Oh come all ye faithful
January is nearly only a month away, so like love, transfer talk is all around us.
The word on the street is that Spurs are prepared to overlook his poor form and bid on Luis Boa Morte. I can’t help thinking this is wishful thinking our end, but if they really think he’s lost interest rather than pace, perhaps Spurs will do this. The word is £5 million plus Routledge, which is superb if it’s true; I’d probably deal them straight up given wages and contract commitments.
People are saying that Boa has lost interest at Fulham, but you’d hope that when the game starts he’d show some passion. He makes a few tackles and runs around a fair bit, but seems to spend as much time whining with his arms held wide as playing football, and it’s not right. So if Spurs want him, let him go and let’s move on.
This transfer window is as big a window as we’ll see I think. Bigger than this:
Seriously. With the money coming into the Premiership next season, the time is right to spend now and worry later. This would be careless most years, but now is not the time to get relegated. And if we think we’re safe now, consider how Geoffrey Boycott might frame things: take six points off the total and where are you? There’s no reason to do this, I made it up because it’s like his ‘take two wickets off’ mantra, but with Reading, Arsenal, Blackburn and Liverpool coming up things could get tricky before you can say ‘David Blaine’.
What this also means is that the clubs striving for promotion are unlikely to risk selling key players for anything less than top dollar. So if we want David Nugent we’ll have to pay for him - Preston are joint top of the Championship and can already sniff the moolah. Possibly.
In other news, Chris Coleman says that we will be going at Reading from the off this Saturday. He’ll also be rethinking his team selection, which probably means 4-4-2 and a recall for hattrick hero Collins John. The defence will presumably remain as is (although I might rest Pearce before too long), so that means a four man midfield of Brown, Diop, Boa and I hope Routledge. This would give two defensive midfielders and two wingers, who would be expected to serve the forwards with passes that are somewhat lower in trajectory than the ones Brian McBride has been craning his neck at all season. We can but hope. That team lacks a Jensen, which I’m not sure about, but it’s what I’d do. We shall see, but in some ways it’s a pivotal game for this team, which has got some points on the board, but done so somewhat unconvincingly.
