Scouting Potential Tottenham Signings: Alvaro Negredo

Tottenham has a striker problem, that much is as certain as the sun rising. I am also certain a minority of fans are happy with the two starting strikers, Emmanuel Adebayor and Jermain Defoe. However, Andre Villas-Boas and many supporters are clamoring for a new striker to fit into what should be a 4-3-3 formation.

July 1^st is the official opening of the summer transfer window and an exciting time indeed. Many teams have already begun making big moves including Bayern Munich’s buyout of Mario Gotze, Manchester City swooping in to alleviate Shakhtar of their powerful midfielder Fernadinho and of course Neymar. On the other hand, Fulham’s Craven Cottage is home to new guests at a comparatively lower price. With the official window opening in a few days of writing this, we will look through twelve strikers linked to Tottenham , now and back in January as we breakdown each player. The statistics were collected from various sites including their respective league pages, ESPNFC, and WhoScored.com. Furthermore the market value attached is a combination of transfermarkt.com and reports from newspapers and Club Presidents.

NAME: Alvaro Negredo Sanchez

AGE: 27 (By August 17, 2013)

HEIGHT: 6’1

WEIGHT: 175 lbs

FOOT: Left

NATIONALITY: Spanish

CURRENT CLUB: Sevilla F.C.

LEAGUE APPEARANCES: 34 (2)

GOALS: 25

WHOSCORED.COM LEAGUE RATING: 7.3

WHOSCORED EUROPEAN RATING: N/A

VALUE: 20 Million Euros

Rumours linking the Sevilla man to Tottenham have cooled over the past few months. Recently, West Ham launched an audacious bid of 14.5 Million Euros for the left-footed striker. Sevilla and Negredo both rejected the bid denying West Ham an able striker to partner with former Liverpool man Andy Carroll.

In a recent interview Negredo stated he was only looking for a transfer to a club involved in Champions League Football. Tottenham’s heartbreaking season ended with their highest point total but also missing out on Champions League Football and therefore seemingly missing out on Negredo. However anything can happen in football and this is especially true during “silly season”. Andre Villas Boas mainly used three formations during his first year in North London. For much of the season he used the 4-2-3-1, the modern status quo of football formations, he sometimes though paired Adebayor and Defoe in a 4-4-2 like during the Europa League match against Maribor.

As the Premier League season neared its conclusion Andre decided to use his preferred 4-3-3, the formation he used while leading Porto to their “Little Treble” the Portuguese title, cup, community shield, and Europa League. If the Paulinho deal goes through like most outlets and analysts would have you believe then AVB’s lineup will surely be a 4-3-3. No matter the formation it is widely accepted that Tottenham need a better striker or another one to go along with Jermain Defoe and Emmanuel Adebayor.

Negredo was touted as the man who could come in and lead the line for Tottenham. Negredo is a powerful striker with the ability to battle with defenders for the ball in the penalty box which he haunts waiting for his midfielders to send balls into him. He would have little difficulty translating his game from La Liga to the Barclays’ Premier League. His left foot is a cannon that can rocket shots into the net which he did at a rate of 0.69 goals per game in 2012-13 making him one of the more prolific strikers Tottenham have been linked with. Negredo’s height and smart positioning allows him to score nice headers from set pieces and crosses. His positioning is impeccable as Negredo seems to appear from nowhere to knock in rebounds and sharp horizontal ground crosses. In the 4-3-3 Bale, Lennon, and Walker could all become involved crossing balls into the penalty box for Negredo to either bring down with his soft touch or get his head on. Negredo has been something of a late bloomer with his first successes not coming till the 2010-11 seasons with Sevilla.

VERDICT: Negredo will not happen for Tottenham in the 2013-14 season. At 27, he is a few years from slowing down and retiring anyway, as not everyone can be a Francesco Totti or Miroslav Klose. This may be one of the reasons Negredo is demanding a transfer to an established Champions League contender instead of a team on the rise. Negredo’s physical style would have translated well and his physical attributes were everything Tottenham were looking for. His transfer is another casualty of the failure of Andre and the squad to achieve Champions League football for the 2013-14 season.  The rumor mill has been swirling as of late with links ranging from Manchester City to Rafa Benitez’s Napoli as potential targets, with both teams looking to add firepower for Champions League runs. Hopefully the tall, powerful, left-footed Spaniard chooses a team outside of the Barclays’ Premier League as he will surely extend his goal scoring tally wherever he goes.