Has Harry pulled a £1.5m rabbit out of the hat?
It began in Africa, or so we are told, and for many of Harry Redknapp’s sides in the past, this has been the case. It seems Redknapp has returned to the continent this week to purchase 23 year-old centre back Bongani Khumalo, but will the SuperSport player prove to be a dud, or another astute African acquisition for the Tottenham manager?
Redknapp seemed to discover his penchant for signing African players at West Ham, where he made the high-profile purchases of Marc Vivien-Foe, Rigobert Song and Titi Camara. Perhaps with the exception of Vivien-Foe these players did not particularly shower themselves in glory, but this did not dissuade Redknapp at Portsmouth as he signed both Yakubu and Lomana Lua Lua in his first stint in charge of the south-coast club. Yakubu helped fire Pompey into the Premier League and between them, the player affectionately known as ‘the Yak’ and Lua Lua scored over 40 goals for Portsmouth.
On his return to the south-coast club in December 2005, Redknapp became more prolific in his African acquisitions, signing Benjani, Kanu, Lauren, Sulley Muntari and John Utaka amongst others, and formed a side which won the 2008 FA Cup from many of these African players. Utaka, Muntari, Kanu and Papa Bouba Diop were all present in the side that lifted the trophy, with Kanu scoring the winner, giving Pompey their first piece of noteworthy silverware in nearly 60 years.
Surprisingly, Redknapp has not continued this trend at Spurs, signing only French-born Cameroonian international Sébastien Bassong for the club. However, all this is about to change as Bongani Khumalo joins the club in January for £1.5m. But the question on Spurs fans lips is, is he going to be a Titi Camara, or a Sulley Muntari? All reports coming out of Africa seem to suggest the latter.
Bongani is a highly thought of and highly educated young player, impressing during the 2010 World Cup in his adopted home nation of South Africa (he was born in Swaziland) capping his performances with a goal against France in the last group game in Bloemfontein. This, combined with the relative youth of the player (23) seem to point towards an investment in Spurs’ future, as well as a player that can be utilised immediately as Tottenham seek to compete on two fronts after the turn of the year.
In looking to Africa, Redknapp seems to have once again unearthed a player with just the right mixture of athleticism and skill, and with a central defence prone to injury, Spurs may well have found a player to shore them up during 2011 and beyond.
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In my opinion a very clever signing. The reason for this being the 1.5m price tag. If he fails to make the grade it is no great loss however if he proves himself and makes the position his own Redknapp will be rightfully applauded. Win win situation for all parties.
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When you have quality in one position you should never look to buy more big money players in the same position. It could be a very good low risk signing. Just like Kranjcar and Sandro.
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comolio and d levy have been and had for a long time this is a levy signing and a very good one will do really well
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watching him
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Fabulous player. Not sure if any of the other posters are from SA but I happen to be and watch him very often as he is one of the very best players we’ve produced in a while. He seems to be being groomed to captain the national side, very much Radebe material.
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Harry has been saying that he finds it difficult to fit VDV into our formation without unbalancing it. I was thinking:
1)Our weakest position is full-back. Hutton and BAE are good, but not brilliant.
2)We have lots of very good centre backs when thet are fit.
3) Bale and Lennon can run up and down the wing for ever thanks to their fantastic fitness.
4)When we play VDV with Crouch as the only out-and-out stiker we look a little short for options up front, so we should try playing two strikers with VDV in the same formation.
So how about a 3-5-2….anyone?….
Dawson King Kaboul
Lennon Huddlestone Modric Bale
VDV
Defoe Crouch
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N14 Spur Reply:
October 28th, 2010 at 11:17 am
I think your right on the money azza, but I reckon we might have to wait until either an FA Cup game or a (supposedly) easy home game to try it out, otherwise it could be a good formation but that we are just steamrollered by a strong team and then Harry never goes back to it. Definitely would like to see that though!
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oddjob65 Reply:
October 28th, 2010 at 3:45 pm
your right azza, 3-5-2 is the way to go but, our defenders have to be told that defence is first and foremost! at the mo we have an attacking side that lacks a consistant partnership in the centre which is not good but also our current full backs like to attack aswell, so lets have 3 at the back that tend to stay there more and a tough tackler in the centre of the park then everyone else can be attack attack attack!!! we already have all the players we need.
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we havent kept a clean sheet since we played citeh and you want to take one of our defenders away! lets wait till we get a chance to see defoe and VDV upfront together i still think they will be outrageously good, Defoe is a much smarter striker then Crouch, he relys on making intelligent runs and is a predator around the box, and i have lost count of the number of times bale has put balls across the 6 yard box and noboday has been there for a tap in, i think crouch is a very good team player but offers very little goal threat, i think with both of the little guys upfront we could be deadly!
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mustard Reply:
October 29th, 2010 at 12:02 pm
agree! can’t wait to see VdV and Defoe up front together.
Should be just as effective as the Rooney/Defoe partnership for England
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I’m in much the same frame of mind as I was when Sandro or any other player that joins us. Give him the time, allow him to feel at home and give him the Spurs love, then its all down to him and his own abilities as a footballer.
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If you play 3-5-2 (which is a good tactic IMHO) you must play Hutton as the right wing-back because Lennon can’t defend. Bale the other Wing-back of course…Lennon can come on in the 2nd half to revert to a 4-4-2 or 4-4-1-1…
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I will keep explaining why 3-5-2 does not work for Spurs. 1) Harry experimented with it this season. I was there behind Cudicini’s goal. It was against Wigan. We did not start with 3-5-2, but we changed in the second half, when Spurs were running out of ideas and were cruising to a 0-0 draw. Wigan were no threat whatever at the time. We switched to 3-5-2 with King left, Dawson centre and Kaboul right. Bale was left wing. Wigan then had chance after chance, then scored. Why? – because Martinez put Rodallega in the gap between King and Bale (our left corner). Every time they got the ball, they gave it to Rodallega quickly – we couldn’t counter it. We lost the game because of it. 2) The biggest flaw with 3-5-2 is getting a consistent set of centre backs to make it work. We struggle to get a fit pair of centre backs let alone 3. 3) Plus what JMSpur said – no clean sheets means that we cannot lose a defender. Wing backs will virtually be full backs – 5-3-2.
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