Tottenham Hotspur's Best XI Of The Decade: Number 9

Finally, we've reached the strikers for this Tottenham Hotspur Best XI of the Decade. There was a little bit of debate on how to present the striker position. It's like central defense in that there will be two players at the position, but like central midfield these players often play distinctly different roles. Because of that we've broken the strikers into two categories: number 9's and second strikers.

We'll kick off the voting with the number 9's. These are the center forwards, in many cases the target strikers. Tottenham have had some good ones in the past, but few from the early portion of this decade. The 1990's were sort of a golden era for the striker position at Spurs with players like Gary Lineker, Teddy Sheringham, and Jurgen Klinsmann scoring goals for fun. The 2000's were less remarkable as we suffered through Steffan Iverson and Darren Bent.

The list is quite short and there seems to be an obvious winner. If you feel that Bent or Iverson (or anyone else) should be on this list, say so. Remember, your suggestion has to have played for Spurs since 2001 and we're only counting performances in since then. Otherwise these are the two we're going with.

Teddy Sheringham: Because Kevin is my boss I have added Sheringham, despite my belief that his two seasons during this decade are not worthy of inclusion. Sherringham returned to Spurs for two seasons during this time period and put up 26 goals in 80 appearances. Of course during his stint with the club in the mid-90's he scored 90 goals over five seasons before moving on to Manchester United. Sheringham halped Spurs to two mid-table finishes and a League Cup Final during his return.

Dimitar Berbatov: After joining from Bayer Leverkusen for around £11 million the Bulgarian maestro made 102 appearances for Spurs scoring 46 goals in all competitions. The partnership that Berbatov formed with Robbie Keane was excellent and while the current Manchester United player often looked disinterested on the pitch he was always capable of moments of magic. Berbatov, of course, scored the equalizer from the penalty spot in Tottenham's 2008 League Cup victory over Chelsea.

Peter Crouch: Stop. I know what you're going to say, but let's remember that Peter Crouch scored the most important goal for Tottenham Hotspur of the last decade. Not to mention a hat trick against Young Boys to push Spurs into the group stage and the winning goal against AC Milan that ensured Spurs of a place in the quarterfinals of the Champions League. Sure, in 82 appearances he has only scored 24 goals, but they've been some important goals.