And he could start with a surprise bid for Wigan's former England striker Emile Heskey.

The FA Cup winners face their European debut following the Wembley triumph over Cardiff and Redknapp reckons at least five quality newcomers must be recruited to cope with additional fixtures.

Two more strikers are his main priority but the Pompey boss, scouting in France this week, fears missing out on prime target Peter Crouch who looks set to stay at Anfield and see out the remaining year on his contract.

Although Wembley match-winner Kanu has yet to sign a new one-year deal, which is available to him having fulfilled the requirement of more than 20 first-team appearances last term, he has verbally vowed to stay at Fratton Park next season. But Redknapp realises he cannot rely too heavily on the injury-prone Nigerian, 32 in August, as a front-line partner for £7million January recruit Jermain Defoe.

And he is a long-time admirer of the muscular Heskey, whom he believes would complement Defoe's predatory goal-poaching style.

Portsmouth chief executive Peter Storrie, who had talks this week with Redknapp to draw up plans for the new campaign, said: "We are a quality side now so we need to bring in real quality players.

"Then again, you have to look at the squad size because of the UEFA Cup next year. You need to get a reasonable squad so it would be a mixture of three quality players and two other good ones to make sure we have a big enough squad."