Harry Redknapp admits Tottenham cannot compete with the 'crazy' spending power of Manchester City.
The Spurs boss is trying to add to his squad and confirmed his interest in Valencia star and Arsenal target Juan Mata over the weekend.
But Redknapp is hampered by only being able to offer wages of around ?60,000 a week tops while City's wage bill for their seven forwards is close to ?1million every week.
Sergio Aguero, Carlos Tevez, Mario Balotelli, Edin Dzeko, Emmanuel Adebayor, Craig Bellamy and Roque Santa Cruz are on the books at the Etihad Stadium but at least three of them will be looking for loan moves when they don't make the final squad list.
Redknapp, who is keen on Adebayor, said: 'Imagine what their wages will be. It's incredible. They are all on ?100,000 a week plus. Wages have gone crazy.
'It's gone beyond belief and made it really hard to compete for top players. If you want to be a top-four side, it's difficult because we can't pay those kind of wages.
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'Our chairman Daniel Levy runs the club well, we get 36,000 fans, you're not going to put the club in hock. How do you compete with the Man Citys of this world?'
The lack of transfer activity at White Hart Lane has not gone unnoticed with Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson all but writing off Spurs' chances of finishing in the top five of the Barclays Premier League.
But Redknapp added: 'Fergie didn't mention us. He stuck Liverpool in there this year and probably with what they have brought in, it's looking that way.'
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Source: Daily Mail
Source: Daily Mail