Tottenham Hotspur: Better or Worse off After Transfer Window?

As Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp drove out of the Spurs Lodge training ground on Wednesday night with the clock still counting down to the transfer deadline, he did not look best pleased. He tried his best to spin the positives from the club's summer transfer business, namely keeping hold of Luka Modric and bringing in Scott Parker, but the disappointment at missing out on Bolton Wanderers defender Gary Cahill was plain to see.

But when the dust settles on this hectic if not stellar deadline day, can Spurs fans look back the club's moves in the market and feel that their squad is better than it was at the end of last season?

The shadow of Chelsea's interest in Modric loomed large over White Hart Lane all summer long. While chairman Daniel Levy remained staunch in his defiance of his club's London rivals, Redknapp gradually softened his position, opining openly about what he could do with the money raised from the sale of the Croatian playmaker. But, despite a reported £40 million bid being lodged by the Blues the day before the deadline, Redknapp was denied that cash to spend. 

Instead, he will have to content himself with thoughts of how to spend the £31 million booty raised from the sales of Peter Crouch, Wilson Palacios, Jamie O'Hara, Robbie Keane and Alan Hutton in January, not to mention the money saved from the players pruned from the club's wage bill. And, of course, he has major new additions in Parker and Emmanuel Adebayor who he can look forward to unleashing at Wolves on September 10 along with preseason recruit Brad Friedel.

Parker may be 30 years old, but the reigning Football Writer's Footballer of the Year will bring some drive and bite into the midfield while also punching his weight with his more technically-accomplished new teammates on their terms. That is what was expected of Palacios when he signed from Wigan Athletic for £12 million in January 2009, but while he had his fair share of moments–his towering performances in a 0-0 draw against Arsenal and the 1-0 Champions League win in Milan spring to mind—the Honduras international never fully delivered. How much that had to do with the tragic kidnap and murder of his brother, Edwin, would be both conjecture and in bad taste, but perhaps a change of scene is just what the 27-year-old needs to reignite his career. Still, replacing him with Parker for a meagre £5 million (making for a £3 million profit for Spurs) is, in isolation, good business.

Joining Palacios at Stoke is Crouch. The Potters were happy to pay £10 million for a 30-year-old striker with little or no sell-on value who scored just 12 Premier League goals in two years at Spurs. In Adebayor, Tottenham have a striker who is younger, stronger and has proven himself to be a devastating forward when his heart is in his work. While the portion of the Togolese's wages Spurs are paying may be more than they would have liked, if Redknapp can get the best out of a man Manchester City paid £25 million for just two years ago and Real Madrid were willing to take on loan then he should see a far better goal return than Crouch offered.

The other major addition for Spurs also cost nothing in fees. Friedel arrived from Aston Villa having not missed a Premier League fixture since May 2004 and immediately deposed the erratic Heurelho Gomes in goal. The American veteran keeper has not had the most auspicious start to his Tottenham career, picking the ball out of his net a total of eight times in defeats to Manchester United and Manchester City. Still, it is a fair bet that the 40-year-old will continue to extend his run of 268 consecutive league appearances as long as his body is in shape and he has clear culpability for too many goals.

With trade-ups in goal, central midfield and attack, the only gap in Spurs' spinal transplant is at center back. Hence the belated move for Cahill, the man who had seemed destined to be the solution to all of Arsenal's defensive problems. Arsene Wenger sold Samir Nasri to Man City for £24 million this summer despite the midfielder having just one year left on his contract, but when the boot was on the other foot the Gunners' boss kept his feet firmly on the ground, and his £6 million offer to Bolton for their star defender was dismissed out of hand.

Ever the man and the club to sniff out a late opportunity, Redknapp and Spurs stole in with 12 hours to go, but the two sides could not meet in the middle over their valuations of Cahill. Tottenham still have Michael Dawson to marshal the back four but with Ledley King constantly injured, William Gallas gradually heading that way, Sebastien Bassong unwanted at the club and Jonathan Woodgate released to join Stoke, Cahill would have undoubtedly been a useful and necessary addition and an improvement on Younes Kaboul.

With youngsters Souleymane Coulibaly, Cristian Ceballos and Iago Falque completing the list of Spurs' summer additions for next to nothing, the club's spending may please their accountants but will not inspire too many cartwheels from their fans.

Neither will the majority of the players farmed out on loan be missed by too many supporters, although Jermaine Jenas and even David Bentley have still proven themselves useful on occasion despite their apparent unpopularity. Both will be playing in claret-and-blue for the rest of the season, at Aston Villa and West Ham, respectively.

As well as holding on to Modric, another bonus for Tottenham is one which has gone almost without mention. When Gareth Bale was on the blistering run of form at home and abroad in 2010 which won him the PFA Player of the Year award, it seemed inevitable that it would be the Welshman courting all the attention from Europe's biggest clubs. One newspaper even declared with supreme confidence that Inter Milan, the team which suffered most at Bale's hand, would mount a £40 million bid this summer. Such interest either did not transpire or Levy's refusal was pre-emptive in the winger's case rather than reactive in the more unexpected situation with Modric. Either way, the 22-year-old remains very much a Spurs player.

The net result is that Tottenham has improved several key areas this summer, trimmed much of the fat and given plenty of their young players chances to impress elsewhere, but they have hardly taken a significant step toward closing the gap on the top four they were part of not so long ago. No club with designs on securing Champions League football can afford to stand still over the course of a summer, but Spurs came dangerously close to doing just that this year. 

Tottenham's summer 2011 transfer dealings:

In

Brad Friedel (Aston Villa, free)

Souleymane Coulibaly (Siena, undisclosed)

Cristian Ceballos (Unattached, free)

Emmanuel Adebayor (Manchester City, loan)

Iago Falque (Juventus, loan)

Scott Parker (West Ham, £5 million)

Out

Robbie Keane (LA Galaxy, £3.5 million)

Jonathan Woodgate (released)

Jamie O'Hara (Wolves, £5 million)

Steven Caulker (Swansea, loan)

Bongani Khumalo (Reading, loan)

Paul-Jose Mpoku (Standard Liege, undisclosed)

Nathan Byrne (Bournemouth, loan)

Ryan Mason (Doncaster Rovers, loan)

Jonathan Obika (Yeovil, loan)

Kyle Naughton (Norwich, loan)

David Bentley (West Ham, loan)

Wilson Palacios (Stoke, £8 million)

Peter Crouch (Stoke, £10 million)

Alan Hutton (Aston Villa, £4 million)

Jermaine Jenas (Aston Villa, loan)