Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp has admitted that he expects interest in Roman Pavlyuchenko from Italy and Spain in the January transfer window.
The striker has failed to make an impact at White Hart Lane since arriving from Spartak Moscowin a £13.8million deal in August 2008.
Pavlyuchenko has been left on the sidelines for most of this season and there is likely to be interest in the Russia international when the transfer window reopens in the New Year.
“He’s a player on the world stage. He’s a World Cup player. So you’ll always have interest, particularly in goalscorers,” said Redknapp.
“Italian or Spanish teams would want him. Four strikers can be a problem. In all honesty, I’d rather have three good strikers.
“People say you can’t have too many, but it can be a problem when you’re talking about top-class players who want to play every week and in the World Cup for their countries.
“We have two who aren’t playing every week. It is a problem.”
Redknapp, though, is expected to name Pavlyuchenko in his first XI for Tuesday’s Carling Cup fixture with Everton.
The Spurs boss said: “I’m looking for a big performance from him. A performance that says, ‘you can’t leave me out the team now’.
“(Russia manager) Guus Hiddink was here on Friday and we spoke about Pav, how he is, how you get him going. He had the same opinion as me, really.
“He said sometimes he shouts at him, sometimes he’s nice to him, sometimes he doesn’t speak to him at all, sometimes he talks to him. And he’s tried all those things.
“He’s a very laid back guy, Pav, but he’s got good ability. We both feel he’s technically such a good player. But he just needs to be a bit more aggressive.”
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