It was a relief to hear Harry Redknapp somewhat playing down the likelihood of David Beckham moving to Tottenham for a few months.
If it is a very short-term thing it can be a problem. If we are only talking eight or nine games by the time we get him ready, it is a difficult one. I can’t be leaving people out and then after a few games David goes back and I have to mess with the team again. But he would be great to have around. He’d be a great role model for the young players.
With LA Galaxy understandably reluctant to loan their marquee player during their off-season the matter has dragged on for about three days now. Beckham has negotiated his way to Italy for the last two winters but last spring he returned to LA injured and the MLS side don’t want a repeat. That the reporting in the UK focused on Beckham’s “World Cup dream” being ruined rather than him missing six months for the club that pays his £120,000 a week, should have rubbed the Americans up the wrong way and shown just how little regard the Europeans have for their outfit.
What would Tottenham get from bringing in Beckham for maybe a dozen games? Well a hole in their balance sheet, possibly to the tune of £1m upwards for starters. Would they make that up in shirt sales and attendances? You’re talking 8 or 9 weeks here – hardly time to generate long-term sales. Plus there aren’t 2,000 empty seats to fill at White Hart Lane every second week.
They’d get a 35-year-old midfielder whose best days are arguably almost a decade behind him (his form in 2001/2 was exceptional). Picture the scene – he starts the game against Manchester United in a few weeks, an electric atmosphere swamps the players…and he spends 45 minutes being anonymous, his main contribution being some relatively accurate free kicks that Michael Dawson heads in to row Z. It would only take one half of football for the reality to set in that David Beckham has little to offer the frenetic-paced Premier League.
If Tottenham are anything they are an effective counter-attacking team built on the pace of Gareth Bale, Jermain Defoe and Aaron Lennon. They’ve got creative talent in Luka Modric and Rafael van der Vaart. David Beckham would be to Spurs what Tino Asprilla was to Newcastle in the mid-nineties.
At least when Glenn Hoddle almost signed Rivaldo in 2002, Tottenham were a mid-table side going nowhere and in need of a celebrity. There’s no way that any other team aiming to challenge for the top four would sign a Beckham or Rivaldo now.
I don’t like it one bit. I hope the bid fails and Harry targets what Spurs really need.
luv|footy 
There’s a rumour going around that Daniel Levy and Philip Anschutz (LA Galaxy owner) are good friends. The suggestion is that Anschutz Entertainment Group are major backers of Spurs’s bid to move to the Olympic Stadium and that Anschutz is regarded as the man most likely to buy out Joe Lewis for ownership of Spurs – something that has been suggested would happen once Spurs secured regular CL football.
All this means that LA Galaxy probably won’t stand in the way of Beckham going to Spurs – but as you say, Harry might be having a rethink.
I’m a bit torn about the whole thing. He can hit a dead ball better than anyone we have at the club – worth considering with Pav, Crouch and Kaboul in the side. He offers a plan b to Lennon, but I wouldnt like to see him start games – and as you suggest, upsetting the balance.
Yep, read that and I wonder if he’d also try and push the Beckham-Spurs connection further by rolling him out as some sort of spokesperson for the Olympic Stadium move.