Who’s Next Through The Lane’s Revolving Door?

By: Robert Reed | July 7th, 2012

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£100million eh? I can’t believe it! In fact I don’t believe it.

Andre Villas Boas has got a lot of money to spend but how much of that comes from player sales is anyone’s guess. There is no doubt that Daniel will have thrown a good few million the way of his new manager, but the main bonus for him is the reported promise that all the fees from any players sold will be pumped straight back into the transfer budget.

At any club that would be a nice situation for the manager, but at Spurs there is never any shortage of dead wood to sell. As things stand though the players mooted to be on their way are far from dead; some of them aren’t even wood!

Of the players that virtually none of us would really like to see the back of we have Luca Modric and Benoit Assou Ekotto.

Luka-Modric-007 Little Luca has been sobbing to his buddies for a while now about how he wants to leave, but that horrible Daniel Levy won’t let him go. Chin up though Luca, your harrowing ordeal may soon be over. Real Madrid will I think eventually accept the fact that if you want to buy a decent player from Spurs these days you have to submit to becoming Levy’s bitch. The sticking point as ever appears to be the price, as rumour has it that everything else has been sorted; wages, image rights, bonuses, a nice apartment for Luca (presumably on the second floor). That has a whiff of BS about it though as all that is done after the fee is agreed as I understand it; otherwise it’s tapping up, surely?

BAE on the other hand is a bit of a surprise. In truth I haven’t heard anything about his impending departure for a few days, but he will be a loss in my opinion. The odd hair-brained Mr. Bean moment aside (which nearly always costs us), he is one of the best left backs in the league. True we have brought in the dementedly named Zeki Fryers from Man United; which it would appear they are none too happy about (good) but he strikes me as cover for now, especially as Danny Rose most certainly is set to leave.

Then there are the players who some would like to stay and others will be glad to see the back of. Players such as Rafael van der Vaart and Tom Huddlestone.

rafael_van_der_vaart Rafa is a Spurs type player, for sure. He has skill to burn, likes to score goals and is not keen on defending. The truth is though that, for me, his inclusion has never really benefited the team as a unit. He has won us some games with his skill and goals but I think we have lost more as a result of the formation being a sodding mess trying to shoe horn him in. He strikes me as the type of player who would be great at somewhere like Everton or Aston Villa where they could build the team around him. I wouldn’t go so far as to say he is a luxury but he is certainly high maintenance; I am no fan of a player who publicly criticises the manager whenever he doesn’t get a game. The modern game is all about rotation and we don’t need someone who will sling all his toys out of the pram every other week. Harry would put up with it and placate him but I think AVB will be a different kettle of fish. Anyway, the rumour mill has him off to Germany and I can see that happening.

Huddlestone is a bit more puzzling. I’ve never really rated him as a holding player but, playing alongside one, he is our best long range passer. In fact he is arguably one of the best in the league. Nevertheless he could well depart before the season starts and I wonder if that may be something we regret a little should it come to pass. Parker is the better player in my opinion, but he has similar qualities to Sandro (a shoe in for centre mid this season, surely) and he is also knocking on a bit in age. Huddlestone would not necessarily be a starter for me but he’d be a good option off the bench.

Finally there are the players few really give a crap about. The likes of Piennar, Bentley, Gomes blah blah yadda yadda. Some of these players should have gone long ago, but as long as they go now and give us a few bob then no problem. We will probably take a bath on most of them, Bentley in particular, but getting them off the wage bill will be a blessed relief.

Leandro-Damiao-1 That has to be a lot of cash there though, right? And Levy seems in the mood to spend! We have Gylfi and your man from United already, but the Vertonghen deal looks on the verge of being completed. Leandro Damiao is starting to actually look a little bit of a goer too. We have our relationship with Internacional, they have just bought Diego Forlan and are supposedly asking for £14million for their striker. Daniel might stump that up, and then we’ll have a tasty Brazilian who has been scoring 1 in 2 (admittedly green in Europe, but I think he has the type of game which will adapt well). Diarra and Higuain are supposedly being mooted as makeweights in any Modric deal, but I think the latter may be a bit of paper talk.

Names like Hulk and Moutinho are being mentioned due to their links with AVB. Moutinho looks particularly like it could happen. Man United have bid £20 million for him but will reportedly go no higher, and the player has made encouraging noises about wanting to work with Boas again. We will have to see what happens with Modric first though I think.

Of course all of this is conjecture. We have been notoriously bad at being able to actually permanently get rid of any of our surplus players, and Levy’s intransigence in the transfer market has cost us in the past with missed opportunities. I get the feeling though that while in a transition like this the mantra is usually ‘evolution, not revolution’; things are moving pretty fast for us and our remit appears to be not to evolve but…er…revolve?

COYS!

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