsenal.

“If he wants to come to Tottenham it shows you about his character. He’s not interested in money. He wants to come and play, he’s a fantastic player and wants to play here.”

Redknapp’s priority at the moment is to find cover at centre-back after Jonathan Woodgate joined Ledley King and Michael Dawson on the injury list this week.

All three could miss the start of the season but Redknapp also wants a defensive midfielder to protect his back four and has enquired about Real Madrid’s Lassana Diarra as well as Vieira.

Redknapp also admitted he would still consider buying Peter Crouch from Portsmouth if his former club lower their asking price for the England striker.

“I’m still interested in Crouchy but the whole package looks a bit expensive at the moment,” Redknapp said. “I don’t want to tell Portsmouth how much to ask for Peter, that’s up to them.”

Redknapp’s injury-hit side were out-played for long periods by an under-strength Barcelona team missing Lionel Messi, Thierry Henry and Xavi among others.

But they still emerged from the pre-season Wembley Cup friendly with a 1-1 draw thanks to a late equaliser from teenage midfielder Jake Livermore.

Livermore has yet to make his competitive debut for Spurs, but he had signed a new contract keeping him at the club until 2011 earlier in the day and he came off the bench to cancel out Bojan Krkic’s opener with a looping header.

Tottenham play their second Wembley Cup match against Celtic on Sunday but Redknapp knows the Scottish club are unlikely to pose such a stern test as Barcelona.

“It’s very difficult to play under that pressure,” Redknapp said. “The whole club is a credit to football. People will only talk about their passing but I saw the other side of their game.”

With his defensive injury crisis in mind, Redknapp tried Vedran Corluka, Tom Huddlestone, Pascal Chimbonda and Dorian Dervite at centre-back but wasn’t completely convinced by any of the partnerships.

“I haven’t got a lot of options,” Redknapp added. “It was difficult with the movement they had to deal with. It was a different system, unlike a team from England when they would have a big centre-forward to play against.”