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Tottenham are deadline day losers after five departures
With only Scott Parker heading to White Hart Lane, chances of a top-four finish are rapidly fading
Most media attention was firmly fixed on Arsenal as yesterday's transfer deadline passed, but it is the Gunners' north London rivals, Tottenham Hotspur, who may be in deeper trouble after shipping out five senior players yesterday and bringing in only one.
Harry Redknapp had made it clear that after a torrid start to the season – a 3-0 defeat to Manchester United followed by a 5-1 drubbing by Manchester City at White Hart Lane – some late activity in the transfer market would give the club "a little bit of a lift". What he got from club chairman Daniel Levy was the departure of some Spurs stalwarts.
Peter Crouch, the man who scored seven Champions League goals for Tottenham last season, has gone to Stoke for an initial fee of £10m, while midfielder Wilson Palacios has also joined the West Midlands club for around £6m. Aston Villa used the final hours of the transfer window to poach both full back Alan Hutton on a four-year deal and England midfielder Jermaine Jenas on loan from Spurs.
The fifth senior departure – David Bentley's year-long loan move to West Ham – was used to cement Tottenham's only arrival of deadline day: Scott Parker. The figure of £5.5m for a man voted the football writers' player of the season last year may prove to be a bargain, but the 30-year-old's arrival has not masked Redknapp's failure at bringing in big names, with moves for Lassana Diarra, Craig Bellamy, and Fernando Llorente falling flat.
"We'd been trying to make one big one [happen] by taking Gary Cahill but we couldn't get there in the end," Redknapp said. "The chairman tried hard but we couldn't make it happen. It was the valuation, more or less." Unwilling to meet Bolton's reported £13m valuation for the central defender, Tottenham now look weak at the back, with William Gallas and Ledley King injury-prone and Jonathan Woodgate long gone.
Redknapp was pleased to keep hold of Luka Modric – Chelsea's last minute £40 million bid for the Croat being rejected – but frustration was the dominant emotion at White Hart Lane. "It's been a difficult day," Redknapp reflected. "We've got a few players out, but we've found it difficult bringing players in."
With Spurs rock bottom of the Premier League and minus some of their most senior players, the club's European heroics last season couldn't seem further away. Even Tottenham's cheeriest optimists must now doubt the likelihood of a top-four finish. ·
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what is daniel levy playing at?if true,how could he not meet the £13m asking price for Gary Cahill?how much did Man U pay for Phil Jones?n how much did stoke pay for Peter Crouch?daniel levy is taking spurs fans for granted!!!
Completely disagree that Spurs are the biggest losers, we managed to retain our key players, unlike Arsenal who lost 2 of their 3. Yes, we did sell/loan 5 players, but that should be viewed as a success as we started the day on 29 senior players and if they hadn't moved we simply would have to pay them to sit outside our 25-man squad until January at least.
£10-12m for Crouch is great business and the likes of Hutton, Bentley & Jenas have/had no real future at the club anyway. Parker is a quality signing and an improvement on Palacios, and Adebayor is easily an improvement on Crouch. We now have a leaner squad but of a higher quality, the remaining players should get more play time and thus there will be less discontent by underused players, we have netted £20m in transfers, and trimmed the wage bill by about £10m/yr.
The only disappointment was not signing Cahill, maybe the truth will come out in future, but if Bolton was demanding £17-18m then fair enough us not going for that.