Tottenham Hotspur swoop for Valencia's Roberto Soldado

According to reports, Tottenham Hotspur are set to make a £17 million move for Valencia's Roberto Soldado. Now, before we get to excited about this, let's take into consideration that this report comes from the Daily Star. The 28 year-old Spanish striker has a release clause of £26 million, but with Valencia missing the Champions League the club may have need to cut wages.

Soldado would be an excellent signing for Spurs as he possesses many of the qualities required of the striker in Tottenham manager Andre Villas-Boas' system. Soldado holds up play well and does a good job of involving his teammates in the game. Additionally, Soldado's scoring record is quite good, particularly the last few seasons. In the last five years he has scored 115 goals, including 89 in the league.

Tottenham are believed to have signed Paulinho, though the club have yet to officially announce the signing, and also seem to be on the verge of locking up another Spanish striker in David Villa for around £10 million. Signing both Villa and Soldado to big money deals would be a bit odd, especially given that probably only one of them can play at a time (unless Spurs want to play Villa out of position on the wing).

The preference for many Tottenham fans would be for the club to sign one experienced striker, like Villa or Soldado, and then bring another younger striker with bags of potential. That sort of arrangement seems to make more sense, but when has this club ever made sense? Regardless, if both Soldado and Villa come in, Tottenham will have unprecedented depth at the striker position, something which many would certainly be happy with.