Striker joins and other news.

Ten minutes ago the headline for this article was: "Window slams shut with no new striker" The official site has just upstaged me and have announced that we have signed Grzegorz Rasiak from Derby County. Clearly he isthe new fourth choice striker. He will add height to our attacking options and cover for Mido when suspended / injured.

From the official site:

A powerful 6ft 3" frontman, Rasiak has already scored five goals this season with three coming at international level where he has been capped 20 times.

"Rasiak is a tall target man, a hard working, honest player with a good goal scoring record,” commented Head Coach, Martin Jol. “He scored 45 goals in 103 games. He is a regular in the Polish international side which leads qualifying Group 6 just above England and he scored two against Israel in their recent 3-2 victory."

"A lot is said about making the step up from the Championship to the Premiership, but Ashton and Bent have shown that for good players it is not such a big step. I believe he will do well for us and that he will be an asset to the squad."

The Poland international joins Teemu Tainio, Paul Stalteri, Tom Huddlestone, Wayne Routledge, Aaron Lennon, Edgar Davids, Jermaine Jenas and Lee Young-Pyo in joining the Club since the end of last season, considerably strengthening Martin’s squad options.

COYS!

Below is the original article before Spurs sneaked in this last signing:

The transfer window is closed. Spurs have been one of the busiest clubs in Europe today and overall across the whole window. The likes of Routledge, Davids, Tainio, Stalteri, Lennon and Huddlestone have joined with Lee and Jenas signing on the dotted line today. Edman has left us along with Davies and of course Kanoute.

There is no doubt in my mind that the squad today is better than back in May 2005. We have serious strength and depth throughout the team especially in the midfield positions. Money has been spent and I honsestly believe that this is the best Tottenham team since we won the FA CUP in 1991. In fact, in many respects it is better than that team.

People are going to point to the fact that we missed out on replacing Kanoute. True, when kanoute left it was hoped that we would replace him. We probably did go for various people but couldn't get them this time around. Kuyt would have joined but he decided he owed Feyenoord one more season and that is why it didn't happen. If you watched the messgae boards today people were getting more and more desparate linking us with all sorts of different names. However, thanfully, the club did not get desparate. How many times have we seen millions of pounds wasted because the club panicked - Rebrov £11 million for example. We did not rush out and just buy anyone - we don't operate like that anymore.

We will miss Mido's height for his suspended games but we have Defoe and Keane to come in. People will say they can't play together and last season I would have agreed. But how many chanches did they get in a proper game for them to actually get a chance to work together - not many. What we will have to do is play to their strengths and that is along the floor. While they play there has to be no more hoof from the centre backs as it will get us nowhere. We now have the players with the ability to play they way Keane and Defoe need it playing for them to be succssful together. I mean there would be pleanty of clubs ready to bite our hands off to be able to announce their front two strikers on a Saturday as Jermaine Defoe and Robbie Keane, two World Class internationals.

The other option tonight would have been to panic- blow a wedge load of cash on an average player that would not improve us. We now have the money in the bank ready for January to get what we really want. (update: at least the Pole will be cheap!)

Keep the faith lads, Jol knows what he is doing.

COYS!