The Top 5 Strikers Tottenham Should Look To Acquire This Summer
What a season it has been for Tottenham. In their first season in the Champions League, Tottenham not only managed to reach the quarterfinals, but also put on very impressive winning performances against 2009-10 Champions League winners Inter Milan in the group stage, as well European giants AC Milan in the round of 16. And in the League, despite the rebirth of Liverpool under Kenny Dalglish, Tottenham were able to finish ahead of Liverpool for fifth place and the final Europa League spot.
But now, as transfer season begins to heat up and teams start looking for ways to improve their squads, the question is: What aspect of Tottenham's squad should Harry Redknapp and the board look to improve? What players should be brought in to take Tottenham to the next level next season, to put them in contention for a top-four finish and maybe even set them up for a shock run at the title?
The questions aren't very hard to answer. Tottenham already possess one of the most fearsome midfield lineups in the English Premier League, one loaded with talent and extensive depth.
Sandro has already put on many magnificent performances for Spurs, and at 22 years old still has a great deal of time and room for improvement. Luka Modric is being targeted by big spenders Chelsea and Premier League Champions Manchester United for his playmaking abilities, and van der Vaart has been reborn since his move from Real Madrid, scoring at will and terrorizing defenses on a weekly basis.
And that's just the tip of the iceberg; there's Bale, who was voted the PFA Players' Player of the Year, Lennon, whose speed can turn games around, as shown vs. AC Milan in the Champions League, Pienaar, Huddlestone, Kranjcar, Palacios and Jenas, all available and very capable of performing for Redknapp whenever they are called upon.
And that's without looking at the players returning from loan like David Bentley and Danny Rose. Looking at all these players, it's clear that the midfield is not where Tottenham's problems lie.
The same applies to the defense; all season long, Tottenham have shown that its defense, led by players like Gallas and Dawson, is mentally strong, gritty and capable of keeping out the most fearsome of strikers. This was exemplified in the two-leg Round of 16 matchup with AC Milan, where Tottenham managed to keep a clean sheet in both games.
So that leaves just one department left unaccounted for: the striking department. And it is in this department that Tottenham are greatly in need of improvement. One glance over the striking options available at Tottenham gives a clear explanation as to why Tottenham finished the season with a mediocre GS figure of 55, 17 less than fourth-place Arsenal and the lowest of any of the teams in the top six.
Defoe has struggled all season for form, and with just four league goals in 22 appearances, can't be expected to be a reliable scorer going forward. Crouch, amazingly, has been even worse, scoring four league goals in 29 appearances. Keane, once a consistent goal scorer for Tottenham, failed to score in seven appearances, and was quickly shipped off to West Ham, where still failed to perform as the team was relegated without much of a fight.
Only Pavlyuchenko was able to finish the 2010-2011 season with a respectable goal tally of 10 out 29 matches, but Pavlyuchenko is renowned for inconsistency, and usually isn't Redknapp's favorite striker.
Thus, taking this information into account, the following are the strikers linked to Tottenham who would provide the goals needed to treat Tottenham's goal-scoring woes, and turn them into legitimate contenders for a top-four finish in the upcoming season, if not for multiple seasons to come, ranked from one to five on how well they would fit in at Tottenham.
1. Didier Drogba
1 of 5
Age: 33
Club: Chelsea
Other Clubs Interested: AC Milan, Galatasaray, Manchester City
Stumbling Block: Lack of Champions League Football
Before you even started looking through this slideshow, you knew Didier Drogba was going to be here. How could he not be? He's everything Tottenham could need up front, or to be honest, everything any team could need up front. He's strong, fast, good with feet and his head and most importantly, a prolific goal scorer.
His struggles last season limited him to "only" 11 goals (more than any Tottenham striker), but that was largely due to Ancelotti constantly tinkering with his formation in an attempt to work Torres into the lineup, a project which inevitably failed.
At 33 and being a center forward, Drogba probably doesn't have too many years of top-level football left in him, but for the next season or two he should serve as a significant upgrade over Tottenham's current striking options should they choose to pursue him.
Although all the teams listed above have been linked with Drogba, neither Man City nor AC Milan are likely to pursue him strongly due to their depth up front, and it's unlikely that Drogba is ready to head to the retirement home that is Turkey yet, so Tottenham stand a good chance of acquiring him if they make him a major transfer target and negotiate seriously with Chelsea.
2. Emmanuel Adebayor
2 of 5Age: 27
Club: Manchester City
Other Clubs Interested: Blackburn Rovers, Real Madrid
Stumbling Block: Manchester City's Unwillingness To Sell to a Top-4 Rival
After rotting on the bench at Manchester City for half a season, Emmanuel Adebayor proved that he's still a very capable striker with eight goals in 22 games for Real Madrid, ironically the most impressive of them being his brace against Tottenham in the Champions League.
He's got many of the same traits that make Drogba a great striker: Adebayor is also a strong target man capable of scoring with both his feet and his head, and given the right atmosphere, also has the potential to be a prolific goal scorer (anyone remember the Adebayor of 2007-08?).
And unlike Drogba, Adebayor, at the age of 27, should still be in his prime for at least a couple more years, and thus could continue to be an important member of the Tottenham squad for years to come.
Despite a lack of interest in the striker, with Blackburn Rovers being the only club seriously pursuing Adebayor and Real Madrid refusing to meet Manchester City's relatively modest £14 million asking price, Tottenham have been unable to secure a deal for Adebayor, reportedly because Manchester City refuse to sell any of their players to top-four rival clubs.
However, if no other clubs decide to pursue Adebayor between now and the end of the summer and Adebayor refuses to move to Blackburn, it is possible that Manchester City will be forced to sell him to Tottenham. Unlikely, but possible.
3. Dimitar Berbatov
3 of 5
Age: 30
Club: Manchester United
Other Clubs Interested: Paris Saint-Germain
Stumbling Block: Manchester United's Pursuit of Luka Modric
I don't know how I originally left Dimitar Berbatov off this list. Although I personally believe that Drogba or Adebayor would fit better into the current Tottenham team than Berbatov (Berbatov has almost always functioned with a strike partner throughout his career, whereas Redknapp's Tottenham generally play with one striker/forward with VDV playing as a withdrawn second striker), there's no doubt that, having already played at Spurs with many members of the current squad, a return to Tottenham for Berbatov could potentially be very successful and no doubt would excite Spurs fans all over the world.
In two years at Tottenham, Berbatov scored 46 times in 102 appearances, and given how prolific he was this season (21 goals in only 20 starts), there's no reason why he can't return to Tottenham and give them the same output he gave them before he left.
The major stumbling block is that, like Chelsea, Manchester United are in hot pursuit of Luka Modric, and as of yet have only offered Berbatov in a player swap plus cash for Modric. Thus far, Redknapp doesn't seem very kean on this (with good reason), and so it remains to be seen if Redknapp will buckle and take the player plus cash or if he'll be able to make Modric unavailable and negotiate a separate deal for Berbatov.
4. Leandro Damiao
4 of 5
Age: 21
Club: Internacional
Other Clubs Interested: Chelsea, Arsenal, others
Stumbling Block: No Major Ones
Likely to be much more unknown than the other strikers on this list, Leandro Damiao is actually the striker closest to be signed by Tottenham, and while he may be the fourth member of this list, he still represents a fine solution to Totteham's scoring woes, having scored 29 goals in 49 appearances for Internacional over the last two years (18 in 16 over the last season).
After signing Sandro from Internacional, Tottenham have decided to go back and try to sign another huge talent from the team, and it seems like with their most recent bid of £12 million, they are on the verge of succeeding.
Seeing as another Bleacher Report article already goes in depth on the possibility of Damiao signing for Spurs and how he would fit in at Tottenham, I won't regurgitate what's already been written, especially since most of my points about Damiao line up with the points made in the article. The article mistakenly claims Damiao has played only one season with Internacional, when he has in fact played two, but otherwise is spot on in its analysis of the player.
5. Daniel Sturridge
5 of 5
Age: 21
Club: Chelsea
Other Clubs Interested: Bolton Wanderers, Aston Villa, Liverpool
Stumbling Block: £20m Price Tag
After scoring eight goals in 12 games while at Bolton, Daniel Sturridge's value has shot up, and he's currently leading the attack for the England U-21s at the European U-21 Championship.
However, despite his rapid development and increased value, it seems unlikely that he'll fit in at Chelsea, considering he still has Drogba, Anelka and Torres ahead of him, and considering the fact that Chelsea continue to chase Neymar (although he looks almost certain to join Real Madrid when he leaves Santos).
Add in the fact that Daniel Sturridge has repeatedly made clear his need for consistent first-team football, and it seems almost certain that he'll leave Chelsea.
However, the problem with Sturridge is that his price tag is enormously inflated. Although Sturridge has the potential to be a great striker, eight goals in 12 games for a mid-table team does not mean he deserves the price tag of a great striker yet.
Redknapp has always been a manager who signs players for cheap (VDV came in for £8 million, Gallas came in on a free transfer), and so it would be very unlike him to splash £20 million on the still not-fully-proven Sturridge.
It is also debatable whether Redknapp would trust Sturridge at his young age to lead the Tottenham attack ahead of Crouch, Pavlyuchenko and Defoe (assuming they stay), and if he isn't willing to do so, then Sturridge may not be in favor of the move either.
So, what do you think? Which striker on this list would you most like to see playing for Tottenham next season? Is there a striker not mentioned on this list that you think Tottenham should go for? Or do you think maybe Tottenham should just stick with what they have? Feel free to share your opinions and thoughts in the comments section below, I look forward to reading them and possibly debating them with you.
