By Simon Wright - Follow me on Twitter @Siwri88
While the
Gareth Bale transfer story has been developing rapidly in recent weeks,
Tottenham owner Daniel Levy has wasted no time in allowing his manager to
splash the cash in the transfer market.
Andre
Villas-Boas and the whole Spurs hierarchy will be keen to make up for the
disappointments of the previous two campaigns, where Champions League
qualification looked certain in the springtime, but those hopes died away with
poor run-ins to each season.
The
Lilywhites have already added Paulinho, Belgian winger Nacer Chadli and look
set to tie up a deal for Toulouse midfielder Etienne Capoue in the coming
days. Another man who arrived and was hardly
mentioned all among the Bale to Real Madrid speculation was the Spanish
international striker Roberto Soldado.
Soldado’s
switch from Valencia broke the club’s transfer record, with Tottenham
activating a £26m release clause in his contract at the Mestalla to bring him
to England, and he could be the man to solve Spurs’ striking problems.
Last season,
Villas-Boas had to rely on Bale far too much for Tottenham’s goal tally. He only had two strikers throughout the
season, and neither set the standard required.
Emmanuel Adebayor was far too inconsistent for almost the liking of
everyone last season. It has been the
story of the Togolese’s career. Adebayor
can have days where he is almost unplayable, then others where he simply doesn’t
look interested to be on the football field.
Jermain Defoe
is much more consistent in comparison to Adebayor. Defoe has a habit of poaching a goal, but his
injury record in recent seasons has blighted any high goalscoring returns. This was the case last season. Jermain got into double figures, but after getting
injured in the early stages of a match at West Brom in February, his season unravelled
and he never was the same player on his return.
In Soldado (pictured),
Tottenham have a striker who is at the peak of his powers. He started as Spain’s first choice striker in
the Confederations Cup this summer, though Fernando Torres reclaimed this
position for the semi-finals and final.
He does deserve more chances at international level, as six goals in 11
caps is a brilliant track record.
Soldado won his first international cap as way back as 2007.
He scored
goals regularly for Getafe before moving to Valencia in 2010 for around
£10m. In the past three seasons, he has
ended with league goal tallies of 18, 17 and 24, and found the target 81 times
in 141 appearances in all competitions for the former double Champions League
finalists.
Soldado is class;
there is no two ways of avoiding that.
However Fernando Morientes was a classy striker but his two year spell
in English football with Liverpool is largely forgotten.
Tottenham
have taken a gamble in forking out £26m for a 28-year-old, but if he starts
scoring the goals he promises, it will be money well spent for all
parties. He will be helped if Bale
stays, but Roberto Soldado has the ability and the goalscoring record to make
himself of the Premier League’s leading strikers in 2013-14.
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