Tag Archives: defoe - Page 2

Tottenham’s Top Transfer Targets

Posted by on June 24, 2009 42 comments

Peter Crouch – Crouchy looks the most likely of the current crop of players being linked with Spurs. Harry’s a big fan having signed him for decent money while at Pompey and he seemed to enjoy playing with Defoe during his time there. If Robbie Keane is on the way out then Crouch would be perfect to come in and play alongside Jermain. For all that people like to knock the world’s tallest man, he is a proven Premiership goal scorer and would be worth shelling out for.

Klaas Jan Huntelaar – Spurs were strongly linked with Huntelaar prior to his move to Madrid but how true these stories were I’m not so sure. The fact things haven’t really worked out for him at Real make him a more realistic target now and with his current side splashing the cash like there is no tomorrow, he may be willing to take a step down to guarantee first team football. He won’t be cheap and neither will his wages but I’d prefer we took a punt on a player of his calibre rather than another average English player that will cost just as much such as Bent or Bentley. I don’t include Crouch in this because he has a much better track record.

Ashley Young – I was initially very surprised when we were linked with Ashley Young. I thought Villa were more than ok financially and after having to sell Gareth Barry I would have thought they would have been desperate to hold on to the rest of their star players. Martin O’Neill is supposedly interested in both David Bentley and Tom Huddlestone and either of both of those players could go in the other direction. I wouldn’t lose any sleep over the pair of them leaving to be honest. My main concern with Young would be his fee. The fact he’s under 25 and English means he’ll probably valued at close to £20m but if we can get away with £8m and Bentley it wouldn’t be a disaster.

Give Keane a chance

Posted by on May 26, 2009 18 comments

Robbie Keane might have been struggling for form since arriving back from Liverpool but I’m confident he’ll be back to his best next season. He didn’t play much football whilst there and coming straight back into the Spurs side playing every week has probably been more difficult for him to adjust to than we all thought it would.

Some sections of the press and fans seem to be getting on his back a bit and quite frankly I find that alarming. Even if his football hasn’t been quite up to scratch since his return, what he has given us in bite and determination has more than made up for that. No pointy shouty bloke in the early part of the season was largely to blame for our lack of points.

No matter what he says publicly, I’m sure the Liverpool experience will have knocked his confidence a bit. His demeanour on the pitch might not show it but there are probably niggling doubts in the back of his mind as to whether he did the right thing coming back. The appeal was safety and familiarity but it was never going to be a simple process going backwards.

The goal at Ainfield on Sunday will have laid some demons to rest for the Irishman and I’m confident that with a pre season under his belt, he’ll be back fresh and better than ever. The likelihood is that Harry will bring in another top class striker and I think Keane thrives on competition for places as he proved when keeping Defoe out the side in his previous tenure with us. He played some of his best football during that period and can do so again come August.

Everton, The Toffees, The People’s Club

Posted by on May 8, 2009 25 comments

Why can’t any of our recent managers have come up with a nickname like the people’s club?! In the same way The Rock was the people’s champion, Everton are a side that most football fans seem to like and have respect for (Liverpool fans not included obviously).

He may look like a nutcase, have regular head butt matches with Duncan Ferguson, and put players in torturous submission holds when they make mistakes, but David Moyes is certainly one of the best managers in Premiership history.

With very limited resources, he has moulded Everton into a consistent and hard working side that always achieve more than they should on paper. He doesn’t often make a bad signing and takes a punt on players that other managers wouldn’t. Tim Cahill, Phil Neville and Mikel Arteta show what a talent he has for picking players. I’m obviously happy Spurs have more spending power in the transfer market but I wish they could follow Everton’s lead and be a bit more astute. It would be no surprise to see Moyes nick David Bentley off us for £4m and turn him back into a decent player. He’s also recently been linked with Pavlyuchenko, another he’d no doubt be able to get much more out of then Tottenham have been able to.

Harry Redknapp has no fresh injury concerns and I’d be surprised if Defoe doesn’t feature. Robbie Keane has been out of sorts in recent games but I don’t expect that to last long and I don’t expect Harry to leave him out the starting line up either.

Spurs have a very solid record against Everton and we haven’t lost in our last 4 visits to Goodison Park but the Toffees did beat us at the Lane earlier in the season. On form, I’d be happy with a draw but we need a win to keep the pressure on in the battle for that 7th spot and history is on our side. We have won here 7 times in the Premier League and I wouldn’t bet against us making it 8 wins tomorrow.