The 62-year-old has been charged with two counts of cheating the public revenue, with the move coming at the end of an exhaustive 26-month police and tax inquiry into alleged corruption in English football.

Redknapp, who has been adamant he has done nothing wrong, insists he has not been distracted from preparing for the next two weeks when his Champions League-chasing side face Hull, Liverpool, Fulham and Birmingham in the league and Leeds in the FA Cup.

The first of those games comes against Phil Brown's relegation-threatened side and sees Redknapp join Sir Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger as a member of the 500-club.

"That's a lot of games, isn't it?" he said. "You never know when your last one is going to arrive.

"You have to keep enjoying it, that's why I look forward to going to places like Liverpool next week because you never know if it's the last time you'll go there.

"If I didn't enjoy this job, I wouldn't be doing it. Football is the interest I've got, apart from my family, and I don't know what I would do with myself if I had to sit indoors all day."

After starting as a manager at Bournemouth, Redknapp began his Premier League career with seven years at West Ham, then he went to Portsmouth and guided them into the top flight and Europe.

His two spells at Fratton Park sandwiched a controversial move to rivals Southampton, then Spurs lured him from Pompey last season to save their season.

Now he is chasing a place in the top four of the league and believes the next two weeks could define Spurs' campaign.

"I always thought I would end up managing at this level one day, but you need the breaks," he said.

"If you're a young manager starting out, you go to the wrong club lower down and you're not a success, that's the end of you.

"But I worked hard at Bournemouth, did well and it's nice to see some of the lads from my team down there have become top managers in their own right - Tony Pulis and Sean O'Driscoll were very influential players in my team.

"The years have flown by so quickly since then it's scary, and the older you get the quicker it seems to go."

Redknapp is hoping that the best is yet to come. At the moment, his fondest Premier League memory is Pompey's amazing escape in 2006 when they looked certainties for relegation.

"Of my previous 499 games in the Premier League, I would have to say winning at Wigan, to keep Portsmouth up after we had been dead and buried with 10 games to go, was probably the most important," he said.

"Benjani (Mwaruwari) scored his first goal in 14 games.

"That was the run which had started with us winning against Manchester City in the last minute, and the other teams around us had lost, and suddenly the 10-point gap was down to seven points and you realise the escape is possible."

Naturally, Redknapp is refusing to allow accusations of tax evasion overshadow what he is currently trying to achieve at Spurs.

"I've got an awful lot that I'd love to say, believe you me, and when the time is right I will say it but I've been advised not to discuss the matter," Redknapp said.

"We've got to concentrate on the Hull game, it's a big game and that is the only thing that is on my mind. It's got no effect on me to be perfectly honest. I'm ready for the game and looking forward to it. That is about where we are at.

"I'm fine. I don't know how it started but we're certainly reaching closure. My mind has not been off football anyway. The game is what I live for."