Spurs Transfer activity – Falque, Hoillett, Samba & more

With just two weeks of the January transfer window left, Tottenham Hotspur yesterday made their first signing. Iago Falque’s loan from Juventus was made permanent for a fee rumoured to be around £1.5m. The young Spaniard was immediately sent out on loan to Championship club Southampton. Falque showed glimpses of quality when given chances in the Europa League campaign and his time at Southampton is surely to help him settle into life in the English leagues. Southampton play nice, attractive football and their manager Nigel Adkins seems happy to have Falque on board for their push to the Premier League. Opinions are divided on whether Falque is going to be a big star and questions have been asked as to why Juventus have offloaded him without ever using him. That said, Juventus have previous in getting rid of talented youngsters who then come good, so that may not mean too much.

In other news Spurs must continue to look for a winger who can offer back up and competition for Bale and particularly Lennon. Junior Hoillett is still the number one target but his father (and agent) today said that he can’t see Junior leaving in January. This blog has been calling for Spurs to snap up Hoillett since the summer and if a deal can be done then he would surely add more depth in an area that really needs it. If Hoillett isn’t available then three other names have been mooted as possible targets. Firstly, Arjen Robben for over £20m. A move for the fragile ex-Chelsea man seems a non-starter all the way and seems nothing more than made up paper talk. Equally unlikely is a loan move for Juventus’ Serbian wide man, Milos Krasic. Krasic made a massive impression in his first season with Juve last term but has been sidelined for much of this term. Even so, sources close to Juve suggest that any loan move for him is unlikely. His team mate, Dutch international Eljero Elia is slightly more likely but again it’s an outside bet. Elia is extremely quick and full of tricks but can be inconsistent. Basically, with these options looking long shots, let’s just get the Hoillett deal done and put this one to bed!

At the back, Spurs seemingly endless search for centre backs continues. Now that Cahill has gone to Chelsea, Chris Samba is still top target. Although QPR are apparently favourites to take him off Blackburn’s hands. This blog see’s no need for Samba (or anyone else), Younes Kaboul, Ledley King and William Gallas are all better players than Samba while he’s probably on a par with Dawson and Bassong. Not to mention that Steven Caulker will be returning from loan at the end of the season. Any move for someone like Samba would surely hamper Caulker’s development. Of course King and Gallas fitness is always called into question, but even so, unless Bassong really pushes for a move it would seem a senseless addition.

In other news, Jermain Defoe is today linked with a £10m move to Liverpool. Unless Spurs bring in a big name then this seems way off base. Redknapp would hate to be left with just Adebayor and Pavlyuchenko as options and the supposed move for Loic Remy has been rubbished by Remy himself as well as Marseille coach Didier Deschamps. Defoe may well be desperate to get more first team action in a bid to make the plane to Poland and Ukraine with England for the Euro’s this summer but it looks like he may have to continue to bide his time on the bench at White Hart Lane and hope that Spurs take the FA Cup seriously.

Sadly no one seems to be taking any interest in Steven Pienaar, so it appears he’ll still be at The Lane come February 1st too.

It would be expected that as per usual Spurs will leave their business until the last minute in search for a bargain, so don’t fret too much before then!

COYS

Stuart Watts ( @THFC1882dotcom on Twitter )

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