Will ‘Last Minute Levy’ Have Another Ace Up His Sleeve?

Daniel Levy is nobody’s fool. He is a notoriously hard negotiator, and has earned that reputation. It has recently been revealed that right up until the closing stages of the last transfer window Real Madrid were demanding £20 million for Rafael Van der Vaart. They knew we wanted the player, but Levy knew they wanted to sell and, as is so often the case, the other guy blinked first and on that occasion ended up dropping the price by more than half.

Stephen Piennar is another example. We offered £2 million, Chelsea offered three. Even though the player wanted to play for us instead of Chelsea Levy stuck his heels in and would not budge. Harry Redknapp was clearly pulling his hair out in frustration. He said something along the lines of that it wasn’t really a lot of money for a player like that but it was up to Daniel Levy. One suspects what he was thinking was more along the lines of, ‘Bloody hell Daniel, it’s only a mill! We’re gonna lose him for a mill!’ Only an unexpected windfall of £3 million from the sell on clause for Darren Bent persuaded Levy to reluctantly unlock the state of the art titanium padlock on his wallet and make up the difference. But was Piennar worth £3 million when he had only six months left on his contract? Of course not. It’s not as if he is a guarantee of a fourth place finish so he certainly paid over the odds.

The rumour is that our Daniel is so tight he only shaves his head to save money on shampoo, but this is not the case (about being tight, I’ve no idea why he shaves his head. Presumably because he’s going bald.) The fact is he is just very, very shrewd. The problem though is that you can have the best poker face in the world but it is of little use if everybody knows what cards you are holding.

The whole world knows that we are desperate for a striker. We have a terrible defence, and the idea that we balance that out by scoring loads of goals is a myth. We are the eighth highest scoring team in the league. Not only have the four above us scored more but also Bolton, Newcastle and even Blackpool.

Keane is gone, Defoe can’t play with Van der Vaart who is untouchable (or was, until his lacklustre performance against Fulham,) Pavlyuchenko has some class but doesn’t do nearly enough in games and Crouch is having a nightmare of a season. The lanky England man has scored one goal in the Premiership but missed a shed-load of sitters. He just doesn’t have the strength or the ability to impose himself on matches; his height can be an asset when it comes to knock downs but that isn’t nearly enough. He does not have the technique or the close control to bury half chances, and he cannot head the ball particularly well. Whenever he comes up against a player of similar height he invariably comes off worse, and when was the last time you saw him rise and bury the ball in the net with his head? He very rarely does so. When a high ball comes into the box a player of his height should be looking to bury it every time, and if it doesn’t look on he should opt for the knock down. Crouch always goes for the knock down and opposition teams in the Premiership have worked that out, so they just mark the player he will knock it down to. Luckily for us we have Van der Vaart who is a seriously slippery character who is very hard to mark, or who knows where we’d be in the league. What Crouch does have is a very good instinct of where to be which has seen him score a lot more goals in his career than his ability should allow. As the eagle eyed of you will have deduced, I’m no fan of Peter Crouch.

I have lost count of how many forwards we have supposedly bid for in this transfer window. It appears now that we are running around Spain with a big wheelbarrow full of money in an undignified attempt to sign someone before the window closes. Yesterday we had bids for Llorente, Negredo, Rossi and Aguero rejected. Sergio Aguero is undoubtedly a good player but going straight in with a bid of £38.5 million, the exact amount to trigger his release clause, just reeks of being desperate for a sure thing. Typically that didn’t turn out to be enough anyway, as Aguero would have to be bought out of his contract and with added tax that would push the price to almost £50 million. Can you see Levy paying that? No, me neither; so don’t expect that to happen.

What that does prove though is that Levy is prepared to spend big for a player he thinks worth the money. Aguero is a world class player and at only 22 would have a considerable sell on value, so is a sound investment, but Levy won’t pay over the odds. That could mean one of two outcomes: either we spend a lot of cash on a really good player, or we buy no-one at all. Whoever we get I hope it is the right type of player and not someone who is good but unsuitable. We need a big, imposing centre forward to spearhead our attacks. We are too lightweight in so many areas of the pitch and a real target man up front who can score, hold the ball up and give the opposition something to worry about is vital if this season is not to be one of the biggest anti-climaxes I can remember at the club. Some may disagree, but I’d love to see Andy Carroll sign. It is unlikely as he doesn’t want to leave Newcastle and he probably isn’t worth more than the £25 million we have supposedly offered, but personally I hope Levy sees a £30 million bid as worth it for the possible (although admittedly remote) chance of a top four finish. Time will tell.

COYS!

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