Spurs Banter Archive January 10 2014

10 Jan 2014 14:56:03
At the start of the summer, a number of players were in the frame to boost our forward line. I have been looking at how they are all doing so far this year.

David Villa was nearest to signing for us. I was sceptical about paying £10m for a 31-year-old (now 32) and was slightly relieved when he didn't come. He has scored 8 goals in 19 league games and 10 in 24 games altogether. This is a reasonably good return, and par for the course for Villa, but I am still not convinced that he would have been right for us.

Negredo was on our wish list but I am not sure he was ever a realistic possibility. His 8 goals in 19 league games, and 19 in 29 altogether, is a return that would have made a significant difference if he could have done it for us.

Michu was mentioned as a possibility, but there was always the fear he was just a 'one season wonder'. His 2 goals in 12 League games so far this year (6 in 19 overall) suggest that this might be true, although he probably leads the line better than anybody we currently have.

Christian Benteke looked to be the right kind of player but only had one really good season under his belt and was over-priced at £25m. His 4 goals in 14 league games (5 in 15 overall) doesn't settle the issue one way or the other but it looks as if we were right to be cautious.

Wilfried Bony was never really linked with us, and is probably not the class we were looking for, but he has scored 13 goals in 27 games overall (6 in the league) which looks promising. At £12m he seems to be reasonable value for money.

Loic Remy is looking like the one that got away, with 10 goals in 18 league appearances (10 in 19 overall). We will see if he can keep this up.

I am wary of placing too much reliance of statistics. On paper, Soldado has had a reasonable start with 5 goals in 18 league games (disappointing, but not terrible) and 10 in 21 games overall (definitely good), but we all know the how much he has really struggled; especially in the league.

Even with that reservation, I am not sure we made a particularly good choice from the available options. On the other hand, it is not obvious that any of the realistic alternatives would necessarily have solved our problems in the forward line either, even though we were prepared to smash our transfer record to get the right man.

Those people who think that spending money in the last couple of years would inevitably have secured Champion's League football, and transformed the club, should bear that in mind.

But they won't.

Good post. I would say though that we needed a quality striker for years and had we had one we would of had Champions League every season for the last four or five years, but like you point out investing doesn't always pay off but we could of at least tried.

But if we had used Soldado properly, maybe the return would have been better! Goal scorers like him don't become bad over night!

Davo

If Soldado has a good second half to the season, and we finish in the top 4, nobody will care about his slow start. I prefer players who finish strongly to ones who start well and tail off. That is one of the problems with Defoe in recent seasons.

However, you put your finger on one of the reasons why Soldado’s current form is starting to worry me. You said:

“Goal scorers like him don’t become bad overnight!”

Unfortunately, if they make the wrong move, they sometimes do.

Michael Owen scored 118 goals in 216 League games for Liverpool (0.54 goals a game). Then he went to Real Madrid at the age of 24 where his strike rate dropped to 0.36.

After a year, he returned to the Premiership and played for Newcastle and Manchester United through what should have been 6 of his best years. I know he was hampered by injury and so on, but his strike rate stayed at a disappointing 0.36.

It was the same with Robbie Fowler. Over 9 seasons at Liverpool, he averaged 0.50 goals a game in the League. But then he joined Leeds at the age of 26 and in 6 seasons at Leeds and Manchester City his rate in the League was only 0.31.

Torres is the most recent and most extreme example. In 102 League games for Liverpool his strike rate was a brilliant 0.63. He joined Chelsea at the peak age of 26 or 27 but in 98 League games has only managed 119 goals. A rate of just 0.19. And he cost £50m!

I don’t know why this sometimes happens to strikers, but it does. I just pray it is not going to happen to Soldado.

{Ed004's Note - 119 goals in 98 games is impressive mate}

He wishes

It is of course only 19