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With one month left
before the season starts, the club have been active in the summer
transfer market for a change.
The signing of Sergei
Rebrov, although prolonged to ensure that Spurs fans reduced the length
of their finger nails, has heralded a brave policy of spending big money
- at last. Almost doubling the Spurs transfer record, the
Ukrainian striker made the decision to come to Tottenham against the
advice of some of his former team-mates. The management certainly
did a good job of winning him over as there is precious little to tempt
him to Spurs with at the moment. I had hoped that he would be the
catalyst to bring in other top names, intrigued by his signing and
thinking that something must be going on at the club. The only
other transfers as I write are the Wimbledon pairing of goalkeeper Neil
Sullivan and defender Ben Thatcher.
I must admit that
Sullivan has been a good keeper over the last couple of years, although
last season he didn't live up to his previous level of
performance. Getting him on a free transfer and beating Arsenal to
his signature was a coup, but why was his form poorer last season.
The stats will tell you that he saved more shots from inside the area
than current keeper Ian Walker, but what does that tell you about his
defence ?? Then we go and sign one of them for £5 million
!! Thatcher has always been a strong defender, in my opinion, with
the emphasis on the strong. Sometimes, that has been overly strong
as witnessed in his follow through tackle from behind on Allan Nielsen
at Selhurst Park a couple of seasons ago. That earned him a red
card and most notably, another incident, which would have earned one if
the referee had noticed, was the elbowing of Nicky Summerbee at the turn
of the year. There has long been calls for a more
"steely" attitude to Tottenham's defending, but I would hope
that it did not involve Thatcher putting opponents in the stand and
himself out of contention through suspension. He has made all the right
noises about cutting out the unnecessary back-chat and "dirty"
play and I hope he can achieve that. Left sided players,
especially defenders, as we have heard all summer at Euro 2000, are at a
premium. As he nearly got included in an England squad before the
elbowing incident, it looks as though he could have a good future - that
decision lies with him. Hopefully, removing him from the Wimbledon
side where such play is second nature, will help his career development.
The disappointing
news was about the proposed movement out of White Hart Lane of David
Ginola. The man who has put the fantasy back into Tottenham was
always said to be on a collision course with George Graham, but while he
did the business, GG stuck with him. However, the dropping at Old
Trafford hit him hard and when told he could not be guaranteed to play
every game, he took it that his time at the club was over. Graham
said he wanted him to stay and Ginola that he didn't want to leave, but
I am sure the board view £3 million for him as too good a piece of
business to turn down. The move to Villa seems to have died the
death and he has started pre-season training with Spurs - even winning
the club's pre-season golfing event !! If he did go, then it would
leave a hole in the creative midfielder/winger department. Matthew
Etherington has done well, but would not be ready for a full season so
soon and there is no ready made replacement at the club waiting to step
into the breach. With no signing imminent to fill in for David if
he left, Spurs would now have the striker they have been craving, but
nobody to supply him !! Zenden of Barcelona has been mentioned,
but after the Euro 2000 tournament, he will go elsewhere and no other
names are being linked with the club in this department. Both the
manager and Director of Football have said they hope to bring in two
more players before the start of the season, but it is getting closer
all the time. I know Leonhardsen signed the day before last season
began, but really you need them before that to bed them into the side.
We will have to hope
that the management have something up their sleeve before the 19th of
August when we face Ipswich Town at home. I would really like to
see them go for Andres D'Allessandro - the young Argentinian, who so
impressed on a visit over to this country with his national Under-21's
last season. We were supposed to be interested at one stage, but
Pleat said there were no plans to follow up signings from South America
at this time. Well, perhaps now is the time and with a reliance on
younger players coming into the club, one who has been playing first
team football abroad could be the right signing with the amount of money
we have left.
Whatever happens in
the next four weeks,
Keep the faith.
MY EYES HAVE SEEN THE GLORY OF THE CUPS AT WHITE HART LANE
MY EYES HAVE SEEN THE GLORY OF THE CUPS AT WHITE HART LANE
MY EYES HAVE SEEN THE GLORY OF THE CUPS AT WHITE HART LANE
AND THE SPURS GO MARCHING ON.
BRUCE
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