With ‘Arry’s shrewd buys this window, it has given us the luxury of more than adequate cover in some areas.
With him having also entertained the possibility of one more player arriving before we are done(probably left or centre midfield), it leads us to the inevitable question of just who then may yet be leaving the Lane.
When we have the full squad available the first eleven currently more or less picks itself:-
Gomes
Corluka
Woodgate
King
BAE
Lennon
Palacios
Jenas
Modric
Keane(Captain)
Crouch
Keane gets the nod over Defoe only because he is the Captain and therefore would surely be expected to play, while Redknapp is likely to include Crouch from the start having worked with him more than once before and spent a good slice of his transfer fund in order to be able to link up with him once again.
The seven on the bench I would suggest may comprise of:-
Cudicini
Naughton
Bassong
Huddlestone
Bentley
Defoe
Pavlyuchenko
Cudicini picks himself while Naughton and Bassong being HR’s own recent recruits, are unlikely to be left out altogether, and also offer versatility if and when needed along the backline.Huddlestone offers more quality in the centre than O’Hara, although definitely not more heart, while Bentley is the one man capable of finding Crouch’s head, with the added drawback that no one seems to want to find the money to buy him – so he definitely stays!
Pav and Defoe make up the numbers as Harry has been quoted as saying that if the two forwards are not doing it, it is nice for him to be in the position where he is able to bring another two on.With the fragility of both Woody and Ledley I would say it is a foregone conclusion that Michael Dawson will also be an integral part of the set up as may some of the younger players if they are not to be loaned out(Bostock?).
In my mind this leaves big question marks on the immediate futures of Gareth Bale, Alan Hutton, Pascal Chimbonda, and Jamie O’Hara.
If a player cannot get in the team then he would at least expect to make the bench every week especially now we do not have any reserve team football to stop the rot setting in in respect of sharpness and fitness.
Chimbonda was seemingly brought back as emergency cover by Harry in the January window, that crisis is now well and truly over, while Harry does not owe the other three any favours not being the man responsible for them being at the club.
There are tales of Jenas going to Inter Milan, and this may have some legs if we bring in another midfielder, but I would hold more store in stories about Bale, or any of the others looking surplus to requirements.
The window does not close till the end of August, so although we may have finished our business on players coming into the Lane, it does not mean we have finished our business completely.
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