Part of me thinks that Soldado was "the best of the rest" in our striker pursuit.
I wouldn't beat at all surprised if we had others we were interested in, but levy was quoted £25m for those strikers. At which point he stuck 2 fingers up to those clubs.
....But then later realised that we would have to pay that sort of money. - Only problem being that by this point, those strikers had moved elsewhere or had signed new contracts.
So as a result, we ended up with Soldado who was probably on our list, but about 5-6th on it. - Not only that, but we ended up getting our pants completely pulled down over the fee, as it was known across the world that "spurs need a striker". - We'd wasted so much time in getting one, Valencia knew we'd pay up as we were running out of options and time.
(just my theory)
That's not to say Soldado isn't a good striker. His record proves that. But I'm just saying I don't think he was top of our list when it came to realistic targets. Hopefully his fortunes will change, but I feel he's going to struggle unless things change around him on the pitch. best of luck to him.
On a more positive note, Chiriches has really impressed me. He looks top drawer.