OK, I hold my hands up, it's all my fault that the Walsall game got postponed two weeks ago. The reason being that in the matchday programme for the game I talked about the discussions to bring a winter break back into Scottish football. Against the idea I ended my article with: "Of course, the one big irony would be that you never get to read this article as today's match has been postponed due to a frozen pitch, just don't blame me if it has". So there you go, if I was a Catholic I have just been in the confession box and hopefully you have exonerated me from my sins. The weekend of the Walsall game wasn't as bad as last Saturday for postponements though, with, funnily enough, the country that is talking about a winter break seeing more games being played than in England. The freezing conditions killing off a raft of Football League fixtures along with just about a clean sweep of call-offs in the non-league scene. If we had a winter break in this country though it would certainly make a big difference to the busy dealings in the January transfer window. For a start Harry Redknapp would be able to sign even more players, he was up to his old porky-pie telling the other week too when he said after their FA Cup win against Wigan that he had very few players to choose from and that "everyone fit was involved". Now I'm not Pythagoras but according to the squad list on the official UEFA website Spurs have 48 players listed. Then if you crosscheck that against the player lists on the official Tottenham website there are another eight players missing, to make a total of 56. So I suppose you can only feel sorry for Harry really given, that with a matchday squad of 18, he must have had 38 players either injured or suspended on that Friday night. Amazingly he's revealed today, as I watch them play Wigan again, that "a club from abroad" want to give them their money back for Heurelho Gomes, the Brazilian shot, erm, stopper, that former Spurs boss Juande Ramos signed from PSV Eindhoven for £7million in June last year. Personally I'd be biting the hand off the club that are after signing him but Redknapp seems to want to keep him, although he is looking for "cover" in that position, despite, including Gomes, currently having six goalkeepers on the books. Jermain Defoe is already back in at the Lane, his cost being a net £13million or so after they bought him for £7million, then sold him for £9million, and then bought him back for around £15million. Give it a few more years and he'll be worth £30million by the looks of it. Roman Pavlyuchenko and Giovani Dos Santos being other strikers signed by Spurs this summer for reported fees of £14million and £5million taking their frontline spending to £32 million in six months. They've got that back just about to the penny though with the selling of Dimitar Berbatov to Manchester United, who so far doesn't seem to be justifying his massive price tag at Old Trafford. One forgotten man at Tottenham meanwhile is their club record signing, that being England international Darren Bent at a remarkable £16.5million from Charlton, £2.58million of that money heading up to Ipswich in a 20% of future profit sell-on clause. Looking at the statistics Bent actually has a better goalscoring record than I expected with 20 goals from 34 starts and 30 substitute appearances for the Lilywhites. With the rumour mill in full flow Aston Villa, Everton and inevitably, Newcastle United, are all being linked with the 24-year old. You have to think too that a transfer now would be a good move for Bent to get his career going again. To me it would be a good move for Aston Villa as well with the Villains, in fourth place at the moment, looking to have a really good chance of claiming a Champions League qualifying round spot come the end of the season. The man I wanted for England manager after Sven-Goran Eriksson got the boot, in Martin O'Neill, having done an excellent job at Villa Park since he took over in August 2006. It's good to see Villa doing it with a lot of Englishmen in their squad as well, certainly compared to the amount the big four have, Ashley Young in particular at the age of 23 being a very exciting talent. Whether or not they keep it going is open to question, but I'm sure that like all the clubs in the Premier League and Football League they will be looking to strengthen in this seemingly never ending transfer window. |