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.

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