Spurs News 24/7Writer: Yorkspur 
Date:Tuesday October 14 2008
Time: 9:52AM
UK time is: 05:56:04
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Some Strange Wheeling's and Dealings
With all the speculation around Damien Comolli's role and pending unemployment my mind is drawn back to some strange, sometimes incomprehensible moves we have made in the transfer market down the years.
I'm not just talking about the obvious howlers. An example that often springs to my mind is the sale of Calum Davenport to West Ham in January 2007. I wondered, why did we do that? Admittedly he wasn't great, but he wasn't bad, and as our 3rd choice centre half was forming a fairly solid partnership with Michael Dawson in the absence of Ledley King. He was sold, Rocha came in and Anthony Gardner, who previously couldn't buy a game, suddenly started getting played. Why did we sell Davenport and replace him with a man who was deemed worse than Gardner, who himself was below Davenport in the pecking order? Worse still, Rocha was cup tied and unable to play in the UEFA cup. It just didn't make sense.
Another strange one was the sale of Fredi Kanoute to Sevilla. (Though this was before Comolli's time I think, we can't hold him responsible for this one.) We apparently got an offer that was too good to refuse. Then in true Spurs fashion we had to scurry around looking for a big centre forward to back up Mido. Rasiak was signed. I sometimes wonder what that decision might have cost us, with Mido's loss of form at the end of that season, if we had a half decent 'big man' up front to back him up, would a top 4 place have been secured?
There are many others. Reto Ziegler looked promising, Erik Edman wasn't bad, both were left footed, both discarded in favour of a right footed left back in Lee Young Pyo. I did like YP but we didn't have a left footed squad member for ages. Buying Darren Bent when we had a 60 goals a season out of Defoe, Keane and Berbatov.
This summer has seen more of the same. Obviously the departures of Keane and Berbatov have hurt us the most but in Steed, Chimbo and Tainio we had some solid squad members who could come in and do a job if we needed them to. Players that could get us through the early rounds of the cup competitions, experienced squad members who could give us more strength in depth. Who made these decisions, and for what reasons?
If Comolli does indeed depart and the Director of Football system is abandoned, maybe we will begin to find out.
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Your Comments
I would say that at least 3 of the deals you mention were down to the managers decisions, firstly martin jol wanted YPL and raved about him at the time so we lost Edman to balance the books , a mistake for me. Jol didnt play Zeigler, so that seemed a logical move, his disapearence since may well prove MJ right there. Kanute fell out with the club and Jol for many reasons, including changing his international nationality, refusing to go on tour and generally acting like a spoilt little brat. as for Rocha, a strange move, but was this to offer greater experience to a very young defence, still a strange one considering he couldnt play in europe, but we cant win them all...
oxfordspur
at the moment ox..... we cant win a thing!
dude01
I will give you that mate....
oxfordspur
Steed was the main one that puzzled me, selling a player before lining up a replacement seems odd, i think we would of been stronger with Steed LM and Bale LB, as they linked up well in the period Bale was fit last year.
Tanio and Chimbonda I could understand, with the signing of Hutton the injury was unfortunate, I don't really then understanding folking out all of the money on Corluka to cover Huttons absense, Gunter has looked good enough to cover our fullbacks in times of trouble, If it is to allow Corluka to cover for King then surely it would of made more sense to sign an experienced CB for 9M Im sure we could of managed that. Admittedly it might only be to give Modric some companionship but 9M for a squad player come room mate is a little funny.
Speaking of Blame I don't blame players for moving Berba wanting to go to Man Utd possibly the biggest club in the world, i do blame those involved for leaving it to the 12th hour and not having bought a replacement of a highier calibre. As I feel looking over the Squad excluding the forward line we are stronger, but without goals we are going to struggle. We basically balanced our books through the summer, we could of easily spent another £40Million of the TV rights and still been in profit over all. Keano to Liverpool as his boyhood club is understandable, and I feel the price was fair but again Pav and the Loan of Campbell have replaced the sales of Defoe / Berba and Keano. Will the two of them score 60 goals in a seaon. Answers o a postcard please.
ajm142003
I totally agree that our transfer policy has for many years been flawed and riddled with kind of major errors you high light. Edman was a mistake, Rocha a ridiculous bit of business. The sale of Chimbonda and Malbranque. Kaboul baffling.What gets to me is that as a mere football fan I could fore see this seasons problems and I've posted so you can verify this. Had I been able to sit with Ramos at the end of the season before the transfer activity I'd have said: Bently not worth the money and an area of your side you don't really need to reinforce, Malbranque provides leadership and selfless team play too valuable to sell. Chimbonda dispite the ego to versatile to sell, Kaboul more potential than Dawson loan. Get a experienced CB a proven top flight goal scorer LW and CM hard man. Apart from those in love with the Bentley hype machine dozens on this site could have done this,that's what disturbs me most about those running our club.
spurdon
If Bentley's that bad why do Liverpool want him?
tottscotspur
Have Liverpool said they want him?
LondonGooner
good article and i think the strangest of all of them was zeigler and edman let go and yp lee bought in,even if he kept 1 of them,and when i think of rasiak,that was just embaressing as a spurs fan
tralee spurs
No. Before he joined us there was talk that apart from Spurs, the only other move that would appeal to him was Utd. Can't substantiate that, though. It's no secret that Fatty is in dire need of a winger and one or two fullbacks so I'm guessing that's where this story is coming from. If we sold either of Bale or Bentley to them, I think it would be the lunatic asylum for me.
jonathanhotspur
Does anyone remember who decided to sell Luke Young and why?
jonathanhotspur
If Iremember correctly, Hoddle sold Young, the reason being that he wasn't going to start before Stephen Carr. Carr was one of those players that had so much promise but was ravaged by injury. In hindsight, Young would have been a good one to keep.
Chris Hart
Hindsight is great, we should sign him, and keep him at the club, that way we will never have problems with hindsight.
denboy
Thanks, Chris. Shame, that, especially seeing as Carr saw fit to ditch us for the barcodes, the swine.
jonathanhotspur
Gilberto is another strange one, especially after the Rocha fiasco and seeing that KPB had not worked out.
shelf16
Don't talk to me, he's been miles off the pace any time I've seen him in action. Comolli's idea? Cue an outburst fron Ox....
jonathanhotspur
The reason we sold players was to get the money. That's all that matters
Shannon
Shannon that's not strictly true. We did spend 70 mil this time round, and the reason the players were sold, was because in the management's eyes, they were surplus to requirements, which in most cases was true, except perhaps for Malbranque, who I thought was a good 100% squad player
denboy
The two exceptions to the above was Keane and Berbatov. There was no way we were going to keep them once they decided to go. Keane thiugh, if we had put our foot down, may have stayed, having recently signed a piece if toilet paper, sorry I meant new contract. On the other hand at his age, 20 mil was a very tempting offer, baring in mind there was still plenty of time to sign a replacement, knowing full well Berbatov was going, but not at that time knowing for how much.
denboy
Its a fair article. I am still baffled at the selling of Steed. And we could do with still having Chimbonda as well. Never mind, you live and learn I guess. We need to be focusing on our present players now, not ones been and gone.
Eemton
Denboy, you think we buy, but its INVESTING for sale at a later date
Shannon
Shannon, of course it's investing, after all football is a business. It needs constant investment, virtually every season, you can't keep buying players and never selling them. Who in their right mind would pay the millions required to purchase a football club, and then further millions to buy new players all the time, and never get a return on that investment. If you did not sell or replace players, how would they ever play, you can only play 11 at on time plus subs of course so selling is part of the game as is buying.
denboy
Sale of steed was a mistake. Maybe he was a compulsory part of the deal for the whole sale to go through?
shelf16
Defoe, Edman, Zeigler, Kanoute, Malbronque, Chimbonda, Keane, Berby, Davenport, all sold do I need to say more. Then there's Rocha, Gilberto, KPB, Kaboule, Tarabaat, what's this all about! Either sold, going or not playing! We seem to have players bought and not played, players that perform but are put on the bench, players picked that don't perform, players, players, players, its like a merry go round! Who's responsible everyone at the club, Levy, Comoli and the manager at the time. We seem to have a board that knows how to balance the books but little about football and managers that have football knowldege that for some reason like making us Spurs fans cringe every week with their bazaare formations, selections and tactics. Is this a football club thriving I think not!
loz
I think Comilli has been terrible for the club hardly any decent signing as of yet maybe the ones we have made will come good.
phil4spurs
Totally agree. For every step forward we take, we slide 2 or 3 backwards. Rocha only has played about a dozen times, which is ridiculous. Davenport could have developed and pushed Dawson to maintain his performance levels of a couple of seasons ago. Letting Ziegler go on loan and not persisting with seriously damaged his development. Edman and Kanoute were ok deals, as Kanoute was never really prolific until he went to Seville.
Kernowboy71
Absolutely bang on, loz. Well said.
jonathanhotspur
lol Davenport who cant even get into the West Ham team , yeah we should have kept him tho.......
Ossie
One that sticks in my mind is Danny Murphy. I think he came from Liverpool where he was a regular, then for some reason he was left to play in the Spurs reserves for ages, before moving on and becoming a premiership regular once more, most recently for Fulham. Can anyone remember who was responsible for buying him and why he didn't play?
warner__
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