By Deep Blue
January 6 2006

It’s always best to stick to what you know and make no doubt; it’s in France that Comolli will have the edge and in the same way that Pleat used his knowledge and connections of the English leagues to source out players like Defoe, Robinson, Dawson, Gardner, Reid etc, To the average football fan in England, signalling out these players as talents was hardly rocket science, but on the continent these players are unknowns and Spurs capturing of such players would have been hardly noticed. Comolli will find us “the French Defoe, Robinson…etc”. When we sign them the average fan might barely know who they are, but in france they will be "obvious" players of undoubted class and probably at a bargin price

I have no doubt that signing players of this type will be high on Comolli’s to do list. Players, who we may know little or nothing about, but in France it is common knowledge that they possess the talent to go far and of course at a very reasonable price.

“Comolli, he has his finger on the pulse…and the handrail..”

Our new Director of Football has already got a proven track record in this area when working for them lot down the road, you know that midtable team… He had input in all of the major signings that Arsenal made and the most important of those where the French trident of Henry, Viera and Pires. All of these players were ones with question marks over their abilities at the top level and none a household name at that time, all of them, unfortunately, went on to become some of the top players in Europe. The youth players that he had personal responsibility for signing include: Kolo Toure, Gael Clichy, Jeremie Aliadiere, Sebastien Svaard, Moritz Volz, Arturo Lupoli, Guy Demel , Robin Van Persie and Emmanuel Eboue. Most of these with bright futures and all of whom bought in at very little cost.

Most will have noticed that not all of these are products of the French league and of course Comolli does have knowledge, through scouting networks, of players from around the world, but do not expect the same “scattergun” approach from Arneson’s time at the club, the majority of our “young stars in the making” will be coming from the other side of the channel.

One pattern the will share is in a transfer policy of 3 separate parts. The 1st and top of list as far as importance goes is the long term targets and players to fill specific areas in the 1st 11. These are players that must be able to go right into the team and preferably be the finished article or at least have a degree of experience. The fee’s for which, if the Dirrector of football is doing his job right, should be low. He should have a group of players in mind all able to fill the same role and then test the water on all of the at the same time and whoever represents the best deal is the one we follow through and complete the signing of. Examples of these players from the last transfer window would be Salteri, Lee, Davids, and Raziak. The process to bring in these can be shown the Raziak deal, for the majority of the summer we look to secure the signature or higher profile players to the top of the “list” but as they fell through or didn’t represent value for money we worked down to Raziak, who represented the best deal for us at such a late stage.

“some more of these please…”

As we begin the January transfer window the areas where we will be looking for this type of signing is on the left wing and a target man upfront (Raziak so far has failed to shine), esp important now with the loss of Mido to the African Cup of Nations. With the injury to Lee it could be argued that this is an area where we need to bring in a senior player, but I would argue that for the long term it would be better to “blood” a youngster. For left midfield we have already been linked to Downing, Robben, Castelin (although right footed), Pederson, Ribery and I am sure many other names will pop up as well. I don’t doubt that the club has enquired about all of these and whether the one we sign comes from this list or not it will be the one that represents the best deal for the club, we will not be forced into paying over the odds, we will have many options. The same applies for the target man, with players like Kuyt, Vieri, Zigic, Iaquinta etc already linked you can be sure that we certainly don’t have all our eggs in one bastket!! Not all of this type of deal will be completed in January, this is also a time to secure these types of players on bosman deals come the end of the season, so expect a few of these deals to be mooted this month.

“No this picture hasn’t been distorted…”

The second part of our transfer policy is the “bargins” players whose talent is undoubted and perhaps we have been tracking or had previously considered unobtainable and who, for whatever reason, have become available. These are players we may not “need” right now and play in areas already covered in the squad, but they are players that should be signed we they pop up because, in the long term they represent a calibre of player we couldn’t normally afford or get. Examples of this policy would be Jenas, Defoe, Robinson, Routledge, Tiano and Dawson. During this period there is always a possibility that one will pop up, SWP is this type of player, someone who plays in an area we already have well covered but if he become available is someone we should seriously consider moving for, Vlaar was one of these players, but the deal fell through. One thing is for sure that if this type of player does turn up money will be made available but it may not be someone who we feel we “need” right now (perhaps another cm?). A key part of this has been to sign "British" players when they crop up and this has given us a spine of Robo, King, Dawson, Carrick, Jenas and Defoe. I would expect the patern of favouring Uk based players to continue.

The final part of our, so far successful, policy is youth players, youngsters who have great potential but at a young enough age and at a club at a “lower standing” than Spurs allowing us to “poach” them and development at our club before they attract the interest of “bigger clubs” who we couldn’t compete with to sign ahead of down the line. Great examples of this would be Huddlestone, Lenon and Ziegler, Lennon in particular looking like a real star. This is where Comolli will be tested the most as every big club is now scouring the globe to find the “next big thing”, in this area we will see the most comings and goings with youngster failing to lie up to the potential etc. It appears we have already begun on this area with the trial of Marek Suchy, more will probably come and I am sure and equal amount will leave.

“Harry wont be the only one looking to shop at the lane..”

As far as departures are concerned we are in a strong position the window, the quality of depth at Spurs now is that we have little or no “dead wood”, the fringe players at the club are in fact all good players (perhaps Bungy and Jackson aside). Players like Brown, Mendes, Davis, Kelly, Pamarot, Raziak Davenport, Reid etc all have the ability to play at premiership level (maybe question marks over Davenport and Raziak) and many Prem sides and certainly most Championship sides would love to secure these players signatures. We don’t need to sell however and have the ability to haggle for good prices for these players or swap deals which suit the club. If we don’t get a reasonable offer then don’t be surprised if none of these players leave, I do expect one or two last minuet “panic” bids come the end or January and this is the sort of situation that will see us secure the best deal.

Jol may be talking of “having no need to buy or sell” (paraphrasing) but behind the scenes we will be very active and I expect a few surprises along the way, along with the standard 1001 rumours and links to the club. It will be a real test of Comolli’s talents but I am sure he will really be looking to do most of his business in the summer, either way it will be interesting and perhaps we may also secure the signature of “the French Defoe” whoever he may be….