With the dubious news that Ramos has left these shores for his home country it seems as though all the big cheeses have now thrown their weight behind the efforts to cherry pick from a certain Catalan club. This bodes the question: Why oh why oh why are Tottenham Hotspur dicking around with Samuel Eto'o?I have been a Spurs fan man and boy, and the one thing that experience tells me is that I'll eat my god damned hat if I see the Barca "hotshot" in a Spurs shirt next season. The same goes for that monkey-man Deco.
I have so many issues with this situation I barely know where to begin. Only an idiot would claim that either of these players would not grace the lily white, but the notion of these transfers is so far-fetched that one of only two options can be true: a) it's all a load of bollocks or b) we are planning on paying an obscenely disproportionate amount of money for players whose best years are questionably behind them.
Are either of these players about to accept a season without Champions League football at this stage of their careers? I doubt it. Does Daniel Levy seem like the kind of man to throw over £100,000 a week at a player in direct contravention of his own carefully crafted wage structure? Not in my experience. Is blowing the inevitable Berbatov windfall on one player in a moment of madness the best thing for the club? Never in a million years.
Eto'o is a decent player and a world star, and if we could pick him up for £15m and £80k a week I'd say that was good business (I'd also recommend an umbrella as protection from all that flying pig shit) but £25m for a 27 year old who is a striker in the "clinical finisher" mould, rather than the "tricky playmaker" mould is idiocy. We spanked £17m on one of those a year ago and he has yet to be given a fair crack of the whip.
Deco is an even more ludicrous sentiment as the inconsistent playmaker is the wrong side of 30 and will also be looking to be compensated for "lowering himself" - fuck it, while they're out there they should come back with Ronaldinho as well. Ooooh, hang on - the thought of all three of them toying with the goons next year is mildly arousing, just try not to think about the affect it will have on ticket prices...
In my opinion our £25m would be better spent on a respectable offer for young Marcelo Moreno (10 in 14 in his league, 8 in 10 in the Copa Libertadores and 2 in 4 for his country) with enough left over to buy some consistency on the wings OR an experienced international centre half OR a world class keeper.
I am the first person to say that what Spurs DON'T need is another slew of £5m-£8m squad players. But by the same token a team who fail to progress in a sub-standard European competition and are incapable of finishing in the top half of their own division do not need a £25m superstar. Players like these are what the European heavy-weights need in order to take them from third in their league to champions, from the Champions League quarter finals to the finals, they are the missing part of the jigsaw for a team that is nearly there. Spurs would be better off with 2 more signings in the vein of Luka Modric rather than one of the calibre of Eto'o.
Bearing in mind we have already done £17m on Modric and look to be about to shell £5m for that Eagles wonderkid, the mind can only boggle at what this summer's warchest must be. I can't help thinking it would be a mistake to hand it all to Barcelona for a player who will undoubtedly pine for better things, bitch if he isn't playing and lose a third of his value before the ink is even dry on the contract.
