Harry Redknapp: I Regret Not Signing Patrick Vieira and Luis Suarez for Tottenham

Harry Redknapp has revealed that he regrets not signing Patrick Vieira and Luis Suarez for Tottenham Hotspur.

The 67-year-old Queens Park Rangers manager was in charge at White Hart Lane from 2008 to 2012. During his time at the north London club, the former Portsmouth manager played a key role in helping Tottenham come on top.

The Arsenal legend had left the Gunners and joined Inter Milan in 2006. During his time with the Serie A outfit, he had held conversations with the former French midfielder over the possibility of joining Tottenham.

Redknapp even admitted that Vieira was open to joining Arsenal's local rivals and says the Gunners have still not replaced their former midfield star.

"Patrick Vieira was a different type of midfield player and one every club would like to take now. He almost came to me at Tottenham from Inter Milan. I thought it was an incredible decision by him, after he'd been such a hero at Arsenal," Redknapp told the Daily Mail.

"I met him at his house in Hampstead and he had no fear about what people would think or what reception he would get. He had enough confidence in his ability to just brush it away.

"In the end, his circumstances changed and he decided to stay in Italy. By the time he did become available - the following January - our needs had changed and Manchester City snapped him up.

"Patrick is the player Arsenal have never really replaced, but I still find it bizarre that he ended up in a blazer at Manchester City. Shouldn't he be at Arsenal?

"It is ironic that so many associate Arsene Wenger with the beautiful game, yet his Arsenal teams, with Vieira - the ultimate box-to-box midfielder - did as much as anybody to introduce real physical power into the modern Premier League," he added.

Similarly, Suarez was at Ajax and Redknapp wanted to snap up the services of the Uruguayan international. However, the scouting reports led him to reject a chance to bring Suarez to White Hart Lane as he eventually signed for Liverpool in January 2011.

"Despite all that has happened in his career since, one of the biggest regrets of my life in management is not taking Luis Suarez to Tottenham when we had the chance," Redknapp said about Suarez.

"Ruud Gullit told me. 'You've got to take him, Harry. He's fantastic.' Yet all of our scouts' reports said that at Ajax he played wide off a striker, whereas we were looking for a proper front man.

"Just when I was on the verge of taking the plunge, the price went up. In the end he was sold for £22.8million to Liverpool. We wouldn't have paid that," the former Tottenham manager concluded.