With the Summer transfer merry-go-round nearly upon us, and the red tops already going into overdrive, it’s the time of year where we, as fans, think about what players we’d like to see join our club.

After a couple of seasons with very high player turnover (April 08 – March 09: 14 players in, April 07 – March 08: 11 players in), my hope is that we finally “do an Everton” and stick, largely, with what we’ve got.

As I suggested in an earlier article, one of my concerns with Harry Redknapp being our manager is his reputation as a tinker-man. He showed in January what he’s capable of, bringing in 5 “new” faces and getting shot of 8. I’m hopeful that that’ll be the majority of his transfer dealings for the year.

My reasons for not wanting change are three-fold:

1. I think we already have the 6th or 7th best squad in the PL, and I am happy for year-on-year improvements.
2. I think a consistent approach – like Everton, or Wigan, or even Arsenal/Man Utd is the only way that we are going to get close to Champions League qualification.
3. History shows us that multiple changes can do more harm than good.

Harry has said recently that he’ll be targeting more established players (“The players that I have in mind are playing very well and are in their prime”), and according to a lot of the speculation on various forums, he has identified Sulley Muntari (Inter Milam), Roque Santa Cruz (Blackburn Rovers), and Matthew Upson (West Ham United) as his three key targets.

Personally I would like for us to make minimal changes:

• Central midfield – some competition for Jenas and Palacios. My choice would be Manchester City’s Michael Johnson – a technically gifted player who has had some “off the field problems”, but will be a future star in my opinion.
• A left-sided midfield player if Harry doesn’t fancy Bale there (although personally I’d be happy with Bale as Modric’s back-up, particularly after his excellent showing against Everton)
• And a left back to compete with Assou-Ekotto (Warnock?).

Clearly Bent would need to be replaced if, as expected, he moves on and, if that were the case, I’d like us to try to snatch Jô from under Everton’s noses. He would give us the physical presence that we do tend to lack at times, and also has a decent scoring record since being in a settled side

I for one hope that Harry opts for stability over another transitional Summer.

Now that we’re at the end of the season, I’d like to round up the performances of our loanees.

Anthony Gardner joined Hull on loan, but the move was made permanent before he could play a game. Unfortunately for him, his injury curse has struck again.

Leigh Mills went to Gillingham on loan, where he played 7 games. However, he was released from Spurs in February and, as yet, hasn’t found a new club. Rumour has it that he has given up playing.

Charlie Daniels went to Gillingham for a month, where he scored once in 5 games started. He was then signed permanently by Leyton Orient, whom he played for on loan in 2007/8. He’s started 21 games for them.

Tomas Pekhart initially joined Southampton on loan, but failed to make an impact, starting 2 games and making 8 sub appearances, scoring once. He has since joined Slavia Prague on loan – their season is still ongoing.

Jake Livermore had an unfortunate season, having initially been sent to Crewe for the whole year. He suffered a broken leg in pre-season, and returned to Spurs, where he has now recovered and has been playing reserve team football.

Simon Dawkins started 4 games and made 10 sub appearances for Leyton Orient, scoring 1 goal in the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy. He returned to Spurs in January, and has since made a few appearances for the reserves. I imagine that he’ll be released at the end of the season.

David Button has had a bit of a mixed time, spending time at Grays Athletic, where he made 16 starts, Bournemouth, where he made 4 starts and had a bit of a nightmare, Luton, where he was an unused sub, and finally Dagenham & Redbridge, where he made 3 starts.

Lee Butcher went to Margate, where he played a handful of times, before eventually spending a month at Grays to end the season, playing 3 games.

Andy Barcham went to Gillingham, initally on loan. He made 13 appearances, usually as a left winger, scoring 3 times. He eventually joined them permanently, and has made a total of 38 appearances for them, with 9 goals and 5 assists, helping them to a play-off place.

Ben Alnwick made 6 appearances for Carlisle on loan, before coming back and being a regular for our reserves. Surely another player who will move on at the end of the season – a poor signing.

Troy Archibald-Henville has had a very mixed season. Not making a single appearance in his loan spell at Norwich, it was decided that he’d come back to Spurs. He then went to Exeter, for whom he made 19 starts, helping them to promotion to League One. I would think that there is a fair chance that they will sign him permanently or take him on loan next year.

Kevin-Prince Boateng joined Borussia Dortmund on loan for the rest of the season back in January and, according to Dortmund, they have an option to buy him. I believe he has so far made 7 appearances for them. Let’s hope we’ve seen the last of him at Spurs…

Dorian Dervite has been one of the biggest successes of our loanees. He joined Southend until the end of the season at the end of January, and has made 19 starts. He was one of their outstanding players throughout his spell, and I’m sure they’d love to take him permanently.

Kyle Fraser-Allen spent a month on loan at Macclesfield, making two sub appearances. He came back and played a few games for the reserves, but is another player that I imagine will move on come the end of the season.

At the beginning of March, Danny Hutchins joined Yeovil Town on a one-month loan deal, having been told that his Tottenham contract wouldn’t be renewed. He made 8 starts, and 1 sub appearance, mainly playing at right-back. He had a number of impressive displays, and supposedly Yeovil want to sign him.

Chris Gunter played 8 games for Nottingham Forest, hitting some good form. He is a player that they’d like to take permanently, but I can’t see us wanting to let him go just yet. Perhaps another loan next year will follow.

Adel Taarabt made 5 starts and 2 sub appearances for QPR, scoring once. He has been quoted as saying that QPR have made a bid for him, and that he’d like to move on in search of first team football.

Giovani Dos Santos impressed at Ipswich Town, making 6 starts and 2 sub appearances, netting 4 goals (I think 2 were penalties).

Young Jon Obika and Andros Townsend joined up with Hutchins at Yeovil Town and both made their league debuts. Both made 10 starts, with winger Townsend scoring 1 and striker Obika getting 4 goals and an assist.

Danny Rose got 3 starts and 4 sub appearances at Watford, playing in the middle of midfield, and on the left. He scored a spectacular own goal in this time, and also managed to miss a chance from two yards. However, his stint improved as it went along, and I think he’s a player they will have their eye on this Summer.

David Hutton joined Cheltenham Town, having been told that his Tottenham contract wouldn’t be renewed. He started off with two sub appearances, but soon impressed, and got 5 starts, scoring once and getting an assist. It seems he may have done enough to win himself a contract.

Yuri Berchiche joined Cheltenham Town with Hutton, and made 7 starts at left back. He is another player that I could see leaving us.

A sunny morning brought out a decent crowd at Spurs Lodge on Saturday morning, a crowd including Michael Dawson (in training gear and walking freely) and Tim Sherwood.

Arriving slightly too late to get a team-sheet, we were pleased that there were only two players who we’d not seen before – the fairly recognisable Coskun Ekim (or Josh, as the other players call him), and Harry Kane. Spurs lined up in a slightly unfamiliar formation – the usual 4-4-1-1 adapted, with Mason playing just off a front two of Byrne and Kane. The three central midfielders often interchanged, but largely lined up with Parrett to the right, Kasim to the left, and Ekim central.

Substitutes: Nicholson (16), Carroll (16), Fredericks (? U16)

The opening of the game was incredibly frantic, with a couple of chances at both ends and neither team really able to gain a foothold. Spurs were playing the better football, but largely outside the box. West Ham had a great chance at the back post, before Mason started finding space, and had a couple of efforts on goal.

As the half went on, it was clear that the formation did not really suit Spurs – the midfield players weren’t sure who was holding and who was breaking forward. Ekim made a couple of bad challenges, the second of which lead to the referee brandishing a yellow card. Players were getting frustrated with each other, and it was particularly clear that they wanted Kasim to release the ball earlier. The highlight of the half was Mason hitting the crossbar with a volley from inside the box.

As suspected, Ekim didn’t reappear in the second half, with his replacement, Jake Nicholson, playing at left back. This meant that Cox played the holding midfield role, Kasim went to the left, Byrne to the right, and Mason played just off U-16 striker Harry Kane.

I think it’s fair to say that things haven’t yet worked out at Spurs for David Bentley.

He came into a team that slumped massively and could barely string three passes together. Given that possession football is one of the main strengths of his game, it didn’t bode well. Not only this, but he was frequently asked to play in an unfamiliar role.

Fans soon got on his back for not creating enough (I’m sure his price tag didn’t help) and were groaning and sighing at any mistake, and at any opportunity to use his tricks to beat a man. His confidence was sapped and he looked like a broken man for weeks.

A few weeks after Harry Redknapp arrived, he bawled Bentley out for a lack of effort. Bentley came back with a better defensive attitude and worked visibly harder to track back and help the team, even using his physical presence more; he challenged and even won more headers than the rest of our midfield in that brief period.

Since then, he has hardly been seen, mainly thanks to the good form of Luka Modric and Aaron Lennon in the wide roles. Clearly he hasn’t played to the levels that he has previously shown at Blackburn and Norwich, but I think (and hope) that there is more to come.

I think there are three main issues to consider:

1. The story so far
2. The Bentley “ego”
3. Where he goes from here

The story so far

£16m is an awful lot of money. However, I tend to think that people worry too much about transfer fees. As long as the money we spend is sustainable, I try not to think twice about it and, I think that if the papers weren’t constantly highlighting our spending, then others wouldn’t either. I don’t like to use price tags against players – whether we’d spend £1m or £16m on him, I’d still be writing this.

It’s worth noting that David Bentley is not a Spurs fan, and has never said he is. What he did say was “Coming to this club means the world to me. Spurs is the first club I watched as a kid and Gazza was my favourite player. All my mates are Tottenham fans and season ticket holders, so there’s a piece of my heart at this club.” Some journalists and fans have thrown the line “he’s meant to be a Spurs fan, and yet he shows no passion” at him, so I think it’s important to set this straight.

Bentley has been greatly criticised by Spurs fans for his poor set pieces in a lilywhite shirt, and I can understand why. However, I don’t think his set pieces have been any more or less consistent than any of our other players’. One reason for this is that, in general, the rest of our team are not particularly good at attacking the ball in the opposition box. A prime example of this is Dawson, who is one of the best around in the air from a defensive viewpoint, but doesn’t score enough headed goals. At Blackburn Rovers he had better targets from set pieces – Santa Cruz and McCarthy obviously, but also Samba, Nelson, Ooijer, Emerton, etc.

The other factor is that you or I would concentrate on just floating the ball into the right general area; naturally it would be very difficult for a player meeting a cross like that to do anything with it. The “fashionable” corners and free kicks at the moment tend to be those fired in really flat and low, curling towards the back post. The margin for error with these is tiny, and I’m sure that, with Bentley, it’s a confidence issue. When he was in good form at Blackburn he was whipping in a good ball 7 or 8 out of 10 times, as opposed to the 2 or 3 out of 10 now.

When we analyse Bentley’s performances so far, I think it is vital to appreciate that he came into a struggling side. If we had bought Ashley Young instead of Bentley, and Aston Villa had bought Bentley instead of Young, I would speculate that Bentley would now be in the England squad (see Milner) and Young would be struggling for form. The talent of the two players is not too different – in my opinion it’s all about the bigger picture. Villa (at the start of the season) were a well drilled, organised, stable unit, who didn’t use too many players and played unspectacular but efficient football. Tottenham (also at the start of the season) were a poorly drilled, disorganised “unit”, who changed the manager and players too often to build relationships and/or a framework for attacking players to work within. Not really a situation where a “confidence” player was likely to thrive.

The Bentley “ego”

I have no idea what David Bentley is like as a person, but when I see him trying flicks, drag backs and other pieces of skill, I see it as trying to beat a man or get into a better position to play a pass – not as him trying to showboat to please his over-inflated ego. Not having much pace means that he has to use his technical ability to beat players.

I think people criticise him an awful lot for “showboating” and then also criticise him for a lack of acceleration. If you don’t have acceleration, you need a trick or two to work a yard for a pass or a cross. This, in my opinion, is why Bentley uses so many step-overs and Cruyff turns, and they are a necessary part of his game.

Where he goes from here

Bentley is a very good footballer. He is a technical player, with a neat first touch and, when on form and high in confidence, a very good delivery into the box – from a standing start or on the move. He doesn’t have Lennon’s acceleration, and never will have, but he clearly strikes the ball much more cleanly than Lennon, and tends to score more goals.

For the majority of his time at Blackburn Rovers, Bentley had Roque Santa Cruz and Benni McCarthy (as mentioned earlier) to aim his crosses at – both excellent at attacking crosses. At Spurs, he has had Pavlychunko and occasionally a midfield runner. It’s not easy. However, I think to Pavlyuchenko’s goal in the home win against Bolton – getting on the end of a superb Bentley cross – and I hope to see a lot more of that next season.

I still have a lot of faith in him, and think that, in a more successful Spurs team, with tails up, he will be an important squad player.

As of 14/04/09, David Bentley has made 29 starts and 10 substitute appearances for Spurs in all competitions, scoring 2 goals, with 3 assists. (ESPN)