Some very strange goings on at White Hart Lane

Tottenham have been one of the busiest Premier League sides in this current transfer window. It is no real surprise really, they’re in a very precarious position in the league and have brought in a new manager who will want to reshape the side. There is one strange aspect though, a lot of the faces being brought in are very familiar to the White Hart Lane faithful.

Tottenham sold Jermaine Defoe too Portsmouth in January 2008 for £7million. Fast forward to January 2009 and they’ve bought him back for twice the price. Now Defoe is a great player and very capable of getting goals, even when the team aren’t performing particularly well. Spurs have also brought Frenchman Pascal Chimbonda back to White Hart Lane just five months after the troubled right-back departed for Sunderland. The details of Chimbonda’s transfers remain hazy, the fees are all ‘undisclosed’ but they almost certainly must have spent more on him than they let him go for.

This stinks of bad business to me, if a company in any other business were to do that with their assets they would quite frankly be laughed at. In these times of economic uncertainty such poor business sense has to be questioned, why were these players let go in the first place? Defoe wasn’t getting into the side because of Dimitar Berbatov and Robbie Keane so on some level that is excusable but Chimbonda left under a bit of a cloud. He was booed by Spurs fans upon getting substituted in the Carling Cup final victory over Chelsea and he will have a tough fight on his hands to prove himself again to the Spurs fans.

Another alarming question raised by Chimbonda’s transfer is the sheer number of right-backs Tottenham have actually bought recently. Alan Hutton arrived in a £9million move in the summer, Chris Gunter joined for £3million from Cardiff City and they paid over £7million for Vedran Corluka on the last day of the transfer window. Why does one club need so many players in one position?

It hasn’t all been bad though, the arrival of Carlo Cudicini will add a bit of stability to their defence. The Italian keeper has endured a tough time at Chelsea since the arrival of Petr Cech and he should replace Heurelho Gomes in goal. I do feel a bit for Gomes but he has been guilty of some shocking errors between the posts. The arrival of Cudicini could be invaluable to Tottenham and may be a good reason to start backing Spurs to avoid the drop, that would be my football betting tip anyway.

With nearly a week to go Tottenham still seem to be looking to increase their numbers. Sunderland’s Kenwyne Jones was a target but has now been ruled out of a move after his club said they weren’t interested in selling. Jones is a decent player but I’m not sure how much better than Darren Bent he is anyway and I don’t think the signature of Jones would alter any soccer betting odds on Spurs Premier League survival. There is no argument Tottenham have brought in some quality but questions will remain about the way in which they conduct their business.

Popularity: 7% [?]