Spurs captain wants Tottenham to emulate Man United and Arsenal

And the Spurs captain believes that Manchester United and Arsenal have proved the importance of managerial stability as the Lilywhites come to terms with their failure to qualify for the Champions League.

Despite finishing fourth in the Premier League for the second time in three seasons, Tottenham were denied a place at Europe’s top table as Chelsea beat Bayern Munich on penalties to win the Champions League final.

That led to renewed calls for Redknapp to be held accountable for his failure to hold onto third place as Spurs threw away a 10-point lead over Arsenal following the north London derby.

Tottenham fans continue to debate whether the 65-year-old, who is entering the final year of his contract, should be in charge next campaign and get a new deal – but King has no doubts that Spurs have the right man at the helm.

“We’ve never been that high [fourth] before so the manager’s obviously doing something right,” he told London24. “With the teams that are in the league at the moment, it’s the strongest league in the world and the teams that have finished above us are good teams. I think the manager’s done a brilliant job.

“Sir Alex Ferguson shows the benefits of sticking with a manager, and having that longevity – and Arsene Wenger also. It’s key to a club growing and maintaining success, so it’s important for our club to try to do that as well.

“I think we’re moving in the right direction all the time. This season we had the Europa League to contend with, which can throw teams off, so we’ve been trying to maintain that with the league – and also getting to the semi-final of the FA Cup.

“It’s been a tough, long, hard season, but it’s been a good one. We’ve played some excellent football, and there haven’t been too many games where we’ve performed badly.

“We’ve obviously taken some defeats, but there haven’t been too many games where we really haven’t been at it, and I think that’s a good thing.”

King also disagrees with the view that the speculation over Redknapp’s future during the Football Association’s search for a new England manager was to blame for Spurs’ slump between February and May.

“I just think the Premier League is a tough league, and you’re going to have some sticky spells,” he said. “We went on a run of losing games, but we could quite easily have won them.

“We could have got points out of those games but at that moment in time things were going against us.

“It seemed like we were winning again once everything was settled with the England manager situation, but it’s a coincidence.

“I just think it was one of those things. It was a tough period – a little bit of a lack of confidence, but once we got that back we were back on a good run again.”

King’s theory is supported by the fact that Tottenham endured a similar run of poor form at the same stage of the previous season, collecting just 15 points from a possible 36 between February and May in 2011.

“In a way that shows that you can’t really think that our form was down to the England thing, because it happened the previous year too,” he said.

“It’s something that we’ll have to look at. We play a lot of high-intensity football at Tottenham – we’ve got a lot of speed and power going forward, and maybe that has an effect later on in the season.

“Again, it’s one of those things where we’re not too sure why it’s happened. But it’s important that when you’re having a sticky spell you stick it out, and I think we’ve done that this season.”

Follow me on Twitter @BenPearceSpurs