Redknapp plays down Pompey aspirations

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The Pompey boss is delighted with his squad's battling achievement to finish ninth and is still distraught that they were denied seventh position and a place in next season's UEFA Cup by a controversial decision by Graham Poll to disallow a seemingly perfectly good goal in Sunday's 0-0 draw with Arsenal at Fratton Park.

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Tough task: Harry Redknapp says Pompey will do well to emulate this season's seventh-place finish

Redknapp believes Sunderland and Birmingham will be a lot stronger than the teams promoted last year and the winners of the play-off final should also be more of a force than Watford have been over the past nine months.

"The ambition next season is to stay in this league again. But it's going to be the toughest Premier League ever. Watford were always going to go down. They needed a miracle and Sheffield United didn't have top resources," Redknapp said.

"But West Ham aren't going to struggle next season. They'll never be in that position again. And there are big clubs coming up. Sunderland and Birmingham are going to have a right go.

"They both have backing and will have money to spend. Newcastle won't want to be struggling again, either – and Aston Villa are improving and have massive backing.

"I hope to have money to improve. I'm not going to be able to get Ronaldo but we have to keep improving to stay in the division because we've got the absolute maximum out of the players."