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• Manager absent three weeks after heart surgery in November
• Gareth Bale, Scott Parker, Younès Kaboul may miss Cup game

Harry Redknapp is enduring the strain of a crown-court trial but, as he seeks to co‑ordinate Tottenham Hotspur’s recovery from their recent wobble remotely, he has offered the impression of laid-back normality.

The manager has spoken to his assistant Kevin Bond before and after each day of his tax case, with much of the discussion related to the team selection for Friday night’s FA Cup fourth-round tie at Watford. Redknapp has been informed that Younès Kaboul did not train on Wednesday while Gareth Bale and Scott Parker withdrew from the session and, with muscle twinges the problem, it is likely he will omit all three from what promises to still be a strong lineup.

Redknapp will travel from Southwark to Watford after day five of his trial to give the pre-match team talk and take his place in the Vicarage Road dug-out. If there is the sense that the 90 minutes and the return to his natural environment will represent a tonic, then the club have endeavoured to make light of his absence from the training ground, even if Bond did concede that Redknapp was “the pivotal person on a day-to-day basis at the club and you need that person around”.

Tottenham found themselves in a similar situation last November, when Redknapp underwent a procedure for the insertion of two stents into an artery in his heart and was off work for almost three weeks. The staff and squad are using that absence, when Redknapp was also forbidden to attend matches, as a template for the present situation.

Redknapp’s role in training tends to be as an overseer, with Bond and the other first-team coaches, Joe Jordan and Clive Allen, taking the sessions.

“Harry wasn’t here a few weeks back and really, we are just carrying on without him,” Bond said. “To a large degree, the training is exactly the same; it’s just that Harry is not there overseeing it. We haven’t felt we had to have a conversation with the players. Everyone is aware of the ongoing situation and everybody gets on with it. The players all understand that, we all understand that, and get on with it in the same way as if he was here.

“Talking to him, he has been keen to know our thoughts on Watford and how we are looking. We made preparations to come to the game and he was genuinely looking forward to it. He’s no different to how he has always been. He appears when I speak to him – and I would know – to be every bit as focused as he has always been.”

Redknapp’s issues with his health and the law have had the potential to distract Tottenham but the squad that he has assembled are hardy, experienced and, according to Bond, single-minded enough to “want to do well because they want to do well”. He avoided the line about them “wanting to do it for Harry”.

The challenge that faces them is to bounce back after the 1-1 home draw against Wolverhampton Wanderers and the 3-2 defeat at Manchester City, results that came just as they were installed as title contenders. They play Wigan Athletic at home next Tuesday sitting third in the table, eight points behind the leaders, City, but it is the FA Cup, and the notion it is trophies that truly stand the test of time, that preoccupies them.

“We would like to win a competition,” Bond said. “People are remembered for medals. A cup competition is a better proposition for us than the league at this moment.”

• Spurs manager will pick team for FA Cup tie
• Bond insists squad has been unaffected by absence

The Tottenham manager, Harry Redknapp, will swap the dock for the dugout on Friday evening and his men will be fully prepared to beat Watford despite his absence from training this week, according to assistant manager Kevin Bond.

Bond and the first-team coaches Clive Allen and Joe Jordan have been in charge of training at the club’s Chigwell base this week while Redknapp has been contesting two charges of cheating the public purse at Southwark crown court.

Redknapp, who denies both charges, will be available to lead his team out in the FA Cup fourth-round tie against the Championship side, however. The 64-year-old will make the dash across London to Vicarage Road and will pick the team, Bond confirmed.

Redknapp’s assistant was keen to emphasise it has been a case of business as usual at the club this week despite the absence of the manager.

Tottenham coped well when they were without their manager for two weeks in November after he underwent a heart procedure and Bond insists Redknapp’s absence has not had any effect on the squad this week.

“Clearly the manager is not here, but [it has had] very little [effect] really,” Bond said. “The training carries on pretty much as normal and everybody has been getting on with things as normal so there’s not really a lot of difference except obviously Harry is not here during the day. He will be at the match and he will pick the team, of course.”

Bond and Redknapp usually make the 250-mile round trip from Dorset to Chigwell together, but the Spurs manager has been staying in London this week during the trial, which is expected to finish at the end of next week.

Gareth Bale (thigh), Scott Parker (hamstring) and Younes Kaboul (groin) are all doubts for the Watford tie, but it is likely that none of the trio would have played anyway as Redknapp is likely to rest several of his key players.

Preview followed by live coverage of Friday’s game between Watford and Tottenham in the FA Cup.

Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp will lead his side in Friday’s FA Cup fourth-round tie against Watford.

Our all-new official website is scheduled to launch tomorrow (Thursday, January 26)!

The website has been developed using your feedback with our ultimate goal to create the best possible website for the growing number of fans that visit tottenhamhotspur.com each month.

We hope you will find a website that offers a greatly-enhanced online experience, making it easier to find everything you want from exclusive interviews with the players to all the Club news, from ticket details to membership and our online shop.

To share the excitement of match-day for all fans – including those who cannot make it to the game – the site will transform into a Match Centre on match-days. You can check out this innovative new feature for the first time on Friday night, when we travel to Watford in the FA Cup.

A key feature of the site will be a new single sign-on process that will let you access all areas of the site with one log-in – no need to remember different log-ins and passwords. Our members and current registered users of our website, online store, e-ticketing and soccer schools will be emailed instructions about the single sign-on process tomorrow so please look out for this important information.

Please note that tottenhamhotspur.com will be off-line from 8am tomorrow until the afternoon whilst we launch the new site.

During this period we will keep you updated via the Club’s official Facebook and Twitter.

Once the new website is up and running we shall be working closely with Autonomy to make sure everything is fine. There may be a few teething problems, so please bear with us! We’ll be working hard to make sure everything is up and running as quickly as possible.

We are keen to hear any feedback as we constantly look to improve, so if you have any comments please email us on new.website@tottenhamhotspur.com.

FA chairman David Bernstein defends referee Howard Webb following Mario Balotelli’s violent conduct charge.

Pat Jennings has paid tribute to Brad Friedel for his super-consistent performances this season.

Brad, 40, has maintained his incredible run of consecutive matches in the Premier League by starting all of our 22 league games so far this season.

That has taken his tally to 288 starts on the trot in the Premier League since the start of the 2004-05 campaign.

He has played a key role as we’ve kept eight clean sheets in those 22 matches to sit third in the table on 46 points.

Team-mates have regularly spoken about the value of his experience at the back and now legendary goalkeeper Pat has weighed in with his praise.

“Brad has been unbelievable,” said Pat, who made 590 appearances for us between 1964-77, winning the FA Cup, two League Cups and the UEFA Cup along the way.

“At his age, to be on a run of approaching 300 matches without missing a game is fantastic.

“I don’t think anyone will ever get near that record.”

Pat, still at Spurs Lodge in his role as goalkeeping consultant, knows a thing about the longevity of a goalkeeper.

“I was 41 when I played my last game against Brazil,” he added, in reference to Northern Ireland’s group game against Brazil in the 1986 World Cup Finals. “In fact, that was on my 41st birthday.

“I could have played on if I had the opportunity, and there is no reason why Brad can’t continue to play.

“He’s been brilliant for us. He’s showed all his experience and just how good he is at the moment.”

We started one run after being defeated by a Manchester club – and now we have everything in place to do so again.

That’s the view of our former central defender John Lacy who played more than 100 games for us in the late 1970s and early 1980s and never misses the opportunity to watch this current Spurs side play

The Liverpool-born defender refuses to be downbeat after our 3-2 defeat at Manchester City on Sunday, insisting that one result is not the be-all and end-all, despite the hype that suggested it was the title-decider.

“It looked like we were going to go on and win it at one point, but the lads can’t afford to get disheartened,” he said. “It was a setback, we know that, but the boys just have to knuckle down and try to go on another winning run.

“The last time we were beaten by a team from Manchester saw us go on an excellent winning run afterwards, so I’m sure they’ll give it their all right until the end of the season.”

Lacy, still playing for our Legends team at the age of 60, has also been impressed by two of last summer’s recruits.

“Scott Parker has been fantastic for us, but someone who has been equally superb is goalkeeper Brad Friedel. He too was a great signing and he’s helped to maintain solidarity at the back,” said big John.

Mario Balotelli’s agent says the striker could quit English football because he feels picked on by referees.