Harry Redknapp Praises Heurelho Gomes, and Prepares to Drop David Bentley

Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp admitted his delight with the recent form of Heurelho Gomes today—whilst also hinting at the possibility he might drop David Bentley ahead of Sunday’s game with Wigan Athletic.

Redknapp believes the goalkeeper, who joined from PSV for £8m in the summer, has recovered admirably from the poor start to his Spurs career and is now a valuable part of the squad:

“The boy has shown unbelievable character,” Redknapp said of Gomes. “You have got to hold your hand up, he has shown some character to come through what he went through.

“He hasn’t hidden, he had a few injuries that he could have not played with and said ‘Oh, I can’t play’. He had a hand injury that the physios kept saying to me they weren’t sure he could play with, and he’s played with it.”

And the 61-year-old admitted that he is so happy with his ‘keeper—who leads the Premiership in saves this season—that he has already turned down a big money offer for him:

“He has been terrific, outstanding. I’m not telling you a lie, I know a club that want to give us our money back for him—abroad—and that is genuine,” Redknapp revealed.

“He has got a big reputation. You go and talk to the people at PSV Eindhoven about him, ask him what they think about him. He was a big money signing so we needed him to come good. I’m really pleased with him. He is a good lad and he has shown some bottle.”

Ahead of the match at the JJB Stadium, Redknapp also seemed to suggest that £17m midfielder David Bentley might find himself relegated to substitutes bench. Aaron Lennon has been preferred on the right in recent weeks, and Jamie O’Hara—who came on as a half-time substitute for Bentley in the midweek Carling Cup match against Burnley—has been in impressive form when played on the left.

“There is competition. It’s been difficult for Bentley, I’ve played him on the wrong side really. Because of Aaron [Lennon] I’ve tried to play David on the left, and it’s not easy,” Redknapp said.

“I had no one else to play there, and I tried to get the two of them in the team. And it worked okay, to a point, but I don’t think we are doing David any favours sticking him out there.

“But Jamie O’Hara came in the other day and did great. Whenever he plays there for us he does a good job. He has got a nice left foot, and he’s left-sided.”

Redknapp also acknowledged that a deal for Middlesbrough’s Stewart Downing was no longer on the cards (“We tried to get Downing, but it’s dead now. They didn’t want to sell him, and that’s the end of that one. We move on from there”) and that as a result he had no further plans to sign a left-winger—preferring instead to trust O’Hara and Gareth Bale with the role.

Despite comments to the contrary this week, Redknapp said that he wasn’t looking to bring in many more new faces:

“I might need one or two, just to thicken the squad up, but if I am going to make decent signings it will only be players I think are going to make a big difference for us because it is not worth it—I am not going to put my name to it just to bring players in again.”

Happy with the signing of Jermain Defoe (“He’s bright—he’s a goalscorer really. I think he will give us that little bit extra, score the goals that will send us up the league”), the former Portsmouth boss has also had the chance to study midfielder Stephen Appiah in training this week. However, he did not reveal whether a deal would be offered to the Ghanaian.

Redknapp is looking for a good result against Wigan this weekend, to take momentum into next weekend’s intriguing encounter with Portsmouth—a club he is not planning to raid for more players:

“I could have gone back and taken Glen Johnson, but I didn’t want to get involved, I didn’t want to cause any problems. Defoe was different, they wanted to sell Defoe. Man City were in for him, there were a few clubs in for him—so he was out on the open market.”

“Unless they want to sell them I wouldn’t do that. I wouldn’t cause problems for Tony Adams, for Peter Storrie, or the club—I wouldn’t do that. All I said when I came here was if they wanted to sell players, let us know that they wanted to sell them.”

For now, however, Redknapp is focusing his attention on grabbing a valuable three points at the weekend—and moving his side away from the relegation zone.