Spurs, bottom of the Barclays Premier League, have acted swiftly after axing Ramos, sporting director Damien Comolli and coach Gus Poyet following their disastrous start to the season.

Redknapp admits it was a tough to leave Portsmouth, but believes his move will be best for the long-term future of both clubs.

He told BBC Radio Five Live Sportsweek programme: “I suddenly got a phone call and was told Tottenham were interested in me, and I thought it was a wind-up at first.

“Then when I had spoken to them, I decided it was a good move for everybody, for Portsmouth as well in the long term and they have a terrific compensation deal when things were a bit tight. I just thought maybe it was time to move on and Tottenham are a big, big club.

“I thought: ’Let’s just give it a go before it is too late’. I could have gone to Newcastle, but did not take it and a lot of people said ’he does not have any ambition’, so this is a good chance for me. It is a tough job; they are bottom of the league, so let’s see what we can do.”

Redknapp, who was in his second spell at Fratton Park, guided Pompey to FA Cup glory last season and on into a first European campaign.

He said: “It was difficult to leave Portsmouth, If I had not been in such a good club and had not been enjoying myself so much, then it would have been easy to go to another club. It was not easy because my life was so good and the team was going so well.

“But if we are all honest about it, it was a move which suited everybody at this time. Financially it was a good deal for Portsmouth as well.”

Redknapp expects to be at White Hart Lane for this afternoon's Barclays Premier League clash with Bolton and plans to address the players before the match.

The former West Ham boss maintains despite the financial issues involved, the decision to leave Pompey was his alone.

“At the end of the day I did not have to go, nobody pushed me out,” Redknapp said. “[Chief executive] Peter [Storrie] told me all the pros and cons of what could be happening, and how our future looked. I had to weigh all that up and decided maybe it was time and would be a good move for me to go to a terrific club like Tottenham.”

Tottenham revealed late last night that Ramos, Comolli, Poyet and another member of the coaching staff, Marcos Alvarez, were leaving.

The quartet paid the price for Spurs’ worst ever start to a league campaign which has yielded just two points from eight games so far, and left them four points adrift at the bottom of the Premier League.

Their UEFA Cup group campaign also got off to a poor start on Thursday when they slipped to an unconvincing 2-0 defeat at Udinese.

And after David Bentley and Jonathan Woodgate went public in their criticism of the team’s displays earlier this week, chairman Daniel Levy appears to have lost patience with Ramos’ faltering regime.

Redknapp is in no doubt of the task awaiting him at White Hart Lane.

He added on BBC Radio Five Live’s Sportsweek programme: “Having only two points after eight games is really a disastrous start for the club. I have to try to keep them up. That is the only priority for me.

“We can talk about trying to win cups and everything else, but we have got to stay in the Premier League. Anything else is a massive bonus.”

Redknapp added: “It is going to be tough because once you are down there, it is very hard to get out.

“We have got a big game today, and a big week coming up with Arsenal and then Liverpool, and they are very tough games.”