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Our January business: a positive spin

4 min read
by The Fighting Cock
Ins: Lewis Holtby [reported £1.5m from Schalke], Zeki Fryers [£3m from Standard Liege] Outs: Jermaine Jenas [undisclosed to QPR], Andros Townsend [loan to QPR], Tomislav Gomelt [loan to Espanyol], Simon Dawkins [loan to Villa], Ryan Mason [loan to Lorient], Alex Pritchard [loan to Peterborough], Heurelho Gomes [loan to Hoffenheim], Yago Falque [loan to Almeria] A […]

Ins: Lewis Holtby [reported £1.5m from Schalke], Zeki Fryers [£3m from Standard Liege]

Outs: Jermaine Jenas [undisclosed to QPR], Andros Townsend [loan to QPR], Tomislav Gomelt [loan to Espanyol], Simon Dawkins [loan to Villa], Ryan Mason [loan to Lorient], Alex Pritchard [loan to Peterborough], Heurelho Gomes [loan to Hoffenheim], Yago Falque [loan to Almeria]

A sense of déjà vu would have surrounded all Spurs fans during yesterday’s transfer deadline day. The usual Twitter hoaxers were out to make a name for themselves with fantastic tales and Daniel Levy reprised his role as 11th hour transfer tease, missing out again on Leandro Damiao after a reported last-ditch bid was dismissed. Anyone who allowed their hopes to be raised in the final 24 hours would have come away feeling deflated.

But in the cold light of day on 1 February how does our business stack up? A number of factors must go into this assessment. By my reading, we’ve done very well.

The first, and most obvious, positive to pick out of the January window has been the arrival of Germany U21 captain Lewis Holtby. The initial prospect of Holtby joining us in the summer was tantalising enough, that his move was then expedited – whatever the reasons for this; his supposed replacement for the injured Sandro doesn’t stack up given their very different roles – has parachuted the ideal player into a squad crying out for poise and ingenuity in the final third after the loss of Rafa van der Vaart.

Some casual observation of Gooners’ views on the acquisition show that we’ve got ourselves a gem. They have seen first-hand his abilities having showcased them at the Library during Schalke’s 2-0 win last October.

[linequote]By my reading, we’ve done very well.[/linequote]

Our only other incoming transfer was, Zeki Fryers, who will join up with the Development Squad. Judgment should therefore be reserved, but left-back is a position where we’ve been shown to lack depth and he’s now in pole position to be Benny’s long-term successor.

Of the outgoings, it’s a mostly uncontentious state of affairs. We can finally wave Jermaine Jenas off with our best wishes and thanks for all the goals against the scum. Heurelho Gomes, too, has divided opinion at the Lane but leaves with his head held high after some memorable performances.

Of the loanees, it seems a strange decision to allow Andros Townsend to go when the chances of him figuring for QPR during their relegation scrap must be fairly low. Despite his limitations he would have provided some cover for Bale and Lennon towards the end of a long season. The same goes for Yago Falque. Perhaps they both have recall clauses in their loan deals. Let’s hope we don’t have to find out.

Holtby

The loanee I’m most excited about hearing more about is Alex Pritchard at Peterborough. We know what he can do against his peers in the U21 league and Next Gen tournament, but how will he go against grown men scrapping in the sink-or-swim environment of the Championship?

Away from the activity which has passed through Levy’s fax machine, our nearest competitors have hardly been overworking player’s agents either. Arsenal’s main bit of business has been to clear up the mess made on a previous £6m purchase, Andre Santos, by paying £10m for another left-back, Nacho Monreal.

Chelsea have strengthened with Demba Ba, but their defence still looks unassured. Everton were linked with some interesting players, but ended up with a right-back from Barnsley. Liverpool have had the best of this transfer window, with over £20m spent on Daniel Sturridge and Phillipe Coutinho, but still look too flaky to bridge the seven point gap to us in fourth place.

[linequote]Away from the activity which has passed through Levy’s fax machine, our nearest competitors have hardly been overworking player’s agents either.[/linequote]

Though we can probably all agree it shouldn’t be, modern football is a business. Levy hasn’t gambled big money on securing the riches of fourth. Nor has he repeated the tactic of last January and signed short-term solutions to problems that didn’t exist. This can be seen as prudent after Spurs recently posted a financial loss in their annual accounts.

We can probably also all agree that a quality striker would have been a major boost as we seek to capitalise on all the possession we have enjoyed this season. However, we do have Adebayor to come back and Defoe has had his best first-half of a Spurs campaign. An injury to either of them would likely blow our chances of playing Champions League football next year, but the same can be said for Arsenal with Giroud and Walcott, Everton with Marouane Fellaini, and Liverpool with Luis Suarez.

Our muted activity in the transfer window is far from a disaster. AvB can gather the troops and infuse further belief that he believes in them and their ability to secure the club’s ambitions. For ‘confidence players’ like Defoe and Adebayor this could pay dividends.

[author name=”garpat” avatar=”https://twimg0-a.akamaihd.net/profile_images/1139106876/image.jpg” twitter=”garpatt” tag=”garpat[/linequote]

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15 Comments

  1. TMWNN
    01/02/2013 @ 10:05 am

    The old ‘positive spin’ on another failed window, eh?

    Will some people ever learn? Levy and ENIC are not interested in regular CL football; it costs far more than it earns and would involve investing their own money. Stringing the naive along in the hope of ‘glory’, which is always a player or two away, before they eventually cash in the chips is what this lot are all about.

    • Ron
      01/02/2013 @ 10:43 am

      Thank you for demonstrating your intelligence level so ably. Don’t ever set up a business will you, it’ll fail.

      • TMWNN
        01/02/2013 @ 11:05 am

        Obviously another signed up member of the ‘in Levy we trust’ brigade.

  2. Bob
    01/02/2013 @ 10:17 am

    This season Adebayor has shown nothing for Spurs and Defoe ,as in previous seasons blows hot and cold. One goal in his last nine Premier League games is testimony to
    that. Dempsey is not a natural goal scorer so I think Tottenham really needed to make sure a striker was bought in this window. I hope I am wrong but Arsenal and Everton will be hard to fight off for 4th place. Another concern would be with no Champions League next year will we be waving goodbye to Gareth?

  3. Andre's Crouching Again
    01/02/2013 @ 10:19 am

    The gamble of having only Defoe and Ade as our main strikers could now come back to haunt us big time. Ade is playing like he’s on holiday with Togo and Defoe’s injury is worse that what’s been disclosed. We know Defoe goes through patches scoring goals but this is the wrong time not to be scoring. Dempsey is playing with a leg-iron on but still finds the net. Oh if only we could have the Fulham Dempsey playing for us. Holtby looked could for the 20 minutes he played but was hoodwinked by AVB when he said he’d bought into his plan. What plan was that? Only two forwards for the rest of the season. I like AVB but he should have been kicking Levy’s door down at the start of January for another forward. Champions League…your having a laugh!

  4. Essex Yid
    01/02/2013 @ 10:37 am

    Demebele 15mil,Jan 7mil, Dempsey 6 mil, Hugo 10mil, Ade 5mil, Gylfi 6.8mil, Fryers 3mil, Holtby 1.25mil. £54million on players since AVB arrived. How is Levy not backing the manager. He runs the club properly and we are still able to compete. I feel we are in a better posistion in terms of players than we were last year. Holtby is an improvement on VDV (and can play more than 60mins) We also have a back up for him in Dempsey. We didn’t have cover on the wings last year either. Defoe is actually being played (instead of Saha) and once Ade comes back from the AFCON lets hope he has some confidence back. Anyone asking for Levy out needs to go and support Arsenal

    • John Smith
      01/02/2013 @ 11:44 pm

      Most of that was paid for by the sale of Modric and VDV

      But continue to place your trust in a man who has made bids for Leandro every window even though he knows they do not meet the player’s valuation

  5. TMWNN
    01/02/2013 @ 10:40 am

    Anyone telling a Spurs fan to support the scum is a bit of a (unt.

  6. Ron
    01/02/2013 @ 10:40 am

    Why would Townsend have provided cover, he wasn’t for the first half of the campaign. He has hardly been on the bench. Dempsey has been our wing cover with Sigurdsson playing there ae well plus Holtby started out playing there and has only moved in the last 2 seasons.

  7. Sparky
    01/02/2013 @ 11:25 am

    Have a look at the ins and out for the last 2 seasons, not including last nights blank firing exercise!!

    Season 12/13
    Gylfi Sigurdsson £8,000,000 Niko Kranjcar £7,000,000
    Jan Vertonghen £10,000,000 Vedran Corluka £5,500,000
    Emmanuel Adebayor £5,000,000 Ryan Nelsen Free
    Moussa Dembele £15,000,000 Lee Angol Free
    Hugo Lloris £12,000,000 Ben Alnwick Free
    Clint Dempsey £7,000,000 Steven Pienaar £4,500,000
    Ezekiel Fryers £3,000,000 Sebastien Bassong £4,000,000 PTS POS
    Lewis Holtby £1,500,000 Luka Modric £30,000,000
    David Button £500,000
    Rafael Van der Vaart £10,300,000
    Giovani Dos Santos £1,000,000
    Louis Saha Released
    Carlo Cudicini Free
    Total £61,500,000 £62,800,000 Total net profit £1,300,000.00
    Season 11/12
    Brad Friedel Free Jamie O’Hara £5,000,000
    Cristian Ceballos Free Jonathan Woodgate Free
    Souleymane Coulibaly £2,000,000 Paul-José Mpoku Undisclosed
    Yago Falqué Undisclosed Robbie Keane £4,350,000
    Scott Parker £6,000,000 Alan Hutton £4,000,000
    Callum Tapping Nominal
    Peter Crouch £10,000,000
    Wilson Palacios £8,000,000
    Roman Pavlyuchenko £8,000,000
    Nouha Dicko Free PTS POS
    Total £8,000,000 £35,000,000 Total net profit £27,000,000.00

    Levy needs to understand these basics….

    1. This club exists because of the fans turning up and filling White Hart Lane.
    2. The fans should boycott the matches until they are shown some REAL input from Mr Lewis and his henchmen
    3. This club has a weakness at it’s core, the owners. With them we will always be also rans…
    4. This clubs needs real investors who will make it Great once more.

    • Chirpy
      01/02/2013 @ 1:48 pm

      Boycott the matches? What a Gooner loving mug you are.
      New stadium on the way. World class training centre. Best squad in decades.
      You obviously weren’t around in the 90’s for mid-table mediocricy, and another spoilt mug who spends too much time on Fifa 13.

      • John Smith
        01/02/2013 @ 11:45 pm

        Chirpy resorts to abuse because he cannot come up with a logical argument

  8. Zee
    01/02/2013 @ 3:19 pm

    Levy is a typical fucking tight jew cunt

    • Andy
      01/02/2013 @ 11:31 pm

      Wow. Antisemitism now? Get the fuck away from our club, you scumbag

      • John Smith
        01/02/2013 @ 11:46 pm

        Agreed

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