Redknapp: Eidur's a Gud signing

Published Mar. 21, 2010 5:11 a.m. ET

foxsports

Harry Redknapp revealed he is desperate to make Eidur Gudjohnsen's move permanent after watching him star in Tottenham's 2-1 win at Stoke.

Gudjohnsen, on loan from Monaco until the end of the season, scored Spurs' opener in the Premier League clash at the Britannia Stadium on Saturday, then played a superb dummy to tee up the winner for Niko Kranjcar after Matthew Etherington had equalised from the penalty spot.

Redknapp said: "I want to keep him here next year. He's a real top player and he's got fantastic ability. With Jermain Defoe out injured he has got a big part to play.

"The chairman did the deal for him and I don't know the details but we are certainly interested. The rest of the lads like him and they really love playing with him."

Gudjohnsen may have a bigger part to play once Redknapp learns the extent of the injury to Roman Pavlyuchenko, who limped off in the first half with a hamstring strain.

Redknapp added: "He got injected at half-time and we will have to see what the scan says. We thought Defoe was okay until he had his scan but it was the end of him for a few weeks.

"We are so short of players it's unbelievable. The number of players we've got out injured or on loan we could pick a terrific team out of."

Meanwhile Redknapp shrugged off the second-half clash between Benoit Assou-Ekotto and Vedran Corluka, with the pair engaging in a pushing match and earning a telling-off from the referee.

Redknapp added: "I haven't seen what happened but they've probably just had a row. They probably didn't understand each other. I don't think there was much in it really."

Stoke boss Tony Pulis blasted referee Mike Dean for sending off Dean Whitehead and revealed he had made representations to have the referee changed last week.

Pulis said he was not happy that Dean would be officiating his side again after what he deemed to be poor performances in earlier games against Portsmouth and Hull this season.

Pulis said: "I rang Mike Riley on Wednesday and told him my concerns about Mike Dean. I was just seeing if we could change the referee because we weren't happy.

"He made a bad decision down at Portsmouth and I wanted to see if we could at least avoid him until the end of the season. We sent a letter and followed it up in the right and proper manner.

"I just thought it (the sending-off) was a very, very poor decision. We've had him earlier in the season and he's made poor decisions and we compiled stats on him."

Pulis' complaint was backed up by Redknapp, who described the red card as "a bit harsh." Redknapp added: "I thought a last warning might have been fair enough."

Pulis paid tribute to the way his side kept pushing forward despite conceding Gudjohnsen's opener then seeing Whitehead dismissed four minutes later.

He added: "It was disappointing that within four minutes we had conceded a goal and had a player sent off. It's always an uphill battle but the lads kept going and created more chances."