I don't think that there's any doubt that our Russian striker will be leaving in January for pastures new. He's not being picked, he's moaning about it and he's talking about where he'd prefer to go to the media. It's not a matter of if he goes, just where he goes, as far as I can see. That'll leave us with only Adebayor, Defoe and a highly inexperienced Kane as possible players to lead the line, so we'll have to bring in someone new. Who would people like to see brought in? I think that a new striker (or New Striker, if you'd prefer) needs to tick certain boxes. He'll have to be able to play the lone striker role well. He'll have to accept not being an automatic first choice. A younger player would probably be better, but an experienced journeyman might still be a decent fit. A short-term deal to fill a temporary gap, perhaps. Previous suggestions have included Wigan's Hugo Rodallega, the Brazilian prospect Leandro Damiao of Internacional, the ridiculous suggestion that we'd consider Michael Owen and a currently impossible move for Asamoah Gyan, on loan to Al Ain from Sunderland til the summer. Who would be your ideal yet realistic candidate for the role and why?
It's a tough one, because naturally we want to be buying an improvement on Pav, but they would also have to be happy to play second fiddle to Ade for the time being. Junior Hoilett's name has been chucked around a bit. Could play ST or RW, which with Lennon's recent dip in form and VDV's preference to play CF is a position where perhaps we could improve. I would love Leandro - and being a youngster he'd probably accept being second choice in the short term, knowing he'll get his chance eventually. He's going to be a top talent too. Leandro is probably my first choice, plus with our link to Internacional this is a very feasible transfer.
Did you know that if you type "Spurs linked to striker" into Google, you get 39,200,000 results? The main suggestions seem to be... * Souleymane Coulibaly to graduate to the first team * Leandro Daimao finally gets sorted out * Cash + Pav for Seydou Doumbia * Fernando Llorente * Klaas-Jan Huntelaar (again...) * Gabriel Agbonlahor * Junior Hoilett * Moussa Sow * Roberto Soldado I'd also like to toss my hat into the ring and suggest Jordan Rhodes.
Got to be more than any other team! That's quite an attractive deal actually. Hard to tell how he'd cope with the step up into the PL though.
I'd love to see Hoilett join as a replacement for Dos Santos. Back-up and competition for both wide positions and possibly van der Vaart's role, too. Not sure he'd be any good at leading the line, though. I'll be honest and admit that I'm completely unfamiliar with him. A quick Wiki check reveals that he's a 21-year-old, 6'1" striker would plays for Huddersfield and has made 5 appearances for the Scotland U21s, scoring five times. Sounds a promising prospect, but I think that you've just highlighted another potential problem with any move, Croydon. If we do sign a youngster like Rhodes, then he may fail to kick on, due to a lack of first team football. Someone of his age needs games to improve. Hmm... Tricky.
Not to be pedantic but it's NEW STRIKER. I think Damiao might be out of our reach now and if he's going to be over £20mill like some are saying then I'd have thought we're better off shopping around for a bit. Ba would've been ideal and was available on a free in the summer. Even Klose would've been good. As it stands, with Defoe much improved, I'd like to see how he plays with VDV. If they can't work together then that makes Defoe VDV's backup so we could conceivably be selling Pav and Niko in January. I don't watch a huge amount of foreign football so I'm not going to pretend I know too much about these players but Kiessling and Gomis look like quality strikers. It might be tough to get Gomis from Lyon though and I've just looked up Kiessling and he's currently being outscored by Babel in the Bundesliege so what do I know
Seydou Doumbia. OR A striker in his latter years so Kane and Coulibaly won't be pushed aside and forgotten about, think they both look fantastic prospects and I don't want their development fizzling out due to lack of or even no game time in the near future.
I like Hugo Rola-whats-his-face to be honest. I think he'd also be a decent option from the bench. He plays, or has played, up front on his own for Wigan and has been decent from what i've seen of him. He seems to have that ability to score out of nowhere which could be useful from the bench. He doesn't seem to score enough to be 1st choice though, although with more service you never know!
Hugo rodallega is a good shout actually. He has done a very good job of leading the line when I have seen him play. I think he has a decent scoring record considering the limited service he gets and seems to be a pretty good finisher! I think Kevin Doyle is someone that can do the lone striker role very well - some of his performances for Wolves have been superb considering how isolated he is most of the time... If we are to sign in January I think we may have one eye on something more long term as Adebayor is only here to the end of the season although that will probably be dealt with in the summer once his future is certain.
Another good call IMO. Not the flashy signing some people will want but he is a good player. Wolves won't let him go easy though. Wigan have other options like that youngster (forget his name) so might be more willing. Although they stung us for quite a lot for Wilson didn't they?
I forgot to mention that Rodallega's out of contract in the summer. That'd probably reduce Wigan's asking price quite dramatically for any January move.
He scores goals in a fairly unsophisticated Wolves team, I don't think he'd fit in well for us. Basically, Wolves are playing to his strengths and due to Wolves' stature teams tend not to park the bus against them and I can't see him making clever runs and getting involved in link up play like I think we'd need.
I'm not sure that's true, SF. Whenever I've seen Doyle he's worked extremely hard up top on his own, made good runs and really trouble defences, despite being pretty isolated. His price and age would probably put off Levy, though. Wolves would fight hard to keep him and he'd have virtually no resale value.
As i know La liga better than the other european leagues i would go for Soldado,he has played at all levels for Spain and does score goals.Also Valencia always have to sell players to keep the money coming in. Hoilett i think would be a great signing as can play on both sides and down the middle,but not as a lone front man.
Hoilett - Very promising player, would definitely have him at Spurs though not sure he'd join us without the guarantee of being a starter. Doyle - A willing worker but in fairness I don't rate him, think there are far better options. Rodallega - Good player, would probably relish working with more creative players.
Currently enjoying cold Tuesday nights in Doncaster. Rodallega doesn't score many, but Wigan don,t create many - plus he scored a lot when played on the wing, so he could be a decent option. On the other hand, I can't see the more fickle section of Spurs' support taking to his signing with any amount of glee, and if he doesn't score in his first half a dozen games they'll be on his back even if he was a free transfer. Doyle would doubtless get a similar reaction, too. Going back to Jordan Rhodes, if we sign him in January and he isn't up to snuff, we could always sell him in a cash + player deal to sign, for the sake of argument, Junior Hoilett in the summer. Being the makeweight to bring Defoe in was essentially the sole contribution Bobby Zamora had for us, after all. We've all gone off Forlan, then?
This is a tricky one, and goes back to the wisdom of working out a deal with Ade if possible. The problem last year was strikers at a certain level, namely Crouch and Pav, while Defoe was hurt. Getting another striker not quite good enough for the first team would be a waste of money. Trying to get someone who works well on his own complicates matters even more. It seems likely we'd get someone who looks like a decent choice, gets checks in all the boxes, and then doesn't score. Also, a video on Coulibaly has convinced me his time is soon--though lots of 17 year stars wash out. So: 1. Sign Ade 2. Spend enough to get a replacement who's as good.
