 Redknapp said he expects to be in place at Spurs on Sunday
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Tottenham Hotspur have appointed Portsmouth boss Harry Redknapp as their new manager after sacking coach Juande Ramos late on Saturday night.
Spurs have agreed a compensation package of £5m with Portsmouth, according to the 61-year-old Redknapp.
Tottenham also axed sporting director Damien Comolli and first-team coaches Gus Poyet and Marcos Alvarez following their worst ever start to a season.
“It’s a big opportunity to manage a big club before I retire,” said Redknapp.
Spurs are four points adrift at the bottom of the Premier League after taking just two points from eight matches this season. They also lost to Udinese in the Uefa Cup on Thursday.
A statement from Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy on Sunday read: “I have made (an) important judgement call and in doing so I have taken some very difficult decisions.
“Relieving Juande Ramos, our head coach, and Juande’s assistants, Gus Poyet and Marcos Alvarez, of their posts is not something I have undertaken lightly.
“Unfortunately, our record of just three league wins since our memorable Carling Cup victory against Chelsea last February, combined with our extremely poor start to the season, led the board and I to determine that significant change was necessary as a matter of urgency.”
Levy made it clear the departure of sporting director Comolli signalled a return to a “more traditional style of football management”.
He added: “We must prepare ourselves to take advantage of the January transfer window.
“Harry’s experience of the UK and international transfer market will be of critical importance and I shall be looking to Harry for clarity on our priorities.”
And Redknapp told 5 Live’s Sportsweek: “The chairman knows the team needs strengthening in two or three positions still, we are short in one or two areas and that is something I will be looking at.
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Pompey couldn’t sell a player in the [transfer] window so we sell the manager
Harry Redknapp
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“However, first and foremost it will be about getting the best out of the players who are here. There are some good ones who have not done as well as they should have done.
“We have got to get them playing to their maximum and if we do that, then we will be OK.”
Redknapp revealed that Spurs contacted Portsmouth on Friday morning, and after discussions between Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy and Pompey chief executive Peter Storrie, it was agreed he could talk to the north London club.
“I’ve had a great time at Portsmouth and we’ve had an unbelievable, successful time over the six years I’ve been here,” Redknapp told BBC Radio 5 Live.
“But Tottenham made a fantastic offer to Portsmouth and it was difficult.
“It was a lot of money – I think £5m, crazy money really. Pompey couldn’t sell a player in the [transfer] window so we sell the manager.”
Storrie said: “Harry is a great manager and we, of course, did not want him to leave. We tried everything we could to keep him at Portsmouth.
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Tottenham is a club that has massively underachieved this year – to be sitting there with two points and, let’s be honest, in a real desperate situation, a relegation battle
Harry Redknapp
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“However, he made it clear that although he has achieved great success here at Fratton Park, apparently Spurs is one of the only clubs he would consider leaving for.”
Redknapp plans to be at White Hart Lane on Sunday to address the players before they take on Bolton, with development squad coach, Clive Allen, and youth team manager, Alex Inglethorpe, officially in charge for the match.
“I am a big follower of the history of the game and Tottenham have been a great club over the years,” Redknapp added on 5 Live.
“I followed Tottenham, I trained there as an 11-year-old, 12-year-old so I know the history of the club. It is a big, big, club.
“It is a club that has massively underachieved this year – to be sitting there with two points and, let’s be honest, in a real desperate situation, a relegation battle.
“There’s a lot of quality players there that obviously haven’t done as well as they should have done. You don’t end up with two points from eight games if you’re doing what you should be doing.
 Ramos has paid the price for Spurs’ terrible start to the season
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“So they need to start performing as I know they can. Whether it’s confidence or whatever, it’s up to me to go in and try to get the best out of them players.”
Redknapp said first-team coach Joe Jordan and Tony Adams, the assistant manager, would be in charge of Portsmouth for Sunday’s match against Fulham at Fratton Park.
And he said he has no plans to bring the pair to White Hart Lane with him.
“Tony is an Arsenal man, and he wouldn’t be a Tottenham man at all,” Redknapp told 5 Live.
“Joe Jordan has been fantastic for me and I would always be pleased to have him with me anywhere.
“But he is at Portsmouth at the moment and it is up to him and the club to see what will happen in the future.”
Redknapp spent most of his playing career with West Ham and Bournemouth and went on to manage both clubs before taking charge of Portsmouth in 2002, guiding the club into the Premier League within 14 months as First Division champions.
He left for Pompey’s bitter south coast rivals Southampton in 2004 but returned to Fratton Park in December 2005.
Then, after dramatically saving Pompey from the drop with an unbelievable final 10-game run, Redknapp steered them to a best-ever Premier League finish of ninth in 2006/07.
Juande Ramos spoke about the season to Football Focus before his sacking
They bettered that by a place in 2007/08, and won the FA Cup against Cardiff, qualifying for their first journey into Uefa Cup football.
In January, Redknapp held talks with Newcastle to succeed Sam Allardyce as manager but eventually rejected the offer.
The 54-year-old Ramos joined Spurs from Sevilla on 27 October 2007 after Dutchman Martin Jol was sacked.
The Spaniard enjoyed back-to-back Uefa Cup triumphs with Sevilla and guided Tottenham to February’s League Cup final where they beat Chelsea 2-1 for the club’s first trophy since 1999.
However, several first-choice players left in the summer, notably Bulgaria striker Dimitar Berbatov to Manchester United and Robbie Keane to Liverpool.
England striker Jermain Defoe was also sold last January to Redknapp’s Portsmouth.
Tottenham splashed out about £60m on the likes of Croatia midfielder Luka Modric, England winger David Bentley, Russia striker Roman Pavlyuchenko and Brazilian goalkeeper Heurelho Gomes.
But Spurs have yet to win a league match this season and have only earned points from a 1-1 draw at Chelsea and a 0-0 home draw with Wigan Athletic.
