Gazing Through The Tottenham Window

So there we have it. We now know the identities of all the Lilywhite lummoxes who’ve been entrusted with our sanity and general demeanour for the next 4 months at the very least, and, unsurprisingly, there are mixed feelings as to how we’ve fared. In the vein of my previous attempts to rate the performances of our back, middle and front departments from last season, let’s have a look back and see if we’ve got better or worse.

Goaliekeeps- Despite conceding seven thousand goals in his first 2 appearances, Big Bad Brad, who will henceforth be known simply as BBB, has already proved himself to be a solid pair of hands compared to the sometimes brilliant, but generally heart-attack inducing Gomes. Gomes remains, surely in the hope that a break from the spotlight might be just what he needs to get his career back on track and once again become the goalkeeper of our 4^th placed campaign. Good business in this department and has to go down as…

Verdict: Improvement

Defendibobs- Can you believe a real life football club paid money for Alan Hutton? You couldn’t make it up. Yes, Walker was already a Tottenham player, but he’s essentially a new signing and will battle it out with Charlie for the RB slot. The re-invention of Danny Rose from tricky winger to dependable left-back has meant that we’ve not had to invest on that side, but with BAE; a one man lump of brilliant, we didn’t need to go too mental here anyway. The middle of the wall is the same as last term as well, despite ‘Dan’ trying to do a deal for Cahill, meaning that Harry, looking sadder than sad sack on a downer, had to let down his old mucker Neil Warnock who was ‘well looking forward’ to having Sebastian Bassong for a year. Cahill would certainly have been an upgrade, but having missed out, you look at the likes of Dawson, Kaboul, Gallas, King and Bassong and have to think that we’re not doing too badly. That being said, the point that JimmyG2 made in the comments section of the last blog, is particularly pertinent to this area of the team. Will Gallas have another season like last? Can King play 25 games? Will Kaboul improve enough for us not to notice the short comings of the others? In this era, you need to improve just to stand still, and looking at this lot, the RB improvement isn’t enough to fairly say the whole department has had much of an upgrade.

Verdict: About the same, which is to say, we’ve gone backwards.

Middleybibs- Jenas, Palacios and Bentley all gone, in one form or another. Their collective contribution last year was far from impressive, with the only notable exception being Wilson Palacios’ colossal performance away in Milan; a role in which he was told to sit and break up play. No expanse, just do the basics. He will be great at Stoke and there’s not a Tottenham fan who won’t be wishing him all the best and hope he can rediscover the kind of form that made him something of a cult hero when he first joined. These three have been replaced by Scott Parker, loanee Iago Falque, and the recently promoted Jake Livermore, who looks like he’ll be getting a bit of game time this year. Parker is a great signing, and despite the geezer-in-the-café way that Harry put it, he’s right when he says his leadership and experience will be a huge boost on the pitch and around the Lodge. Even his harshest critics would be hard pressed to argue that the guy wouldn’t have made a difference to Sunday’s shower of ship. Livermore looks ok, but only exposure to the first team over an extended period of time will tell if he’s up to playing regularly in a side with top 4 ambitions. Falque is an unknown quantity to many, including myself, who’d never heard of the lad before he was seen grinning with a Tottenham shirt in his mitts. A precocious talent who’s had a bit of bad luck with injury. Let’s hope he can light a fire under some of the chaps who’ve got too darn comfortable with life at Tottenham. I’m looking at you, Lennon, Bale and Thudd.

It goes without saying that the biggest (non?) development in this area has been the retention of last years POTY; Luka Modric, the summer loving Olivia Newton-John, to Chelsea’s John Travolta is officially going nowhere for another 4 months. With his early statement, Levy gave himself no room to manoeuvre, and to his credit, rode out what must have been a trying storm, especially if the reported £40 million offer did indeed materialise yesterday. It’s not quite ‘like a new signing’, but certainly a bonus. A 75% committed Modric is still better than anything we would have been able to attract. Throw in Bale, Lennon, Thudd, Pienaar, Kranjcar, VdV and this years POTY in waiting, Sandro, and we’re looking alright.

Verdict: Improvement. Just

Strikebaggers-  I worry for us here. Adebayor is the kind of forward we’re crying out for; no debate that he’s an improvement on what we had before, and pretty much walks in as being the first name on the team sheet. Picture this though; away at Wolves in 9 days time, he’s on the end of a crunching challenge and he gets his leg broken. What are we going to do now? Defoe and Pavlyuchenko to carry the responsibility of getting our goals? It’s enough to make any Spurs fan wake up in cold sweats. But then maybe he’ll be fine, bag 30 goals, and we look like transfer market genius’s. We can always get Shefki Kuqi on a free. Or even more far fetched, Dos Santos puts in a bit of graft and puts himself in contention. Or is that just too stupid?

Verdict: Improvement, as long as Adebayor stays fit.

The pattern emerging from all of this is that Levy will not be gambling on a big spend up this year, and you could even argue he’s building a war chest ready for Harry’s seemingly inevitable replacement next summer. The forward line needed improving, but to ditch Crouch instead of either of the other 2 means he was the only one commanding a fee, and therefore the best potential ROI and wage bill trim. I have a lot of time for Big Pete; not just because of the important goals he scored, but that you knew, even if things weren’t going his way, you were guaranteed a shift out of him. Far more than can be said for Defoe and Pav. I’m sure Harry even meekly chimed ‘but what if Ade gets injured?’ while Levy was on the blower to his Stoke equivalent, who subsequently spared him the obvious retort of now being the only time we were ever likely to recoup that amount of lolly on a forward who’s been far from prolific. This is about streamlining and he represented the best option in achieving it.

I sort of agree with Levy on the Cahill deal as well. We’ll never be privy to the exact numbers of course, but if even a ballpark figure of £15m was being quoted by Bolton for a defender who’s yet to convince under the microscope, and with less than a year left on his current deal, it seems awfully steep. I wouldn’t even call that the going rate. Were we really only £2m short as some have said? If le arse offered only £6m, I doubt Levy will have entertained anything approaching double figures in the million pound stakes, so my guess is we were probably a lot further away from this deal than some seem to believe. Problem is, when he’s available for nowt next summer, we won’t be able to compete on the wages, but then that’s a gamble I’m sure Levy is happy to take. Like the father of a child who’s chosen the wrong flavour of ice-cream, I can imagine Daniel telling Harry ‘you wanted Bassong, you live with Bassong’, and to get on with it.

Hutton, Jenas, Bentley, Palacios, Keane and Crouch; all off the wage bill, and some decent money recouped, with Freidel and Parker the only ones to come in on permanent contracts. The overall picture is one of a club looking to streamline, baton down the financial hatches, and get through this season largely unscathed. Not for the first time, the fiscal demands of the Plc and the expectations of the public look to be reaching unsatisfactory middle ground.

What we’re left with however, is a squad capable of finishing fourth. Harry’s extended audition for the England managers job should be all the motivation he needs to get this lot producing, while our most talented player has the incentive of (probably) being promised a move next summer if he’s a good boy this year. All manner of other incentives dotted about the place, outside of, you know, doing what you’re paid to do, and we might just be ok. It’s too early to be throwing the towel in, so let’s back this rabble and see what they can do.