Jonathan Woodgate is seeing a specialist in the United States after an operation failed to solve the groin problem that affected him last season.
Tottenham Hotspur may have to start the new season without a recognised centre-half. Jonathan Woodgate, Michael Dawson and Ledley King could all be unavailable for the opening match of their Premier League campaign, against Liverpool at White Hart Lane on 16 August.
Dawson has an achilles problem that will rule him out for four weeks and King, with his chronic knee condition, can make only a limited number of appearances at the best of times. Woodgate, however, is the main concern because his groin trouble affected him so much last season that he had surgery. "He's had the operation and he feels the same as he did before," said the Tottenham manager, Harry Redknapp. Injury has been the dominant theme of Woodgate's career and he is in America to seek advice from a specialist he has known since his time at Real Madrid.
Tottenham's difficulties are on display this weekend. They meet Barcelona tomorrow night and Celtic on Sunday in the pre-season Wembley Cup. In Vedran Corluka, Pascal Chimbonda and Tom Huddlestone, Redknapp does have men with experience of the centre-half role, even if it is not their preferred post. He will also consider Dorian Dervite, who excelled in a loan spell at Southend last season. The Frenchman turns 21 tomorrow.
There was gallows humour from Redknapp when he wondered how long he could cope without his established centre-backs. "I can't sit back and let seven or eight games go by and not have a centre- half, especially eight games," he said. It was after eight League fixtures last season that Tottenham sacked his predecessor, Juande Ramos.
For a person so addicted to the art of the deal, Redknapp still made it sound as if it would be virtually impossible to bring in a recognised defender, although he did sign the young Sheffield United full-backs Kyle Naughton and Kyle Walker on Wednesday. Redknapp ruled out a move for Portsmouth's Peter Crouch. "No disrespect, he is 28 now. Basically it's an expensive deal. There is no return when you pay that type of money and obviously his salary is high." A fee of £10m is expected for the Portsmouth attacker.
When names of centre-halves such as Richard Dunne, Brede Hangeland and Sylvain Distin (of Manchester City, Fulham and Portsmouth) were put to him, Redknapp dismissed them, for various reasons, as unfeasible targets. He agreed that, Manchester City apart, transfer activity is sluggish in England. "I don't think clubs have massive amounts of money to spend at the moment," he said. "Things are tight everywhere. Most owners have probably got businesses that have taken a hit. I don't care who they are. Unless you have oil in Abu Dhabi, everybody is finding it difficult."
The manager's stance looks rather like a negotiating position. His viewpoint became apparent when he spoke of the collapse of Klaas-Jan Huntelaar's proposed move from Real Madrid to Stuttgart this week. Tottenham's interest in the Dutch striker is well-known. "Daniel [Levy, the club's chairman] spoke to Real Madrid and went over to meet the people," Redknapp said. "But his wages are beyond us.
"When you are earning 150,000 euros net a week [£128,000] wherever you are playing, you are not going to come here for less than half of that gross. With these players on mega money, unless clubs get help with the wages you just can't get near them." Redknapp was referring to the possibility that Real will have to agree to subsidise the wages of footballers like Huntelaar at their next club if they are to get them off the books at the Bernabéu. The Tottenham manager appears to have deals of that sort in mind.
