Transfer Round-Up- Looking on the Sunny Side

Well that was all a bit disappointing. No lack of entertainment from elsewhere in the footysphere, as the artist formerly known as Fernando Torres completed a frankly ludicrous 50m move to the Chavs, and desperate to soften the blow of his departure, Andy Carroll completed an equally ridiculous 35m move to NESV Ltd.

Tottenham meanwhile, so often the star turn and media darlings on days like these, were left alone on the dance floor, staggering about and desperately searching for someone to get off with as the lights came up. SSN, so confident that we would do our usual, had a reporter camped outside The Lodge all day, despite being told there was nothing doing. For once, Harry was telling the truth, and a couple of desperate late attempts for Phil Neville and Chadam were the only bits of attempted business confirmed to us by the man himself. I’m sure we’ll find out more over the coming days just how close we were to the more exotic targets, but for now, a lot of fans are rightly disappointed at our activities, not just in this window, but the previous one as well.

Let’s face it, sensational last minute coup of VdV aside, the last couple of windows have been pretty uninspiring. We’d reached the Champions League for the first time, but given our new found stature, our dealings have been, by and large, the actions of an ambitious mid-table side, as opposed to a side which needed to consolidate and push on. Levy, famous for his bargaining skills spoke at great length about finding value and that we would stick to principle and not break the wage cap. I agree with him to a point, and would cringe at any Chelski/City style reckless spending from our Chairman, but at the very top, it’s the way things go. Is Carroll worth £35m? Not on your nelly, but he is a (potential) top player who didn’t want to leave his club, and a huge offer was what finally prized him away. I find it pretty cringe worthy, if the rumours are true, that we came in and matched Liverpool’s bid at the last minute after going back and forth with 20, 21, 22m bids for weeks, wasting everyone’s time, when perhaps a balls-out 25m, plus Crouch and Krankie- or even 30m cash, a week ago might have been enough to force Newcastle’s hand. Liverpool and Comolli of all people read the situation perfectly, knew it would take something big, and they got their man. I can’t help but wonder if Levy’s love of bargaining had him negotiating with the Spammers over a few quid in the Honest Bob deal, when his time would have been better spent weighing up a gamble to try and get us back into the Champions League positions. The multi-millionaire version of ‘penny wise, pound foolish’.

I’ll add that I don’t necessarily believe that we should have gone all out to get Andy Carroll, just that our umm-ing and ahh-ing over relatively small amounts earlier in the window may well be a lesson learned a little too late.

Enough of the doom and gloom, this is a day when we want positives, so let’s have a few. Honest Bob has FINALLY gone on loan, as have Bentley, O’Hara and 2Saints, all with views to a permanent transfer. We’ve recruited a promising young defender and a quality midfielder with Premier League experience, and they’re both available for our Champions League squad. There were also zero bids for any of the players we want to keep for a very long time… and if you want a barometer for January transfer activity, the top 2 teams in the country hardly spent a bean. That’s 2 extremely experienced managers who’ve both won the title, knowing that spending big in January can disrupt, more often than galvanise a squad. If there’s one thing that Harry has nurtured in his time at Tottenham, it’s a togetherness in the squad we’ve rarely seen in previous years.

‘Great success comes through great adversity’, someone probably said at one time or another, and if there are any that could benefit through similar sentiment, it’s our remaining 3 front men. A tricky little sharp-shooter, a temperamental but often mercurial talent, and a tall, strong, defenders nightmare, ready to bring our fizzing, crackling midfielders into play. That’s what the CV’s say, but very little evidence of it so far this season. An Al Pacino, ‘Any Given Sunday’ inspired speech to these 3 before tomorrow night’s trip to Blackburn might just be the best course of action.

‘We’ve tried to get in another couple of forwards, but it hasn’t happened. There’s been news of 1 or 2 of you moving on, but it hasn’t happened. This is it boys. 1^st half of the season has been pathetic in terms of goal scoring, but we’ve got our aim of 4^th and you boys are the ones chosen to fire us there. Forget what’s gone on before, forget the cup and forget the transfers. We can all think about it again in the summer, and either way, your performances in the next 4 months could determine what happens for the rest of your careers, whether you’re here or not. For now, all those fans are relying on you to up your game, and while this club is paying your wages, you’re going to give it everything you’ve got. No more coasting through games, no more relying on the midfield and no more excuses. For the next 4 months, I want you eating crosses and shitting goals. Now get out there and f**kin run about a bit’’

… or something along those lines.

We’re not that far off. We’ve done it once and we can do it again.