An embarrassment of riches?

..or too much clutter?

We’re only three days (hopefully) away from the start of the season, and three weeks from the close of the much maligned transfer window. 

Spurs are getting linked with an increasingly random collection of potential targets, and more and more inventive combinations of player swap deals to land various targets (Bassong + Keane = Samba) or to allow Modric to leave the Lane and join Sky Sports. Sorry, I mean Chelsea of course.

We are all acutely aware of the need for a striker, but we still have to make space for this goalscoring saviour, whoever he may be (from last few days, Llorente, Hulk, Sturridge, Huntelaar).

Let’s have a look at the collection of ‘senior’ players listed at the club.  We’ll ignore the fact that Jonathan Woodgate is still listed as a player on the Spurs iPhone app (a fact that will amuse @WindyCOYS) but that really needs sorting (@SpursOfficial if you could please) we have too many players still plying their trade at the club (and picking up their payslips) than we have room for in the 25-man Premier League squad.

Number	Squad #	Player	U21	Loan
1	1	Gomes
2	2	Hutton
3	3	Bale
4	4	Kaboul
5	5	Bentley
6	6	Huddlestone
7	7	Lennon
8	8	Jenas
9	9	Pavlyuchenko
10	10	Keane
11	11	Van der Vaart
12	12	Palacios
13	13	Gallas
14	14	Modric
15	15	Crouch
	16	Naughton		a
16	17	Dos Santos
17	18	Defoe
18	19	Bassong
19	20	Dawson
20	21	Kranjcar
21	22	Corluka
22	23	Cudicini
23	24	Friedel
	25	Rose	a
24	26	King
25	27	Alnwick
	28	Walker	a
26	29	Livermore
27	30	Sandro
28	32	Assou-Ekotto
	36	Khumalo		a
29	40	Pienaar

Excluding those players out on loan, or under 21, we have 29 seniors. So four can’t be named, and to bring in anyone else over 21 we need to get down to 24, so we need to shed five.

Let’s assume Alnwick isn’t going to get named in the squad, as no team will list four keepers. So that’s one down, four to go.

Dos Santos is all but a swift scribble on a contract away, so we’ll rule him out as well. Two down, three to go.

So, who are the favourites to empty their lockers and move clubs, either on permanent or loan deals?

Personally, I think Palacios, Bassong, Crouch, Keane, Hutton and Bentley will all leave, which would give us three gaps.  These surely would be filled by a central midfielder (Parker/Diarra/Barton) and a pair of strikers.  Who these will be is anyone’s guess, and one we’ll sadly have to wait until August 31^st to find out, I fear.

Follow me on Twitter @ChunkyTHFC

So tired, tired of waiting...

Tired of waiting for yooouuuu.........
 
Come on new signings, where are you?   I feel like we're playing a strange game of hide and seek with you.  
 
Only problem is we've started counting in May, and haven't stopped yet.  Levy and Redknapp must have run out of fingers and toes to count on.  Meanwhile, all the other clubs looking to strengthen have found you hiding under the stairs, in the laundry basket or even some of you firmly in the shop window.  
 
I know, I know.... I sound impatient.   Which, oddly enough is because I am.
 
We all sat back in May, not bothered by lack of movement – why would there be any – it's too early.  
 
As June came along, we were all hopeful of some new faces, and on June 3rd we got one.  An older one than most of us wanted to see, but in Brad Friedel we had our first signing of the summer.   Further into the month, with no more additions some were making their desperate please for moves.  Arguments on forums and on Twitter sprung up.  “Don't worry” said some, “The bloody window isn't open until July anyway – it'll happen”  “Have faith”, “believe in Harry and Daniel” etc etc
 
By the end of June and the opening proper of the window we'd finally seen a couple of departures.  Jamie O'Hara had converted his loan into a permanent deal at Wolves. A few days earlier our Carling Cup here Jonathan Woodgate had been released.  Shame, but understandable.
 
Steven Caulker joined prem new boys Swansea on loan (good to see our guys going on loan to play top flight football).   Still nothing on our incoming radar.   Plenty of internet rumourmongering, mostly total fabrication.   But not to worry, because nothing is likely to happen while the lads are in South Africa on tour.    Just you wait until they get back.  Then the transfer merry-go-round will explode into action.  You just wait and see.
 
There was a little flash of excitement part way through the month with a couple of talented youngsters joining our ranks.  Souleymane Coulibaly and Cristian Ceballos seem like they're decent prospects for the future, but we've heard that before haven't we? (Gio – I'm looking your way)
 
A couple more loan departures – Kyle Naughton out for Prem action with Norwich, and Bongani Khumalo (why did we buy him) to Reading. It was either Reading or Rangers apparently – which further backs up my argument about how shit Scottish football is.
 
So, here we are just over a week short of the season opener against Everton (do they want Pienaar back I wonder) and whilst most other clubs around us have strengthened we haven't done anything to improve our starting XI (I still think Gomes will start the season as first choice).
 
We've been linked with many, many players but bought none.  Targets have gone elsewhere, and we've had our heads sent into so much of a spin we're even discussing the idea of Joey Barton in a Spurs shirt.
 
A striker is an obvious must-have, yet we're chasing Christopher Samba.  He scored a couple against us not so long back, so we'll probably play him up front.
 
Seems like Levy is set on his lastminute.com deals on August 31st, so we'll have to sit tight and hope something happens.   Sadly, by then we'll have already played two of our top 6 opponents with a squad probably short of a couple of players.
 
Oh well,  I'm off to play hide and seek with Jenas, who has gone missing again.
 
Chunky