• Dawson out for four weeks, Woodgate no better after
operation
• Times are tight in transfer market, says Harry Redknapp
Jonathan Woodgate is seeing a specialist in the
United States after an operation failed to solve the groin problem
that affected him last season.
Tottenham
Hotspur may have to start the new
season without a recognised centre-half. Jonathan Woodgate, Michael
Dawson and Ledley King could all be unavailable for the opening
match of their Premier
League campaign, against Liverpool at
White Hart Lane on 16 August.
Dawson has an achilles problem that will rule him out for four
weeks and King, with his chronic knee condition, can make only a
limited number of appearances at the best of times. Woodgate,
however, is the main concern because his groin trouble affected him
so much last season that he had surgery. "He's had the operation
and he feels the same as he did before," said the Tottenham
manager, Harry Redknapp.
Injury has been the dominant theme of Woodgate's career and he is
in America to seek advice from a specialist he has known since his
time at Real Madrid.
Tottenham's difficulties are on display this weekend. They meet
Barcelona tomorrow night and Celtic on Sunday in the pre-season
Wembley Cup. In Vedran Corluka, Pascal Chimbonda and Tom
Huddlestone, Redknapp does have men with experience of the
centre-half role, even if it is not their preferred post. He will
also consider Dorian Dervite, who excelled in a loan spell at
Southend last season. The Frenchman turns 21 tomorrow.
There was gallows humour from Redknapp when he wondered how long
he could cope without his established centre-backs. "I can't sit
back and let seven or eight games go by and not have a centre-
half, especially eight games," he said. It was after eight League
fixtures last season that Tottenham sacked his predecessor, Juande
Ramos.
For a person so addicted to the art of the deal, Redknapp still
made it sound as if it would be virtually impossible to bring in a
recognised defender, although he did sign the young Sheffield
United full-backs Kyle Naughton and Kyle Walker on Wednesday.
Redknapp ruled out a move for Portsmouth's Peter Crouch. "No
disrespect, he is 28 now. Basically it's an expensive deal. There
is no return when you pay that type of money and obviously his
salary is high." A fee of £10m is expected for the Portsmouth
attacker.
When names of centre-halves such as Richard Dunne, Brede
Hangeland and Sylvain Distin (of Manchester City, Fulham and
Portsmouth) were put to him, Redknapp dismissed them, for various
reasons, as unfeasible targets. He agreed that, Manchester City
apart, transfer activity is sluggish in England. "I don't think
clubs have massive amounts of money to spend at the moment," he
said. "Things are tight everywhere. Most owners have probably got
businesses that have taken a hit. I don't care who they are. Unless
you have oil in Abu Dhabi, everybody is finding it difficult."
The manager's stance looks rather like a negotiating position.
His viewpoint became apparent when he spoke of the collapse of
Klaas-Jan Huntelaar's proposed move from Real Madrid to Stuttgart
this week. Tottenham's interest in the Dutch striker is well-known.
"Daniel [Levy, the club's chairman] spoke to Real Madrid and went
over to meet the people," Redknapp said. "But his wages are beyond
us.
"When you are earning 150,000 euros net a week [£128,000]
wherever you are playing, you are not going to come here for less
than half of that gross. With these players on mega money, unless
clubs get help with the wages you just can't get near them."
Redknapp was referring to the possibility that Real will have to
agree to subsidise the wages of footballers like Huntelaar at their
next club if they are to get them off the books at the Bernabéu.
The Tottenham manager appears to have deals of that sort in
mind.
