Another year, another bandwagon for Spurs to make it into Europe or even break into the elite. But while there are signs of progress, it wouldn't be Spurs without their seemingly repeating their mistakes. So for every good signing like Palacios, who gives them a real presence in midfield, there is a head-scratcher like Naughton. Do they really need another right-sided player with Lennon, Bentley, Hutton and Chimbonda already on the books? Especially when their left side consists of a converted central middie in Modric in attack, Assou-Ekotto in defence, with O'Hara and the shell of Gareth Bale as cover for both. They've no cover at center back so they go and buy Bassong, which seems like a smart move. But until then they'd been busy re-creating all the old tensions amongst their strikers buy re-purchasing Defoe and Crouch from Pompey.
Putting aside the intra-personal involved, Spurs should be able to run out a decent side. Modric should be settled into the league and can build on his successful latter part of last season. The same should be true of Gomes. There aren't many fantasy bargains in the side unless O'Hara can break into the team (Jenas goes to Everton or Villa or Inter - Inter!!?! - and Modric moves infield?) or Bassong gets an extended run due to others Woodgate's injuries or King's general state of decrepitude (shame that, really). The fear for fantasy managers is 1) rotation - with so many players concentrated in a few areas there's bound to be some, and 2) that the tensions between players and between players and the club will boil over and affect play on the pitch.
It's never dull at Spurs, that's for sure.
Possible Starting XI: Gomes, Hutton, Woodgate, King, Assou-Ekotto, Lennon, Palacios, Jenas, Modric, Crouch, Defoe
Players to Watch:
Peter Crouch: What to make of the striker situation at Spurs? Seems like a familiar refrain doesn't it? Unless I missed a transfer somewhere in there the roster currently consists of Crouch, Defoe, Robbie Keane, and Pavylchenko and 'arry is still making noises about adding more (Huntelaar seems to be mentioned a lot). Given that Redknapp really likes the "big/small" thing you'd have to think that Crouch would get the bulk of the starts as the world's worst really tall "big" striker (don't get me wrong, he's not a bad striker, he just acts more like a really tall small striker than a center forward). At the end of the day, my guess is that Crouch will be closer to what he was at Pompey (a slightly better-than-average producer who plays every match he's healthy) than what he was at Liverpool (adequate performer hampered by sporadic minutes). The only reason for any hope might be that there's at least some chance that he'll get better service playing for a more talented Spurs team this season. That said, last time he played for a more talented team he was deemed insufficient to get the job done so I'm not sure that we should be getting our hopes up that he'll be a value pick at 9.52.
Luka Modric: He appears to be a classic case of a talented player who took some time to adjust to England. Of course it didn't help that Spurs were a train wreck for the first half of the season and Magic Juande didn't seem to have any idea where to play the players that he acquired/were acquired for him. If you look at Modric's graph, the second half of the season was much more impressive than the first half. He wasn't a 10 point/match guy even over the 2nd half of the season but he is probably a solid bet for 8 points/match (think 4, 7, 14 as a typical three match stretch). At a cost of 8.76 you could definitely do worse.
Kyle Naughton: So, once again Spurs are a mess in the back going into a new season. Surprise, surprise, surprise King and Woody aren't exactly the pictures of health and Dawson joins them on the training room table. Why am I talking central defenders in a paragraph about a young wing defender? Well, the lack of experienced and healthy central defenders leads me to believe that a) Spurs will play their most experienced defenders where they have them (meaning Hutton is likely to start on the right); and b) there won't be a lot of clean sheets available for whomever is playing at the back as the makeshift defence struggles. I can't say I have much of an evaluation of Naughton as a player but my take on his fantasy value is similar to that of Gareth Bale last year - he probably has the potential to deliver fantasy results but is unlikely to be given the opportunity on a regular basis and unlike Bale he isn't going to move forward and play right midfield with Lennon and Bentley currently in front of him in that pecking order. One to watch for later in the season but probably not worth your time until Spurs get the heart of the defence figured out. NOTE: Somewhere a lot of Spurs fans simultaneously asked "When the hell is that going to be? We've been waiting for years!"
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