Earlier this morning Premier League side Tottenham announced that they’ve agreed to sign Valencia’s Roberto Soldado.
The Spanish international striker will finalize his $40 million move to White Hart Lane once completing a medical, and the Premier League will have a new predatory striker.
Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy has spent a club record transfer fee to prize Soldado away from Southern Spain. But is he worth it?
Spurs fans will be wondering if Soldado is only arriving because a deal had been agreed with Real Madrid for Gareth Bale, but seeing as that has happened yet, Soldado’s arrival should be celebrated.
Talk of Bale to Madrid can wait. The chat in North London today should be all about Soldado.
Valencia’s fans will be devastated to see him leave. He’s been at the club since joining from Getafe in the 2010-11 season, after scoring 20 goals for the La Liga side. Soldado then excelled at the Mestalla, scoring 81 goals in 141 games and captained the side to reach the knockout stages of the UEFA Champions League for two of the past three seasons.
The 28-year-old is quick and strong, but his physical attributes don’t set him apart. His penchant for finding space in the penalty box is his biggest weapon, and Soldado is coolness personified when he gets a chance. The clinical strikers brooding figure can often be spotted hands on hips at the halfway line, as he eyes up his next move.
He has a grit and determination that Spurs fans should take to straight away.
Over the past three seasons he’s scored 30 in 46 games last season, then 27 in 51 before that and 25 in 44 during the 2010-11 campaign. He will score goals if you get him the service and Spurs are very good at doing that.
(MORE: Soldado on the brink of move as Valencia, Tottenham agree deal)
Too often last season Emmanuel Adebayor and Jermain Defoe were either injured or out of form and Spurs would have surely finished in the top three of higher if they had a top goalscorer. Now Soldado is the main man at Spurs and the other strikers will look to compliment the clinical finisher from Valencia.
For some time the Spaniard has tried to become a regular for Spain, and despite six goals in 11 games for the national team, Soldado has struggled to impress Vicente del Bosque who prefers to implement a false number nine.
Well, Soldado is a true number nine. In every sense of the word. He can be the battering ram that holds up the ball and take pressure off the defense away from home. He is good in the air, good with his feet, can spot a pass. But despite all that, he does what all good strikers do. Score goals.
That’s why Tottenham splashed the cash to bring Soldado to Spurs.
