It was pretty evident at the end of the window that it was a risk going into the first half of the season with just Harry as a recognised out and out striker, he proved his class on Sunday but has found it difficult (or more to the point, came up against keepers making great saves!) and it hasn't helped with Son's - and now Chadli's - injury who are two of our best goal getters outside of Harry. It's easy to criticise the club in saying we should've bought this guy or that guy but I suppose from an outsiders perspective, after Harry's fine season, any striker who we approached surely would've known that they would've started off as 2nd choice so enticing anyone new of a good calibre may have been hard. We pushed for Berahino but ultimately Peace didn't want to play ball and it seemed as though we had all our eggs in that basket. As for Austin, maybe the club had similar doubts as to what West Ham did about him in regards to his previous injury so it may have been a risk we weren't willing to take, being Spurs, you just know that if we'd have signed Austin for £15m he would've got injured on his debut and been out for months or the season. I also don't think Poch can take any blame after saying he was happy with the squad, every manager will say that after a transfer window as otherwise they risk incurring the wrath of the board and losing the confidence of the players they have. In fairness I'm actually happy with the squad anyway, yes it'd be nice to have had a real back up for Kane but when you look at our form and style of play this season, it's been generally enjoyable to watch, we're also much stronger at the back and we have a great goal threat from wide positions and deeper. This is probably the second best squad we've had in the Premier League after Harry's side though we have so much potential to possibly go beyond that.
Harry's side was better but it had no future. Harry was always concerned with the team that was playing and throughout his career knew the value of bringing in experienced players. He wanted to sign players like Joe Cole or Michael Owen because he knew their quality and it was above what the teams he was managing could normally afford. Buy them towards the end of their careers and you immediately inject a higher level in to your team. At Spurs he signed Scott Parker who was perfect to fill the gap in his team. While he did not ignore younger players he would never base his team around them like MP has. The current Spurs squad if retained has a big future and from that point of view is potentially better than Harry's.
Got to keep the team together, helps that there are no 'superstars' in the team..everyone is growing together. I for one am really enjoying watching our youth developing and I think we must remember that when being critical. If the club starts to sell these youngsters one by one, then I'll start making a fuss on here no doubt about how **** we are, due to their being a reason created by the hierarchy of the club. Spurf is spot on for me.
...and right on cue, PSG are linked with Alli. I'm sure £50m + Ibrahimovic and Rabiot should do it...
