Summer scouting reports
This summer is one of those close seasons that do not contain a major football tournament. Fans are instead restricted to the Confederations Cup and European U21 Championships in the hope of spotting new talent.
The Tottenham money men seem to be concentrating their summer recruitment policy on the Real Madrid clearout sale and despite there being plenty of desirable talent on offer at the Bernabeu, Daniel Levy and co. should also look out for bargains at the tournaments currently occurring.
In South Africa a potential World Cup final warm-up looks set to take place, with Brazil and Spain, as expected, emerging as the dominant forces in the Confederations Cup. A new signing from one of those squads will be nice, but a potential recruit from the hosts or other participating nations is more likely.
23-year old Bernard Parker has scored twice for Bafana Bafana, taking his international goalscoring record to seven from 16 appearances, a good return for a player who often plays as a winger. Parker has recently joined Red Star Belgrade, where he has made a good start, and his progress should be monitored.
United States have been the surprise package, edging out Italy to join Brazil in the semi finals. There has been a steady flow of American talent into the Premier League and young midfielder Michael Bradley, currently of Borussia Mönchengladbach, could be the next to join the list.
The Euro U21s event taking place in Sweden, where England have reached the semi-finals, is the ideal source of discovering young talent. These players are generally at major European clubs but are yet to make the breakthrough and a decent tournament in Sweden suggests they can cope in the pressurised environment of the Premier League.
Sweden’s Marcus Berg grabbed the headlines by scoring a hat-trick in his team’s opener against Belarus. The FC Groningen forward has already scored four goals for the full national team and has been a regular scorer in Dutch football since his club paid IFK Gothenburg £2.5m for his services two years ago.
Berg is strong with both feet and is good in the air, so would be a potential target man if Harry Redknapp decides to shake-up his forward line.
The Tottenham money men seem to be concentrating their summer recruitment policy on the Real Madrid clearout sale and despite there being plenty of desirable talent on offer at the Bernabeu, Daniel Levy and co. should also look out for bargains at the tournaments currently occurring.
In South Africa a potential World Cup final warm-up looks set to take place, with Brazil and Spain, as expected, emerging as the dominant forces in the Confederations Cup. A new signing from one of those squads will be nice, but a potential recruit from the hosts or other participating nations is more likely.
23-year old Bernard Parker has scored twice for Bafana Bafana, taking his international goalscoring record to seven from 16 appearances, a good return for a player who often plays as a winger. Parker has recently joined Red Star Belgrade, where he has made a good start, and his progress should be monitored.
United States have been the surprise package, edging out Italy to join Brazil in the semi finals. There has been a steady flow of American talent into the Premier League and young midfielder Michael Bradley, currently of Borussia Mönchengladbach, could be the next to join the list.
The Euro U21s event taking place in Sweden, where England have reached the semi-finals, is the ideal source of discovering young talent. These players are generally at major European clubs but are yet to make the breakthrough and a decent tournament in Sweden suggests they can cope in the pressurised environment of the Premier League.
Sweden’s Marcus Berg grabbed the headlines by scoring a hat-trick in his team’s opener against Belarus. The FC Groningen forward has already scored four goals for the full national team and has been a regular scorer in Dutch football since his club paid IFK Gothenburg £2.5m for his services two years ago.
Berg is strong with both feet and is good in the air, so would be a potential target man if Harry Redknapp decides to shake-up his forward line.
23 comments
We're Tottenham and yet we've only been linked with half the world's players instead of every single one; the world's gone mad!
On another note, I totally agree with you m8.
Other than that, no one is interested in signing for us. This reminds me of when George Graham was boss and we got excited by the loan Alan Nielsen signing.
Normally you are all in our face about who we are going to sign. What, no news???
Arsenal will sign him as soon as they ship off Adebayor.
People say that he can't defend, but thats a load of rubbish. He's not Englands rightback for no reason.
Btw, i'd like to say a big yia sou to all the Cypriot's islandwide who are enjoying this bloody 45 degree heat!!
I can't see it happening myself to be honest, but there you go.
Other than Ashley Young, the ones mentioned are nothing great.
As for Heinze, he's just had the worst season a full-back in world football has ever had to endure.
I'm afraid that he'll be signing on for one last pay-day.
The fact that HH always starts off his paragraphs with;
"a very decent chap, with a pretty splendid track record has stepped up to me and said..."
What a load of pants. He never ever states that he was the one that came up with the rubbish.
This journalism sort of reminds me of the so called writers of that best-seller, yeah, the bible. They claimed that all their words were from someone else to.
Keane isn't going anywhere as his wife loves London, end of.
He's in the Shamrock pub in Nicosia, if any of you know where that is?
So it looks as though he'll be warming the bench next season!
Please don't bad-mouth any THBN friends!
Ive seen him play a few times and although he's a handful, thats about all his is. My mother-in-law is a handful to, but she dont earn £40k a week.
I think ive seen him score just once. Is that the kind of player we want at the lane?
I can go on all day if you like.
Now piss off and visit your spiritual home, Tribal Football.
He gets into space beautifully ala Lineker and Papin. Can hit a ball with both feet and out jumps taller defenders. He is an excellent second striker and loves running from deep. The boy can play...keep your eye on him.