Striker Striker oh levy give us a Striker!

A brief view from the Park Lane Spurs.

Is it me of does August 2012 seems incredibly similar to the predicament we were facing in August 2011?

The sulking Luka Modric training with the reserves with no deal in sight. An incredible sense of frustration of not securing a striker in December when champion’s league football was there for the taking and every player under the sun linked with us.

So to August 2012, where do we stand?

We have made two solid signings in Jan Vertonghen and Gylfi Sigurdsson to which both I’m very happy with. 

The sacking of old ‘arry with his offensive views about the fans and a new young manager in AVB with a lot of baggage and entrenched in his defensive high line.

Some squad problems with overload of midfield players who are unwanted (Jenas, Bentley, possibly Huddlestone)

Finally a frighteningly weak strike force of Kane and Defoe in comparison to the other top 6 clubs.

So who do we need?

Demba Ba

It baffles me why we did not try and release the Demba Ba clause, he was affordable and when played as the focal striker produced some excellent performances for Newcastle.

He was reportedly available for around £7.5million which would of allowed the possibility of securing another top target.

Fernando Llorente

Or why not secure Llorente the target man ideal for us (he has just refused to sign a new contract with Bilbao)? Reportedly available for around £25 million.

He scored 17 goals in 32 league appearances for Bilbao last season and scored seven in 15 games in European competition.

Leandro Damiao

I’m personally not so sure about Leandro Damiao he is more of a predator than the focal point which AVB tends to prefer.

However the close close links with Internacional could enable Levy to negotiate the reported staggering £47mill asking price.

Emmanuel Adebayor

A solid proven goal scorer but tends to need 4 chances to score 1 and on his day almost unplayable.

Reportedly a fee has been agreed but the player refusing to lose a penny of his staggering £220k a week,

Hugo Lloris

A top keeper to replace Brad but £25million seems very expensive.

Julio Cesar

At 32 at the peak of his career, with a solid club and international record this I think would the better purchase in value at approx £15million.

In reality any potential big purchase seems to hinge purely on the epic Modric saga, with levy leaving it so late yet again.

Surely the more astute business is to agree these deals at a earlier stage allowing any incoming players to have at least a couple of pre season games to gel with the team (we all remember the first two games of 2011/12). 

Hopefully he sees the huge investments being made yet again by our top 6 competitors and sanctions the funds needed to  keep up.

The squad in reality is still a very strong one, with the two new additions and hopefully one or two strikers we can challenge for that 4th spot again.

Dominic Pritchard