By Jamie Clarke
Tottenham Hotspur manager Harry Redknapp was left frustrated as he was unable to land a striker during the January transfer window.
Redknapp was linked with a host of big names on the last day of the window as he looked to bolster his attack. Time unfortunately ran out, as did his patience with some of the valuations being put on players' heads across Europe.
The one big signing that Redknapp had been heavily linked with throughout January was that of former Newcastle striker Andy Carroll who was sold to Liverpool in the closing stages on deadline day for a fee around £35million – making him the second most expensive player in the Premier League’s history.
Newcastle had rejected a bid of £25million for the England international on January 28 and Spurs were told to up their bid to £30million if they wanted to secure his services. Liverpool, though, derailed the bid and confirmed the deal late on deadline day.
News also broke early in the day that Athletico Madrid had rejected a bid of £38.5million from Tottenham for Argentinean forward Sergio Aguero. The bid was quickly dismissed as the 22-year-old striker had agreed a new five-year contract with the Spanish club earlier in the month.
It was rumoured that Spurs had also tabled a bid of around £17million for Aguero’s team-mate and former Manchester United forward, Diego Forlan. There were further claims that Redknapp was also tracking Giuseppe Rossi, Fernando Llorente and Alvaro Negredo.
Whether this was pure speculation or not, Tottenham were showing clear intention to bring in a prolific goalscorer to boost their chances of succeeding in their aims to finish in the top four and progress further in the Champions League.
The amount of money being thrown at some of these players from shows that Chairman Daniel Levy is fully behind Redknapp and will back him with plenty of funds. The failure to sign any players in the mid-season window could prove a lot costlier, though, come the end of the season.
The departure of Robbie Keane to West Ham prompted Redknapp to look for a better replacement. More worryingly, is that Tottenham’s joint-top goalscorers this season are both midfielders in Gareth Bale and Rafael Van der Vaart, scoring 11 goals respectively. Roman Pavluychenko lies in third with nine goals and Peter Crouch has seven.
Spurs rely too heavily on the performances of Bale and Van der Vaart and this was the main reason behind Redknapp’s eagerness to sign a striker in the transfer window.
Bale has been a revelation this season and Redknapp will look to him to continue his fine form until the end of the campaign. Whereas the likes of Crouch, Defoe and Pavluychenko will have to step up to the plate and prove their worth.
It was a also a huge shock that Redknapp didn’t look to bring in an emergency backup centre back as William Gallas struggles with a hip injury. Ledley King needs surgery on his continuing groin problem and Youness Kaboul now faces six weeks out after damaging his knee in Sunday's 4-0 FA Cup defeat to Fulham.
However, Tottenham did announce the signing of South African defender, Bongani Khumalo earlier in the month for £1.5million, which should ease Redknapp’s worries.
It’s too early to push the panic button just yet at White Hart Lane, but if Spurs were to be knocked out at the first knockout stage of the Champions League against AC Milan and slip further away from the top four then Redknapp will look back to his mistakes in the January transfer window as the reason for such failure.
Source: DSG
