Tottenham's £8 million mystery man

I can't have been the only Tottenham fan raising a bemused eyebrow when, this summer, the Tottenham website proclaimed itself 'happy to announce' the signings of Kyle Walker and Kyle Naughton from Sheffield United for an eye watering sum of money. Using every tool available to a prestigious ITK such as myself (by which I mean Wikipedia, Youtube and Champ Manager) I scoured the virtual world for information on these two dubiously named characters. I expected a babble of excited anoraks speaking in hushed virtual whispers about Sheffield's best kept secret (excluding widespread community incest). In reality there was so little information even Comolli would have thought twice before having a punt.

I shall leave young Master Walker out of this on the basis that he was purchased for one of two reasons:

1) As a deal sweetener - With numerous clubs showing an interest in Naughton and Everton weighing in with a bid, 'Arry flogged the remainder of his 'genuine rolexs', jumped in his Reliant and motored up to Bramall Lane. The sum for Walker himself is believed to be nominal but with the promise of a loan back it was money in Kevin Blackwell's chubby little hands and a great incentive to deal with us and not Everton. A kind of buy one get one free (a little bit later on) deal.

2) As a future prospect - At the time of purchase Walker had only just broken into the Blades first team and had featured fleetingly for the U-19s. Throwing him into the physical and psychological side of the Premiership would be as about as irresponsible as letting Bentley park your car. He was never bought as the kind of player who could nonchalantly stroll into the 1st XI but as a bit of a gamble. Perhaps he will come good, more probably he will not but even to Levy, a man tighter than Tom Jones's face, £1-2 million isn't a lot of money. He's getting games for United, the Championship is more competitive than ever and all that experience can never be a bad thing. Watch this space...

So back to the real star of the show, Kyle Naughton. Despite his name he was not born in the Deep South, does not appear to favour caravans as a place of residence and does not (currently) have a pony tail. He is actually Sheffield born and bred, impressed throughout his academy days and even Arsene's professional team of child trappers were sniffing round him. 7-9 million odd is a lot of money for a left back, especially for one with no top tier experience. Pundits claimed he would play 'an important and immediate' role in 'Harry Redknapp's Tottenham project'. 5 months later and just one first team appearance in the 94th minute has left me more than a little perplexed. Anyone got any ideas?? I watched him pre-season and thought he looked quick, intelligent and incredibly composed on the ball for his age. We have Hutton as cover for right back and Bale as cover for the left, so Kyle is left bumping round with the reserves and the Academy boys. Why not a run out in the cups? Why not a loan?

Sitting in the reserves is never good for a player, both mentally and physically, especially not at an early stage in a player's development. That said, maybe his luck is about to turn. With Hutton being shoved out the exit door and BAE off to confront anonymous Cameroonian fans at the African Cup of Nations there is suddenly space on the bench. I am led to believe Naughton is a right back but is not afraid to play on the left. An injury or a couple of shockers from Bale, or Charlie being forced to play in the middle and suddenly there is a nice little shaven headed space in the first team. We have a unenviable reputation at Tottenham for ruining young talent and this cannot continue. Levy is a generous benefactor but we aren't Citeh and splurging money on 'complete' players is unsustainable. Come this January I'd love to see Naughton pulling on a Spurs shirt and getting some first team experience.

He doesn't have to be magic, I'm not expecting miracles.

That said it is Christmas...

In 'Arry We Trust