During the long summer months, the big four have been going about strengthening their side for the upcoming season but have a quick look at teams outside the top four and you will notice a distinct lack of summer transfers. Are these teams suffering in the transfer market because they cannot get shot of the unwanted players at their club?
A perfect example of a team in this situation is at Tottenham whose only summer capture has been 40-year-old Brad Friedel on a free transfer from Aston Villa. They have numerous players who are unwanted by the club but they have had no success in trying to offload many of them with only one high paid payer Jonathan Woodgate being released in the summer.
They must trim the side in order to fit in with the Premier League’s 25-man squad limit and while Daniel Levy is commanding large transfer fees for these unwanted players it is easy to see why they have not been able to offload them. David Bentley has three years left on his contract at White Hart Lane and Levy is asking for a huge transfer fee or large loan fee for the unwanted winger.
Niko Kranjcar, Jermaine Jenas, Peter Crouch and Alan Hutton all seem to be unwanted by Redknapp for the new season but until Levy drops his asking price it is unlikely that the club will move these players on especially when large wages are involved. After they are excluded from the 25-man squad announced soon the players may realise their future lies away from White Hart Lane and then Spurs could get rid of them.
Redknapp is anxious before the end of the transfer window to secure a world-class centre-forward who would give him the option of playing either 4-2-3-1 or 4-3-3. However Levy’s wage ceiling of £75,000-a-week is preventing such a transfer occurring as big name players can get more than double that at Manchester City and the like. This ceiling while financially viable is actually preventing Spurs from becoming a genuine top-four club as the quality they require will not arrive for these sort of wages. I think they got very lucky with the Van Der Vaart deal and unless Redknapp can pull a similar deal out it could be a hard battle to reach fourth place.
Redknapp knows he has to get rid of these players before he can bring fresh blood into the team but thus far he has not managed to get any of them off the wage bill, so he has not been able to strengthen his team. Without Levy reducing the asking price of these unwanted players it is unlikely that they create the space for new players who would represent value for the club.
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One option that Harry may look into is to include these players as part of a transfer to bring players into the club as this would kill two birds with one stone by getting them off the wage bill while also bringing in new talent to the club.
It looks today that Robbie Keane will be soon off the wages with striker set to join LA Galaxy but this is just one of the many players the club must clear out before they can strengthen.
Unless Redknapp can find a solution to this problem, it is doubtful whether or not he would be able to bring in the players he wants in this transfer window. Wouldn’t it be wise to sell players like Hutton and Jenas at a reduced price to remove their wage bull while generating transfer fees that could be used to sign new players? Until Levy sees this the club may be stuck with unwanted squad players and no new signings.
Let me know your thoughts, is Levy holding back the club or is it the right policy to under-take?
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