Redknapp turns on 'few idiots' after Spurs boos

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Tottenham Hotspur are on course for a Champions League debut and have already booked a place in the FA Cup semi-finals yet a section of the White Hart Lane faithful saw fit to barrack the players in midweek. And as a result they received a riposte from manager Harry Redknapp yesterday.

Redknapp was astonished his side had received boos at half-time during Wednesday's FA Cup quarter-final replay with Fulham, which saw a 1-0 deficit transformed into a 3-1 success. Their reward is a Wembley date with Redknapp's former club, Portsmouth, who are today's visitors to White Hart Lane in the Premier League.

No doubt many of the dissenters will already be looking forward to the semi-final but Redknapp had a message for them. "I don't know what anybody could come to Tottenham and boo about," he said. "The football this season has been out of the top drawer. But you always get some people who don't understand the game and boo because you're not winning. They only see the score-line. It's only a few idiots.

"Fans don't realise what a part they play in lifting the team. If you're going to be a successful club, then when things go wrong, your fans have got to lift you. We didn't do anything wrong the other night, we had a real go, but Fulham played well and it was an even game, and you're talking about a team who knocked Shakhtar Donetsk and Juventus out of the Europa League."

Tottenham could have dropped a place on Wednesday night but Manchester City's 2-0 home loss to Everton meant they remained in fourth and few would predict anything but a home win today. Redknapp urged caution however, noting that the veteran Kanu came off the bench for Portsmouth last week to score the winner against fellow strugglers Hull.

Redknapp knows all about the Nigerian, having brought him to the south coast club. The forward's official age is 33 but Redknapp joked it was really 49, and had anecdotal evidence to back up the claim.

"When he first came to Portsmouth he came on as sub against Blackburn and got two great goals," he recalled. "Then we went to Middlesbrough and he got two more. He ran from the halfway line for the second, two defenders were chasing him but they couldn't get around him.

"Afterwards, we were sitting at the airport waiting for the baggage to come when suddenly he couldn't get up. His body had given up. We had to lift him into a wheelchair and wheel him out of the airport. He had to leave his car there too but what a player he was, what a signing."

Tottenham have completed the signing of 21-year-old midfielder Sandro from Internacional after the Brazilian passed a medical. He will join the club in the summer.