Will Tottenham Hotspur hold onto their Champions League place next season?

With the 2010/11 Premiership season less than a month away, pre-season is well under way all across England. Teams have taken the opportunity to go on tours around the world (Everton to Australia, Tottenham to USA are just two examples) in order to improve fitness and merchandising with fans around the world.

When August the 14th rolls around, fans of football will be focused upon one key match - Tottenham Hotspur vs Manchester City. Lets re-wind the clock to last season when this fixture at the City of Manchester Stadium meant one key factor - 4th place and a Champions League place. Tottenham won the game 1-0 courtesy of a Peter Crouch headed goal and secured the coveted 4th spot.

But that was then, this is now.

With the transfer window open for another 6 weeks still, it appears Manchester City may be in pole position for 4th spot next season with the signings of David Silva, Yaya Toure (who is on £220,000 a week I may add!) and Jerome Boateng with the apparent signing of Serbian , International Aleksandar Kolarov close to completion coupled with the daily rumour's of the temperamental Mario Balotelli signing for £20 million, Redknapp may find it difficult to keep Tottenham in the Champions League next season.

With one signing made so far (Sandro from Brazilian outfit, Internacional) it will be interesting to see where Redknapp goes in the transfer window to further bolster his Tottenham side. With a 'Marquee Signing' top of the priorities for Redknapp, namely a striker, the rumours of Diego Forlan, Luis Fabiano and Klass Jan-Huntelaar, coupled with the signing of Joe Cole (if some ITK's are to be believed), continue to plague Sky Sports News, BBC and back pages in the national media.

Personally, I don't think Tottenham need to make too many wholesale changes. Sandro bolsters the centre of midfield which was pretty necessary, a left back to replace Benoit Assou-Ekotto, an attack minded full back (thinking Micah Richards) and a striker, Redknapp only has so much to do to improve Tottenham further and push them on and, lets be honest, Redknapp is a genius in the market when he needs to be (see Krancjar signing for £2.5 million) however, he is going to have to make any move on the sly as Manchester City may decide to sign anybody they can just so Spurs don't sign them.

Anyway, I gotta get ready for work so will write on here again when I can.

Laters,

Macca