• England midfielder released by Chelsea this summer
• ‘I signed Joe as an 11-year-old. He is outstanding’ – Redknapp

Harry Redknapp has confirmed his desire to bring Joe Cole to White Hart Lane this summer. Cole is a free agent after his contract with Chelsea expired and Redknapp is eager to be reunited with a player he worked with at West Ham United.

“I signed Joe as an 11-year-old at West Ham. I think he is an outstanding player, a great professional and a top player,” said the Spurs manager. “I would love to have Joe at Tottenham, but there are lots of clubs in for him. We will have to wait and see, we are not close to doing anything with Joe really.”

Jermain Defoe is also keen to work with Cole again, having been impressed by the 28-year-old as the pair trained together with England at the World Cup.

“When we were in South Africa [you could see] every day his passion and his drive to want to improve,” the striker said. “In training he was sharp and he was strong, he just loves football. So if we could get someone like that at the club it would be good for everyone.”

Spurs have been linked with several players following their fourth-placed finish in the Premier League last season, which means they will enter the qualifying rounds for the Champions League.

The Uruguay striker Diego Forlán is another reported target but Redknapp is not hopeful of signing the player from Atlético Madrid.

“He [Forlán] is a player I would like but he may be out of our range,” he said. “He has had an outstanding World Cup, there aren’t too many players who did better than Forlán at the World Cup, he is a top player.”

Tottenham Hotspurguardian.co.uk

• Redknapp to face charge of cheating the public revenue
• Should managers face fit and proper person test?

Harry Redknapp will be in court today to learn that the charge of cheating the public revenue has been referred by magistrates to the crown court. Redknapp denies the charge but if the allegations levelled against him by the City of London police and Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs are upheld then the Premier League has rather a tricky quandary on its hands.

Were the Tottenham Hotspur manager to have been on the board of his club as, for instance, Luiz Felipe Scolari once was at Chelsea, he would have had to submit to the league’s fit and proper person test. That states: “A person shall be disqualified from acting as a director if he has a conviction … in respect of any offence involving any act which would reasonably be considered to be dishonest (and, for the avoidance of doubt, irrespective of the actual sentence imposed).”

Which in plain English means if you are found guilty of an offence like cheating the public revenue you will be banned from acting as a director of a Premier League club.

Redknapp has done tremendous work for Spurs since his arrival there in October 2008 and the club, who consider it to be a private matter for Redknapp, can be expected to stand firmly by him.

But a serious question remains if the Tottenham manager is convicted for dishonest activities in a transfer while he was at Portsmouth: is the fit and proper person test credible if it does not cover managers?

Politicians line up

Ian Ritchie will today brief the Football League board on progress in the search to appoint Lord Mawhinney’s successor as chairman next month. After the Lord Triesman experience at the Football Association, board members are broadly against the appointment of another politician to the role. But Ritchie, who is leading the process, is more inclined to consider a public sector figure and has told friends he would not be averse to the “right” politician, as Mawhinney clearly has been. Indeed, with the former Tory MP Virginia Bottomley chairing the board and CEO practice at the League’s headhunter, Odgers Berndtson, the candidates likeliest to be proposed are public sector servants. And with an election due in May, there will be a few of them looking for what they call “a new challenge”.

World Cup bid gains exposure

The England 2018 World Cup bid is now in a position to strike some high-profile deals of its own thanks to sponsorship income from PricewaterhouseCoopers and BT. After being outflanked in its own capital city by the marketing budgets of the Australian and Qatari bids at last October’s Leaders in Football event, England 2018 has secured a visible position at next month’s Soccerex European Forum by sponsoring its first-night VIP reception.

Palace out of the rubble

Anyone interested in buying Crystal Palace can expect to have a new party to deal with when the ownership of Selhurst Park passes to Lloyds Bank. It is thought that the bank, whose subsidiary HBOS loaned hundreds of millions of pounds to Paul Kemsley’s collapsed Rock Joint Ventures, will today take over the property from Rock’s administrator, PWC, in part payment for that debt.

Counties count the cost

English counties have paid the price for the England & Wales Cricket Board’s stubborn failure to become a shareholder in the Champions League after Lalit Modi announced this year’s tournament will take place during the county season. The Indian Premier League commissioner made his announcement of the 10-26 September schedule clash on Twitter yesterday.

During the talks that led to the tournament with India, South Africa and Australia being set up, the ECB chairman, Giles Clarke, insisted on all four nations having equal, 25% equity stakes in the competition. A stand-off ensued when India refused, Australia and South Africa caved in and now only those three nations are Champions League shareholders. With no say in how the competition is run, English clubs have been left in the cold.

Harry RedknappTottenham HotspurBusinessMatt Scottguardian.co.uk

• Manager backs players to make it to South Africa
• Gabriel Agbonlahor bidding to emulate Peter Withe

Martin O’Neill believes Aston Villa’s next two fixtures offer an opportunity for the sizeable England contingent within his side to press their claims to be part of Fabio Capello’s World Cup plans. Villa face Tottenham Hotspur tonight and Manchester United on Wednesday and O’Neill views the matches as a chance for those on the periphery to make an impression against stellar opponents and claim one of the four squad places he predicts will be up for grabs.

James Milner, Gabriel Agbonlahor, Ashley Young, Stewart Downing and Emile Heskey will be flying the flag for Villa and England at White Hart Lane in a game that brings together two clubs with ambitions of breaking into the top four and up to a dozen England internationals. For those on the fringe of the England set-up the World Cup clock is ticking but O’Neill offered words of encouragement yesterday when he was asked whether there was still a chance to change Capello’s mind.

“I think the next two league tests for us would be that,” said the Villa manager. “I’m quite sure that there are a number of players that Capello has already earmarked for South Africa. But there must be at least four positions in the squad where you think that people’s form could dictate what would happen. And if somebody was absolutely bang in form up against someone you had a bit of time for but was out of form, I think that must have a bearing nearer the time.”

He added: “If you are playing very well for your club and you’re playing against top quality teams, which is the case with the next two league games, I would be really surprised if Capello wouldn’t analyse these games,” continued O’Neill. “It’s getting close to picking the squad for the next friendly game, against Egypt in March. That will be going through his head at this minand he might decide to view two or three players that he might think about using in the World Cup.”

Agbonlahor is presenting a strong case to feature against Egypt after scoring twice at Fulham last Saturday, in front of Franco Baldini, Capello’s right-hand man, to take his Premier League tally for the season into double figures. Whether Capello would consider picking him as well as Jermain Defoe is unclear but O’Neill believes Agbonlahor is improving all the time and capable of becoming the first Villa player to score 20 league goals in a season since Peter Withe in 1980-81.

“I think Defoe is as a good a goalscorer as there is in the Premiership,” he said. “He’s a natural finisher. But Gabby also has other aspects to his game. He’s very strong now on hold-up play, bringing other people into it. I think he learned that during the time when he played on his own up front last season. He is particularly pleased with his goal haul at this minute and I think he’s capable of going on and getting 20 League goals.”

Aston VillaMartin O’NeillTottenham HotspurPremier LeagueStuart Jamesguardian.co.uk