Defoe has been warned to sort out his future soon

The 25-year-old's current deal expires in the summer.

"Actions speak louder than words. He has to make a decision in the next few weeks as to whether he's committed to staying," Levy told BBC Radio 5 Live.

"That's what he says to me and to the fans, so I very much hope he'll sign a new contract."

Interview: Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy

Defoe is involved in a four-way battle with Robbie Keane, Dimitar Berbatov and Darren Bent for a place in the starting line-up.

606: DEBATE At the moment Defoe looks disheartened and frustrated TheNewWelshWizard

Doubts have also been raised about Berbatov's future at White Hart Lane, with Manchester United thought to be interested.

But Levy said he did not expect any high-profile departures from the club, and that leaving the club would not necessarily solve anyone's problems.

"If you have top-class strikers and they want to be in a top club, every top club has at least four strikers, so their situation wouldn't be any different if they were at Manchester United or any other big clubs, so they just have to fight for their place," he said.

"We don't intend to sell any player who we don't want to sell in January, and I'd be very very surprised if any of our senior players weren't here next summer.

"I can only go on what they're telling me and from what they say publicly, as with Jermain, they've made it very clear they want to stay here."

Jol was sacked after a poor start to the season

Speaking for the first time since the sacking of head coach Martin Jol and his replacement by Juande Ramos, Levy admitted that the handling of Jol's departure could have been handled better.

"People in football know it's a results-driven business and we'd had such a poor start to the season, he knew in the end that if we didn't get the results we'd have to make a change, that's the way it is," he said.

Jol's relationship with sporting director Damian Comolli is thought to have contributed to his downfall, but Levy insisted that having someone in that position was worthwhile.

"The way it operates, you have an individual whose primary responsibility in coaching the first team players and another whose day to day responsibility is making sure that scouting, academy and medical departments are working together," he said.

"Those two need to come together when it comes to decision on buying and selling, it's just division of labour - we think long term the club will benefit.

"If you have manager who's solely responsible for everything right the way down to the academy and it doesn't work out, you bring somebody else in and invariably there will be wholesale changes throughout the whole club."

Ramos is the latest man to be given the Spurs hot-seat

Levy expressed confidence that things will settle down and improve under Ramos, and that players would be given a chance by the new coach.

"The next month or so he'll have a clearer picture of the players he has," he said.

"I think he thinks we've got a very good squad. Like any manager there's always one or two areas he'd like to change or improve upon so that's something we'll discuss with him