No Room At The Inn

By Deep Blue
August 24 2005

ITK rumours started in the summer that we were in the hunt for Jenas. This was shortly followed by murmurs of discontent amongst the Spurs community. Stronger reports picked up by the press, elaborated on the deal, a £10million deal was mooted followed by reports of a cash plus player deal.

“sorry no room at the inn, I don’t care if he is the messiah…”

“we don’t need anymore midfielders, we have enough..” was a common complaint, “he is good but not worth that much..” was another. Less frequent were those upset at the prospect of losing the players mentioned as make weights. The mood amongst the fans that the money offered for Jeans could be better spent elsewhere. This was exacerbated by the clamour for us to sign the highly rated Kuyt (the most recent of the “must have” Parker’s and MVB’s that the fans desperately want and endlessly debate) and the rumours that Jol didn’t want him and that it was a “Levy signing”.

I’m sorry, but did I miss something? When did we suddenly become a club that doesn’t want to sign a 22 year old England international, who has captained the England U21’s and has always been hotly tipped for greatness? Yes his form was on off last year, but he was playing in a poor Newcastle side, who struggled from internal and external troubles with a manager who has always struggled to get the best out of his players. This is someone, at the age of 22 has played in the Champions League, Internationally and under Bobby Robson a team that competed at the highest level in the Premiership. Until lacklustre form under Souness and talks of him wanting to leave, the Toon faithful rained praise down on him, pointing out his maturity beyond his years and leadership qualities and skills on the ball, which have now, at Newcastle, been coupled with experience at the highest level.

“He can even pose for England..”

Has his stock fallen that greatly that we can just turn our noses up at the prospect of getting him because we already have the likes of Brown, Mendes and Davis already at the club? These are good players yes; Brown helped the club when we were struggling to find some who could actually be tenacious in midfield. He is “cheap as chips” and he will always give 110% but will always be limited in his talent (an 80% Jenas is of more worth imo). Davis looked the long term solution to our midfield woes, “our Gerrard”, when he arrived. 4 games later he was on the treatment table, I won’t judge him on his poor form on his return at the end of the season, but on his injury record to date. This is a player who I have serious doubts will ever play regularly for any club, he may have potential, but that wont be realised in a stop start career. You can’t build a squad around a player who rarely plays. Mendes, out of three, is my favourite. A tidy player and passer of the ball, he has experience and is a reliable and consistent performer. He will be nothing more than this though and although I would love to see him kept as a squad player I think he would have other plans. I would happily see all three leave if that was required to make space for Jenas.

With the squad the way it is and because of the transfer policy that has operated over the past 2 years, we are now in a position where we no longer need to bring in “good players”, we are beyond that. We can now be picky and only players who are quality or a hot prospect are required. We are not desperately weak or short in any area of our squad (debatably LB, LM, RB and a target man for total cover), not in a way that requires us to settle for anything less than the best when we do bring someone in. The (sensible) club policy appears to be that when a player of high quality becomes available when normally we would struggle to get him or afford him, we should pick them up. Despite whether or not we are covered in that position already or not, if this is an opportunity to bring in a player who would normally be out of reach we should take the opportunity and worry about culling back the excess later. The Jeans transfer fits into this category.

Defoe is an example of this policy in practice, news that we have spent a “massive” £6 ish million pounds (plus Zamora) was meted by similar grumbles. We already had a full compliment of 4 strikers and didn’t really need to add to this area of the squad, we should spend that money on the midfield… foolish words it seems now, but I feel this is a case of history repeating itself.

“..this signing will make both our careers at Spurs…”

Players of this quality need to snapped up when they become available, not when we need them and despite the apparent need to spend in other areas of the pitch. The value of such a policy is not always immediate but, in time, almost always large. Bring Jenas in now, when we don’t particularly feel we need him and the pressure will be off him to perform, he will benefit from this, as he will training alongside the likes of Davids. Playing and training with a young squad, with a large English core and a easy going atmosphere under Jol, will ease the “goldfish bowl” felling he gets up North in the much thinner squad. There are plenty of other bright young things to draw the media’s attention and in this atmosphere I think we will see him thrive, hopefully reaching the potential that was being smothered at Newcastle.

The transfer could go two ways, he could come in, develop and learn and become the natural successor to Davids in the Tottenham midfield (by then, hopefully part of an English backbone consisting of Robo, Dawson, King, Carrick, Routeledge and Defoe) in two years time. A box to box, energetic and pacey midfielder, with strong leadership qualities, by then with a firm understanding of his core team mates and of the managers tactics. Still only 25, but an England squad regular, with 8 years of first team football league experience (starting at Nottingham Forrest) and European experience. What price for a player like that then? To me he could be, long term a key player, despite not being so now.

The other way the transfer could go is that he becomes an expensive bench warmer, who fails to live up to the promise of his early career and doesn’t develop at the club or force his way in to first team selection. No problem either, he would still, undoubtedly be an England squad regular and even in the event of that not being the case at 25 he will always have the chance to force his was back in the eyes of prospective buyers. Yes buyers, we could easily sell him on down the line if things don’t work out and we are unlikely to lose money (even the £8-10 million suggested) on the player as we would not be desperate to sell and could only do so at the right place. They may not be many suitors now, but there will always be someone who will take a gamble on a 25 with that many caps and reputation. Look at how we sold Davies to Everton, mainly based on his form of 2-3 years ago.

“Jenas -Unlikely to be seen in a Newcastle shirt again…”

This for me is a no brainier signing and I am surprised at the opposition to it amongst the fans. This, if anything is a more or less risk free investment and despite claims otherwise will not effect the amount we are prepared to spend on others (Kuyt the main example) it is rarely as simple as a big pot that you have to share out amongst signings. If kuyt is as good as fans claim he is and the board are equally convinced, we will find the money, Jenas or not. As for Jol not wanting him, that is ridiculous, every manager wants quality players and Jenas is in this category. Jol may not desperately want him (despite publicly lauding his talents) but he certainly welcome him as an addition to the squad and most likely a key one, especially in time

The fact that Newcastle are prepared to offload him, for the right place, has nothing to do with the players talents. They are aware that he wishes to leave and quite frankly, with the loss of income from not being in Europe, need the cash to fund other areas of the pitch. I have no doubt they will regret this when a new, more competent manager takes over, in probably the not to near future (all the more reason to snap him up now), when the squad will be reassessed.

As for kuyt……