In view of Gareth
Bale’s seemingly impending move to Madrid, football followers appear to have
split into a number of camps on the issue of how the wing wizard ought to be
replaced.
Some would
say Spurs have already adequately replaced the Welshman with the signings of Valencia’s
Spanish striker Roberto Soldado, Brazilian ex-Corinthians midfielder Paulinho and Belgian former-Twente winger Nacer Chadli, at a total cost of 50 million
pounds. Their reason for such brazen confidence would apparently be that these
three acquisitions can, between them, account for Bale’s pace and trickery, his
goal threat and his overall ability and presence when coming deeper to collect
the ball, forcing defenders to be cautious and, in so doing, allowing himself
to gather momentum from midfield or creating space for others to run into
higher up the pitch.
On the
other hand, the burden on these players, especially Soldado, to bag goals
galore will be immense, particularly after Clint Dempsey’s surprise switch to
Seattle Sounders at the weekend that means his scoring input from midfield cannot
be relied upon this season.
Others
would suggest that football is more than a game these days and that a marquee
signing is now needed to boost morale, not just in the locker room and on the
terraces but on the stock market and in forums worldwide. (One need look no
further than this summer’s speculation and, in some cases, solid statement of
fact surrounding Neymar, Falcao, Cavani, Suarez, Fabregas, Rooney et al.)
Some of
these enlightened souls will also tell you that this kind of signing will
necessitate a transfer fee as grandiose as the statement being made; i.e. that
Tottenham are neither a selling club nor a spent force, and that here is the
flexed muscle to prove it. Unfortunately, the Lilywhites will have a sack full
of cash but no Champions League football to offer said ‘big names’. Would this, therefore, enable them to enter
the race for the likes of Luis Suarez, as has been widely reported?
Other,
perhaps more informed, folk will point out the fact that Spurs currently don’t
have a back four to put out and mention that they would therefore seemingly
have far nearer, if not necessarily greater, fires to extinguish before their
trip to Selhurst Park on August 18.
An ankle
injury to Jan Vertonghen in the Barclays Asia Trophy quagmire and a training-ground
leg injury which required a scan for Michael Dawson has intensified the
situation created by the release of William Gallas, long-term absence of Younes
Kaboul and failed pursuit of Steau Bucharest centre-half Vlad Chiriches, which
stalled after club owner Gigi Becali staggeringly put a halt to the deal from
his Romanian jail cell.
The departure
of Steven Caulker, ironically citing a need for greater game time, meant Tottenham
were forced to field a centre-back pairing of midfield reserve Jake Livermore
and recently acquired former Manchester United youth prospect Ezequiel Fryers,
20, against arguably the most in-form striker in world football, Radamel
Falcao, whose Monaco side promptly brought the experiment to an end with a 5-2
thrashing in the principality on Saturday.
In fairness,
Chairman Daniel Levy is obviously doing his utmost to solve these problems
before the Bale money is even in the coffers by demanding one of two payment
methods:
The
famously formidable negotiator has proposed either cash up front - in light of
the manner of the Cristiano Ronaldo transfer that took the Portuguese from
Manchester back to the Iberian Peninsula in 2009 and the fact that Spurs are
still owed money from Luka Modric’s sale to Los Blancos last summer - or the
inclusion of fringe, or even not-quite-fringe, members of the Madrid squad,
with Fabio Coentrao, Angel di Maria and ‘next Big Thing’ Alvaro Morata all
mentioned in recent weeks.
Any of
these players would represent valuable additions to the Tottenham roster:
Coentrao, because reinforcements are urgently required at left back and right
along the back line; di Maria, as his is a consistently menacing presence on
either wing and, particularly when cutting in from the right flank onto his
favoured left foot, may appease fans missing the Bale factor and yearning for
electricity and dynamism when employing a swift counter; Morata, since he was top
scorer in Spain’s recent European Under-21 Championship success and has been likened
to club legend Fernando Morientes following his rise up the Real ranks.
The need
for a makeweight, in allowing Bale to trade the white of North London to that
of the Spanish capital, is made more poignant when considering possible alternatives.
Any move for unwanted Premier League players, such as Manchester United’s Nani,
to fill the void or tempting a club of the required stature into allowing their
players, for example, Isaac Cuenca or Christian Tello of Barcelona, to come in
on loan would surely be tempered by the club’s lack of prospective top-drawer
European action.
There is clearly
no guarantee that a star or even a ‘good honest pro’ will be a success, instant
or otherwise, when entering a new environment or even a new season. What can be
counted on is the fickle nature of football fans. With this in mind, it will be
interesting to see exactly how the White Hart Lane faithful, who appear to have
backed the club in its originally stubborn stance, right through to a reluctant
realization as to the inevitability of it all, react to the new arrivals and
the men responsible for their recruitment. Should plans go awry and they find
themselves outside of the Champions League places by the time pumpkins are being
put up, there may be calls for increased activity in January.
In all
likelihood, Levy will take cash – and lots of it – in order to carefully
reinvest in a select group of players whom he and his staff feel to be capable
of cementing or even building on the club’s status within English football and its
pulling power abroad. This may, however, be carried out over a period of time rather
than rashly rushed through overnight (see Anfield Road, January 2011 for precedent),
as Levy seemingly does not make any decisions on a whim.
The next
window may, in reality, turn out to be the game-changer. Whether this should be
the case is up for debate but Tottenham fans will feel that, in Levy, Andre
Villas Boas and co, they have a team who will endeavour to steer the ship right
to its journey’s end, instead of jumping on the big-name bandwagon and rolling out
the red carpet for another Andy Carroll.
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