Sell Luka Modric to Chelsea and give me the funds to spend on new players, Tottenham Hotspur manager Harry Redknapp muttered under his breath a fortnight ago. A move which could have secured the signings of multiple long-term targets and inevitably defined our forthcoming season.
Spurs have retained a midfielder with undoubted quality, but no matter how hard Modric tries to forget about his dream move to Chelsea, he wouldn’t be human if he wasn’t feeling some bitterness toward a club he will be playing for each Saturday in front of a leaky defence.
Given the injuries to players such as the influential and aging William Gallas and Ledley King, alongside an unwanted Sebastian Bassong and unproven Younes Kaboul, the arrival of Gary Cahill could have plugged a back four which has already conceded eight goals in two games this season.
The abundance of talent in Spurs midfield cannot be challenged and has been strengthened by the arrival of the Football Writers’ Association player of the year Scott Parker, who will leave behind his central midfield partnership with Kevin Nolan and join the talented Modric, Gareth Bale and Niko Kranjcar at the Lane.
Such players will provide service to Rafael Van Der Vaart and Emmanuel Adebayor, who on their day are unlikely to offer any reprieve to the opposition defence. Going forward Spurs are sound, but who will be at home when that opposition comes knocking? A lonely Brad Friedel?
What exactly would the ‘overpriced’ Gary Cahill have brought to Tottenham Hotspur? At 25 years old the Bolton Wanderers man first attracted attention of the English football’s elite teams when he earned his first England cap in June 2009 against Kazakhstan, a year which also saw him take home Bolton’s player of the season accolade. Just how much did Bolton Wanderers want for their star man? It was obviously more than we were willing to pay, but had we sold Modric, we may have got our man.
Another player that Tottenham let slip through the net included Real Madrid’s Lassana Diarra. A potential signing that Harry Redknapp had worked with closely before at Portsmouth, our manager is well aware of the qualities Diarra could have brought to the club. As for the late rumours circulating the media regarding the potential arrival of Diarra’s Real Madrid teammate Kaka, lets not go there.
You can only admire Daniel Levy’s firm stance on Luka Modric and the ultimate resistance to an attractive £40 million cheque, a move made to show the world Tottenham Hotspur are no longer the selling club of the Dimitar Berbatov era.
However, a dejected and clearly exhausted Harry Redknapp filmed leaving Spurs Chigwell training ground the other night, may have woken up this morning questioning the backing given to him by his Chairman in the latest transfer window, which only resulted in reducing Daniel Levy’s overdraft facility.
With the money from Robbie Keane’s sale used to capture Scott Parker, added to an extra £20 million coming in from the sale of Peter Crouch and Wilson Palacios who departed North London for Stoke, plus the £4 million sum received from Aston Villa for Scottish right back Alan Hutton, just imagine the wheeling and dealing Harry could have done with a £64 million war chest at his disposal.
Luka Modric or no Luka Modric, a swift return to Champions League football would have seemed ever so more likely.
Would you trust HR with £40m?
Trust Levy, wait til the right manager is in place who has an idea about team selection and subs.
In his favour, puts an arm round players and sometimes convinces them they are top-notch.
However, there’s far too much . . . ‘he’s a great lad, signed him before, can do a job for us, great in the dressing room, all the lads like him’ . . . you must try buying a better calibre player not dross you’ve had before, Spurs are better and worth more than that.
In short, Taxi for Harry.
Harry doesn’t buy players.
Harry doesn’t sell players.
The deal was not 40m in Cash, it was 30m and Alex.
Diarra didn’t want to leave RM.
With 54m and a few hours to do their work, no one in the world would have completed a real transfer coup.
Chelsea did! Tapped up before and ready to go, they only had 30 minutes from written transfer request, or did they????????
Rubbish. Any chairman allowing Redknap to spend any more than he already has would need sectioning. He has spent massive money on players he now deems surplus to requirements after barely 2 seasons who not only have to be paid off to leave have been sold at a loss. The only thing he should be given is his p45, which he will get before the next season begins. He has totally mismanaged the squad at his disposal yet never takes responsibility for anything just blames players, the spending power of rivals etc. Tactically inept arrogant dinosaur manager, king of spin, his time is up.
Err – he spent 10m on Crouch and recouped it. He spent some on Keane, and we ended up making profit on him. Wilson was 3 million down, but we got good use in first season, and his form dipped below his original value. Hutton & Bent & Bentley were Comolli signings, that we will make losses on – pre-Harry. I am not saying that Harry is a genius in the transfer market, but I fail to see where he is making losses. Or I have missed someone?
Crouch had to get at least £2m to leave, Keane cost £12m up front plus add ons sold for £2.5m unsure of pay off, Wilson £12m from wigan, £6m sale to Stoke max £2m extra as add ons. Chimbonda bought for £4m later freed, Bassong £8m frozen out. There are others those came instantly to mind. Have to question a manager who signs players for big fees on high wages that are then either frozen out or sold at big losses within 2 years.
We sold Keane to Liverpool for 20 mill, then paid only 12 mill to bring him back 5-6 months later. Profit of 8 mill on the original transfer…. 😉
Also, would you have signed Ashley Young, Downing, Henderson for 20m? Or Carroll for 30m+? Of course the rivals have more to spend. Our record is still 16-18m, and they spend that without thinking.
What have these got to do with any of my points? Young would have been a fantastic signing but I don’t see the relevence.
Obviously take a disgruntled Modric. What good is 30/40m in the bank with ONE DAY left in the transfer market? Everyone will know that you have 30-40m to spend, because they know that you previously rejected 27-30m and accepted the bid. So then you approach Scott Parker, and as a result Hammers NOW want 8m for him. You approach Bolton for Cahill, and they NOW want 17m etc etc… We would not be able to replace Modric in one day. Chelsea having a giraffe…
mr levy did the right thing in not selling modric, we sold berbatov, and we all felt gutted, even though we made a lot of money, we do not sell our best players to the tappers anymore, now lets get a big enough stadium for all our supporters to fill, 60,000 to 80,000 capacity will do, and we will have more money coming in for our spurs, we will build spurs, not a sugardaddy, like some clubs.
Let’s just hope for 60k and stop at that… They definitely would not sanction 80000 fans up and down Tottenham high street!
It wasn’t about Modric as such, nor the money, it was showing Chelsea (and ManU, and ManC) that they can’t have whichever of our players they fancy whenever they feel like it.
These transfers are as much about weakening your opponents as strengthening your team I reckon.
And if it makes the same thing (for Bale?) less likely next year, then it will have done some good.
Spot on mate. Plus with Modric gone we’d have had no chance of CL qualification, which gets you £25-30m depending on how far you get. So at the end of the season it would have been £30m gained, £25-30m lost and a 29 year old Chelsea reject on the books in Alex, who’s wages are probably higher than Modric’s anyway!
Should have sold Modric to a team abroad, one month ago and then used the money to buy replacements for him and the ineffectual Lennon, plus a decent centre back and striker. Profit from recent sales of £25,000,000 could have been added to the total for these players.
spot on iain, we are a threat to them, and they always try to weaken us, man city are a plaything, yes they will win things, with them players, but its false glory, its fantasy football, and it will not last, and man city may dissapear just like a light bulb, it shines brighter as it then goes off, they will have their false glory, but it wont last.
and its not man city football club achieving this, its a very very rich non footballing man, sitting in an office, buying and writing cheques, oh wow, its football manager, thats what the premier league has done to our league, theyre pathetic.
Harry doesn’t buy or sell, but he does advise, and all the recent dealings have his moniker. He is not in tune with Levy’s philosophy of buying younger players who develop or at least sell-on. ALL Harry’s clubs have eventually gone down, either while he’s still there, or after. We need to go back to a person who searches for players like Sandro ……. and either wave Harry goodbye or wait for him to jump.
TYPICAL SPURS TWO LOUSEY SIGNINGS NO CENTRE HALF NO SECOND STRIKER , LEVY AND CO WILL BE DELIGHTED WITH WHAT CAME IN FROM OUR SALES THERE WERE LIES TOLD WE SPURS WERE PROMISED A CENTRE HALF TWO MIDFIELDERS TWO STRIKERS AND ALL THE RAT GUT FROM HARRY MEANT NOTHING BUT DEADWOOD SALES .
new name for next season, should have been this season as well, THE FANTASY FOOTBALL PREMIER LEAGUE, sounds about right to most fans.
Agree with Iain and some of the other comments – this was about showing other ‘bigger?’ clubs that we’re not going to bullied anymore. Also, I’m not worried about any potential dip in Modric’s form this year – sure, he would’ve liked to join Chelsea (and he probably will in the future), but didn’t he already say to Benni that if he HAD to stay at Spurs this season he wouldn’t be too upset as ‘Spurs are a very good club.’ Doesn’t sound like someone who’s that miffed with his situation – not as miffed as the Daily Fail would have us believe anyway.
And the squad looks good – picking a midfield from Bale, Lennon, Piennar, Krankjar, Modric, Parker, Sandro, Huddlestone, Van Der Vaart and the emerging Livermore can’t be a bad thing? Adebayor leading the line should fit well with the 4-4-1-1 and defensive injuries will, hopefully, clear up some time soon and give us a solid base to build on.
GOOD JOB Mr. LEVY , THAT IS HOW PLAYERS SHOULD BE TREATED , IF THE BOSS SAYS NO AFTER SIGNING A CONTRUCT NO IT WILL BE , WHO NEW ABOUT MODDY BEFORE WE GOT HIM AT TOTTENHAM, IS THIS HOW HE SHOULD TREAT US SUPPORTERS , AGIAN GOOD JOB Mr LEVY
some great points lads, personally i wouldnt give harry another penny and i think Levy feels the same. you can defend him all you like if thats what makes you happy but the facts are nearly all the players he brought in we would be happy to let go? if they havent left already. HR is not cut out for taking us forward any further. thanks for getting ud back on track now leave with your head held high. TonyRich – look at the players we have targeted in last 2 yrs Beckham,P Neville,J Cole, add these to players such as Gallas,Friedel, etc and you ll never have a fit team that will last 90 mins. the man is tactically naive as demonstrated against city on weekend. defended Crouch for his whole Spurs career, yes he scored some important goals – but we want to be top 4? not top 10.
re ratboy Modrich – levy will sell him within a yr if he doesnt perform but it wont be on chelsea or modders terms. I would love to see him go abroad but has to be interest first and firm bids.
the offer was 30m + Alex, how is alex worth 10m?? you have to laugh at Chelski trying to clear their crap to us. They ll have to pay big just like they did with Torres
COYS
saw caroll in the the uefa cup, and he looks good to force his way in with livermore, battles for a little guy, and his passes and ball control are pretty good, and kane looked good also, he needed help up front that day, and pav was no help to him, but he does know where the net is, and then we have coulibale , now this guy has got to be in 25 man squad, saw him in world cup u20s , and he is a great player, and scored great goals in the tournament, everyone raving about him , and we signed him, which is great.
Most of the potential signings Rednapp seemed interested in (mind we mustnt forget it was the media telling us this) seemed ready for the knackers yard. I dread to imagine how old the team would have been if Harry had free rein? Have you noticed he always seems to need to have worked with them before? What’s with that? Is he following a template he knows and out of his depth when away from it? Could this be a reason he only used 12-13 of a 29 man squad until injuries force him to just throw players in where they might fit? So many questions so many answers if he cares to look at the other options he has at his disposal.
Another thing? Why always go with the lone striker we have two of the fastest wingers about, doesnt it make life so easy for a defense when you tell them where you are going to pass the ball by just having one person to homee in on. We have to mix it up, not just follow the same formulae. Two strikers are far more difficult to mark and isnt that what got us into the champions league in the first place?
whole world knows arry is leaving at end of this season of course levy didnt want him to spend our war chest, that’s to entice a new manager with. and if he’d have let mods go then arry wouldve kicked off about not being allowed to spend that money. can you imagine the noise? so levy was smart and said right from the off that mods aint going and arry had to back him on that (although he went off message a few times). what good is arrys mate Diarra when a new manager comes in who doesnt fancy him? maybe the new manager wants a different centre back than cahill? arry looked tired at Chigwell the other night coz he knows he cant bully levy like he did the idiots who ran Pompey and West ham. neville, beckham, joe cole, old king cole for all i know. and as for “reducing levy’s overdraft” facility – actualy that’s Spurs overdraft and damn good job we got shot of those fringe players. i expect levy will back the new man next year with a huge war chest.
i find this article pi** poor tbh.
In Levy we trust
A disgruntled Modric because now the window is closed he won’t be disgruntled and without him we don’t have a team.
do trust levy dont like deadlineday transfer system liverpool proved with adam and suarez u dont have to wait till last day to get a bargain adam 9 mil suarez 15mil he looks like signing of season we nearly got im i heard but we turned our head to aguero in jan it was no secret how good he was if u watch him at internatinal level.
We must assume that HR will leave this year. It wouldnt suprise me if there has already been contact from the FA. He would be a good international manager – a least England would not be boring. He has done a fine job on the whole and we should be grateful. It could be Arry, Mourinho, Moyes or Red Face Fergie managing us, but if he is due to leave you dont let him spend. Previous buys seems irrelevant. Levy’s point about the sell on value of a player are relevant – if anything it means we keep a squad with young fresh players with something to proove. Quite simply we made good money in the transfer market – unbeliveable on Crouch as I think he is terrible. I also read that we made some big bids for young players in Jan. I will estimate 20 mil here, 25 mil from sales, maybe 2/3 mil if HR joins England. A ballpart figure of 50 mil + 30 odd mill for the sale of modders which I feel is inevitable….due to wage demands and nothing else. Recruiting a Ancelotti, or a Moyes with an 80 mil warchest, for a team that is between 4th and 6th is decent. I think Levy is very shrewd indeed. Parker, friedel, Adabayor and Kyle Walker, Danny Rose mean that our starting 11 is better than last year. Regretfully we didnt get Cahill but we couldnt let Defoe go. Meanwhile Arse look softer, Chelsea slower – Manchester looks too good and has too much doe for us to compete at the moment and Liverpool are a funny one. Spent lots but I would still take half our team over theirs. The outlook looks ok in my mind
It was good for Modric to stay, Chelsea is on some transformation and he could end up like Benayoum.