Dealing with Tottenham.. AGAIN?

By: Anthony | June 6th, 2009

All Sevillistas have an opinion on the North London based Tottenham Hotspur; most hate them for the whole Juande Ramos saga and others for our heated UEFA Cup encounter a couple seasons back. Myself however, love them. After I emigrated Spain at the young age of 5 years old I moved to London where I quickly found myself supporting the mighty Yid Army (my mother being born in England and a Spurs fan since day one also had a heavy influence).

The rivalry that has developed between the two clubs I hold closest to my heart has been draining and sometimes saddening. I feel so torn between my two loves, Sevilla and Tottenham. When they faced off in the UEFA Cup it was easy for me because I said whoever won, I’d be happy. But the whole Juande saga along with the tension which followed is where I became stressed. How could I possibly support either side in a situation like that? I had my cousins from both England and Spain trying to convince me that the other team was evil and completely wrong in their actions but somehow I managed to keep my head in such a heated situation.

It appears as if the two clubs are about to cross paths again but this time in a deal for Spurs midfielder Didier Zokora. The Ivory Coast defensive midfielder has loads of energy and Monchi is looking for a boost in the centre of the park considering Romaric and Duscher haven’t exactly been consistent this season. Zokora isn’t exactly known for his scoring abilities actually never having scored whilst wearing the Lilywhite but having seen him play I know for a fact that he is better than what we currently have. Since Wilson Palacios’ arrival at White Hart Lane, Zokora, who was a favourite under Ramos at his spell with Tottenham, has found playing time hard to come by. Harry Redknapp has left the Ivorian on the bench during most of his time in charge which caused the once-happy, fan favourite Zokora to come out openly and say he would assess his situation at the end of the season in regards to where his best fit is and where he will get the most playing time – the desire of any professional footballer.

Monchi is said to have been interested in Zokora since before Juande’s arrival in North London and now that tensions between the two clubs seem to have been “soothed”, he will launch a full out offensive to finally capture his target. Didier could move to the Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán for about 8 million Euros but considering Spurs still owe us some compensation for prizing away Juande from Andalucía it will be significantly less than that.

José Maria del Nido and Monchi aren’t taking any chances though and seem to be quite unimpressed with what we currently have in the centre of the park. Next year as everyone knows, we will be making our return to the UEFA Champions League and inconsistency is unacceptable if we expect to advance into the latter stages like previously before.

Along with Didier Zokora of Tottenham, we are supposedly looking at Raul Meireles of FC Porto. The defensive midfielder has made 111 appearances for the club, scoring a total of 13 times. He’s no Marcos Senna but is definitely known for his long range shooting and solid defensive abilities. The Portuguese International won’t come on the cheap though as Valencia were quoted a massive 12 million Euros for him last summer. Monchi as we know though always has a trick up his sleeve and he is willing to include our left sided midfielder Duda in the transfer who spent this season on loan at Málaga. Duda has expressed his desire to return to his homeland if he is not guaranteed time in Nervión and with the recent performances by Diego Perotti and having Diego Capel along with Adriano on the bench, I really don’t see where Duda would fit into any of Jiménez’ plans.

The downside to all of this is that Monchi only apparently has a 15 million Euro budget to work with to capture both of these targets. Considering the Zokora deal would probably be under 8 million because of the compensation owed and the Meireles deal could include Duda heading in the opposite direction, it could work.

A little bit of optimism never hurt anyone, anyway.

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