It seems that opting to institute Andre Villas-Boas as Tottenham boss is already reaping its rewards. The club has been linked to a number of top players since the Portuguese took over as the media seems to be going through a checklist of players that have worked alongside Villas-Boas in the past. So when I heard that Tottenham had been linked to an Atletico Madrid striker, I thought that they were in the market for ex-Porto boy Radamel Falcao.
Falcao scored 41 goals in 50 appearances under Villas-Boas – a pretty healthy return by anybody’s standards. Unfortunately it’s not Radamel that Spurs are reportedly after, but his strike partner Adrian.
That’s according to Marca (via SportWitness). It’s claimed that Adrian has an €18m release clause that Tottenham are looking to trigger. They’re also seeking to tempt him to North London by trebling his wages – an offer that he’d surely find difficult to resist.
Whilst Spurs desperately need to sign a striker, it’s difficult to argue that Adrian would be the right man for the job. Looking at his career stats one thing becomes quickly apparent: he doesn’t score many goals for a forward. At Deportivo he scored 13 goals in 92 appearances. A loan move to Malaga in 08/09 saw him slot away 3 goals in 28 appearances. Hardly the sort of conversion rate that you’d want a Spurs target to show.
Since his free transfer to Atletico last summer he has scored 7 La Liga goals (in contrast to Falcao’s 24). So what’s attracted Spurs? Maybe it’s his showing in the Europa League last season, an area where Spurs may look to make inroads over the course of the next year. The Spaniard scored ten times and helped lead his side to silverware.
I’d still be worried if Tottenham made this signing – especially if it were at the expense of somebody like Emmanuel Adebayor. What Spurs need more than anything else is a natural goal-scorer. Somebody who’ll grab 30 goals next season and lead them to a top four finish. Adrian just doesn’t look capable of doing this.
Sure, he might grab a few Europa League goals before Tottenham’s inevitably drop out, but what good is that in the long run.
I for one hope that Tottenham look elsewhere for their striker fix this summer.
What’s your take? Would Adrian be a good signing for success hungry Spurs?
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I hope we get this guy, he can attack from the left and plays a lot on left wing, hence few goals, so he could sub for bale if necessary in a 4-3-3. Ideally if we can get left Bale and Adrian, Centre Adebayor and Sigurdsson and Right Lennon and Damiao then we have all the back up needed to have a good crack at the title. Van Der Vaart I think will drop deeper back in a playmaking role, hopefully with Moutinho or Dzagoev…
i dont think if signed he would lead the line as he does not for athletico. He plays as a support striker or as right side forward (which if we play 433) would make more sense. 7 league goals is more then lennon but what i have doubts about is his assists which is 2 i think for the league season. Not good enough. Would prefer if we signed a robben style winger and got ade back as 17 goals and 9 assists qith good hold up play is what we need in 433 in a striker then look at next season for a 30 goal striker
We need another striker like this, regardless of whether Adebayor stays or goes. Ade started off great, tho’ I think half of his goals were tap ins or penalties, then for the rest of the season his main activity was holding up the ball, which is great if you’ve got a bunch of guys who can shoot straight. We don’t. We need a straight-shootin’, speedy striker who hares toward the goal like a bull charging a panicky matador.
Not gonna happen unless we send 30 million on one on get Ba who said he wont leave newcastle. Remy would be a waste of money and the samba boys we are after wont unless we spend big. Ade is the the cheap option for this season. We need a replacement for modric and a goal scoring right sided player who will fit avbs formation. Plus 6million for ade plus 5 million for his fee is still good value
Nothing wrong with our striking, Defoe 17 goals (from bench most of ’em), Ade 17 goals. We need a supply, these guys will finish. If we feel we need more goals, then yes Radamel Falcoa should be our man, always loved his determination to score. At the same time goals mean nothing if we’re leaking at the back, we need to solidify that area for all games, I don’t care if we win by one or win by 7 or eight….winning is winning.
we should leave ade alone he would not give us twenty plus goals a season we need a striker who can find the net a lot more Falco could be the one