A whole new defence for Spurs as Juande Ramos rings the January changes.
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Chris Gunter, Jonathan Woodgate, Gilberto and Alan Hutton sign for Tottenham Hotpsur in January 2008
Spurs fans can be forgiven for never believing a word that comes out of chairman Daniel Levy's mouth these days especially in formal PR announcements to the club through their official website. In August they were told that the squad they had assembled (including £40 million of new talent over the summer) was more than good enough for fourth place in the Premier League and when results led to the departure of Martin Jol and the squad looked far from fourth place material (barely fourth bottom never minn fourth from top), Levy again spoke out to tell fans to expect a quiet January with little player transfers planned. Just the four new signings then Daniel including a Welsh international fullback, Scotland's international rightback, Brazil's international leftback and a former Real Madrid England international centreback. Quiet indeed.
The fact that the new coaching staff have spotted that Spurs are defensively a tad weak without the composure and steel of Ledley King should be obvious to anyone who has watched the club over the past six months at least. Now if skipper King can stay fit and partner Woodgate at centreback (a player much maligned as injury prone but who played more games than Ledley King, John Terry and William Gallas last season) and Alan Hutton and Gilberto slot into the system Ramos is building, we could see Spurs actually make something of the remainder of their season. A top four league finish is far beyond them given their start but the quality of the January reinforcements shows the dedication of the Spurs board to backing their new head coach. Now all they have to do is stop lying blatantly to the fans. (And win the Carling Cup!)
The fact that the new coaching staff have spotted that Spurs are defensively a tad weak without the composure and steel of Ledley King should be obvious to anyone who has watched the club over the past six months at least. Now if skipper King can stay fit and partner Woodgate at centreback (a player much maligned as injury prone but who played more games than Ledley King, John Terry and William Gallas last season) and Alan Hutton and Gilberto slot into the system Ramos is building, we could see Spurs actually make something of the remainder of their season. A top four league finish is far beyond them given their start but the quality of the January reinforcements shows the dedication of the Spurs board to backing their new head coach. Now all they have to do is stop lying blatantly to the fans. (And win the Carling Cup!)