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Carroll too much for Tottenham - Redknapp

Andy Carroll is a Liverpool player after they spent £35m © Getty Images

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Harry Redknapp has admitted he was priced out of a move for Andy Carroll and was unwilling to take a £35 million "gamble" on the striker, while Giuseppe Rossi also proved out of his reach on transfer deadline day.

Tottenham undertook a frantic late attempt to sign a new striker at the end of January, and were reported to have failed with a £25 million for Carroll before he eventually left Newcastle to join Liverpool on transfer deadline day.

Redknapp and his chairman Daniel Levy were unwilling to sanction that kind of spending and another offer for Villarreal and Italy forward Rossi fell through due to the Spanish club's demands.

"Carroll was too dear; he's a real prospect and could turn out to be a bargain," Redknapp told talkSPORT. "No one knows how he's going to do at Liverpool but he's certainly got the potential to be a top player.

"I've got Crouch though and he's done great for me, and it wasn't simply the case of throwing £35 million at one player, it would have been a big gamble. It could come off but it wasn't one that we were prepared to take.

"We tried and had some targets but when there are crazy, crazy sums of money being asked for players and then the wages are ridiculous and in the end we just couldn't pull anything off, it wasn't through lack of trying though.

"To be honest, I wasn't that desperate though, we've got good players here and if it was someone who was going to be better than what we had I was quite happy to sit tight. If we could have got that special player then we would have got him, we tried to get people like Giuseppe Rossi but the transfer fee and the wages were just too much."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.