LONDON // The Tottenham captain Ledley King has tipped his side to pull away from the relegation zone under the new manager Harry Redknapp. Redknapp wasted no time stamping his authority at the club after he was chosen to replace Juande Ramos. Spurs recorded their first league win of the season with a 2-0 victory over Bolton on Sunday, just hours after Redknapp left Portsmouth to take over at White Hart Lane. He has made his first coaching appointment at the club by bringing in his former Pompey and Southampton assistant Kevin Bond - who has been out of work since being sacked by the lower league side Bournemouth in September. Redknapp arrived at Tottenham's training ground with Bond yesterday morning for a session with the players. He has also offered jobs in his coaching staff, with the former Spurs player Tim Sherwood among those he has sounded out. Redknapp will bring in more fresh faces in January, and King said the pressure will be on his teammates to show they should be part of his long-term plans. "Whenever someone new comes in players have to start again and everyone has to perform," he said. "That is when you get the best out of players because we are under that pressure to perform and know if it is not good enough we will not be playing in the next game. Sometimes that is a good thing. "I have admired him [Redknapp] for a long time and think he is going to be a good appointment. The manager has given us confidence." "He said he believes we can get out of this and it looked like the weight had been lifted off our shoulders. We played with freedom and it was more like the old Tottenham. "It is difficult to say what went wrong. Sometimes when things are not going right it forces a change. The chairman felt it was the right time to make a change." King was able to play back-to-back games for the first time this season but is unsure over how his knee will react to the strain over the next few days. Tottenham have a London derby against Arsenal tomorrow night and the England defender is not sure if he will be fit to feature at the Emirates Stadium after playing two games inside the space of three days. "We will see what happens and I am still trying to find out about my situation. If I can play I will be out there," he said. "It has not surprised me that I could play again and I felt I could play earlier in the season. "But until you do it you don't know. Now it is done, hopefully people will stop talking about it. "It is important that I don't get to carried away. I am not about to play every game just yet. I will just build up to it. "It is something we looked at, at the start of the season and the manager [Ramos] wanted me for certain games, which I had to make sure I was there for. "It meant missing the game leading up to that. I am still finding out about the knee and will find out more after this latest game to see how quickly it recovers. We will take it one day at a time and see how it improves." Redknapp is renowned for his wheeling and dealing, and there is no clause preventing him signing players from his former club. Spurs fans could be keen on the forward Jermain Defoe, who left White Hart Lane in January. Portsmouth began looking for Redknapp's replacement yesterday, with the chief executive Peter Storrie leading the search. The decision will be made by the club's owner Andre Gaydamak. Before leaving, Redknapp recommended to Storrie that assistant Tony Adams be promoted. The former Arsenal defender, who had an unsuccessful 12 month spell in charge of the lower league side Wycombe Wanderers, is in temporary charge with Joe Jordan at the club. Sam Allardyce, an Englishman in Redknapp's mould who has been out of work since being fired by Newcastle United in January is likely to be considered. Another option being mooted is bringing back the club's former technical director Avram Grant, who moved to Chelsea where he became manager after Jose Mourinho's exit. He lasted eight months before being fired in May despite finishing runner-up in the Premier League, Champions League and Carling Cup. sports@thenational.ae
