Saha

[DubaiSpur]

Fulham, Everton and Saudi Sportswashing Machine all recruited new first choice strikers.

Fulham had lost Zamora, Everton needed a younger, quality first choice and at Saudi Sportswashing Machine Cisse was upgrading what they had in Leon Best and Shola Ameobi.

We were looking for a 4th choice striker. Someone who could come in when we had serious injuries and do something. Someone that was decent in the air and could probably play Ade's role quite well without kicking up a fuss that he wouldn't get much playing time because he was clearly a back up?

Was Saha our first choice? Our first choice to be our 4th choice back up striker? Yes, I'm sure he was, or probably very near the top of the list. Was he going to be our first choice to improve on Adebayor? No, of course not. But he was never intended to be.

The reason people say they are sure we had other targets is because we almost certainly did. Harry never signed Saha and thought 'brilliant, he'll be banging them in for me for years to come! That's the strikers sorted for the next few windows!' he just signed Saha as a back up, squad player. A bench warmer. Not a bad singing at all.

If we were going to sign a striker of real quality to start, that means they'd either be waiting behind Adebayor and Van Der Vaart for a chance, meaning they wouldn't be starting, or we'd be dropping one of Ade or Rafa when they were performing well. It's not as easy to convince someone to sit on the bench when they are clearly back up as it is to convince someone to be the focal point of the team week in week out. Everton and Saudi Sportswashing Machine had that luxury. They needed a first choice. We needed a back up.

Demba Ba?

 

[Jordinho]

Lille are apparently trying to sign him.

 

[africanspurs]

And good riddance. During the match against Saudi Sportswashing Machine I thought maybe I had got it wrong about him, but alas I was right.

why were you right?

 

[Lost Mango]

We were looking for a 4th choice striker. Someone who could come in when we had serious injuries and do something. Someone that was decent in the air and could probably play Ade's role quite well without kicking up a fuss that he wouldn't get much playing time because he was clearly a back up?

Was Saha our first choice? Our first choice to be our 4th choice back up striker?

4th choice striker after Ade, Defoe and ......? VDV?

There was an obvious opportunity to go for a longer-term solution, selling the idea that he was direct competition with Defoe (who rightly or wrongly has been out of favour this season and may well be sold this summer) for the number 2 spot, would get starts and given that Ade is only on loan (now gone) would have the opportunity to push on going into next season. And would be playing for a team/squad in 3rd spot and running hard at a CL place. Think that could ahve been sold to anumber of players who went elsewhere.

Not really a scenario for a 33 year old but maybe rather than contiinually trying to patch gaps we should have looked for once at the slightly longer term.

But we probably saved a few pennies overall...............

 

[BrainOfLevy]

Demba Ba?

I didn't realise that Cisse playing meant Demba Ba was on the bench?

 

[BrainOfLevy]

We were looking for a 4th choice striker. Someone who could come in when we had serious injuries and do something. Someone that was decent in the air and could probably play Ade's role quite well without kicking up a fuss that he wouldn't get much playing time because he was clearly a back up?

Was Saha our first choice? Our first choice to be our 4th choice back up striker?

4th choice striker after Ade, Defoe and ......? VDV?

There was an obvious opportunity to go for a longer-term solution, selling the idea that he was direct competition with Defoe (who rightly or wrongly has been out of favour this season and may well be sold this summer) for the number 2 spot, would get starts and given that Ade is only on loan (now gone) would have the opportunity to push on going into next season. And would be playing for a team/squad in 3rd spot and running hard at a CL place. Think that could ahve been sold to anumber of players who went elsewhere.

Not really a scenario for a 33 year old but maybe rather than contiinually trying to patch gaps we should have looked for once at the slightly longer term.

But we probably saved a few pennies overall...............

Yes, 4th choice after Ade, VDV and Defoe.

In a big game, or if Harry has everyone fit, his front line is Ade and VDV. With VDV injured he would go with Defoe.

When Cisse and Jelavic have established top half Premier League Clubs saying to them 'we will give you a starting place upfront, you will be playing every week and you are the final piece of the jigsaw in making the team tick' and they have Spurs saying 'Come here and you can compete with Jermain Defoe to be 3rd choice at the Lane!' does anyone in their right minds seriously think any striker is going to choose us?

The time to look for a longer term solution was not January, when we had Ade for the rest of the year, performing well and fitting into the team nicely. The time to go for the longer term solution is now. Which is exactly what we are doing.

 

[Mosquito_Coasting]

Agreed, bang on. Always going to be a stop gap to be 4th choice striker, and did his part. Got some goals, don't know what more people expected from a 4th choice to be honest.

He wasn't first choice though, was he? He was inexplicably before Defoe for the entire end of the season.

 

[1882]

Is it official yet???

 

[southstand1882]

I'm removing that fudgewit from my twitter

 

[1882]

I'm removing that fudgewit from my twitter

do you think it's anything to do with his 'Congratulations Chelsea' teletext last week???

 

[Spursalot]

do you think it's anything to do with his 'Congratulations Chelsea' teletext last week???

More likely because he's not a good enough footballer..

 

[TonyS]

I would hazard a guess that the fact we'd been playing it most of the season with VDV up top alongside Ade convinced him of that.

[-X

 

[ArcspacE]

Fulham, Everton and Saudi Sportswashing Machine all recruited new first choice strikers.

Fulham had lost Zamora, Everton needed a younger, quality first choice and at Saudi Sportswashing Machine Cisse was upgrading what they had in Leon Best and Shola Ameobi.

We were looking for a 4th choice striker. Someone who could come in when we had serious injuries and do something. Someone that was decent in the air and could probably play Ade's role quite well without kicking up a fuss that he wouldn't get much playing time because he was clearly a back up?

Was Saha our first choice? Our first choice to be our 4th choice back up striker? Yes, I'm sure he was, or probably very near the top of the list. Was he going to be our first choice to improve on Adebayor? No, of course not. But he was never intended to be.

Or we could have bought a gem (someone better with potential) who would have worked himself up to 2nd/1st choice instead makig Defoe 4th option (for example) instead of always settling for the lowest option available.

Just because Pav left and was 4th choice - doesn't mean we should aim to replace him with the exact same calibre of player. Bizarre logic indeed.

 

[southstand1882]

Concluding that we had no primary targets, because somebody on a message board can't prove that there were primary targets, is also not logical

 

[ArcspacE]

Do you have knowledge of other strikers we looked at apart from Louis Saha?

Please - do share

 

[southstand1882]

Do you have knowledge of other strikers we looked at apart from Louis Saha?

Please - do share

I can't. The rules are ITK must be with a source.

As I don't want to name my source, I choose not to post Spurs ITK.

Sometime I will post Fulham ITK, but I don't mind naming the source there.

 

[Spursalot]

Do you have knowledge of other strikers we looked at apart from Louis Saha?

Please - do share

I thought we were looking at Remy in the jan window.. he just said he wasn't moving until the summer..

 

[COYS]

So let me get this straight...

Our current crop of strikers are:

Saha
Adebayor
Defoe

 

[BrainOfLevy]

Or we could have bought a gem (someone better with potential) who would have worked himself up to 2nd/1st choice instead makig Defoe 4th option (for example) instead of always settling for the lowest option available.

Just because Pav left and was 4th choice - doesn't mean we should aim to replace him with the exact same calibre of player. Bizarre logic indeed.

It's completely logical. And also realistic. You aren't going to get two Adebayors, one to play and one to back him up. In an ideal world, of course we'd like that, and love to aim for it, and if it was possible I'm sure it would happen. But in the real world, your 4th choice striker is always going to be 'that calibre of player' because he is going to be 4th choice, and needs to be happy with that.

With Saha, we got him on a short term deal, can release him if we wanted to, could probably keep him if he was a roaring success, but either way we bring someone to plug a gap mid-season who has experience and needs no time to settle in, and it allows us to keep our options completely open for the summer, when we do have a bit more time, may be able to evaluate young players a little easier and give them more time to settle in should we want to make a move.

 

[SPURS]

LOUIS SAHA has been released by Tottenham after just five months.


The striker, 33, arrived at Spurs from Everton in January.

His availability has already alerted West Ham boss Sam Allardyce, who wants to add more Premier League experience to his squad after promotion via the Championship play-off final.

(The Sun)

The weirdest transfer to Spurs, ever!!