...cos Gazza was a bit good, wasn't he? But it occurred to me when, on another thread, someone said something about how we are optimistic about Lamela cos a load of people at the club must have thought he was worth that 30m. And I immediately thought "Hang on - record Spurs signing = probable success?! Not sure about that." So the point of this thread is to try, from our collective memories and googling abilities, to get a list of our record signings from Gazza onwards (date picked arbitrarily by me cos that's as far back as my memories go). And then assess how much of a success they were. Obviously before Lamela it was (depending on which figures/media outlets you believe) Soldado. And before that Paulinho (there's a 0/3 hit rate to get us started!). Then you've got...Bentley? Bent? (This is really not looking good for the theory "Record purchase = great acquisition"). Modric before them? Well that makes it 1/6. Was Berbatov a record signing? And what about immediately after Gazza? Who was our next record signing? Teddy? Was Armstrong a record signing? I think Ferdinand was. See? This is a mess. I'm on my phone and can't be arsed to look this all up. Would rather engage the collective brain of Not606. I might even edit this bit as we ascertain the facts and generate the list. Was Iversen a record fee? I feel like I'm starting to just make this all up now. Dean Richards? Why am I thinking John Scales now? Am I just getting confused with Sensible World of Soccer now? Help!
Modric at £16.5m was probably our best record signing from recent memory and was worth every penny. Think Berbatov was near a record signing, so I'd say he too was worth every penny. Bent in fairness scored goals, we knew he wasn't anything else bar a goal poacher and despite starting a lot of games on the bench, he still managed a 1-3 strike rate I think, so he wasn't as terrible as some of us made out but at a similar price to Modric, in that sort of comparison he was nowhere near worth the money. The problem for him as well is that we signed him at a time where we didn't need him (Berba, Keane and JD), it was only his second season where he came in handy. Bentley was woeful, a real shame as I had high hopes for him but his big time Charlie attitude ****ed his career. Paulinho and Soldado look like they'll be major flops too, unless a massive change of fortunes occur. Jury is still out on Lamela but I do believe he'll be worth it down the line.
Paulinho was a record signing at £17M in 2013 Bent was at £16.5M in 2007 Rebrov was at £11M in 2000 Oh dear
I think our best signings tend to be around the £8-£10m mark, with Modric aside, the £8-£10m marker signings have usually had the best joy in my opinion. Zokora - £8m. (He got stick from some but I thought his work rate and break up play was fantastic). Bale - £10m. Berbatov - £10m. van der Vaart - £8m. Eriksen - £11m Vertonghen - £8m. Chadli - £8m. Crouch - £8m even if only for THAT goal. Sandro - £8m (injuries aside). I'm pretty sure Defoe and Keane were signed for around £8m too when they first joined the club,
Used to love after the games we'd won and he'd come over to the Park Lane and dance to that. Chimbonda joined in too if we done the "what's that coming over the hill is it Chimbonda, is it Chimbondaaaaa!". Good times.
I lost a few quid every week betting on him to score last but ****, I didn't want to miss out when he finally did score, which I was convinced would happen Back then everytime we had a one goal lead to defend the rest of the team collapsed in on itself and Zokora would go on mazy runs up the pitch to relieve the pressure. There was one against Wigan(might've been League Cup) where he could've gone one on one with the 'keeper but squared it to Pav, who scored and I must've been the only Spurs fan complaining The Carling Cup final against Chelsea was the worst, 40/1 I had him to score last and at 1-1 he blasts it at the 'keeper and hoofs the rebound of the bar! ****ing Zokora
Gordon Durie (£2.2m): errrm...anyone remember him doing anything for us? Ilie Dumitriscu (£2.6m): there's a reason more people remember Klinsmann, Sheringham and Anderton from that period Gheorge Popescu (£2.6m): his greatest contribution to Spurs was playing for Galatasaray Chris Armstrong (£4.5m): a great first season with Teddy feeding him bullets, but without Teddy he rapidly became useless Les Ferdinand (£6m): prolific for Newcastle, anything but for us Dean Richards (£8.1m): after a lot of hassle to sign him, he was habitually injured Dimitar Berbatov (£10.9m): one of our best ever players - until Man Utd tapped him up, that is Sergei Rebrov (£11m): a superb player ruined by being placed in a team that was all wrong for him Hugo Lloris (£11m): the best keeper we've had in the Premier League era Christian Eriksen (£11.5m): fantastic in his own right, even better when you consider AVB wanted to sign Willian for three times Eriksen's fee Robbie Keane (£12m): we needed him back, but he was poor value at £12m considering he didn't last long Wilson Palacios (£12m): vital when we first signed him Roman Pavlyuchenko (£14m): scored some vital goals, but also had the first touch of an ox and was often anonymous David Bentley (£15m): I hope everyone involved in this transfer were sacked. Oh, wait, they were... Jermaine Defoe (£15m*): as with Robbie Keane we needed him back, and he scored some important goals - plus most of the fee was money Pompey owed us Moussa Dembele (£15m): was immense in his first season, but niggling injuries mean he hasn't shown that form since Darren Bent (16.5m): wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, WRONG Luka Modric (16.5m): Quite simply superb - apart from when other clubs came sniffing around... Paulinho (£17m): how much of his transfer fee is based on his nationality rather than his ability? Roberto Soldado (£26m*): playing in a system ill-suited for him sapped his confidence, Sherwood dropping him indefinitely obliterated it Erik Lamela (£30m*): no matter how well he does, the weight of expectation from his fee will always count against him
Popescu was an excellent defender, to be fair to him. Playing in Ossie's mental system probably didn't help him. Won trophies with Steaua Bucharest, PSV, Barca and Galatasaray, picked up 116 caps and was Romanian Player of the Year six times as a defender. That last part's even more remarkable as he was competing with Gheorghe Hagi in all of those seasons. Currently serving a sentence for tax evasion and money laundering in his native country!
I don't remember Armstrong being prolific. Didn't it take him an absolute fricking age to get going? Why is Lloris in the list? Surely not ever a record signing?
Didn't Armstrong have an excellent first season and then basically stop? Lloris is presumably our record for a fee paid for a keeper. Worth every penny or Euro or whatever it was we paid for him in.
Info on him seems scarce, but maybe we are all right: http://www.tottenhamhotspur.com/history/past-players/chris-armstrong/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1995–96_Tottenham_Hotspur_F.C._season 10th game. I assume he played them all, not sure
That Chelsea one was the best (or worst!!!), I mean Zokora had missed some howlers but that one tops it by an absolute mile. Not sure what you were thinking though, YV, backing him to score must have lesser odds than winning the lottery
It was basically an insurance policy as if he ever scored I would've spent a load of money celebrating that night which hopefully the winnings would cover
He scored 22 in his first season, which I'd say was prolific. There's a few players on the list who weren't our record signings, such as Keane and Defoe's returns (which were after Modric and Barren Dent arrived), but I included them as they're counted in our top ten record signings.
Pretty sure that Soldado`s fee was potentially £26m if all add ons and extras are activated, so I doubt we have spent anywhere near £26m on him so far. Likewise with Lamela, I read somewhere his fee was potentially a total of 30m euros, with part made up in add ons etc, so way short of £30m. The media like to quote these large fees as it sounds better and fits their agendas.
