Harry Redknapp has revealed that he has already dispatched his coaching team to scout the world’s hottest talents in a bid to steal a march in the transfer window.

The Spurs boss, who watched the French Cup final between Paris St Germain and Lille on Saturday night, expects Tottenham’s rivals to spend big this summer, and is intent on finding the stars who will boost the Lilywhites next season.

However, despite clocking up the air miles in recent weeks, Redknapp concedes that he and his staff have failed to unearth any gems.

“It’s going to get tougher to get into that top four, so we need to keep looking,” he said. “Everybody’s out and about working for me, watching games.

“Kevin Bond has been out to a game. I’ve been out, Joe Jordan’s been out, Clive Allen – they’ve all been around the world looking at players. We need to improve a bit again.

“I know what positions I want to strengthen. We just follow up on all the reports we’ve had. The other night we all went out. Nobody was jumping up and down about anybody really. They were all players who were okay.

“There’s one or two players in England I’d like to sign but they’re massive money. It’s very difficult.

“I talk to all the other managers. They’re all going to have a go this year, make no mistake. Man United are going to have a go again this year, and so are Chelsea. Man City are going to have a massive go for sure.

“Liverpool will have a big push this year. Arsenal, I don’t know, I haven’t spoken to Arsene Wenger but I imagine they’ll have a go this year as well.”

Tottenham plan to free up funds by off-loading loanees David Bentley, Robbie Keane, Jamie O’Hara and Giovani Dos Santos, as well as fringe players like Niko Kranjcar.

Redknapp hopes that Spurs’ unwanted squad men will be easy to shift, and is urging them to show ambition by accepting a permanent move away.

“We need to clear the decks a bit. We need to shift a few and cut the wage bill and create the room to bring one or two in who might make the difference,” said Redknapp.

“There’s a few that need to move now, for them as much as anything. They need to go and play somewhere. We’ve got a lot of players out on loan who are going to be coming back.

“They’ve been out on loan, the chances are they won’t be staying at the clubs they’ve been to, and so they’ll come back. They need to move on now so, with their wages and transfer fees, we can maybe look at reinvesting in one or two different players.”