Back in 2005 we signed a young Moroccan striker named Mounir El Hamdaoui from the Dutch side SBV Excelsior. He failed to make a single appearance for us and saw two loan spells at Derby disrupted due to injury. In 2006 El Hamdaoui returned to Holland with Willem II.

We had plenty of decent strikers at the time and it didn’t seem a great loss. Unfortunately he has gone on to prove us wrong. After an injury hit spell at Willem II, El Hamdaoui moved to AZ Alkmaar where he scored 52 goals in 89 games.

In the summer he was bought by Ajax, where he has scored 13 goals in as many games. Two of those goals were scored tonight against Heerenveen and were both absolutely brilliant.

Oh what we’d do now for a striker with this much skill and who is also 6ft tall – definitely one that got away. Here’s those goals.

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29 COMMENTS

  2. I remember him well when he done a tasty bit of skillin his only appearance for us then he got loaned out. Its a good job we have Bale who i believe could play striker and his 6ft2imagine him with Defoe and Vaart either side in a 443 this would be awsome with Lennon Huddlestone Modric Kranjcar behind.mouthwatering come on Harry have a go Bale the marauding striker just think of the movement with them three.

  5. Wow, Herenveen. Dutch league (slightly less Mickey Mouse than Scotland) where our old mates Feyenoord just shipped ten goals. Says it all really.

  7. I wouldn’t read much into stats from the Dutch league. My grandmother could net 20 in that league’s sorry excuse for defensive football.

  8. I remember him aswell and the piece of skill your talking about, I think it was in the peace cup. It’s funny cos Jol was the manager at the time and he let him go, I think he may have been homesick..

    • It was nothing to do with homesickness Jonny, we chose instead to keep that chump Mido. I saw from the outset what a class palyer EL H is. Such a pity our coaches were blind to his talent.

  9. While it’s true that lots of players score loads in Holland who turn out to be useless, such as Kuyt, Kezman, Alves etc, its also true that the Dutch league has produced a number of world class goalscorers, such an Romario, Ronaldo, Van Nistelrooy.

    Haven’t really seen enough to say that I think that Hamdaoui would succeed in England, but I’d take Suarez tomorrow.

  11. I said on a lot of these sites he was a class act. We made a massive mistake letting him go. Prob our biggest lose of any player

  13. He is a very intelligent player and an excellent scorer. But as we all now last decades those who are in charge of Spurs don’t appreciate intelligent players. They have a weakness for the “softies”, the timid and the apathetic players. They can consider as a very good player even someone who loses all his personal duels or misses 7 out of 10 penalties. We will never win a championship unless we sign a number of intelligent players with personality and a winner’s mentality who are also physically strong and thus capable for this very competitive sport. No more soft, stupid and without a strong personality players for our team.

  15. Just cos its the dutch league and easier to score it doesnt change the fact that both those finishes were pure class,especialy the chip! Imo get rid oem keane,crouch and pav they are donkeys. I realy want suarez he would be amazing for us but yes that hamdoui should of been kept.

  16. I am sure that everyone wished they had the same foresight as the writer of this article, he obviously was not good enough for us when he was here so we let him go, I am glad that the lad has improved enough to become a “Great player” and wish him all the best….lets move on eh!

  17. fuk Hamdouchebag the fakkin dago cnt! lets go break his fukkin legs for being a bag of shit! dont care how many goals he gets in dutch league, they all suck!!! and crouch is still a streak of piss and his scouse slag takes it up the shitter!! Rooney is a bald slagfukker worth 2 bob and needs his brains spilled under a fukkin truck the ugly cnt! Berbatoss needs anal bashing by a big fakkin african..

  18. Surely he needed time to develop into a better player, playing first team football. If we would have kept him there was little chance of that and Spurs would have kept him from reaching his potential. We are a rich club we can afford to buy him back if he turns out good. As far as I know there is no crystal ball in Levy’s office! We can’t keep a reserve team of 500 players so that we make sure none of the good ones slip through the net!

    • True. It’s a shame that he got injured during his loan spells at Derby, as he may have been able to prove his worth there. United had a similar situation with Rossi.

  23. I remember him well, he kept making noises about wanting games and he wernt good enough at the time. All about timing, loads of players have to leave and start again no point dwelling on it now. Alfonso Alves hahaha smashed that league 3/4 years back, but i bet you’ll have to look up where he is now.

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