Tottenham’s Need for a Striker Increases as New Season Approaches

Tottenham’s defeat to Valencia in their final preseason game underlined their urgent need for a new striker. Jermain Defoe was isolated and although he worked hard and came deep in search of the ball, he never had the opportunity to do what he is best at, getting forward to strike at goal. Whenever, Spurs played the ball forward it was a gift which Valencia gratefully accepted and while Spurs started brightly, their froward momentum and threat diminished as the game progressed with Defoe unable to hold the ball up to allow the midfield players to get forward in support.

At the end of last season, everyone knew that Tottenham needed to have a shake up of their strike force. Emmanuel Adebayor returned to Manchester City, his year-long loan deal expired and Louis Saha was released at the end of his six month contract. Jermain Defoe was left as the sole experienced striker with Harry Kane as back-up and a decision to be taken over the future of Giovani dos Santos.

SITUATION VACANT –  REQUIRED URGENTLY – A STRIKER (or two)

(Apply to Mr D.Levy, Tottenham Hotspur FC, White Hart Lane, Tottenham)

The signing of a top striker is always a long drawn out affair – with all parties trying to get the best possible deal. Selling clubs want to encourage a bidding war between interested teams, players and agents want to push the price to its maximum level to increase their percentage while buying clubs often need to sell before they can commit to a purchase. Daniel Levy is a cautious negotiator and will not sanction a deal unless he is satisfied with all aspects of it and has been known in the past to try to alter conditions at the last moment. Unfortunately, certain clubs with no limit to their funds are able to spread their net wide with their supposed interest pushing up fees and also delaying completion of negotiations. With Tottenham having only one striker, they are in a weak bargaining position as every club knows their desperate need to make a signing.

In the early days of summer, when confidence was high, it appeared that Loic Remy who had been tracked for much of last season would be the first striker to be brought to White Hart Lane. It was reported that negotiations had been on-going with his club, Marseille, who were prepared to sell him as he had only one year left on his contract. With Harry Redknapp supposedly keen on the player, the signing was expected to be completed within days but Tottenham’s failure to make the Champions League cooled the player’s interest in White Hart Lane so he dropped off the radar.

At the same time there were positive soundings concerning the completion of a deal for Emmanuel Adebayor. Throughout last season, it was thought unlikely that Adebayor’s stay at Spurs would last any longer than the loan period as his salary expectations were beyond the strict boundaries of the club’s salary structure. Adebayor, however, tweeted at the end of the season that he was working hard with the Chairman to reach an agreement. Negotiations continued and it was thought that agreement had been reached when in mid-July message boards were certain that his signing was about to be announced. Then new complications arose, it is thought, between the player and Manchester City and recently a newspaper report suggested that Spurs were about to give up hope of signing him after he had demanded a pay-off from City before he would leave Eastlands. If agreement is going to be reached it would appear that it is destined to be a last minute arrangement on the final day of the transfer window on 31st August when all sides have pushed it to the limit.

The change of management brought suggestions that some of Andre Villas-Boas’ former players might follow him to White Hart Lane. Such dreams brought Hulk from FC Porto to mind. His performances for Brazil’s Olympic team encouraged these hopes but Chelsea’s interest and recent reports that Zenit St Petersburg’s have bid for the Porto striker, reportedly offering £38 million for the 25-year-old, brought any hopes to an end.

Villas-Boas’ connections with Falcao who was another member of  the successful Porto team brought the Atletico Madrid striker’s name to the fore. He joined the Spanish club last summer after two years with Porto and in the past three seasons he has scored 65 goals. He is a natural goal scorer, has good pace and is the complete striker with heading ability and able to shoot with both feet. He is the type of class striker that Tottenham need but can not afford and sadly are unlikely to have the opportunity to sign.

Robert Lewandowski from Borussia Dortmund was another reported target. He played for Poland at Euro 2012 but the size of the fee demanded by his club has put off Tottenham.

A long term target for Tottenham has been the Brazilian, Leandro Dimiao. Leandro is a player whom Tottenham have been keen to sign during the past two seasons and while discussions have taken place the two clubs have never been able to reach a satisfactory conclusion. He plays for Internacional and is aged twenty two with nine appearances for his country. Negotiations for Brazilian players and with clubs in Brazil are notoriously difficult to finalise with the involvement of agents and the goalposts get moved constantly. With Leandro’s involvement in the Olympics, he is sure to be a target for other clubs and it has been another obstacle to drawing negotiations to a conclusion.

Three strikers in England who are mentioned in transfer rumours are Andy Carroll who would appear to be on his way out of Liverpool after an unsuccessful year on Merseyside and Papiss Cisse who impressed during  his short period at Newcastle when he scored 13 goals in fourteen Premier League games from January to the end of the season. His strike partner at Newcastle, Demba Ba, has also been mentioned as he scored 16 goals last season and was considered the best buy of the season for his performances at Newcastle having signed from West Ham United the previous summer. These options may become more of a target as the window draws to a close if other negotiations have failed to come to fruition and desperation sets in. Then, of course, Manchester United are still looking to offload former Tottenham striker, Dimitar Berbatov.

Andre Villas-Boas had wanted transfer dealings completed early in preseason, then he stated that he expected a striker to be signed before the start of the season but it is becoming increasingly likely that he will have to wait until the end of August. Next week’s internationals are a further complication in efforts to complete a signing ahead of the start of the Premier League. If Spurs were to go into the new season with only one experienced striker, they would have a squad greatly weakened compared to that which finished last season under Harry Redknapp. Modric has not been replaced and the shortage of strikers must be a major worry for Andre Villas-Boas as he knows certain elements within football will be looking to see him fail once again. It is an added pressure that he doesn’t need and Daniel Levy needs to rectify the situation immediately.

Emmanuel Adebayor and Leandro are thought to be the players most likely to be signed as negotiations have been on-going for some considerable time and are at an advanced stage, if all ITKs (In The Knows) are to believed, but as Tottenham supporters have discovered previously there can be many false dawns ans disappointments so there is no certainty until the player is paraded in the shirt and holding aloft the Spurs scarf. However, there is one certainty and that is simply that Spurs MUST sign a striker or two of quality before the end of August or else their season could be over before it even starts.

Who will join Jermain Defoe as the Tottenham strike force this season?