Spurs win the league? Missing out on a striker means they might now not even make the Top Four...

By Darren Lewis

Published 14:59 02/02/11

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I now fear for the team I had such high hopes for only weeks ago...

Tottenham had been going so well at mid-season – and with the prospect of top-line reinforcements to come in January – that I stuck my neck out and declared they would win the title .

Understandably, I got a bit of stick for that, with many people wondering if I’d been smoking some of the Jamaican Woodbines.

But I really did believe Spurs would have a real go, with this Premier League more open than any there have ever been in the history of the competition.

Chelsea, for example, have a renewed impetus with the signing of Fernando Torres, the arrival of defender David Luiz and midfielder Ramires now hitting his stride.

If they were to go on and win the title, they would become the first team to do it having dropped so many points since 1992-93, when United did it.

The season really has been there for a team to take it by the scruff of the neck.

And yet with Tottenham’s lack of mid-season investment, you now wonder whether they will even finish in the top four.

Its not easy to ask that question. Particularly after talking Tottenham up so highly mid-season.

But Arsenal have so much squad depth and so many goals in them. manchester United now have a goal-scoring Wayne Rooney to complement a rampant Dimitar Berbatov and the chippy Chicharito.

For goodness’ sake, even Michael Owen is now fit and scoring goals (funny how you can suddenly get fit and produce the goods when your contract is up for renewal...).

And Manchester City have the goal machine that is Edin Dzeko with which to go to war in the second half of the campaign.

Defender Bongani Khumalo and midfielder Steven Pienaar are good squad players, but Spurs needed a top class striker so badly.

They needed a midfielder so badly. All the talk of Lassana Diarra came to nothing because Real Madrid wanted £16million for him.

But he is 25. That money would have been worth it, as he is better than what Spurs have in that area of the pitch.

To be fair, I can understand where boss Harry Redknapp is coming from on the likes of Diego Forlan, who tried to pull a fast one with his demand for £140,000-a-week.

The bloke is 31 and not getting any younger. There is no guarantee he is going to come here and bang them in to justify that kind of outlay.

And I understand the fact that Villarreal just would not sell Giuseppe Rossi, despite being offered £35million for him.

It is just such a shame. Because Jermain Defoe is yet to score this season. Roman Pavlyuchenko has netted only five times in the league and Peter Crouch has done so just once.

Those figures are just not good enough for a team with designs on the top four, let alone the title.

Rafael van der Vaart has scored nine in the league but with Spurs' next highest scorer, Gareth Bale, suffering from intermittent back problems, where are the goals going to come from if those two don’t score?

Hopefully for Spurs fans, the frontmen will allay those fears and take their chances to show they can do the business.

Because Champions League football at Tottenham again next season depends on it.

And if they don’t, then none of them can have any complaints if a big name arrives in the summer to take their place.

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