Guardian writers' prediction: 5th (NB this is not necessarily Jamie's prediction, but the average of our writers' tips)

Last season's position: 4th

Odds to win the league: 28-1

Tottenham embark on the new season when Manchester City visit on Saturday at the identical juncture to Chelsea when they claimed the first of their three Premier League titles in 2004-5: 49 long years have passed since Bill Nicholson's legendary Double winners last brought the championship to White Hart Lane.

While Harry Redknapp has continually spoken this summer of Spurs taking a serious tilt at the title he is surely conscious that even managing to replicate last season's fourth place finish may be beyond his team as Manchester City continue to spend their Abu Dhabi petro-billions. Roberto Mancini, whose side were pipped to the final Champions League berth by Spurs' 1-0 win at Eastlands late last season, has bought the Spain winger David Silva for £26m, paid an extravagant £19m for a left-back, Aleksandar Kolarov, and could yet land Internazionale's Mario Balotelli and his reported £180,000-a-week wages.

Redknapp has failed to attract Joe Cole, who was a free agent, and is in the business of having to offload to sell, with Robbie Keane, who is 30 and will hardly attract a premium price, appearing his best hope of raising any sizeable funds.

Despite Keane's desire to stay, Redknapp and his assistant Joe Jordan have been careful to raise his value by praising him during pre-season while ensuring the message gets out that he is available: "I really want to keep him because he's difficult to replace but if you want to buy players you've got to raise some money from somewhere," was the manager's verdict on the Irishman's future a few days ago.

Keane seems certain to leave while Eidur Gudjohnsen, on loan from Monaco last season, could join Mark Hughes at Fulham as Redknapp attempts to secure his preferred personnel. This week Spurs refused to confirm or deny that their manager may be interested in Aston Villa's Ashley Young – a move for the winger has become more likely since Martin O'Neill's departure – and the Nice forward Loïc Rémy, while being quick to knock down speculation that Peter Crouch is surplus to requirements.

Yet even if Keane is sold, the 25-year-old Young is bound to be priced at twice the £9.5m he cost Villa and Rémy is valued at £14m, so it is unlikely Redknapp can afford both.

Redknapp, who can boast the excellent Gareth Bale and Luka Modric in midfield, also needs to perform surgery on his defence before the transfer window closes. Ledley King is a perennial injury concern and Jonathan Woodgate, his fellow centre-back, is yet to recover from his chronic groin problem.

King and Woodgate's maladies mean that Redknapp has no recognised back-up for his two (currently) healthy central defenders, Sébastien Bassong and Michael Dawson. He might consider signing the vastly experienced William Gallas, who is a free agent, though the 32-year-old is thought to be demanding exorbitant wages, while beyond the former Arsenal defender one option may be Fulham's Brede Hangeland. But it probably goes against Redknapp's footballing DNA to spend precious transfer bucks on a defender with two years remaining on his contract who would cost around £12m.

At the end of July Redknapp said: "I feel we could contend for the title. We have got the players here. We have to aim for it. We could win the championship. Last year we went in saying we wanted to finish in the top four and if you don't aim for things, you have no chance."

He then said this week: "If we went out and bought four world-class players, no matter what the price, we would have a fantastic chance."

The latter comments can be read as a classic bit of 'Arry talk, the ploy being to remind his chairman, Daniel Levy, that Spurs have to continue building from strength. But also that if the funds are not forthcoming and Spurs are in decline this season, Redknapp has already explained why.