Enter the Pitbull
Luke Young
Kevin Bond has told Tottenham Hotspur supporters to trust Harry Redknapp after he recruited Louis Saha and Ryan Nelsen, who are both over 30, in the January transfer window. Saha, who signed from Everton until the end of the season, is 33 and Nelsen, whose free transfer was confirmed on Thursday, is 34, and Spurs fans have voiced their concerns regarding their age on message boards.
Bond, the Spurs assistant manager, said: "What you have said is news to me, I don't look at message boards. I would be trusting Harry's judgment, with the greatest respect to people on message boards. That's their opinion. We think it is good business for us.
"Age becomes a consideration when they can't do the job that you brought them in to do. Certainly, Harry will look at them between now and the end of the season to see how well they do for us, then see where we go from there."
Bond is clear that with Saha and Nelsen's arrival, Steven Pienaar being loaned to Everton and Roman Pavlyuchenko sold to Lokomotiv Moscow, Spurs have a more robust squad. He said: "I think we're a stronger squad now and the January window has freshened it up, not in terms of numbers but Harry felt that one or two of them needed to go out to play some football and the others have come in and are ready to play their part. It's been a good window for us.
"Overall you look at Louis and everybody believes he is a really, really good player. He has had one or two injury issues but it is difficult to find top-line strikers. And Louis is a top-line striker. He is a really good professional. He has been there and done it, won a championship [with Manchester United]. To have people like that in our squad will be really important for us.
"Harry is very shrewd when it comes to bringing players into the club and knowing what we need ÔÇô and what he feels the squad needs. That is what he [Louis] has done, both as a player and as a personality. He and Ryan will have a positive influence on the club, not just on the field.
"He [Redknapp] has done that before, there were a number of them when he was at Portsmouth ÔÇô with Teddy Sheringham, people thought he was miles past his best but he did really really well for us [and] Paul Merson did unbelievably for Harry. He has made a number before, hopefully he has done with a couple more."
Bond, the Spurs assistant manager, said: "What you have said is news to me, I don't look at message boards. I would be trusting Harry's judgment, with the greatest respect to people on message boards. That's their opinion. We think it is good business for us.
"Age becomes a consideration when they can't do the job that you brought them in to do. Certainly, Harry will look at them between now and the end of the season to see how well they do for us, then see where we go from there."
Bond is clear that with Saha and Nelsen's arrival, Steven Pienaar being loaned to Everton and Roman Pavlyuchenko sold to Lokomotiv Moscow, Spurs have a more robust squad. He said: "I think we're a stronger squad now and the January window has freshened it up, not in terms of numbers but Harry felt that one or two of them needed to go out to play some football and the others have come in and are ready to play their part. It's been a good window for us.
"Overall you look at Louis and everybody believes he is a really, really good player. He has had one or two injury issues but it is difficult to find top-line strikers. And Louis is a top-line striker. He is a really good professional. He has been there and done it, won a championship [with Manchester United]. To have people like that in our squad will be really important for us.
"Harry is very shrewd when it comes to bringing players into the club and knowing what we need ÔÇô and what he feels the squad needs. That is what he [Louis] has done, both as a player and as a personality. He and Ryan will have a positive influence on the club, not just on the field.
"He [Redknapp] has done that before, there were a number of them when he was at Portsmouth ÔÇô with Teddy Sheringham, people thought he was miles past his best but he did really really well for us [and] Paul Merson did unbelievably for Harry. He has made a number before, hopefully he has done with a couple more."
