I’d be interested to know what Tottenham supporters make of their activity during the transfer window. It appears that Spurs were out-priced in their persuasion of a top strikers to come to White Hart Lane and you can see their frustration at that. Aguero, Forlan, Rossi and Carroll were all enquired upon but a deal could not be reached with any of them.

So should this lack of activity be seen as good business or was it a missed opportunity?

My would answer to both would be yes.

Chelsea are desperate, it is the first time since 2001-02 that they might realistically fail to qualify for the Champions League. They have thrown cash at the problem, £70m of cash. For Chelsea, money is not their shortfall, it is players. It would be more stupid not to invest the vast amounts of cash they clearly have, than it is crass to do so. If this is not something that the Tottenham board are willing to do, then I say fair enough.

Rio Ferdinand said on Twitter yesterday:

“David Villa cost £34m… an integral member of successful Spain team and played regular Champions League… UK market is crazy right now!”

Is Torres really worth £16m more than Villa? Is Andy Carroll worth £1m more than him?

The answers are no and no. Ferguson said there was ‘no value in the market’, and there has been some very poor business this window. In fairness to Liverpool, they had the money and absolutely needed the player. Chelsea’s desperation seems to be at the root of this madness.

This window, transfers have come from either within the Premier league, from Germany or Holland. With unsuccessful offers of £40m for Aguero and Forlan and £30m for Rossi, you might ask why Spain was such a hard place to buy from.

I think lesser Spanish clubs have fallen victim to associating the hype and success surrounding Barcelona and Real Madrid and the Spanish national team with themselves. In reality, last year, Barcelona and Madrid finished above third placed Valencia by 28 and 25 points respectively. The gap is vast, and all the Spanish World Cup winners play for Barcelona anyway.

Not only do they have an over-inflated opinion of their own club, but also of the standard of the league they play in. The results are that players are more inclined to want to stay in Spain (Aguero and Forlan), and that Spanish clubs value their own players too highly (Rossi). This is why, unfortunately, Tottenham could not buy from Spain.

Yet the question remains, should Tottenham have bitten the bullet and brought in additional players anyway?

Their aim has to be to finish in the top four again. This is harder this season with the amount of investment from City. Spurs need to start scoring some goals and their strikers are not providing them. Spurs’ front men will struggle this half of the season, especially when compared to those of the teams above them in the table.

Given the choice, would you prefer Rooney-Berbatov, Chamakh-Van Persie, Tevez-Dzeko, Torres-Drogba-Anelka or Defoe-Crouch-Pavlyuchenko?

There is no contest.

After an appalling performance at Fulham Harry commented that his lads were running on empty. This should not be the case given that players like Kranjcar have hardly played all season. Additionally, this January has seen Tottenham ship out Bentley, Keane, O’Hara and Giovanni and replace them with Pienaar. Before January the squad had good depth, now it is looking thin. So while they may have been only fringe players, their departures have turned a strength into a weakness. Unlike the other top 5 clubs, Tottenham actually needed to strengthen this window.

What makes this even worse is that Tottenham have only kept 5 clean sheets this year and in the recent cup game the defence looked especially thin. It seems without Bale, Tottenham have very few positives to speak of.

Ferguson’s comments on value are true to his side, who sit at the top of the league, look gelled and are yet to lose. The same cannot be said for Harry Redknapp’s. So while it might have been poor business for Man United to buy this transfer window, it may prove to be even poorer business for Tottenham to not invest at all.

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