"You've got to have a bit of bubbly at the shareholder's meeting, haven't you?", or so says the fat man on the Nationwide adverts; it is a sentiment that seems to be very popular with the board at Tottenham Hotspur. Daniel Levy may not be an unscrupulous banker, but is he something that sounds very similar? Having sat up watching Sky Sports News and reading internet articles until gone midnight last night I get the feeling that there are a ton of Spurs fans who are not happy bunnies this morning.
Well, to further cement my place as a beacon of optimism amidst the doom-mongers and naysayers that frequent NewsNow, I am here to tell you that this transfer window has been a MASSIVE success, and that Daniel Levy has done a FANTASTIC job. Please read on...
Firstly we must look not at the detail and shady shenanigans of the last day, but at the window as a whole. Do we have a better squad now than we had in May? I think that with the exception of the forward line the answer has to be yes.
Defence OUT- Robbo - Often a liability and doing nothing at Rovers to dispel that feeling.
- Chimbonda - Reasonable on his day but often caught out of position. Despised in some quaters
- Kaboul - Had potential (maybe) but burned his bridges and had to go
- Y.P. Lee - Shocking distribution, was just not good enough
- Gardener - Glad to see the back of him, hearts sank when his name was on the teamsheet
Come on, look at that list and tell me we haven't done well at shipping out players who were always a target for the moaners (including me this time) - and to have recouped something in the region of £15m in the process is good business as far as I'm concerned.
Defence IN- Gomes - Would Robbo have kept out that Lampard chip? I rest my case.
- Corluka - A solid defender, young, versatile and with plenty of both international and Premiership experience. A superb buy.
So defensively I say that our team is definitely stronger. Woody and King are immense, Corluka is the kind of quality we were hoping for to solve the King issue, Hutton and Gunter look more than capable, Bale is class and even Gilberto is not as much of a clown as Lee or BAE (high praise indeed!).
Midfield OUT- Tainio - Good intentions but lacked quality
- Malbranque - sorry to see him go, but with our midfield acquisitions was never going to get a look in
Midfield IN- Bentley - A committed player with a point to prove, and a Spurs man, he has already impressed
- Modric - Yet to see the best of him but arrived with a big reputation and was a real coup
- Dos Santos - A live wire and already a fans favourite, looks like incredible business at under £5m
To me this is the most exciting part of the pitch for us now. In Bentley we finally have someone who can consistently deliver a dead ball, Modric is a player who very rarely loses possession and Dos Santos is the type to get us all on our feet. The only glaring omission is the arrival of the defensive midfielder we had all been hoping for.
Zokora made some good tackles against Chelsea, but again highlighted his inability to distribute the ball to his own men and was positionally shaky (unless the plan was to give Lampard as much space as possible around the edge of the box). The one signing that would have appeased all the irate Spurs fans last night was that of Miguel Veloso, but alas it never materialised. Still, Corluka can play there and it will be interesting to see whether Ramos tries it in games where King is fit. We may also find out whether Huddlestone and/or O'Hara can step up into the role given one more season.
In other areas Lennon looks like his final ball is improving and Jenas... Well Jenas is Jenas, love him or hate him.
Strikers OUTLet's not beat around the bush here, we have lost one of the best partnerships in the league, and in particular one of the best players in the world. The unfortunate thing is that we didn't really have much choice in the matter.
After the events of the last few weeks, what you must remember is this: No matter where he went, Berbatov was finished at Spurs. Could you really imagine him ever pulling on a Spurs shirt again? He would have been booed off the pitch and any and all opportunities. Old Red Nose may be sitting in his office this morning thinking he has won, but at least we didn't get completely stiffed. They only wanted to pay £20m yet in the end Levy got over £30m for him. He may not have handled it well, but he deserves credit for the end result. The Madrid bid appears to be a fabrication and the player was never going to sign for City no matter what they offered. To get more than the asking price and a young talent on loan with a view to buy seems really rather reasonable to me.
So Fergie got his man, Berba got his dream and Levy got his money. I guess in a way everybody's happy - except for those of us who wonder how we got ourselves into this mess in the first place.
Keane is a different matter, I don't know how I feel about this one. Part of me is sad to see him go, but, well, part of me really isn't. I mean he's good, but I'd hardly class him as one of Europe's elite.
Strikers IN- Pavlychenko - Classy frontman who performs well at international level
- Campbell - ???
OK, so on the face of it talentwise we are poorer up front., but I want to be positive about it. I suspect we all need to see more of Pav before we can pass judgement but I think he is a better proposition than much of what we were linked to - Santa Cruz, Milito, Kanoute, Heskey, I think that the Russian is better than all of those.
As for Campbell, well he's extremely highly rated and is a clever bit of business considering it was last minute. Think about it, what we have here is a young man who's going to be happy to sit on the bench and wait for his chance. He sounds good enough to make an impact if provided with that chance and could turn out to be a very good player. If he doesn't make the grade we ship him back and we don't owe Man U anything. Surely it is better to take this boy on loan than to do a Rasiak at 11.50pm and wake up to discover Heskey holding up a shirt with a big grin on his face.
The only criticism I have of Levy here is that the writing was on the wall regarding Berba weeks ago so he should have had a Plan B - and that plan should have been more realistic than trying to get Huntelaar with 24 hours to go. However, we should all be happy that he didn't go and buy any old shite to compensate. I suspect Ramos' influence has been positive here.
So all in all I think things look good. My glass is half full. I see a squad that nearly beat Chelsea get strengthened by another £30m of talent and sources suggest that Arshavin could still happen come January. Considering our current league position, the obvious talent of our squad and the guiding hand of a manager who has proven himself able to get the best out of players I am convinced that, in the immortal words of Yazz and the Plastic Population: The only way is up baby.
BIOYC!
