Tottenham's mixed transfer window
Posted by DavidM in Tottenham | 28 July 2006
You can usually tell which direction a club is going in by the calibre of transfers it makes. You'd expect top flight players to be less likely to join a declining club with a bad reputation while young talent especially gravitates towards those who are on the up. So Spurs provide a bit of a puzzle.
There's no doubt that their finishing position and general performance last season suggest Martin Jol's team should be a top-6 and possibly Champions League place contender in the coming season. But there have been two sides to their transfers.
They spent close to £20m on Berbatov from Leverkusen and Zokora from St. Etienne - both international standard players, both 25 so coming into their prime. Berbatov is reported to have said "The club's reputation is growing" while Zokora was being chased by Arsenal, Man Utd and Chelsea. So far, everything points to Spurs becoming an increasingly attractive club for top-flight players.
But then there's Duff and Carrick. Duff chose Newcastle over Spurs - moving to the other end of the country to a club with fan discontent with the boardroom, a relatively inexperienced manager and where he is the only new signing so far, despite the club losing it's top goalscorer. Don't get me wrong, Newcastle are a big club, but right now I'd have thought Spurs was a more attractive proposition. Many Spurs fans don't seem worried by this as the rumours (incorrectly) suggest Newcastle seriously overpaid.
And Carrick, a young England international. The kind of player a club like Man Utd would pay over £10m for. So is he the kind of player a challenger for the title would sell? Admittedly Zokora is a straight replacement and Spurs will have made more than £2m by swapping the players.
Is there something in the fact that overseas players find Tottenham attractive yet they are having less luck with British players?
Comments
Garbage!!!!...Spurs have more English player than Arsenal, Liverpool & Man U combined
This is a bit of a pointless question as Spurs had no choice, Carrick asked to leave for Man Utd. As Jol states on the webiste :-
"This is a move that Michael wants to make. We have given him every reason to stay, but he has asked to be allowed to leave."
So your question about whether he is the kind of player a challenger for the title would sell is irrelevant, but I understand your angle.
At the end of the day it was good business, no player is bigger than the club....so bye bye Carrick, thanks for the loyalty.
Jol was smart enough to land Zokora from, as you put it, tough competition, so it's all good as far as I can see. We have the excellent young Huddlestone waiting in the wings too!
COYS!!
Spurs have had a small amount of "luck" in the last three years with British talent. Carrick was one of those finds.
I'd say Tottenham have been the best top half of the table club in that regard. So Carrick sees a pay day - so do we - a ten mill profit is fine by us. There's more where that came from. If only a declining Ferguson could spot talent earlier, eh?
not sure what you mean when you say not much luck with brits, we have got lennon who was a absolute snip from leeds, then there is jj who when given then channce to roam will do very well, huddlestone is just waiting for that chance to fill carricks shoes (a little inexperinced) but hey throw him in...and also routledge, peace cup form was awesome..
one or two additions to strenghtnes maybe a full back position and maybe left wing wouldbe greatbut i have every faith in big martin jol for a very succesful season ahead....come on you spurs
Sad fact of football today is that there is always a bigger fish out there so the midisze fish prey on the minoows and the sharks prey on the midsize fish. Not much can stop the financial muscle of the top 2-3 clubs in the Prem. Unless balance is restored football will continue to see this poaching.
well duff isn't british for one, and the signings of numerous british players over the last couple of seasons would appear to disprove that theory. plus michael carrick for that price is excellent. spurs have too many centre midfielders anyway and for those that watched last season recongise that carrick drifts in and out of games a lot more than people think. he isn't the finished article yet and for me that figure is too good to turn down.
Dude, Duff said he didn't want to join a rival cos of the Chelski fans, they hate Spurs and he didn't want to upset them.
we got zokora for around 8mil and recieved about 15mil of the 18 we sold carrick for, so we clearly made more than a 2mill profit. furthermore duff went to " the other end of the country" because spurs were to close rivals to the team he'd recently been a part of (chelsea) to join than toons. And in the end carrick wants to climb to top flight footie asap (hench his move from hammers to spurs and so on) and the attraction of champs league and medals is a payoff aswel! so in conclusion your article makes little sense when trying to uncover spurs' transfer directions...
i think carrick is an unloyal twat! .... proves that a player like him doesnt love the game, he just loves his bank account!!
To be perfectly honest, he had a mediorce first season and half a good season last campaign so atleast now we can have a bit of pace in the middle! ..
Carrick you are a twat and i hope you fail at united!!
COYS!
he has been sold because he no longer wants to play for spurs so there is no point in making him stay for another two years and then him leaving for free. So we have lost out on one british player and sold one english player. we still have more english players in our first team that arsenal or chelsea our main london rivals and i am more than happy that we are an english club with serveral english international in our first team. With the money from the sale hopefully spurs can sign a left wigger which hopefully will be an englishmen. I am not against foreign players being in the spurs team and look forward to seeing how are new signings especially Berbatov and Zokora get on this season but it makes me proud to support an english team that actual plays and buys english talent unlike some other london teams.
total bull carrick will fetch in excess of 14 million whilst zakora cost less than 8 million a difference of 6 million duff went purely for financial gain spurs were not pepared to pay wages of £70000 for a player who is out injured for half a season we have been down that road and thankfully we have a pretty fit and large squad with many young talented players we could do with cover on the left but are not desperate as some might have said
Interesting thoughts and on the face of it, missing out on the services of duff and Carrick aught not to bode well for spurs but these two gentleman had their own reasons for making the decisions they made and I think these reasons are as follows.
I dont blame Mickie for joining manU He's leaving a club on the rise for a club thats established at the top. He's going to a club with less competition in midfield (believe it or not) and he'll be payed more and play champs league this season. Sad to see him go but the reasons are there.
As for Duff, as your article points out, seems less logical. I am sure Chelsea dnt want him to go to a London club on the up. The Geordie circus is far less threatening, and although you say they didnt overpay for Duff, I happen to think they did. And I am CERTAIN they are paying Duff a salary that Tottenham wouldnt match. I do think there are very good footie reasons why Duff should've chosen Tottenham but as far as both these transfers go we can say that there are understandable reasons why the players moved where they did.
I dont think Tottenham will feel too much pain from the loss either. I think Champs league is the key and once we edge out one of the big 4, then there really will be no reasons for any of our young English players to look elsewhere. We still have more England squad players than any other club in the world so your comment about English players doesnt make sense at all. Apart from that, thought provoking article.
Wow, seriously poor article.
Firstly, Spurs didn't sign Duff as they wouldn't break their wage structure and Newcastle paid him a healthy sign up fee as well as a huge wage. Carrick going for more than £15m is great business (atleast £12m profit in 2 years). As for British talent, Spurs have signed some great one's like Lennon, Robinson, King, Carrick, Defoe, etc but buying British can be overly expensive (personally don't think Carrick is worth £15-18m, and Downing £4m at most, Curtis Davies for £10m you're having a laugh!) a well known fact to most premiership managers.
1. Carrick wanted to leave
2. Spurs will not keep players who dont want to play for the shirt, english or foreign.
3. Spurs will always look to buy English players if they are good enough.
4. Duff wanted 70k a week and we aint paying that for no one.
Spurs are the only club in the PL who have morals and more than that stick to them.
COYS
I am dissapointed by the decision of a first teamer to leave for Man Utd - not for his lack of immense ability but more for first team morale at the Lane. Especially as the start of the season is so close. I always thought that West Hams Reo-Coker was a better all round player than Carrick (Credit to Pardew). It represents a great deal for Spurs - and would like to see an AMC like Nolan at the lane. It wouldn't even matter who played on the Left wing then.
Fair point about the last paragraph. Spurs signed some good British talent in summer 2005 (then Danny Murphy in Jan 2006).
This is Jol's second summer in charge and it's interesting that all the signings so far are from overseas. That's not necessarily a bad thing as everyone knows British (and Irish) talent can be over-priced - as the Carrick transfer shows. But it would be a shame for Spurs to follow the path of their North London friends too much.
Should of put Carrick in the reserves for the last two years of his contract, maybe then he would of learnt the meaning of loyalty! He isn't worth 14 mil and Big Jol has plenty of options with Zakora & Huddlestone. Anyone who saw Carrick play the season last time round would agree.
Good ridance , Carrick is over rated , slows the game down and can't tackle to save his life ... moving to Spurs from Westham knowing the rivalry between us goes to show what kind of character he is .... best off without him
carrick is a loss. however we shouldn't dewell on it too much. We need to concentrate on players that are going to come in. For example; chimbonda and martin petrov are not the answer to our problem positions.
Why be negative and see the bad in things all the time?? If people don't want to stay then they can go. Squad is fine as it is but you can bet MJ is gonna put that Carrick fee to good use before August 19th. Only hope Defoe don't want to follow him out the door because he's had a top pre season so far but then he may have learn't his lesson from his West Ham days. Who wants to be hated by 2 sets of supporters from previous clubs. Carrick wanted to fast track himself maybe for national chances but he'll be sick in coming seasons when were top 4 regulars and spanking the mancs on their ' theatre of crap '. COYS
Title contenders? Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, stupid Spud fans, nobody likes Spuds evem Wigan are moer fashionable than you these days.
I always believed that Michael Carrick was the most talented player at Spurs but lacked the heart or bottle to become a really top player like Stevie G. Although the most talented he would be behind Ledley, Daws, Robbo, Edgar, Robbie, Aaron and Jermain Defoe last year so 15 million for a player that we don't need to replace (BIG TOM) is great business. Daniel Levy has mugged Man U, he is the one that has turned Tottenham around the last couple of years.
Carrick is still a good player, the lure of playing in the Champions League this season was too much of a draw for him - as opposed to waiting till the end of this season. (When we finish above Ars*nal and ManU). The only thing he is guilty of is being impatient. Good luck Carrick - but ya should have waited.
Duff is another matter, I dont think he had a choice in the matter - early reports seemed to suggest he was all ready to sign for us. Jose isn't thick though - would you really want to defend against a team with Lennon and Duff running at you down the wings? Great business from both sides but it was never going to happen for Spurs.
We have the most talented YOUNG British players going, at the right price Downing would be great... things are happening at Spurs and its scaring the Sh*t out of the 'big four'.
COYS!!!
Carrick was a fine player, and I'm sad to see him go, but if he wanted to go then we certainly did extremely well out of the deal.
Duff was a real dissapointment. He would have been great, but it is all strangely reminiscent of Scott Parker. Spurs the obvious move, but instead they choose a club going nowhere. I suspect Chavski try to block movies to us, and that the incompetent geordies pay nutty wages.