Tottenham are eager to sell two of their current pool of strikers to allow them to make a new £20million move for Athletic Bilbao striker Fernando Llorente - Boss Harry Redknapp has been told by chairman Daniel Levy the two striker must be sold at a decent price before their can move for the Basque targetman. They are known to rate Robbie Keane at £6million, and will listen to bids of around £14 million for Roman Pavlyuchenko, and £12 million plus for both Peter Crouch and Jermain Defoe. The club could also raise funds to the tune of £11m by selling Wilson Palacios, and add to kitty further by moving on David Bentley, Jermaine Jenas, Vedrun Corluka, Alan Hutton and Sebatian Bassong. Once a transfer budget has been set, Levy will give the green light to a move for 26-year-old World Cup-winner Llorente, who has scored seven in 13 appearances for the national team. Redknapp had a bid for him rejected in January but are hopeful they can land him this time.
That's the first Charlie rumour I've heard, and it is a strange one. Thes rest are bang on though IMO, although I'd rather Pav stayed. But can Llorente adapt to a 4-5-1 in the Prem, or would he be more suited to a more conventional line-up?
Seeing as they've actually spelled his first name wrong, I wouldn't put too much faith in the suggestion that Corluka's for sale.
Why do we "need" to flog two strikers to bring in Llorente? Keane's going anyway, so that means we'll have three strikers - Defoe is a confidence player, Pav e in spells but not on a consistent basis, and Crouch is basically there to knock the ball down for VDV. Unless we are bringing in another striker or two anyway, i.e. Leandro or Antonio Pedroza Whitham, is there any need to dump half out pool of strikers?
RP would score on a consistent basis if being a consistent presence in the team. Harry dropped him too much last season. Defoe can certainly leave for me. In fact last season I remember one Spurs poster suggested that he should leave as well as Crouch and was skinned for the suggestion but now it looks like Harry agrees too. I just hope we get something concrete soon. With Arsenal and Chelsea in some disarray and City unsettled we have a good chance of a top 4 slot again next season. With the players being touted for Liverpool I do not see a Reds comeback anytime soon.
I can't see Harry selling Bambi, as much as a lot of us would like him to. Could be either Pav or Defoe. If this rumoured Russian bid has any legs, then it will be him. I agree that Defoe is a confidence player. Harry has seriously undemined that confidence. I would hate to see him leave - especially to the Goons and start banging goals in left, right, and centre. Harry is going to look pretty stupid, if that happens.
Redknapp may sign Crouch a lot, but didn't he also sell him once? You know, it wouldn't completely shock me if we sold virtually every striker on the books. Pavlyuchenko supposedly has this interest from Russia and Redknapp appears to have lost faith in Defoe, Keane and Crouch, plus Obika doesn't look like he's going to make it, either. Does Dos Santos count? He looks to be a goner, too.
Van der Vaart can play in several positions, but his best is probably playing behind a lone striker. Crouch isn't capable of playing well in that role consistently, though. When Defoe played up top with Rooney for England, I think that a lot of people felt that he could have performed a similar role for Spurs, with van der Vaart. If that was tried, then it certainly wasn't given much of a run.
I'd expect Walker to start the season as back-up to Corluka, but van der Vaart would leave him far too exposed, anyway. I would like to see Redknapp try Sandro and the Dutchman as a central midfield pairing, with Modric on the left wing, Bale at left-back and Kranjcar playing in the hole behind a main striker. It'd be nice to see how it would work, in a decent friendly.
Harry seems to have lost faith in Kranjcar. Unfortunately, he's not blessed with pace, and Harry seems to feel that he doesn't work hard enough. For me, at the moment - and I know lots will disagree - VDV is the luxury player. If he can't get his fitness up to the required levels next season, he could be the one starting from the bench. His honeymoon is now over, and the opposition know a lot more of what he's about, so he needs to raise his game. He obviously has a big talent. But, a lot of the time, that's not enough, in the Prem.
