Sunday, March 8, 2009

Summer Clear out at Spurs, and Other Team News

Various papers have begun the transfer speculation for Tottenham early. Well, the papers are always speculating, but the Sunday Mirror believes that Harry wants to raid his old club Pompey in the summer for three England internationals. The Mirror believes that Harry will try to bring Glen Johnson, David James and Peter Crouch to the club. Harry is also said to still want Kenwye Jones of Sunderland, Stuart Downing of Middlesborough, and Joe Cole of Chelsea to overhaul the squad.

After seeing Downing and Jones play us this week, I don't really think I would want either of them coming to the club. Spurs have been infatuated with Downing for years it seems, and I've never been too impressed with him. He tends to disappear way too often, if we were going to go after and English left-sided player I would much prefer to have Joe Cole than Downing. Also yesterday, Jones was pretty much shut down by Jonathan Woodgate in the match. He strikes me as a decent player, but not someone who would be worth 13 or 14 million pounds, which was the rumored price in January.

What also strikes me about these rumors is the number of these players who've just signed new contracts. Johnson signed a new deal with Pompey in January, as did Jones, and Peter Crouch just came to Pompey in the summer. Downing signed a new 5-year deal last year as well, and though we know in football that deals are ripped up all of the time, it does seem strange that we would buy so many who've just signed new deals.

If Pompey or Boro were to be relegated, I would expect some of the players rumored to be targets to come into the club, if for no other reason than to balance the books. The most likely player to come to the club would James I would think, though I would like Niko Krancjar for the left side, but I think he will hold out for Champions League football.

Almost all of these players were rumored targets during the January window, and I think Harry will have a few surprises for us in the summer window, though I don't think wholesale changes need to be made, maybe 2-4 players coming into the club, just some fine-tuning, because we have quality in the squad.

In other team news Alan Hutton seems to be nearing full fitness and might make his return to the field before the end of the month, though he is one of the rumored clear-outs this summer, which I think is a mistake. He's a solid right back, and if given a chance through the end of the year, could definitely show the grit that Harry is looking for.

In the final piece of team news that I have for the day, Harry has agreed with me that Aaron Lennon does have one flaw to his game, and that is his service, which I've been saying for some time. If he was to improve on his crossing, he would be one of the most dangerous players in the Premiership in my opinion.

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