Harry's Interested in Huntelaar

Mediaset, the Italian media giant (owned by Mr.Berlusconi), yesterday revealed that both Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur have shown an interest in buying AC Milan striker, Klaas-Jan Huntelaar for around €15 million (approximately £12.6 million). It also added that "Harry Redknapp, the Tottenham Hotspur manager, has been looking at Huntelaar in recent months and plans to sign the Dutch striker."

Tottenham Hotspur's pursuit of a striker has been the topic of discussion this week, therefore, you can imagine the delight on nearly all my fellow Spurs when they read this. Thing is, I was the only disappointed Spurs fan in the office.

I had to ask my associate Tottenham loving colleagues a question; "Just a thought guys, why are most of you wound up by the media hype that surrounds Klaas-Jan Huntelaar?"

As you can imagine, I received the dreaded blank stare. It was as if I had just said that Ashley Cole is indeed a decent chap.

So again, I posed a question; "How many of you have seen him play?" Judging by the comments I received, most of them didn't even know what Huntelaar looked like.

I went into one.....

"The simple fact of the matter is that Mr. Huntelaar was a goal scorer in Holland, but failed in Spain and in Italy. What makes him such an amazing candidate??

"I remember a certain Mateja Kežman; man could he score....in Holland. Since his move away from the goal-rush Eredivisie (left in 2004), in which he scored 105 goals in 122 games, Kezman has racked up an amazing tally of.........39 goals.

"Let's look at Huntelaar's stats: In the goal-rush (yes, I will call the Eredivisie that, for even Martin Jol's Ajax scored an incredible 106 goals, but still came second), Huntelaar managed to score 135 in 183 games. Pretty phenominal. But then, his goal tally dries up like an elephant's ball sack. Why? Because he left the comfort of the Goal-Rush league!

"Since his move to Spain and Italy, the once prolific striker has scored a total of 15 goals in 45 matches!

"And we want him to sign? Based on what? I suppose we could sign him and loan him to Ajax. As a Spurs player, he'll probably get a bucket load. Shame though, as he'll do it wearing a Ajax shirt.

"So please, can someone explain to me what all this fuss is about?".

Robert in accounting spoke up first; "Jaymes, look at Ruud van Nistelrooy and the original Ronaldo. They all scored in the Dutch league and also found it fairly easy scoring in other leagues".

"Bob, you've just answered your own question mate. They scored in OTHER LEAGUES! Huntelaar has played in other leagues, yet cannot score."

At this point, the conversation went dead, not because it wasn't interesting, but because the only Arsenal fan in the office, Trevor, walked in and put an end to it.

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There will be loads of you who disagree with me. Please don't take any of the above personally. It's just that as Spurs fans (and football fans in general), we seem to get our thongs in a twist every time a foreign player with some history gets linked with us.

If we do sign him and he goes on to score a bucket load, I will be as delighted as my fellow Spur, but the facts don't lie. Chances are, he'll come here and not settle, which means that he'll need a TomTom for directions on where the onion-bag is.

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