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Buying
From Our Premiership Rivals - Tottenham Hotspur |
16th June 2005
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Conclusion?
So Graeme Souness wants to bring in players who have Premiership experience
or who can perform in the League, then? Well lets take a look at our
Premiership rivals and see who is available, who could be available
and who we could potentially attract.
Buying from Tottenham Hotspur?
Having raided Spurs for the services of Stephen Carr last season,
many seem convinced we will do so once again for Robbie Keane
who has been heavily linked with a move to Tyneside. Unlike the former
Spurs right-back however, I hope the striker opts to stay at White
Harte Lane should United show any real interest.
The Republic of Ireland man is a fine player in his own right but
I have serious doubts about whether he would fit in at Newcastle,
just like he hasn't seemed to do at any of his 5 clubs, Tottenham
included.
Not because he's a poor player - he has talent and many good attributes
- but he's one of those players that needs a system and the right
players alongside him to fully perform to the best of his abilities
or for him to be of any real benefit to a team and I just do not think
he's anything special enough to justify building a team round. Much
less splashing out £5-7m on.
He's a spontaneous player who likes to play on the cusp of the game,
flitting in and out. One minute off the pace and looking disinterested,
the next scoring a volley from the edge of the box. We have enough
of those players already at the club, do we need another?
Keane reminds me of Darren Huckerby - as an individual a fine player
but put him in a starting eleven and he does not fit in. Martin Jol
has struggled to accommodate him and so did David O'Leary. That is
no coincidence.
I personally feel Keane is one of those players who needs to be at
a club where he is the main man, the star of the show like he was
at Wolves and Coventry where he's not expected to do anything but
score. Where he can be the individual who plays most of the game disinterested
and on the fringes of things.
He's the forward equivalent of Laurent Robert.
Other than Keane, no other Spurs player is significantly better than
what we already have including Paul Robinson and
Ledley King. When Robinson puts in 6 successive top
seasons behind a poor defence like Shay Given has, then maybe the
hype surrounding him would be justified. At the moment he's just one
of a plethora of good shot stoppers in the Premiership, much of the
same in my opinion.
I like and rate King but he is no better than our own Titus Bramble
who in fact is much more stronger and aggressive in the tackle, something
the Spurs man doesn't seem very good at - he's quite good in most
other departments mind, but so is our man.
The one player that is better than what we have, by virtue of the
fact we only really have Alan Shearer in that department, is unattainable
even if we were interested - Jermaine Defoe. And
to be honest, he's massively overrated anyway and would cost a bomb.
For the price he would cost, any club could buy themselves a proven
international-class striker who has more to his game than pace, power
and a good eye for goal. When Defoe can score 20-25 League goals a
season for successive years and prove he can perform on the international
and European stage (hardly likely given that Spurs never qualify for
Europe), then like with Robinson, all the hype will be justified.
Again, Defoe is no better than the likes of Andy Johnson, Yakubu and
Darius Vassel - although with a lot more potential.
Next up, a look at who is available, who could be available and who
we could potentially attract from West Bromwich Albion. |
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